Officer's guns

American Handgunner, July-August, 2009 by Marty Ross

I have an interesting fact to add to Duke's article ("WWII Handguns," March/April, 2009). In the Axis Powers, only officers were issued handguns. How do I know? In 30 years of being a known gun guy, dozens of folks have shown or told me of their war trophy/family heirloom "taken off a--your enemy here--officer." Never an NCO. Officer. My favorite is a nice Luger in .30 cal taken from "Hitler's (occasionally the Kaiser's--it depends on when I'm shown it) personal bodyguard." To verify my theory, I just asked my Dad about his Japanese "Luger" (I quit replying "It's a Nambu" about 30 years ago). His reply? Yep--taken from an officer. So there you go.

Marty Ross

Via e-mail

I always figured that was the case and now we know for sure. Editor