Old friends who I had to let go

[Buster]

1000 DM must have been a massive amout of money back then, You can see the Kalashnikov is very close to the Sturmgewehr and i aint surprised,as it was way ahead of its time. As far as i remember my P1 was dated 1977 and serial number (018964w4.88) with the BW afterwards.

[Fritz]

You are right, it must have been tremendous. But that's the price you pay for losing a war. And the other weapons were definitely ahead of their time. Hard to imagine as late as 1977 for the "P.38", I remember in those days my struggle in Hamburg to keep my head above water. No idea of the serial numbers, but I am sure, as with everything else, you can look these up.

[Buster]

It just shows what a well designed pistol the P1/P38 was to have such a long service life , in saying that, look at the service life of the 1911! And it still sells hugely on the civil market! Albeit mostly by other manufacturers .

[Fritz]

I even saw on Youtube, a review of old weapons captured by the Americans in Irak in 2003/4. There were Luger pistols, K98s, many many other types and some curious tanks of all vintages, old aircraft, etc.

I remember also around 1979/82, TV-reporters accompanying "resistance fighers" (so-called Muhadjidin, who were supported in those days by the West) against the Russians in Afghanistan. They had WW1 Lee-Enfields, Mausers, various others and of course, fresh Russian arms of the day, a handfull of "fighters" were wearing WW1 and WW2 German helmets. This was also well covered by the German magaine "SPIEGEL" at the time.

In this country they have really clamped down on the collector in recent years.