Very good to new condition,
matching serial numbers, this is a P38, not the cheaper copy P1 that everybody
is trying to pass off as the P38 (there is no such animal as the P38/P1 it's
either a P38 or P1). Includes a new cleaning
kit, new holster and two mags.
The Walther P38 pistols were manufactured
from 1957 to 1963 and can easily be identified by the P38 on the left-hand side
of the slide.
The Walter P38 has been in
production from 1938 to 1963. From 1945 to 1957 no P38s were produced for the
German military. After the suppression
of the Hungarian and East German uprising in the early 50s by the Russians, Russia
posed the major threat to peace in Europe and the world. Accordingly,
there grew a pragmatic desire to rebuild West Germany’s military so
that it could shoulder some of the burden for its own
defense. Walther retooled for new P38 production since no
military firearms production
had occurred in Germany since the end of the war, but Walther had been
preparing all along for the time when a renewed German army would again seek
high-quality firearms. When the Bundeswehr
announced it wanted the P38 for
its official handgun, Walther was ready. Using wartime pistols as models, and with
new engineering drawings and machine tools, Walther was able to resume P 38 production within two years, a remarkable
achievement. The first of the new P38s
were delivered to the West German military in June 1957, some 17 years and two months after the pistol had
initially seen action in World War II. From 1957 to 1963 the P38 was again the
standard Sidearm for the German military. In late 1963 the postwar military
model P1 was adopted for use by the German military and is still used today, and
can be easily identified by the P1 stamping on the slide.