Two S/42 Lugers-both with two matching magazines-and a vet's story.

[drm2m]

A couple more S/42 P.08s both with two matching magazines.
1937 and 1938 chamber dated pistols with their holsters and magazines.

(Click on the photos when you see the + icon to enlarge the images.)















I was given the 1937 dated rig by the Canadian vet that picked it up in Dunkirk on May 10th 1945 following the German surrender.

He was a family friend shown below.












The artillery siege of Dunkirk was directed on the final day of the war in Europe by pilots from No. 652 Squadron RAF, and No. 665 Squadron RCAF.

The vet was flying one of the 665 Squadron AOP aircraft over Dunkirk when VE DAY was called on May 8 1945.

Apparently a few days after VE Day (May 10 1945) the vet and one of his pals flew over Dunkirk to see the results of the bombardment of Dunkirk and that same day he picked up two Luger rigs from a depot in Dunkirk that was collecting captured enemy weapons.


The aircraft these AOP guys flew to direct artillery fire was the Taylorcraft Auster Mark V.




Shown below is a fellow pilot that was also flying over Dunkirk when armistice was declared…..he was with the vet when they picked up the Lugers.






A couple of excerpts from the vet's diary.

May 7—"What a day, what a day! Starting at 0700 hrs. we were shooting all day and really giving Dunkirk a going over. However, I was up doing a shoot at about 1630 when it was suddenly cancelled."


May 10—"Ray and I flew all over Dunkirk looking at the targets we had taken on.… When we came down we hopped in his jeep and dashed off to one of the places where they were disarming the Gerries and I managed to pick up two first-class Lugers and one old P38."


David