The history of the Walther P.38 pistol began with the 9mm Walther MP of the first model. The P.38 is not yet visible in this pistol, it is very similar to the enlarged Walther PP.
The secret work on the design of service (as they tried to disguise this new weapon) pistols of a new generation, intended for the rearmament of the Reichswehr, the German arms firms began again already at the end of 1929. Engineers of Carl Walther Waffefabrik GmbH tried to build on their initial success, taking as a basis a successful PP pistol design. Its enlarged version, called Walther MP (Militarpistote. German-military pistol), was designed to use 9x19 mm Parabellum cartridges. The Walther MP pistols of the first and second models differed slightly from each other, only in individual parts. The automatics of the new pistols also worked on the principle of free breechblock recoil when the barrel was stationary. However, the results of factory tests of both models of the Walther MP pistol have convincingly demonstrated that the use of a powerful 9-mm cartridge is impossible in weapon systems with an uncoupled bolt.
Walther P.38 assembly diagram
Lack of funding for some time forced the German designers to postpone this work. And only the coming of the Nazis to power in 1933, with their course of preparation for a new war, contributed to the start of work on the creation of more advanced models of military equipment and weapons, including small arms. However, outdated technologies and significant volumes of mechanical work on manual refinement not only influenced the high cost of manufacturing certain products, but ruled out the possibility of a quick rearmament of the Wehrmacht. In particular, this also applied to the standard army 9 mm P.08 pistol. Therefore, by the mid-thirties in Germany, the question of finding a worthy replacement for the old Parabellum pistol was very acute. German designers-gunsmiths began to design a qualitatively new model of a military pistol, using all their design groundwork, not only technical, but also technological, which they had developed during the creation of previous samples of short-barreled self-defense weapons.
Already in 1934 - 35. Carl Walther Waffenlabnk GmbH has transferred to HWaA a new model of the military-grade pistol known by the same name Walther MP. Just like the previous MP variants, it was designed to use the Parabellum 9mm pistol cartridge. Despite the fact that outwardly it was a completely different pistol, its design developed the ideas laid down in the Walther PP and MP pistols of the first samples: the automatics of the third model of the MP pistol also worked on the principle of using the recoil of a free breechblock, a self-cocking firing mechanism. Georg and Erich Walter have developed new assemblies and parts especially for this pistol. Including: a shortened breech casing, an extractor, a striker, an indicator of the presence of a cartridge in the chamber, patented on April 10, 1936 in Germany (DRP patent No. 706038). A special feature of this model is the original hammer firing mechanism with a hidden location of the trigger. However, after numerous factory and field tests, many design flaws of this model were revealed, so work on it was discontinued. This sample of the MP pistol remained exclusively in prototype models.
The circuit is taken from the DRP patent No. 721702.
Another failure did not cool the research fervor of German gunsmiths. Already in October of the same year, one of the co-owners of Carl Walther Waffenfabrik GmbH, the youngest of the dynasty - Fritz Walter and engineer Fritz Barthlemens (Barthlemens) received a patent (DRP No. vertical plane. It was this decision that formed the basis for a new generation of German Walther military pistols. Walther soon. so as not to confuse newly crafted weapons with previous MP models. assigned the name Walther AR (Armeepistole, German - army pistol) to the new pistols.
The modified Walther AP was a completely different design. The automatics worked on the principle of recoil with a short barrel stroke, the barrel bore was locked by a swinging latch. The trigger mechanism was borrowed from the previous model MP - self-cocking, hammer type with a hidden trigger. The barrel and the bolt casing, under the influence of recoil, moved along the outer guides of the frame, and a large cutout appeared in the front of the bolt casing, which opened almost the entire breech of the barrel. The flag fuse was mounted on the left side of the shutter casing. Two return springs were located on both sides of the pistol frame.
A new step towards the P.38 - the experienced Walther AP pistol. The main thing that they have in common is the locking system with a latch rotating in a vertical plane.
Already in the spring of 1937, the company Sam Walther Wafflenfabrik GmbH presented 200 AR pistols to the test site in Kum mers dor-fv for testing. And again it suffered a fiasco. HwaA representatives pointed out numerous design flaws in Walther AP. first of all, this concerned the internal location of the trigger, which was unsafe, since it did not visually make it possible to determine whether the weapon was loaded. According to the military, Walther AR was also characterized by high labor intensity and high production costs.
All this prompted the Wehrmacht to abandon the pistol, although the promise of the design itself was obvious.
Despite the failure, in the same year, Walther proactively developed another modification, known as the fourth MP model. The alterations mainly affected the design of the firing mechanism and parts of the casing-shutter of the AR model. The trigger has been made safer to handle - external, now it can be controlled visually and at night - by touch.
In order not to confuse the factory technical documentation, the latest model of the MP pistol was soon assigned a new designation - HP (German - Heeres-Pistole - a pistol for the armed forces, military pistol). In its design, an indicator of the presence of a cartridge in the chamber was introduced, as in the Walther PP.
The Walther HP pistol is almost P.38. Only a few design details remain to be finalized.
The new Walther HP model, presented for final competitive testing in 1938, defeated competing short-barreled weapons: Mauser-Werke A. G., Sauer & Sohn and Berlin-Suler Waffenfabrik. After the modification of the fuse mechanism of the 9-mm Walther HP, which without any reservations can be attributed to one of the most successful technical designs of weapons of that time, was adopted by the Wehrmacht as a standard service pistol called P.38 (German - Pistole 38, pistol sample 38 (1938)). Its main difference from Walther HP was the simplified safety mechanism.
The pistol had two safety locks - a manual checkbox which was located on the outside on the left side of the bolt casing, and an automatic internal one. The first did not allow accidental shots, the second - premature, when the bolt did not completely lock the bore. When the manual safety was turned on, the drummer was blocked and the trigger could not be put on a combat platoon. The action of the automatic safety lock was also associated with the work of the drummer, which was released from blocking only when the bolt came to the forward position. Compared to the Walther prototype, the P.38 also had a wider ejector, which improved its functioning in difficult working conditions; a round-shaped striker, simplified to manufacture, instead of the HP's rectangular striker; stamped shutter lag instead of milled.
Pistol Walther P.38 consisted of 58 main parts, assemblies and mechanisms: barrel; pistol frames; shutter; locking latch; firing mechanism; store; safety devices and sighting devices.
Before P.38 became like this, it went a long way of evolution. But the works of the creators were not in vain. According to many experts, this pistol became the best military pistol during the Second World War.
Walther P.38 automatics worked on the principle of using recoil with a short barrel stroke. The barrel bore was locked by a bolt casing using a latch rotating in a vertical plane. The firing mechanism is a hammer-type with an open position of the trigger, the mainspring was mounted in the handle. The features of the P.38 pistol also include a self-cocking firing mechanism, which significantly increased the combat readiness of the pistol in terms of carrying it with a cartridge in the chamber, since, along with reducing the time for the first shot, it allowed the striker to hit the cartridge primer again in the event of a misfires.
It should be noted that self-cocking also caused certain difficulties in using the pistol. since this inevitably led to a sharp (approximately threefold) increase in the trigger effort. The need to compress a strong mainspring led (even for well-trained shooters) to a significant deterioration in the accuracy of the pistol battle. -Jerking- weapons when firing at low-trained shooters led to a loss of accuracy. When the cartridges were used up, the bolt stopped at the slide delay in the rear position. On the P.38, as well as on other Walther pistols. an indicator of the presence of a cartridge in the chamber was mounted, which made it possible not only visually, but also by touch, in the dark, to determine whether the weapon was loaded. The pistol had a permanent sight, designed for a firing range of up to 50 m. The magazine capacity was 8 rounds.
Assembly diagram of the Walther P.38 pistol. Its design is simpler and more technologically advanced than that of its predecessor - Parabellum P.08.
The Wehrmacht gave the Thuringian firm a colossal order for 410,000 Walther P.38 pistols. Already at the end of 1939, the Carl Walther Wattenlabrik GmbH company began to implement it, but only on April 26, 1940 their first batch of 1,500 pieces. left the assembly shops of the company. By the summer of 1940, 13,000 Walther P.38 pistols of the zero series had been produced, which were originally intended only for the ground forces. R.38 pistols produced in 1940-41 had a blued surface, in addition, the same wooden cheeks with a small diamond-shaped notch as that of HP were mounted on the zero-series weapons.
The P.38 pistol that replaced the Parabellum, being much simpler in production, accordingly required much less material and labor costs for its manufacture. The production of one Р.38 required 4.4 kg of metal, with the mass of the pistol itself being 0.94 kg and 13 people / h. The new pistol was cheaper in production than the P.08. So. in January 1945 its cost at Mauser-Werke was 31 marks, while Parabellum cost 35 marks two years earlier.
Initially, officers of the ground forces, the first numbers of heavy weapons crews, as well as part of the non-commissioned officers of the Wehrmacht and the SS field troops were armed with Walther P.38 pistols. Already the first battles of World War II fully revealed the high efficiency, ease of handling and reliability in using these pistols. Deployment of large-scale hostilities on the Eastern Front in 1941-42. led to significant losses of the Wehrmacht in short-barreled weapons. The manifold increase in the needs of the German army for personal self-defense weapons demanded a sharp increase in the production of standard P.38 pistols.
Walther P.38 cutaway. It no longer looks like the PP model, from which its creators tried to "push off".
The low power of the Walther company (in 1939 its entire staff consisted of only 500 people) was the main reason for an unprecedented act in modern German history - the transfer of licenses and technical documentation for the production of a pistol to competing firms: Auburn-Dorf Mauser-Werke A G. which began manufacturing the pistol in September 1942, as well as Spree-Werke GmbH - from May 1943,which, with the help of engineers from Mauser-Werke, organized the release of the P.38 at its plants in Spandau (Germany) and the Czech city of Hradkov nad Nisou.
The expansion of the production of Walther P.38 pistols required an increasing production of spare and component parts. Therefore, a number of Western European arms factories, which worked under the full control of the Germans, were also involved in the cooperation for their manufacture. So. Czech arms concern in Prague Bohmische Waffenfabrlk AG (formerly Ceska Zbrojovka) manufactured barrels for Carl Walther Waffenfabrlk GmbH and Spree-Werke GmbH. The largest arms concerns - the Belgian Fabrique Nationale d'Armes de Guerre in Gerstal and the Czech Zbrojovka Brno in Brno produced frames and bolt covers P.38. Another Czech factory Erste Not dbohmische Waffenfabrik and one of the oldest German arms companies C. G. Haenel Waffen - und Fahrradfabnk AG specialized in the manufacture of shops. All these measures allowed a sharp increase in the production of personal self-defense weapons, which is so necessary for the front.
Various types of mufflers were developed for use by the German secret services for the Walther P.38.
By 1944, Carl Walther Waffenfabrik GmbH increased the monthly production of P.38 pistols to 10,000 units, Mauser-Werke A. G. - up to 12,500, but everyone was overtaken by Spree-Werke, one of the few German arms companies during the Second World War, which put the production of small arms on stream. Its figure in the same year was a record - 25,000 P.38 pistols per month.
During the war, the design of the P.38 did not undergo any special changes, although the gunsmiths continued research related, in particular, to the use of press-co-stamping equipment for the manufacture of a frame and a shutter casing from a steel sheet. To reduce the cost of production and simplify maintenance in the field, Walther P.38 pistols received cheeks of a new design - with transverse wide grooves, which were made from a special type of plastic - brown bakelite. However, depending on the brand-chic and the time of manufacture, they turned out to be of various shades, up to black. A further decrease in the requirements of military acceptance for the external decoration of weapons led to the fact that in 1942-45. on Walther pistols, to reduce their cost, after final machining, a cheaper semi-matt coating was applied to metal parts. And only at the very end of the war, in connection with a general deterioration in the supply of the weapons industry with the necessary materials, the manufacturing companies of the P.38 went to some deterioration in the external finish of the pistol, which, however, did not affect the decrease in the combat qualities of the weapon.
On the fronts of World War II, the P.38 was distinguished by its ease of operation and unpretentious maintenance, as well as good accuracy of the battle. He was not inferior in this indicator to the legendary Parabellum. When firing at 25 m, a bullet fired from a P.38 pistol with an initial speed of 355 m / s pierced a pine board 23 cm thick. An iron sheet 2 mm thick, when hit by a bullet at an angle of 90 degrees, penetrated from a distance of up to 20 m. at the same time, a steel sheet 2 mm thick and an iron sheet 3 mm thick did not break through from a distance of 25 m, but received only a strong dent. However, this was quite enough to combat enemy manpower at a distance of 25 - 50 m.
Reduced in size by shortening the barrel, the Walther P.38K was developed on the basis of the standard P.38 for the Gestapo and SD.
Along with the Wehrmacht, a small number of P.38s and their modifications were also used in the security service - SD. Only for the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Third Reich during the war, 11,150 pistols of the Walter HP model were manufactured. In 1944, by special order of the Main Directorate of Imperial Security (RSHA) for the needs of geciano and SD, Spree-Werke GmbH manufactured several thousand short pistols R.38 with a barrel length of only 70 mm. And a year earlier, according to unconfirmed reports, German arms firms produced a batch of 1,500 pieces. R.38. designed for cartridge 7, 65x22 Parabellum, which was clearly made for commercial purposes for sale in the Latin American arms market.
In total, during the war, the German military industry supplied the armed forces and special services of the Third Reich with 1,180,000 P.38 pistols. Moreover, in 1939-45. Carl Walther Waffenafbrik GmbH produced 555,000 pieces. Walther P.38, Mauser-Werke A. G. in 1942-45 respectively -340,000 pcs., and Spree-Werke GmbH - from the end of 1943 to 1945. - 285,000 pcs.
The defeat of the Third Reich completed another, but far from the last page in the history of the unique Walther P.38 pistol. With the surrender of Germany, the military production facilities of the Walther and Spree-Werke firms were liquidated, and their equipment was exported for reparations to the USSR, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia.
Only Mauser-Werke continued to release the P.38 after the war. On April 20, 1945, French troops occupied the city of Oberndorf am Neckar, where the main facilities of this company were located. And soon the production of the P.38 was resumed here, but for the French occupation forces. Subsequently, this weapon was used for several decades by both the armed forces and the special services of France, which, by the way, caused one of the many conflicts between East and West. And only in the summer of 1946, as a result of repeated protests from the Soviet side, the equipment of Mauser-Werke A. G. it was also possible to take it out on reparations, and the production complex itself was blown up, so that the Germans would not start producing weapons here again. However, this did not prevent many other Walther P.38 pistols from the war years from receiving a second life after the defeat of the Wehrmacht. So, the P.36 pistols manufactured in 1940-45. armies and law enforcement agencies of many states were armed. Along with the Bundeswehr, where the P 38 from the end of the 1940s. again became a regular army pistol, they were used by the barracks police of the GDR until the mid-1950s. In addition, in 1945-46. at the former Spree-Werke plant in the Czech town of Hradkov nad Nisou, approximately 3,000 P.38 pistols were assembled from the remaining stocks of parts in the warehouses. subsequently transferred to the Czechoslovak People's Army. And today, already 50 years after the end of the war, many P.38 military editions are in service with the armies and law enforcement agencies in Austria, Lebanon, Mozambique, Pakistan …
