Walther P38

As the previous service pistol, the Luger P08, was expensive to produce, Germany started to look for a replacement as early as 1927, settling on the Walther P38 in 1938, which offered similar performance to the Luger P08 but took almost half the time to produce. The first design was submitted to the German Army and featured a locked breech and a hidden hammer but the Army requested that it should be redesigned with an external hammer. The P38 concept was accepted by the German military in 1938 but production of prototype ("Test") pistols did not begin until late 1939. Walther began manufacture at their plant in Zella-Mehlis and produced three series of "Test" pistols, designated by a "0" prefix to the serial number. The third series pistols solved the problems for the German Army and mass production began in mid-1940, using Walther's military production identification code "480". Several experimental versions were later created in .45 ACP, and .38 Super but these were never mass-produced. In addition to the 9×19mm Parabellum version, some 7.65×21mm Parabellum and some .22 Long Rifle versions were also manufactured and sold. ==Design details==

The P.38 is a semi-automatic pistol design, which introduced technical features used today in commercial and military semi-automatic pistols, including the Beretta 92FS and its M9 sub-variant. The P38 was the first locked-breech pistol to use a double-action/single-action (DA/SA) trigger (the earlier double-action PPK was an unlocked blowback design, but the more powerful 9×19mm Parabellum round used in the P38 needed a locked breech design). The shooter could chamber a round, use the safety-decocking lever to lower the hammer without firing the round, and carry the weapon with a round chambered. The lever can stay on "safe", or if returned to "fire", the weapon remains safely "ready" with a long, double-action trigger pull for the first shot. Pulling the trigger cocks the hammer before firing the first shot with double-action operation. The firing mechanism extracts and ejects the first spent round, cocks the hammer, and chambers a fresh round for single-action operation with each subsequent shot; all features found in many modern handguns. Besides a DA/SA trigger design similar to that of the earlier Walther PPKs the P38 features a visible and tactile loaded chamber indicator in the form of a metal rod that protrudes from the rear of the slide when a round is chambered. , coded "byf 44" with matching presstoff and leather holster The moving-barrel mechanism is actuated by a wedge-shaped hinged locking piece underneath the breech. When the pistol is fired, the barrel and slide recoil together, until the hinged locking piece drives down, disengaging the slide and arresting further rearward movement of the barrel. The slide continues its rearward movement on the frame, ejecting the spent case and cocking the hammer before reaching the end of travel. Unlike most autopistols which eject empty cases to the right, the Walther P38 ejects empty cases to the left. Two recoil springs on either side of the frame and below the slide, having been compressed by the slide's rearward movement, drive the slide forward, stripping a new round from the magazine, driving it into the breech and re-engaging the barrel; ending its return travel with a fresh round chambered, hammer cocked and ready to repeat the process. The hinged locking piece assisted breechblock design provides good accuracy due to the in-line travel of the barrel and slide. Initial production P38 pistols were fitted with walnut grips, but these were later supplanted by Bakelite grips. Sheet metal grips were used for a time on pistols produced in France after the war, being called "Gray Ghosts" by collectors on the account of their distinctive parkerizing and sheet metal grips. Post war P1 grips were made of black colored plastic. ==Variants==

The Walther P.38 was in production from 1939 to 1945. Initial development of the pistol took place 1937–1939, culminating in the first Model HP or Heerespistole ("army pistol"), which had several variants as engineering changes were made. Early production included a Swedish contract. The designation P.38 indicates Wehrmacht adoption in 1938, although the exact date is unknown. The transition from HP to the mechanically-identical P.38-marked pistols took place 1939–1940. Sweden bought the Walther HP in 1939. During WWII, the P.38 was produced by Walther, Mauser, and Spreewerk. To conceal manufacturer identities, each wartime manufacturer used a letter code: ac (Walther); byf (Mauser), and cyq (Spreewerk), followed by the date (e.g.: ac44: Walther 1944 production). Spreewerk did not mark production dates. Pistols were produced in blocks of 10,000 consecutively numbered pistols, with each block having a consecutive letter suffix, to conceal production volume. 1,277,680 P.38s were produced during WWII: 617,585 by Walther in Zella-Mehlis; 372,875 by Mauser in Oberndorf; 287,220 by Spreewerk Grottau. Late in the war, the Spreewerk (cyq) die broke. Subsequent pistols appear to be marked "cvq" due to the broken die. About 31,400 pistols are so marked. Spreewerk production ended April 1945. From 1945 to 1946, several thousands of pistols were assembled for the French armed forces Starting in June 1975, the aluminum frame was reinforced with a hex bolt above the trigger guard, and a slightly modified, stronger slide design was introduced. During the 1990s the German military started replacing the P1 with the P8 pistol and finally phased out the P1 in 2004. P4 An improved version of the P38, the Walther P4, was developed in the late 1970s and was adopted by the police forces of South Africa, Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg. P5 Improved version with a closed slide. Clones Turkish clones made by Kirrikale. ==Users==

• • : P1 variant. • : Kurdistan Region received 8,000 P1 pistols in 2014 • : P1 variant. • : Used by Royal Thai Police as Type 96 Pistol (ปืนพกแบบ 96, ปพ.96). • Former • : Afghan National Police received 10,000 P1s after the fall of the Taliban • • : Supplied by Germany during World War II • • : Used primarily by police and paramilitary. • : Finnish UN peacekeeping forces, P1 variant. • : Replaced by the mid-1950s. • : Used in small numbers by the Lebanese Army and later by some Lebanese militias during the 1958 Lebanon crisis and the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990). • : Norwegian Armed Forces. Replaced by the P80 in 1985 • : Used by Portuguese Army until 2019, when was replaced by the Glock 17 Gen 5. • : Standard sidearm of the BSAP. • : HP variant. The Swedish military designation was "pistol m/39". Sweden also used P38s that were confiscated from the German military during World War II. • • Bundesgrenzschutz ==References==