on a different THR thread before but this thread was made for it. A German P08 Luger manufactured in 1916 at Erfurt. Liberated by my late uncle Marty from Germany's V-2 Rocket factory, known as the "Mittlewerks At Nordhausen", in May of 1945 when the Uncle Sam went in and packed everything up and shipped it all here. My uncle was from a German-American family and also spoke fluent German. He was a ground crewman in England working on B-17's until he wound up at the Mittlewerks to help communicate between the Americans and all the German civilians who had been hired to assist in this huge job. He found this Luger on display in an office area of the factory along with a large ornate Nazi parade flag. He got the Luger and the American with him liberated the flag. Unfortunately he never got capture papers on it but he said that the war was over and everyone was so happy that they never thought to worry about capture papers. In the early 1950's while living in Ohio he used to shoot rats with it in the local dump in the evenings. During that time his job also required him to be away from home several days a month. One snowy winter night he was away and my aunt was awakened in the middle of the night by the sound of someone breaking into their house. Her and their two small kids were the only ones there so she fired the Luger a couple times out of the window into a snow drift. The burglar ran away and it was said that by looking at the footprints in the snow that he was running pretty fast making his exit!. A few years before my uncle passed we were talking about hunting and that his old Luger would be neat in case a wounded deer needed a close range finishing shot. I inherited it in 2001 and carried it afield in a soft case in my knapsack in case I needed something like that. Ten years later I did. Knocked down a small buck in a shotgun zone in 2011 and he couldn't get up but was still very much alive. Used the Luger to deliver the 9mm Coup de Gras to the back of the head / neck area. One of my fondest hunting memories will always be of standing over that deer; looking up at the cold gray sky and thanking my late uncle and saying "I know you'd get a kick out of this" before pulling the trigger.
