WWII Nazi Walther PPK

[Five-O]

Hi guys, a friend wants to know if this pistol has any collector's value. He said his father confiscated it from an officer (the story, unconfirmed, is that he had killed the officer - {no documentation})
Click to view larger image. There is no Nazi swastika emblem, however, notice the eagle in several places? Anyone know the what it signifies?
Any help or links that would help me find info on this gun appreciated.
Thank you

 

[Ron James]

My references are sadly lacking on the Walther's, It does show that your PPK is a "Police" issue, 1941 { the Eagle C } and is in excellent condition. But that doohickey on the one magazine?? I guess it is a grip extension but I have never seen anything like it before. No value on this war time police PPK , maybe only around 1500 dollars o{ or more to the right buyer }. About the story of the origin, that's all it is just a story, what veteran wants to admit he won his war trophy in a poker game or bought it for two bottles of whiskey

 

[Bovice]

the magazine with the "doohickey" appears to be a regular finger-extension magazine that is supplied with the PPK, with some homegrown plastic POS around it. Ruins the sleek lines of the pistol, IMO.

Nice looking gun.

 

[Ron James]

Original WWII PPK magazines with finger extensions can sell for up to 300 dollars. That one, don't know if that plastic can be removed or not. If not, oh well, hind sight is a wonderful thing.

 

[Jim K]

The eagle with the "C" indicates a police issue. The eagle over "N" was the standard German commercial Nitro proof mark from April 1940 until the end of the Nazi era.

Jim

 

[Ron James]

Eagle over N is still in use.

 

[Five-O]

Thanks Jim and Ron. Is it possible then, after reading your posts, that this gun may not have been owned or carried by a German Nazi? Is it possible that it was simply a gun issued to a member of the police force and not associated with the military? Wouldn't that make a big difference in it's value?

 

[Jim K]

Well, it almost certainly was carried by some German Nazi. Most members of the German police forces were Nazis, at least officially, since those who did not join the party were considered suspect and disloyal. Would it have been carried by a member of the German armed forces, say an Army or Waffen SS officer? I don't know. It may have been marked for the police then diverted to the greater need of the Army. Or it might have been taken from a German police officer since they were usually disarmed by the Allies for the reasons indicated above.

In all honesty, we will probably never know the truth about most of those "bringback" weapons. For example, most of the Japanese and German rifles brought back were taken out of ordnance depots. We know that the Japanese rifles with the crest (chrysanthemum) ground off were taken from storage, mainly in Japan, yet many GIs vividly described tearing them from the hands of Hirohito personally. The same kind of thing happened in Europe. Hermann Göring was a gun collector, but not even a man of his size could possibly have carried the hundreds of thousands of guns that were taken from him by American GIs.

Jim

 

[Ron James]

The value comes from the fact it is a Eagle / C (police issue) pre-war, the holster, and one magazine, and it's condition. Not who carried it.

 

[Doogledog]

My grandfather brought a PPK back from Europe after WWII. It looks very similar to your gun. I've never done any real research on it but the markings other posters have described and the ones in your photos appear very similar to the ones on mine. My Grandfather also had his name engraved on the slide as well, which probably makes it worthless to a collector. But, I'm fine with that, I have no intentions of ever selling it.

 

[highlander 5]

How come Lugers,P38s and other weapons are taken off a "dead" German? If all these tales are true there wouldn't have been anyone left in the Wehrmacht.

 

[Jim K]

Unlike rifles, many bringback pistols actually were taken from enemy soldiers, alive or dead. A soldier could usually carry a pistol in his pack, where he could not carry an extra rifle along.

In some American units, commanders prohibited their troops from keeping captured pistols because more were being shot, or shooting themselves, while playing with the unfamiliar guns than were being lost to enemy fire.

As to the "dead" Germans, I suspect it sounded more warlike than "captured" German, but without admitting to actually killing the German.

My own puzzlement was the fact that all the captured pistols were "tooken off" at least a General, if not a Field Marshal. I suspect the Germans lost the war because they had nothing but Generals, no privates.

(As always, the pistol is what it is; any stories are just that, stories, and add nothing to the value of the gun itself.)

Jim

 

[searcher451]

A nice-looking piece in any event, the grip extension notwithstanding. You can pick up a correct period magazine with the brown finger extension, but -- as indicated -- be prepared to pay more than a few dollars for one. Still, that's all you would need to restore the belle of the ball to its true glory.

You might want to consider posting the photos on the P.38 Forum, where any number of PP and PPK experts regularly reside.

www.p38forum.com

You also could send a direct PM to Dieter Marschall from there; he literally wrote one of the better books on the PPK, and he knows as much about them as anyone around these days, IMO.

 

[Bovice]

If all these tales are true there wouldn't have been anyone left in the Wehrmacht.

800,000 German troops were killed on the eastern front alone. That's a lot of potential PPKs. Add in what we popped on the western front and that's even MORE of them.

 

[Old Shooter]

My own puzzlement was the fact that all the captured pistols were "tooken off" at least a General, if not a Field Marshal. I suspect the Germans lost the war because they had nothing but Generals, no privates.

They probably lost the war because our GI's were capturing all their Generals and Field Marshalls to get their Lugers and Walthers.

 

[KodiakBeer]

My father came back on the Queen Mary along with thousands of other GI's. Somewhere on the trip, orders came in that all souvenir handguns had to be turned in, and the MP's began going from compartment to compartment conducting searches. They knew that this was so the ranking officers could simply steal them. The men just started throwing them overboard. He guessed that many hundreds of pistols went out portholes or over the side. One guy standing near him had a particularly prized Luger (P38's weren't as popular, but were far more common) and waited until the MP's were in the compartment where he held it up and politely asked if they wanted it. When the MP approached and held out his hand, the GI flipped it out of the open porthole next to him and grinned.

 

[RevolvingGarbage]

I would have tied a long thin piece of rope to it and tossed it off tied to a rail somewhere inconspicuous...

 

[searcher451]

You'd think that there must have been many places to hide a firearm on board the ships as large as the transports that were ferrying soldiers across the pond. You'd also have to belive that many G.I.s found those hiding places and were able to successfully bring their war booty home with them; we've got quite a few examples -- all without the import stamps -- that are still kicking around the USA 65 years later, after all. And a good thing.

 

[KodiakBeer]

You'd think that there must have been many places to hide a firearm on board the ships as large as the transports that were ferrying soldiers across the pond.

That was just one ship and one trip carrying GI's home. I'm sure many of those guys did hide their souvenirs, and I'm sure most trips didn't have flaming a-hole officers that would rob men of their battle trophies.

I'm guessing the officers who dreamed up that little theft were a bunch of office pogues who never got closer to a hostile shot than London. I doubt a combat officer would do such a thing.