Nazi Markings

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andrewdl007

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I was recently looking at a french pistol that was a WWII bring back. It had "POLICE D'ETAT" on the slide but no German markings. This would lead me to assume the pistol was taken off of a french police officer or from a police station, but I was wondering if the German's ever used pistols from occupied countries without acceptance markings? Would they mark weapons that were already made? Maybe in the final days of the war. The soldier who brought back the pistol was in the 20th Armored Division so wouldn't have arrived in France until Feb of 1945.
 
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The Germans certainly used guns from occupied countries.
Guns MADE under German rule were German proofed and marked.
I don't know what they did about guns captured intact from victimized lands. Hardly seem worth the trouble of marking but then Teutonic Thoroughness.

They reportedly issued such guns, especially those in Non-Wehrmacht calibers, to occupation forces in those areas to simplify ammo and parts supply.
One source said that Germans in France got some sort of pistol and a box of ammo of suitable caliber for protection against Le Resistance.
 
Your GI could have gotten the pistol by bartering for it-wasn't necessarily a combat capture. That was pretty common thing to do. Lots and lots of different ways he could have obtained one, and not even necessarily done pre-cease fire.

No, they didn't necessarily go back and mark all the pistols just for the sake of marking them as property.
 
This would lead me to assume the pistol was taken off of a french police officer or from a police station, but I was wondering if the German's ever used pistols from occupied countries without acceptance markings?
From what I’ve read, yes.

I also had a Hungarian Frommer STOP pistol in .32 ACP that was reportedly a capture piece (supposedly had capture papers at some point, but they didn’t know where they were in the old vets house) from some Fallschirmjager troops and it didn’t have any acceptance proof marks.

Keep in mind that German soldiers are like soldiers the world over. They pick up weapons from their enemy and if they can make use of them they will.

I’ve read before that if the weapon was manufactured or assembled from parts under German occupation then they had Waffenampt stamps

If they were captured weapons in huge lots they were looked over and then accepted (or not) and if they were a one off they were possibly just test fired by the soldier in question to make sure it worked and then used. Given the huge numbers of weapons and men involved in WWII it’s anyones guess which category yours fits into.
 
There's a French Unique pistol marked '9 schuss' that was a common capture item. Lots of them with papers.
 
And remember "capture" papers don't always tell the story. That late in the war they were permission slips to take loot home. And yes, if it was ISSUED to a German it had stamps.
 
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