Some body in another thread recently wrote: "if only it could talk." Well some guns can and I started to gather up as many as I could, including lugers, several years ago, One of the ones I gathered, but couldn't quite identify was a luger stamped "5.R.M.G.28." It wasn't in the best condition, but it was a "first issue," meaning that there was no date on the chamber which indicated it had been made between the start of production and the end of 1909, and the serial number had no suffix which meant that it was made in the first batch of 9999 lugers delivered to the army. Now came the problem; the stamp would normally indicate it was issued to the 5th Infantry Regiment, Machine Gun Company, weapon 28. The problem was…. there wasn't a 5th Infantry Regiment in the Germany army at that time. So, I waited and waited, trying to figure it out. I almost convinced myself it had been issued to "Grenadier Regiment Nr. 5" but I really knew that would have been a completely different stamp. Then along came the book by Joachim Gortz,
Handbuch Deutscher Waffenstempel in which he explains that it belonged to the Bavarian 5th Infantry Regiment, Machine Gun Company, 28th weapon. He explains, that normally, equipment issued to Bavarian units was stamped with a "B" but he adds, "beware of the "B". There were several situations in which the "B" was not added as part of the stamp, and one of those was when there was no other unit within the German army for which it could be mistaken and since there was no other 5th Infantry Regiment, it pretty much had to be the Bavarian 5th Infantry Regiment. So that was great…. and then several years later a similarly marked luger came my way. At first, I didn't realize it was the next one issued to the M.G. Comp., but after a day or two, I came to realize it was the next in the sequence. Now they're back together. I have a copy of the Regiment's history and it's second in line for translation after the history of an artillery regiment from which I have another pistol… if I live that long. That's pretty much the rest of the story. I'll try to post some pictures, but I'm "digitally challenged" so they may not turn out too good. I'll be happy to try to answer any questions. Thanks for looking.
