I think its safe to say that many in our readership have enjoyed our myriad of posts on various historical firearms. Ian at Forgotten Weapons has been an instrumental asset to the community (and as an occasional contributor to our humble blog). Adding to Ian’s bredth of knowledge is C&Rsenal, who has been hot at adding depth to many of the not-so-forgotten weapons of years past.

As their latest entry to the “Small Arms of WWII Primer” (episode 23, if one is curious) is the history of the ubiquitous German Pistole 08, commonly known as the “Luger.” The short-action toggle handgun is well known as a prize pistol for American GI’s and other countrie’s shooters.

In the nearly hour long episode (53:33 to be exact), C&Rsenal goes into the full history of the development of the handgun complete with patent drawings, technical history, and details into the politics of the German army which ultimately led to the handguns adoption.

Of interest, the German Army was strongly wanting to see an action indicator as there was an internal striker instead of the common hammer-fired handguns of the day, which Luger was able to placate the demands by adding in a loaded chamber indicator using the extractor. By default, if the chamber was loaded, the handgun was cocked and ready for action (in much the same way as Glock is today).

Enjoy the video and history and check our C&Rsenal for additional history lessons.