Nazi Mouse Guns: Big Military Carried Tiny Handguns

German troops who used the gun most frequently referred
to the Sauer 38 simply as the “H.”

Claus Philipp Maria Justinian Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg was old German aristocracy. His hereditary titles included “Graf” (Count) and “Schenk” (Cupbearer). Von Stauffenberg was born in the Stauffenberg Castle, the third of four sons. The Stauffenberg bloodline was one of the most storied in Germany. A devout Catholic who gravitated toward National Socialism when he thought it was the vehicle to lift post-World War I Germany out of its economic and political mire, he soon became disillusioned. The Night of the Long Knives and Kristallnacht along with the systemic oppression of the Jews, gradually turned von Stauffenberg against the Nazis and the deranged Austrian Corporal who led them.

Von Stauffenberg fought with the Wehrmacht during the invasion of Poland as well as in France, earning an Iron Cross First Class for his trouble. He invaded Russia in 1941 as part of Operation Barbarossa. By 1942 he was serving in Tunisia with Rommel’s Afrika Korps.

In April 1943 von Stauffenberg’s column was strafed by Australian P40 Kittyhawks. Severely injured in the attack, the young Wehrmacht officer lost his left eye, right hand and two fingers from his left hand. He later joked with friends he never really knew what to do with so many fingers when he still had them.

After months-long recovery, von Stauffenberg was posted to the Ersatzheer in Berlin. This Replacement Army was tasked with providing replacement troops to frontline units attritted in action. This turned out to be an optimal position from which to foment a coup.

With the assistance of a select few co-conspirators, von Stauffenberg obtained a pair of small bombs to emplace in a briefing room with Hitler and his Generals at the Wolfsschanze, Hitler’s East Prussian headquarters. Pressed for time and struggling to arm the weapons with only three functioning fingers, von Stauffenberg only got one device activated before he had to deposit the associated briefcase. As fate would have it, Colonel Heinz Brandt innocently moved the case behind the heavy leg of a wooden briefing table and unwittingly saved Hitler’s life.

Von Stauffenberg returned to Berlin to activate the remaining part of the coup. Once all involved heard Hitler had survived the attack, failure was guaranteed. Hitler loyalists pursued Von Stauffenberg and his co-conspirators to the Ersatzheer offices at Bendlerstrasse and engaged in a fierce but brief shootout with their handguns wherein the Count was wounded in the shoulder.

Despite producing some of the world’s most advanced weapons,
the Germans issued some awfully anemic handguns.

The Germans used a bewildering array of handguns during the war.

The Guns

The weapon von Stauffenberg carried during his final engagement was a curious thing indeed. The Nazis gifted the world with some of the most effective weapons in military history up to that point. The transoceanic U-Boat, V2 ballistic missile, Me262 jet fighter and Tiger tank were all apex predators for their class at the time. However, despite all these undeniably powerful weapons, the typical sidearms carried by most of Germany’s most revered leaders were ridiculously pitiful.

The .45ACP M1911A1 automatic pistol used by American forces during World War II was hands-down the most powerful combat handgun of the war. Loud, heavy, rugged and mean, the M1911 was much like the country that birthed it. However, on the other side of the line German officers typically carried diminutive, little mouse guns easy to tote discreetly but fairly ineffective in action.

Despite rocking some of the most fearsome weapons in the world,
the Nazis packed some of the most pathetic little mouse guns.
This is a .32 ACP Walther PPK.

Walther PPK

The specific weapon von Stauffenberg used during his final shootout with Nazi security forces is generally assumed to have been the Walther PPK. Spawned from the previous Walther PP (Polizei Pistole) developed in 1929, the PPK (Polizei Pistole Kriminal) was one of the few handguns in common use that could actually be employed with only three fingers. The diminutive weapon went on to worldwide fame in the hands of Ian Fleming’s James Bond.

The PPK is a trim blowback-operated pistol custom designed for concealed carry. The single stack magazine carries seven rounds, and the magazine release is located underneath the right thumb as it should be. The most radical aspect of the design, however, is its SA/DA trigger.

Carl Walther designed the PP-series pistols to combine the benefits of an SA/DA revolver along with the trim architecture of an autoloader. The weapon is designed such that it can be safely carried with the chamber loaded and the hammer down. The first round is subject to a long heavy trigger pull for safety, while subsequent shots are crisper and more precise. There is a hammer drop safety located on the slide to safely deactivate the hammer over a loaded chamber. The slide locks to the rear after the last round is fired. Giving the slide a little snatch drops it over a fresh magazine.

The PPK has a fixed barrel and tiny sights. In a pinch the weapon can be charged by pushing the edge of the muzzle end of the slide against a handy countertop. From that point up until the magazine runs dry the gun can indeed be run with only three fingers.

The Mauser HSc was arguably the most advanced handgun design of the war.

Mauer HSc

The Mauser counterpart to the PPK is the HSc. HSc stands for Hahn Selbstspanner or “Self-cocking Hammer.” Of the two the HSc is actually the more advanced design.

Introduced in 1940, the HSc employs an eight-round single-stack magazine and a novel cylindrical hammer. This device has an unobtrusive little tab that is easy to cock yet doesn’t catch on clothing during the draw. Like the PPK, the HSc employs an SA/DA trigger system.

The magazine release on the HSc rides on the heel of the butt in the European fashion and is incrementally slower than the thumb button of the PPK and M1911A1. However, the slide of the HSc locks to the rear automatically on the last round fired. Drop the empty magazine, slam in a fresh one and the slide drops back into battery of its own accord. There are no external switches and nothing is faster, even today.

The Sauer 38H introduced the frame-mounted decocker to the world of combat handguns.

The HSc’s hammer was a novel rotating cylinder.

The “H”

The Sauer 38H was often just referred to as the “H” by the troops who used it. The gun was produced from 1938 until the end of the war. The 38H was also a fairly uninspired unlocked blowback design. However, the trigger and safety system went on to birth an entire family of modern combat handguns.

The 38H sported three separate controls on the left side of the gun. The thumb-activated magazine release operates in the manner of the PPK as does the slide-mounted safety. However, there is also a manual decocking lever located on the left side above the mag release. This pivoting lever safely decocks the action over a loaded chamber. This same feature found its way onto the SIG SAUER P220-series handguns still in production today.
Another novel feature of the 38H was its magazine safety. This device deactivates the gun when the magazine is removed. I absolutely despise these things myself. However, the infamous SS General Sepp Dietrich was bearing a Sauer 38H when he was captured by the Allies in 1945.

The Germans never had enough handguns. This Mauser M1910 in .25
ACP and JP Sauer 1913 were both vet bringbacks from the war.

Browning Triple Safety

The Browning Model 1922 was referred to as the “Triple Safety” based upon, you guessed it, the gun’s three separate safety mechanisms. These included an automatic grip safety, a magazine safety and a manual safety lever on the outside of the gun. The M1922 fed from a nine-round single-stack box magazine.

An evolutionary development of the previous M1910, the M1922 was a product of the fertile mind of John Moses Browning and was produced at the FN plant in Belgium. However, once the Germans overran the facility, they continued production for their own war machine. Nazi M1922 pistols saw extensive service with all branches of the German military and bore waffenamt proof marks.

The Sauer 38H (left) went on to influence countless subsequent guns like this SIG Sauer P226.

Pistol Clutter

The Germans never did have enough pistols to go around and used a wide variety of disparate guns as a result. The Polish Radom and Belgian Hi-Power as well as German commercial pistols like the Mauser 1910 and 1914, the C96 Broomhandle and the JP Sauer 1913 are typical examples. While the familiar 9mm P08 Parabellum and Walther P38 were the most widely issued German handguns, the Nazi military was cluttered with dozens of lesser pistols.

The M1922 featured a grip safety along with the manual
safety lever and a magazine disconnect.

The Rest Of The Story

Co-conspirator German General Friedrich Fromm, the Commander-in-Chief of the Replacement Army, had von Stauffenberg along with his aide and other coup participants arrested in a failed effort at saving his own skin. He staged a sham court martial and sentenced them all to death, ostensibly in an effort at covering up his own involvement. At 0100 on July 21, 1944, the entire group was executed via firing squad by the headlights of an Army truck. Von Stauffenberg’s last words were, “Long live our sacred Germany!”

Von Stauffenberg’s brother Berthold was also a plotter. He was tried and convicted by a pro forma “People’s Court” and sentenced to death by slow suffocation. He was strangled and then resuscitated multiple times before finally succumbing. The entire ghastly process was filmed so Hitler could enjoy it at his leisure. Ultimately some 20,000 Germans were executed or dispatched to concentration camps as a result of the failed coup.

The .32 ACP Browning M1922 was produced by the FN plant in Belgium
for the Nazi war machine under German occupation.

Ruminations

Of greater interest than all of these different pistol designs is the curious cartridge they fired. While the 9mm Parabellum has proven itself in more than a century of armed conflict, the diminutive .32 ACP was an odd choice. Designed by John Browning in 1899 to feed his then-revolutionary M1900 pistol, the .32 ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol) typically pushed a 73-grain bullet to about 980 fps. This is the sort of round that will certainly kill you, but it might take a week or so to do the deed.

In the final analysis perhaps the Germans appreciated something we did not. Wars are not won by handguns. Truth be known, wars are not typically won by tanks, rifles, or submarines, either. Wars are won with trucks, and the Allies had a veritable limitless supply of them. The Germans frequently viewed their pistols as more badges of rank than combat implements. That made the humble handgun in all its many-splendored guises a bit of a footnote to the overarching saga that was World War II.

Special thanks to World War Supply for the cool period gear used in our photographs.

For more info: WorldWarSupply.com

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