Walther P 38’s are very cool and I would love to have one. It’s a shame there are no semi auto guns today that have that style and class. They all pretty much look the same.
Igor's P-38
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smoothshooter
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Or video games.
Or motorcycle parts.
I’ve seen stuff like that happen several times in the last 15 years.
smoothshooter
Member
Destroying a gun like that is pretty bizarre. Got to be more to the story. PTSD?
What Dad does not appreciate somethng his kid made for him?
My guess for what your dad was going through would be PTSD, of which I'm sure you are well aware. It's a condition that seems to get more troublesome over time, especially for retirees who have more time on their hands to brood than they did earlier in life. Maybe something just triggered him into hating this artifact of his personal history, and he needed to erase it. The sledgehammer just served as a vehicle to release a bit of cleansing energy into the act.
I recall from William Manchester's WW2 memior Goodbye Darkness that he flung the M1911A1 he carried in the Pacific war into the Connecticutt River when he heard about the JFK assassination. We do what we feel we need to do.
Igor's son-in-law is a close friend of mine, and he's a former Marine. He says he didn't want the P-38 because it may have been used against American soldiers. When he first offered it to me I was a reluctant to have -- or take pride in -- something that was built by Polish slave laborers forced into Czechoslovakia to work under Nazis.
My attitude about this gun shifted slightly following my first refusal to take it. First, as a college history major and retired military officer, I do not "own" this artifact. I'm its current custodian. The history it represents should be respected. That is now my responsibility. Second, throughout history when one's foe has been vanquished his weapons are a prize of war that symbolizes that any threat he may have posed has been defanged. The weapon itself has no soul, and is only a reflection of its user. The enemy who owned this weapon was quite throughly eliminated as a threat to anyone. This artifact testifies to that.
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charlie sherrill
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I'm not saying all of the museums will sell your stuff, or take your stuff home, but there are enough of them that will meaning you should check them out before you donate anything. There was a guy in Kentucky who had a very large popular soda collection and decided to make a museum. He would not accept loans, only donations. He got some very rare and expensive donations. When he passed away his widow sold the whole collection for several million dollars. That is a very nice P 38. I enjoy stories like this.
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Guessing the OP P-38 is about priceless but seems theses days there are Very Few younger collectors. This applies to even vintage restored cars and trucks.
Odd that the mags are not marked. There were some Danish post war mags floating around that were unmarked. You may want to check out the P38 Forum. Those guys can tell you everything and more.
Went to the P38 forum, then pulled out my magnifying glass and looked at the two magazines again.
One magazine has no marks on the sides, bottom or spine, and the 7 weld spots that close the magazine body are slightly blurred in appearance. The other magazine has an EXTREMELY tiny mark on the bottom of the spine of the mag that looks to be (maybe) a Waffenampt mark or Reichsadler over either an 88 or 38.
The P38 forum states Spreewerke marks are frequently imperfect in how they were stamped, but that the 7 welds that close the magazine body are uniformly nearly perfect. So it looks like one bona fide original Spreewerke magazine and one "other" manufacturer. Apparently there were a number of wartime magazine fabricators, and not all of whom marked their product.
One magazine has no marks on the sides, bottom or spine, and the 7 weld spots that close the magazine body are slightly blurred in appearance. The other magazine has an EXTREMELY tiny mark on the bottom of the spine of the mag that looks to be (maybe) a Waffenampt mark or Reichsadler over either an 88 or 38.
The P38 forum states Spreewerke marks are frequently imperfect in how they were stamped, but that the 7 welds that close the magazine body are uniformly nearly perfect. So it looks like one bona fide original Spreewerke magazine and one "other" manufacturer. Apparently there were a number of wartime magazine fabricators, and not all of whom marked their product.
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Jack Flash
Member
I wondered what rifles are in the rather bacchanal photo on the back of the tank, so I expanded it.
I see Igor is armed with an M1 Rifle and has a clip of ammo for it half in / half out of the right chest pocket of his jacket. Interesting way to have a fast reload at the ready. He also has another wine bottle in his jacket at the ready! Note that one of his buddies is holding an M1 Carbine.
I see Igor is armed with an M1 Rifle and has a clip of ammo for it half in / half out of the right chest pocket of his jacket. Interesting way to have a fast reload at the ready. He also has another wine bottle in his jacket at the ready! Note that one of his buddies is holding an M1 Carbine.
Here's another one of Igor's souvenirs. This one was presented to him at one of the annual "Elbe Day" celebrations in April at the Russian embassy in DC, to which he was always invited. He said it was handed to him on behalf of Russia by the then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Mike Mullen, who was one of the US military VIPs present. "Shpagin" PPSh-41 (de-milled, of course). Typical of Igor, he just kept it in a closet and pulled it out for this photo. It's in a Veterans museum now.
By that time in his life Igor was no longer driving himself. He must have been chauffered to and from the party, because I don't think he carried this home through DC in the back of a taxicab.
By that time in his life Igor was no longer driving himself. He must have been chauffered to and from the party, because I don't think he carried this home through DC in the back of a taxicab.
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I wondered what rifles are in the rather bacchanal photo on the back of the tank, so I expanded it.
I see Igor is armed with an M1 Rifle and has a clip of ammo for it half in / half out of the right chest pocket of his jacket. Interesting way to have a fast reload at the ready. He also has another wine bottle in his jacket at the ready! Note that one of his buddies is holding an M1 Carbine.
And note the spare bottle of German white wine ready to go in the open neck of his field jacket, just as handy as his spare M1 clips and grenades. Per his daughter, Igor loved to load up on the caviar when invited to the annual celebrations at the Russian Embassy. He'd put what he could it in a little bag or something, and then "smuggle" it out of Russian territory back into DC when the celebration was over.
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