A Model 19 with a history

[Absalom]

The first attached photo shows a Model 19 with somewhat unusual stocks. For reasons I don't know, its owner embedded a US quarter in the left panel. The gun now is in the possession of the "Haus der Geschichte" (House of History), a museum in Bonn, the former capital of West Germany.

The gun's original owner was Ulrich Wegener, creator and long-time leader of the GSG9, Germany's anti-terrorist police force. He passed away last week, which prompted me to post this.

During the GSG9's most famous operation, the storming of a hijacked 737 at Mogadishu airport in 1977 (see linked article), Wegener himself, leading from the front, took out at least one of the four terrorists himself. While GSG 9 troopers in the early years carried a mix of S&W .38 Special revolvers and the HK P9S (note the two visible in the evac photo), Wegener himself went with the .357.

After Mogadishu, reportedly due to unhappiness with the performance of the 9mm and .38 Spl. ammo then available, the GSG9 adopted the Model 19 with the 2.5" barrel as their standard sidearm until the mid-80s, when it was replaced by the HK P7 and in the 90s by the Glock 17, presumably now with more effective 9mm ammo becoming available.

Ulrich Wegener, German ′hero of Mogadishu,′ dies aged 88 | News | DW | 03.01.2018

 

[Bushytale]

The grips in your picture look like "Mustang Grips" sold in the '70s

 

[S&WsRsweet]

Cool history lesson and revolver thanks for posting

 

[bigwheelzip]

There is a link in the story about the hijacked plane being repatriated from South America for display in a German museum. It recently arrived in Germany aboard a Russian transport aircraft.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s9ossMTjns[/ame]

 

[indie_rocker]

The grips in your picture look like "Mustang Grips" sold in the '70s

I agree. I picked up a set of NOS Mustangs for a Ruger Security Six, they look identical to the ones pictured. I modified the bottom pretty heavily (there is a lot of wood on those grips) to fit my hands. They are pretty dang nice now.

 

[kraynky]

Perhaps the coin in the grips refers to "Give no quarter", meaning "No Mercy". Only reason I could come up with, that makes sense.

 

[Arik]

Perhaps the coin in the grips refers to "Give no quarter", meaning "No Mercy". Only reason I could come up with, that makes sense.

But that would only make sense in English.

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

 

[Kurusu]

Perhaps the coin in the grips refers to "Give no quarter", meaning "No Mercy". Only reason I could come up with, that makes sense.

Si non e vero e bene trovatto.

Just flaunting my Italian.

 

[Absalom]

The other day I came across an old thread from 2013 about the same topic with some discussion of the gun, holsters and the coin. I consider anything Marcincko wrote suspect, and some posts seem to try to suggest that they know more than they actually do, but there are some additional tidbits. That OP's pictures are gone, but from the discussion they may have been the same as the ones I posted.

http://smith-wessonforum.com/s-w-re...-19-ulrich-wegener.html?302688=#post137065252