The Walther P38 is a German pistol, originally designed in 1938 for use by the German Army as a replacement for the German luger in World War II. It is a fairly recognizable pistol, often appearing in film, television, and video games set in World War II or even several decades later.
Technical Specifications
The P38 was the first locked-breech pistol to use a double-action trigger. The shooter could load a round into the chamber, use the de-cocking lever to safely lower the hammer without firing the round, and carry the weapon loaded with the hammer down. A pull of the trigger, with the hammer down, fired the first shot and the operation of the pistol ejected the fired round and reloaded a fresh round into the chamber, all features found in many modern day handguns.
The first designs submitted to the German Army featured a locked breech and a hidden hammer, but the German Army requested that it be redesigned with an external hammer. This led to the subsequent adoption of the P38 in 1940. Several experimental versions were later created in .45 ACP, and .38 Super, but these were never mass-produced. In addition to the 9mm Parabellum version, some 7.65x22mm Parabellum versions were also created and sold.
The breech-locking mechanism operates by use of a wedge-shaped locking block underneath the breech. When fired both the barrel and slide recoil for a short distance, where the locking block drives down, disengaging the sliding and arresting the movement of the barrel.
The P38 uses a double action trigger design similar to the earlier Walther PPKs, and a loaded chamber indicator is also incorporated.
Variants
Walther P1
In late 1963 the postwar military model P1 was adopted for use by the German military, identifiable by the P1 stamping on the slide. The postwar pistols, whether marked as P38 or P1, have an aluminum frame rather than the steel frame of the original design. The aluminum frame was later reinforced with a hex bolt above the trigger guard. During the 1990s the German military started replacing the P1 with the P8 pistol and finally phased out the P1 in 2004.