Luger Pistol Valuation

[ynnafymmi]

When my old dad(God rest his weary old bones)came back to Scotland after WW11 he brought back a Luger Pistol and a few ammunition clips(to shoot rabbits for his dinner,he said),after he ran out of bullets me and my brothers used to play with it.My mam was always suspicious about it and one day she threw it into the nearest river.Anyone on here know what a WW11 Luger pistol in full working order would fetch on the open market nowadays?

[bookbinder]

Prices seem to vary a lot, and most of the sales take place in the USA, which explains why most of the listed prices are in dollars. This one might give you some idea of price:
https://www.legacy-collectibles.com/1940-42-code-luger-ww2-nazi-german-pistol-06135.html

[bednobs]

You wouldn't be able to sell it

[ynnafymmi]

That is basically the same gun we handled,[email protected] some kind of a museum would be interested.Has the Imperial War Museum got one of the ones we had?Never seen any photos of Hitler with one,but Himmler was seen using one.Dad got his in a place called Breslin.Any important Nazis there in 1945?

[bookbinder]

Breslin? I can't find any place with that name. Could it have been Breslau?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Breslau

[bednobs]

sorry, i know nothig (as many on here could attest to :)) I didnt realise that antique guns were exempt from firearm legislation. How you could prove it was in full working order is beyond me though :)

[bookbinder]

I understand that Hitler decided, early in his political career, not to wear a sidearm, although he usually carried a Walther PPK in a specially-sewn pocket in his trousers.

[ynnafymmi]

@17.13.No,not Breslau,it was a small town to the east of Berlin.Liberated by the Russians,dad said he was a forced labourer on a sugarbeet farm outside Breslin.

[woofgang]

You said your mum threw it in the river. Did you get it out again? Its not clear from your posts whether you actually have got the gun or not?

[douglas9401]

That wasn't a Walther PPK, he was just pleased to see folk.

[ynnafymmi]

@17.41.Unfortunately not Woofy.Just wondered what it would be worth nowadays.Mam had the best intentions at heart,did she not?Dad never spoke of his wartime experiences,all the stories we got was from Mam,who incidentally operated searchlights on some place called primrose hill during her time in the ATS.Whatever.

[woofgang]

in that case its worth several million pounds :)

[Hopkirk]

If you knew where it was thrown, a magnet fisherman might be able to find it

[ynnafymmi]

@17.53.I doubt it Woofy.According to the American website they only go for [email protected] be a bit rusty now,mam threw it into the river in 1968.Damn,and double damn.

[bookbinder]

I'll keep searching for Breslin. Haven't got time just now, but will continue tomorrow. It could be that Breslin was absorbed, after the war, into a larger administrative district and the name has disappeared from maps, but may still exist in records.

[ynnafymmi]

I am convinced it was Breslin,Booky.However it doesnt matter,i think the gun my dad took back would be worth about £3,000 to £10,000.It would be very interesting to find out who owned it at the time,probably just an innocent prole caught up in Hitlers madness.Thanks everyone who answered.Myf.

[shoota]

There is a village called 'Briesen' just East of Berlin in an agricultural area.
It's just a few miles the other side of the Muggelspree-Locknitzer Wald und Seengebiet...

[ynnafymmi]

I dont know about that,Shoots.All i know it was a sugerbeet farm(as told by my dad to my mam),to the east of Berlin.Anyway i have been told that quite a few German pistols were brought back to Britain after the war.Up here in North Scotland some veterans took back sub-machine guns and some took back entire machine guns.What they intended to do with them is anyones guess.

[Peter Pedant]

// who incidentally operated searchlights on some place called primrose hill during her time//

sarf london - would try to pick up bombers there and on the way back.
The british built proximity fuses which were capacitors which lost capacitance and ompleted the circuit near another metal object ( airplane)
AND two searchlight method - by 1944 if you were caught in searchlights ( one locked on and the other to triangulate) the link to AA batteries was so efficient that the chances of downing was 67%

and finally was your Dad British? being liberated by the Russians was not wanted by anyone. The fear of non return but Gulag instead was so strong that it led to the allies returning the cossacks to their own death at the hands of stalin, See Betrayal of Yalta

you should write this down before it is lost

[ynnafymmi]

Yes,PP,my dad was Scottish.Was at Dunkirk then North Africa and then the Sicily landings and then onto Anzio.The London-Scottish regiment i believe.Dad said the Russians were treated horribly by the Germans,but treated worse by their own socialist brethren.So much for socialism,eh.Dad was a bit of a commie before the war,after the war he was a stolid Tory.As i am now.

[ynnafymmi]

*The Russian prisoners of war*,he was speaking about.