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Bavarian Rural Police Pistols

6K views 10 replies 6 participants last post by  Steve Rogers 
#1 ·
Here are two examples of the pistols/revolvers used by the postwar Bavarian police. One of the more common sidearms is the S&W Victory model in 38 S&W cal. These revolvers were given to the British who in turn gave them to the Germans. This particular revolver has a milled out area in the police marking indicating that it was in service with some other police force prior to the Bavarian police. The second example is a rather curious piece. It is a Le Francais .25 cal double action only pocket pistol. It is the only one I have seen with this marking. My guess is that it was some officer's secondary sidearm that could be concealed easily. Please leave any information if you would like to add it and post your pics of Bavarian Police pistols if you have them :)

 
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#2 ·
Nice Bavarian Rural Police pistols. The French .25 is interesting. I have heard reports of Browning Hi Powers with similar Bavarian Rural Police electric pencil engravings.

Your revolver was originally issued to the Bavaria Municipal Police as one can just see the beginning strokes of the pantographed "M" where the word has been milled out. Below is an example of one such revolver.

It has been reported in the past that these revolvers were sent to the British and then they somehow got transferred to the US Zone of Occupation instead of being used in the British Zone of Occupation. This tale makes no sense to me as none of these revolvers have British proof markings as would be expected. I have a S&W revolver (the so-called British Model) that a factory letter confirms was made in January of 1942 and sent to the US Government warehouse with no indication it was ever sent to England. The S&W below was made in 1944 and also has no British Proofs as are seen on British used S&W revolvers sent to England through Lend Lease. So, I suspect these revolvers were retained by the US and then issued in the US Zone of Occupation by US Military Government authorities. I doubt that the British ever had their hands on these pistols and that the often told story is simply another old wives tale.

 
#5 ·
Nice Bavarian Rural Police pistols. The French .25 is interesting. I have heard reports of Browning Hi Powers with similar Bavarian Rural Police electric pencil engravings.

Your revolver was originally issued to the Bavaria Municipal Police as one can just see the beginning strokes of the pantographed "M" where the word has been milled out. Below is an example of one such revolver.

It has been reported in the past that these revolvers were sent to the British and then they somehow got transferred to the US Zone of Occupation instead of being used in the British Zone of Occupation. This tale makes no sense to me as none of these revolvers have British proof markings as would be expected. I have a S&W revolver (the so-called British Model) that a factory letter confirms was made in January of 1942 and sent to the US Government warehouse with no indication it was ever sent to England. The S&W below was made in 1944 and also has no British Proofs as are seen on British used S&W revolvers sent to England through Lend Lease. So, I suspect these revolvers were retained by the US and then issued in the US Zone of Occupation by US Military Government authorities. I doubt that the British ever had their hands on these pistols and that the often told story is simply another old wives tale.

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I picked up a Hi Power several years ago that has the Bavarian Rural Police markings on the grip strap.
 
#3 ·
I agree with you Schupo. I have been curious as to why they didnt have any British proofs. I also figured that it was Bavarian Mun. Police as I could make out the start of the letter M. I just think the little french pistol has to be a rare pistol with that marking.
 
#4 ·
The US Army technical manual on small arms from the late 1950s listed these revolvers, which the manual described as being chambered in ".38 regular," also listed as .38-200. It was the only five-inch revolver in the manual. It is of course a long-action, but if memory serves (which is often doesn't), it wasn't listed that way, unlike all the other S&W revolvers in the manual. The others were designated as either long-action or short-action. When I was in the army in the 1960s, the company I was in had revolvers but they were Colt Detective Specials. We also had Colt pre-war pocket pistols but I don't know if they were .32 or .380s. There is a published photo of some soldiers that looks to be from the early 1970s (wash & wear fatigues) in which they are using revolvers just like this one. It was in a book about US Army Uniforms of the Cold War.
 
#9 ·
I purchased it many years ago. It was at a good price. At that point in time I was aware of 2 items.

One - The Germans were not allowed to manufacture firearms after WWII. So they acquired pistols from FN, France, Astra ( I believe) for their police. LAter when they were again allowed to manufacture weapons, the Hi Powers (for example) were sold on the commercial market. The Hi Powers became known as the West German police contracts.

Two - there were M1 Carbines that were sold to the West German police and so marked.

Additionally - Three - Mine is not a mint pistol as it shows a lot of use. So the odds of someone faking it and selling it for a real cheap price were very low. Actually - at that point in time - it would have sold for more if it did not have the markings.

Considering the above, I was fairly sure that they purchased some used weapons also. So I had no problem in buying it.

Now how many Hi Powers were so marked I do not know. One reason is that there were few people collecting them. I recall Bill Drollinger (who has forgot more about Hi Powers than is in the books) mentioning that he had one at a point in time. That also made me happy with my acquisition.
 
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