Grips (source Mark Castel)

general:

Both Walther and Mauser obtained their grips from the same producer up to the beginning of 1944. These grips are easy to recognize because they have a striped structure on the outside. 6 of those stripes are interrupted by the grips screw. On the inside of the grips are three circles. The upper one contains a stamp of the manufacturer and in the lower one either the number 1529 or 1528 (indication for left and right grip). Also a number between 1-9 can be found in the lower circle. The circle in the middle is empty.

The first 20.000 Spreewerk P.38 pistols were fitted with grips that were obtained from Walther/Mauser. The grip screw also interrupts 6 lines on the outside of the grips. Later, Spreewerk obtained the grips from a different manufacturer and those grips can immediately be differentiated. Those grips have a screw that only interrupt 5 lines on the outsider of the grip instead of 6 as found on Walther/Mauser grips. Three circles can also be found on the inside of these grips. In the upper one is again a marking to indicate the manufacturer and in the lowest circle is a number between 1-12.

Four manufacturers of those bakelite grips are known: Allgemeine-Electricitats-Gesellschaft (AEG), Carl Walther, Julius Posselt and Durafol.

Walther: 0-serie

 

The first P.38 pistols (0-serie) were fitted with black checkered bakelite grips. Those grips had a round loophole for the lanyard. Walther produced those grips and marked the grips on the inside with 4 circles. CeWe is stamped in the top one and is a abbreviation for the Carl Walther. The three last digits of the serial number are stamped under this circle. 480 is stamped in the second circle and this number is the secret code to indicate the Carl Walter factory as manufacturer. The third circle contains a quit complicated stamp: V7 above MD with Z3 or T1 under it. MD is code for the State Material Supervision and Testing bureau in Dahlem. The code V7 was used by this office to indicate Carl Walther as manufacturer and the code Z3 was used to indicate the material (bakelite in this case) used for the grips. Trolitan Presswerk (Weiskirchen, Trier Saarland) produced the bakelite material for these grips. The marking 1 is present in the bottom and indicates the position of the grip in the mold. Only the number 1 can be found on those early grips and this indicates that only one grips could be made in each run. Both the left and the right grip are stamped with the German acceptance stamp for Walther E/359.

 

Walther: from 1940

From the beginning of 1940 the grip color varied from dark brown to black and this color pervailed til mid 1943. From this point the color of the grips changed to red/brown and this color could be found on al the pistol till mid 1944. A large variety of colors, from red to dark black can be found on Walther P.38 pistols produced from mid 1944 until the end of the war.

The three last digits of the serial number was stamped on the inside of the grips but this changed in the second half of 1940. After this date, no more serial numbers were stamped on the grips. The Germans stopped stamping the acceptance stamp E/359 on the inside of the grips around March 1942. All Walther produced grips (except 0-serie) had 3 circles on the inside of the grips. If an E/359 is present than you can always find it stamped between the two top circles.

The top circle contains the code 38 above MD and Z3. MD is the designation code for the State Material Supervision and Testing bureau in Dahlem. 38 is the code assigned to the manufacturer of the grips (in this case AEG) and the code Z3 indicates the used materials of the grips (in this cas bakelite provided by Trolitan Presswerk)

The second circle is always empty. Left grips are stamped with P1529 in the third circle, while the right grip is stamped with P1528. These nummers probably represent the grips part-number. The manufacturer of the Walther and Mauser grips used a mold enabled the production of 9 grips at the same time. The position of the grips in the mold (1 to 9) is also stamped in the thirh circle, right under the parts number.

Mauser P38: Grips

Mauser started producing the P.38 in 1942. At that time Mauser did not have his own provider of grips yet, therefore Mauser obtained their grips from the same provider as Walther: AEG. Those grips are shiny dark brown or black and are made of bakelite. In contrast to Walther grips, Mauser grips are not marked with 1529/1528. These grips also had three circles on the inside but the lower two doesn't contain any stamps. The upper circle is marked with a V7 above MD above 57, 41 or 31. Those last numbers indicate the exact composition of the used bakelite. In addition to those grips, Mauser sometimes also used the exact same grips with the exact same markings as Walther grips (from AEG).

Halfway 1944 Mauser switched to black plastic grips. These can be recognized by two lower circles in the left grip. Usually the three circles are placed with the same distance between eachother. The two lower circles of these grips are just placed above eachother at the bottom of the grip. Up to today the exact manufacturer of these type of grips is still unknown.

Some late production Mauser P.38 pistols are fitted with red/orange coloured grips. These were produced by AEG.

Spreewerk P.38: grips

Spreewerk started producing the P.38 in 1942. Just like Mauser, Spreewerk did not have the resources yet to produce their own grips or obtain them from a factory nearby. Therefore Walther/Mauser provided spreewerk with grips for the first 20.000 pistols produced. These grips are exactly the same as described above. Julius Posselt started to produce grips for Spreewerk in 1942 and those grips were dark, shiny and produced of hard bakelite. On the inside of the grips were 3 circles, just like the AEG/Walther grips. In the top one was the marking 1W above MD with under it a number 31 or 41. 1W is the Dahlem code for Julius Posselt and the code 31/41 indicates the exact bakelite composition. The second circle contains a number between 1-12 and represent (just like AEG) the position of the grips in the mold. These molds had 12 positions. The left and right grips had fixed positions. One of the numbers 1,2,3,7,8,9 can be found on the left grips and the right grips have one of the following numbers 4,5,6,10,11,12.