Two Twin WW2 Walther PPK Pistols 7.65mm | Engraved and Chrome

Today we have Two Sets of Twins......and they're Hot!

Hey guys, today I have a really exciting video about two twins. I'm going to show those to you, its two guns that are consecutively marked, two sets of guns that are consecutively marked which tell an interesting story and also give us a little bit of history about the Walther Factory, particularly at the end of the war. So one of your favorite guns and mine is the Walther PPK.

A Back Story

I came across these first two twins. They were actually found separately and then put together later. So in other words, soon after birth they were separated by the GIs who took over the factory and then came together to me through two different sources. Now these are owned by a local collector and therefore are no longer for sale, but I did borrow them back because I wanted to show them to you.

The History of the First Set of Twins

Here's why I know they were picked up by the GIs. You can see how beautiful this engraving is, but as we look at the right-hand side, one thing that stands out to me, is you will see in the ejection port and on the slide there is a place on the slide for the Eagle N proof but there is no proof there. Also if I pull back the slide and I look at the end of the barrel there is normally, right there, an Eagle N proof and none exists. So if you go back and watch the video about what happened to the Walther Factory at the end of the war, you know that the 90th Infantry Division came into the factory and the GIs were picking up guns that were left over in the factory.

This has to be one of those guns because it was never proofed meaning it didn't have the final firing proof, it was never issued and it was in the factory at the end of the war. Now most notably, other than the fact that it has the white PPK grip, one-piece grip, so it was war-time and then also it has the white finger extension bottom. If you've watched my video about the finger extensions you see it's a thick lip, so it is end of war. This gun was made in 1944 near the end of the production. We know that from the serial range and you'll also notice, again most notably is, there is a blank panel along the top of both of these guns. And that tells us a little bit about the history of these guns.

Let’s look into the Database

We have to go back to my database which I'm happy to share with you, but at some point I need to publish all this information so be patient. But as we go back to my database you will see there is an entire block, probably about 50 guns in this block that were pulled off the factory floor and set aside for engraving.

Why were they Still buying Engraved Guns?

That tells me that in 1944, the dignitaries, high-ranking officials were still going to the Walther Factory and saying hey, I want to buy 50 guns. We know that they gave them out to their subordinates or they gave presentations. In 1944 and particularly they were trying to boost morale. So they were ordering guns from the factory, these are pulled from the factory. As you look through that list you can see they're all engraved. You see one in particular, right in the middle of that, that had party leader grips put on it, black party leader grips.

That lends support, it doesn't prove that the black party leader grip is authentic, but that lends support because if they were pulled off the floor for special presentation, the fact that one of them had black party leader grips, kind of supports the theory that these were given out. If you watch the video about the black party leader, there are collectors who say they never exist, they're just made up. But this seems to support the fact that at the end of the war they were pulling guns off the factory in order to present them. Again 1944 the war's not going well, all the efforts are put into getting guns for the troops and for security forces, so why in all that chaos did they stop and make some engraved guns. It had to be important to high party officials to continue to boost morale, giving out gifts and prizes and presentations.

The Largest block of Engraved Guns

So when I look at the 408 serial range, I mentioned there’s a solid block, it takes me back to the largest block of engraved guns that I know about, is found in the 215 range. Let's take a look at that. It lends support to some of my suppositions.

An Interesting Piece of History

Behind me you can see a picture of the Lieutenant Colonel James Sinclair pistol which was sold on Rock Island auction recently. I did bid on it and didn't win it. It's an interesting piece of history because Lieutenant Colonel James Sinclair was the commanding officer of the 90th Infantry Division which went into the Walther Factory at the end of the war. Now here's what's fascinating, that gun has his name across the panel.

You can see here it's a beautifully engraved gun and the panel that is blank on this gun now bears the name of a GI officer. So what we know happened is at the end of the war, either he had it engraved or his men had it engraved for him. In other words as a gift to him, they had the gun engraved with his name. Now the Walther engravers were now unemployed looking for work, and the GIs were looking for gifts, so they obviously employed the engravers to go ahead and make up a gun for their commanding officer.

Other Interesting Guns in the Range

Again in the 215,000 serial range there are other guns that were presented to Dwight d Eisenhower, General Bradley and General Patton. Those are all in museums, can't get my hands on those but this one went to the commanding officer of the 90th Infantry Division.

Confirmation Using the Database

Let's take a look at the database just to show you again how we come to the conclusion that these are factory engraved. You know if it's a Colt, I can go to Colt and get a historical archive and they'll verify that this is factory engraved. But for the Walther’s you have to come to somebody who has a database. Legacy Collectibles is here to help you authenticate your guns. So please, continue to inform us about guns that you might have and I'll continue to collect this data. But let's take a look at the 215,000 serial range. If just briefly go, you can see that this is a solid block of factory engraved guns.

Anything that falls within this range that's engraved I'm going to assume it's factory engraved. Now here's what's fascinating! Go down this column and you see these are Eagle N proofed. You'll notice that these were made in 1940. Now notice the number of guns that had no proof, which means they were never issued. That tells me that these were pulled off the floor, they were ordered to be engraved for special presentations.

There's quite a few here that were never issued but were still in the factory in April of 1945. So that tells me how long it took to get these guns done and how much they were backlog. And these ones that were never issued often had this blank panel so that for future use some Nazi officer could have it engraved and presented as a birthday gift, a Christmas gift or as just a special presentation. But instead the GIs came into the factory and they had them engraved to their officers and commanders. So that's the story about these two twins, but let's take a quick look at two more twins.

Bonus - Two additional Twins!

So I'm throwing these in as a bonus just because they're close in serial number and they're a bit of a mystery. So just like those two twins were consecutively numbered, here we have two chrome guns from 1944 that are consecutively numbered. Just gorgeous guns and I can tell by the weight, but you can tell from this little line here in the ejection port, that's where the aluminium frame met the steel barrel and it's only the Dural guns will have that little line there.

So these are aluminium frame, chrome guns made in 1944. Just absolutely beautiful. If you watch my video on finishes, you'll know that I mentioned… the rear sight for some reason continues to be blue but the rest of the gun has been chromed. It looks great with the black grip and the very special gun but again I go back to my earlier premise. And these by the way were issued, they both have Eagle N proofs.

Why make these Presentation Chrome Guns

But go back to my original premise that they’re at the end of the war, they can't get enough weapons and yet the Walther Factory stops and makes presentation chrome guns. There's about 50 of these that were made these are consecutive numbers, so I know that they're factory and they all fall in a range. Again, take a quick look at my database, these are all Dural chrome guns made at the end of the war. Walther didn't decide to hey let's make some chrome guns.

Some Nazi dignitary came to the factory or wrote to the factory, didn't email the factory, but they went to the factory and said I'd like to order X number of chrome guns to give out to my friends and family. And so these are two of the guns we don't know who they went to or why, still a mystery. Some of you researchers out there you've got to go back to the original German maybe you can figure this out. But these guns are highly desirable guns. And that's the story of two consecutively numbered twins from 1944 that were special guns, made at the very end of the war.

Was this Interesting?

I hope you found it interesting and thanks for watching.

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