Buy Tom's New Book: SS Contract Walther PP/PPK!
Hey guys! This has been a blockbuster week at Legacy Collectibles. First, we showed you Eva Braun's ring. Then Randy and I smoked 80-year-old cigarettes and today, all in the same week, I'm bringing you the first, this is actually a proof copy of the book SS contract PPs and PPKs.
The Book is a must Have!
I'm going to be talking about this book and making it available to you. Even as we speak, it's available on our website, and soon to be listed on amazon.com as well. But let me tell you why this book is important and why every man, woman and child in the United States should own one of these. That's a joke by the way.
Limited data out there on PPs and PPKs
Now, if you're interested in PPs and PPKs, this is a must-have book and here's why. You know even with 1911 Colts or German Lugar's or any gun that you collect, you can get the gun and look up when it was made. So I get a Colt, and it was made in 1943. I can even go to the Colt archives and get a factory letter that says this gun went to the Springfield Armory. But that's all I know. I don't know if it was issued to a private, a sergeant, I don't know where it went. And so there's very few times where we can get any actual true history on a gun. Now even more so with the German collecting, because we've mentioned this over and over again, all the factory records were destroyed.
Remember all the Records were Destroyed
So you know, people will say can you tell me who carried this gun? If I have a P38, I don't know if it went to the Luftwaffe, I don't know if it went to the Navy, I don't know if it went to the army, I don't know where it went. And there's no way to find out because the records were destroyed. Now there are guns such as let's say the Femaru, the 41, the 1941 and the 43 Femaru, I can know it went to the Luftwaffe. But somebody will say did it go to a pilot? Well of course, I'm always going to say it went to a pilot. But the truth is, we don't know. It could be a bomb crew, it could be a pilot, it could be ground crew, it could be a paratrooper. All we know is it went to the Luftwaffe. Same way with the Kreighoffs.
This Book has the Research Documented
Now., that's what makes this book so special is because we have the research to show the SS contract PPs and PPKs, and by the way, these SS guns are secret police, Gestapo, Criminal Police, security details, even diplomats, we have copy of records that some went to spies within the diplomatic embassies. So these are not Waffen SS troops. These are secret agents, Gestapo and state security. So they are special. Now the preferred gun was the PPK, about five to one people prefer the PPKs over the PPs, it makes the PPs a lot more rare. But these were the guns they carried. And by serial number, we know they went to the SS. And in some cases, we can tell you who it was issued to and where they were stationed. There is no other gun that I know of that you can collect, where you can have that information from World War II.
Maybe one other book with this kind of Data
The only exception I can think of is the 1903 and 1908 Colt officer’s model. I know there's a book you can go to. And you can see the general that it was issued to or the officer it was issued to. But most of those are from the Vietnam era, some from the Korean War era. I don't know of any that you can track down from the World War II era.
This is a Proof Copy
So now it's time for me to get up close and personal and show you what's in this book. So first and foremost, this is the book says not for resale. Because this is actually a proof copy, meaning this is the only copy of hot off the presses. They send it to me and I read it last night to make sure there's not any mistakes. I'll talk a little bit about mistakes because I do want to hear from you if you find corrections, or if you want to report serial numbers. As we reprint we're going to update. So all that is to say this is a proof copy, not for sale. I'll keep this one.
Fun Fact
And look at that, the two disks right on the cover are right here. And the reason I want to point this out is because the numbers on the back of the disk -- This is Gestapo by the way. This is Gestapo and this is Criminal Police. When they look at the last number known and they add them all up, it comes to about 30,000 of these disks were issued. And quite coincidentally, about 30,000 SS PP and PPKs were issued.
First up on the inside is the Introduction
So let's take a look at what's inside. Now first and foremost, this is in the introduction when people think about SS guns whether it's a PP, a PPK, let's say a P38 or a Lugar, people will say I want an SS gun that has SS runes and right off the bat we say if you ever see see a gun like this, it's likely a fake. And that has to do with any World War II German gun whenever you see SS ruins, there are a few exceptions, but for the most part, they didn't do that. They just ordered them right from the factory and they actually had special features, which is why you need this book -- Well, you'll see how complex it is.
Piggy-backing on previous Work
I also acknowledge that these two books, the red book and the black book, I'm actually riding on their coattails - Dieter Marshall and Gertz and also Steve Stephen. Gertz is now passed and Steve Stephen is now passed; both of these books are no longer in print and so certainly I used some of their materials. Actually, some of the research they did was extremely valuable. But I've been collecting the data for about 20 years, I've been collecting serial numbers. And again I talk about that this is the RSHA, not Waffen SS and that includes secret police, State Security, Criminal Police. Most often you see them with small caliber weapon, probably a PPK. That one you can't see very well. But throughout the book we have SS officers, small caliber weapon and finally you see here that's actually a Thurman style holster. There's Heinrich Himmler with a small caliber weapon, either a PP or a PPK. So we know that they carried PPs and PPK's, that was the weapon of choice and they contracted with the Walther factory to produce these. About 30,000 were made, guns were ordered and delivered. And that coincides with the security disks for the Gestapo, as well as the crypto badges.
Summary of the Serial Ranges
Now we start off with a summary because if you're like me, I'm at a gun show, I can take a copy of this with me. I go over the serial ranges. The first variation is the RZM marked slide and the muzzle serial number to match. These do not have matching magazines, it's the only contract that does not have matching magazines. From here on, they all have matching magazines. But the first contract is 1935, there's approximately 1300 made; the second contract 1938, here's the serial range, only about 20 - 25, extremely rare. I've actually never seen one of these, we have a picture of one in the book but I've actually never seen one of these. We find a survival rate by the way of about 2%. So a lot of these guns were destroyed at the end of the war. But we have a survival rate in terms of guns that have been reported, we have a survival rate of about 2%. You'll read about that in the book. And with this book being published, we're hoping that more people will respond with serial numbers. And maybe we can get the survival rate up to 3%-5%.
K-Under Variation
Then we move on to the K-under variation, we give each contract, you see one in 38, 39. So there's a large number of contracts. And this information is not in any of the previous books. So for example, on the K after variation with numbered magazines, we see here's five contracts, let's turn the page six, seven, and eight. So there are eight contracts up to 41. Then in 42, there are various contracts, then we go to the PPs. You can see the PPs, there's a lot fewer, there's only 1, 2, 3, 4 variations, whereas PPKs, there are five variations. This is why you know I can't just send you a cheat sheet and say, here's how you know if it's SS. People say, well, how do I know? It is very complicated. There's a bunch of contracts, and you have to go through and consider each contract based on the serial number range.
Then comes the Sidebar
Then I have a sidebar, which is something everybody asked me about. They all write and say when was my gun made? Now, again, riding on the coattails of other people who did research, I deviate from their conclusions because most of them take the PPK all the way to 1945. I state that the PPK production stopped in 1944 and after that the PPs had a/c on the slide and no longer a logo. In this book, I'll show you definitive proof that they stopped making the Walther PPK in 1944, probably about mid '44. But here's where this is helpful. Again, these are approximate, there's variation within each dates but I showed the transition.
Look out for the Transitions
So in '35, they went from 90 degree to 60 degree safety; then they went into the million -- well PPKs were in the million series, but PPs were five-digit. Then they went back to the six-digit but they added the P and they added the K. They also went from crown N to eagle N, so you can see the breakdown of the transitions through the years. Also then from '41 - '42, just like P38s by the way, if you collect P38s, you know from '41-'42, the finish gradually went from a high polish to duller military finish. Then you can see the introduction of the red grip for the PP. And the wooden grip introduction was in 1943, also in 1944. On the PPK side, you can see they went from the brown to the dark brown, to the grey to the darker grey, to the black. And so it goes through the serial ranges and those transitions. And finally in '45, no PPKs and there's the last of the Walther PPs. And again, the slide is marked a/c.
Just an Example
So there's a lot of information, just basic overviews of Walther PPs and PPKs. So the first variation, I'm not going to go through each variation, but this is just an example. The RZM logo on the slide. It's in the RZM serial range. There you see the other side of the gun, and then the muzzle is numbered right here.
We have the Officer's Identity Card and the Gun Itself
And that's going to lead me to a gun I want to show you because there are only two guns that I know of where we have the card, the identity card of the SS officer that it was issued to, and we have the gun itself. And that's this gun right here, muzzle numbered RZM and here's the ID card. It went to somebody named Eric Bach. They actually have the section that he was assigned to, so what district he was in. Some of these I found went to France, many in Poland, Ukraine. And there's the serial number of the gun. So this is the ID card, the actual ID card, and it was issued in 1936.
Now the gun was made in '35 and it was issued January 12th of 1936. So that tells me from the time it was made, so they put in the order, they made the gun and by the time it was issued it was about six months later. And that's going to be important when I talk about the last one. So this is one gun of all the guns that I'm going to show you, all the guns where we know that they went to. This is one gun where we can match the gun to a person, and here's the actual gun right here. This is the RZM, there's the serial number of the gun. Then you see the muzzle number. It has a finger extension magazine and the magazines were not numbered. We did find one that had numbered magazines, but they were not done in the factory. Not sure who did them. But they were not numbered, most often, not always, most oftentimes it's on the spine. But this is the RZM and this is one example of a gun where we have the gun and we actually have the person that it was issued to. Oh, and by the way he was criminal police. You can look up where these regions were.
More details on Guns
Now I'm going to move along a little bit quicker. So then I have the actual serial numbers of known guns, I have the condition of the guns. Here's a gun documented to a person, here's a gun documented to a person. This one was Russian capture. It has a Russian X on it. But in that first variation, they didn't have numbered magazine, so let me skip ahead. Here's two second variation which is muzzle numbered. And you can see here it's an 80% with one matching mag. So when you find a gun at a gun show, and it says it has two matching mags and there's only one there, then you know okay, the other matching mag is out there somewhere. Here's a muzzle number slide only, pour and pitted but I have the serial numbers. That's fourth contract and then there's pictures.
A Rare Variation
I'm going to skip ahead because there's some really interesting contracts I want to show you. In 1938 here's a rare variation, there's only 200 guns known. Here's the only ones that are recorded. This one's deactivated in England, so even you Brits got in here. Poor condition, two matched magazines in Belgium. By the way, the PPKs can never be imported to the United States. So people say I'd like to buy this gun, you can't. Well, you can bring a deactivated gun in but I'm sure there's paperwork. Slide only, frame was destroyed. I know that because I talked to the guy in Germany who sent me the slide which was legal, but he said the frame had to be destroyed.
Variation Three
Then we go on to a variation three, first contract K-under. Some of you know about the K-under. We have magazines only. So if you have a gun and you're looking for the orphan mag, you can look it up here and you see if you have that gun, we know where the magazine is located. And that's how the serial number on the spine of the gun would look. That's the K-under and you can see the number that we have listed here, we have quite a few of the K-unders.
A New K-Under Contract
Then there's a new contract of K-unders. The first contract was 1938, these are all 1938, they fall in the 206 serial range, 207 serial range, 208. But then the following year is a totally separate contract for SS guns, and these are in the 232, 233; this contract is from 1939. So again, I go through serial numbers. Here's the guy it was issued to, this comes with one matching mag, there's one in poor condition. Most of these, by the way, are in pretty good condition. Look at this one, 99%, high polish, two matched mags, full rig, there's one you want to own. There's one that's poor condition in Germany, you go through and there's a lot of records.
New Data - An unknown Variation
A couple things that we learned. We found a previously unknown variation. So for example, remember I just talked about the K-under? Well, we found a between the two contracts, between the first K-under contract and the second K-under contract, we found that there are some, a very small contract in the 230 range where the K is after. But in the serial number on the spine, the K is under. Now I explained why I think that is, but that's a previously unknown variation. And then also new information in 1940 - 41, I have what I call a mystery contract.
I can go through so you see all of these guns. And every one of them is named to a person because we found the cards. I'll tell you where we found the cards. And we found the mag only but not a single gun has been found from this contract. So this is a mystery contract, meaning all these guns and what do I estimate? I estimate about 1000, there's a block of about 1000 PPKs that were made and issued and yet there's not a single one in the United States.
Mystery of Saab
Now, when I go to look at mags only, every one of them I know they were imported because I imported them, all these magazines came from Poland. And the guy in Poland said he got them out of Russia, Ukraine and Poland. So basically, the Mystery of Saab, all of these were issued to Einsatzgruppe, basically bad guys. Secret Police that went into Russia, Poland and Ukraine, might say death squads, they were issued to people and they never made it back. Why? Well, first of all American troops were not there to capture them, they were the Russian troops.
If Russian troops took them back to Russia, they disappeared. Maybe they're still there, but likely they're gone. Here's one, I lied, there's one gun that we found. But every other one we know who it was issued to, we know it went to Poland, Eastern Europe, a lot of them Russian, basically, these went to the Russian front and just disappeared. So there's a whole mystery contract that I document in this book.
The Last Contract
Now I skip ahead to the last contract of PPKs and this gun in particular because this is the only second gun known where we have the serial number. And now in the last contract, the serial number is on the bottom of the magazine. This is 413,000 and that is right at the end of the production. They actually went up to 430, but 413 was the last year of production. And this was the guy that it was issued to.
The gun is in very poor condition, I'm going to show it to you. Again the only second one known where I have the gun and I have the person who was issued to. It was issued, does not have his first name, SD - he's secret police he was a group leader. And it was issued in August of 1944. So remember I told you took it about six months. This was made in the beginning of '44, issued in August of '44 and therefore, this gun could not have been made in 1945. Definitive proof that certainly by August of '44 they were no longer making PPKs. Now, that doesn't mean there weren't PPK parts in the factory when the GIs came in. I do know that GIs did put together guns from parts in the factory in 1945. But in terms of Walther production guns, the PPKs definitely stopped in 1944.
Have a look at this Gun
Let me show you this gun. So this gun is in very poor condition. It was finished at one time but it was heavily buffed. It was so heavily buffed and you can see how this is warped here. Normally this PPK would not be worth very much but again we know the person that it was issued to. You can see the K right here, what happened to the serial number? Well it was just buffed right off.
You can tell this is all rounded off, so it's buffed off. The eagle N proof is buffed off and the serial number except for the K. The other thing that I learned from doing this book is the K was stamped separate from the serial number. In the previous one we did, remember factory errors, I had a backwards P? I've seen backwards P, I've seen backwards K. So the serial number was stamped and then the K was added. And this time the K was a little deeper, serial number is gone. And we know this is an SS gun, because we know the person who it was issued to in August of 1944. And there is the magazine, this is the serial number, and there would be a 1 or a 2 underneath, they were issued with two magazines with 1 or 2 underneath. In this case, this serial matches the gun and this is only the second gun known where we know who it was issued to and it proves the fact that production stopped in 1944.
Now we jump into the PPs
So after the last contract of PPKs, we go into the PPs, the very much smaller section. We have the first contract and second contract, there is actually a P-under very rare, but they have a K-under earlier in the book and then they have a P-under and again numbered here, numbered here and on the spine. Here you can see a specific contract in the 202 range. There's the gun, numbered on the slide, and two matching mags. And oh, and here the differences we have full blocks but I show you that they didn't just make SS guns unlike the PPKs, most of the contracts, you see here, SS guns and there's a commercial gun and to RJ's. Then there is a SS guns, a commercial gun and one RJ; then SS guns... So I go through all of the data that I've collected on the serial numbers of the guns and which ones were SS and say, well, were there any others in that same time period? Yes, here's guns that are sequential to the SS guns that went to the Reichs justice. And again, I have the orphan mags.
Similar to the last PPK Contract
And then the last contract just like the last contract of PPKs, this is in really poor condition. But somebody tried to scratch off the serial number, but the serial number is here, here and on the bottom of the magazine. This one is not in very good shape and there's very few of this. This contract is very few known. There are only 500 guns made, they were ordered in 1944 and I talk a little bit about the production.
A Bonus!
Then the bonus round, once the book is done, then we actually go over -- There are other police guns such as the PDM so I have information about the PDM. Not necessarily SS but the police served under the SS. I mentioned the fact that this police gun, these were numbered in the police Arsenal not in the factory and I explained the differences. So basically I talked about the police guns in general, the different variations and what makes them not SS. I do a section on railway police guns and the reason is these get confused. I say so are there any guns that people think are SS and are not? This is a good example. These are frame numbered, slide numbered and magazine numbered well before they started numbering the slides and I say this is the contract range for a railway police. Many people mistakenly call it SS but it's not. I go over that and here's another one. Again numbered magazines, slide numbered but it's not SS so I go over. These are guns that people think are SS but they're not, we know they're railway police. And I've talked about that.
There is also a holster Section
Then I say what holster goes with my gun. I have a section on the holsters. Generally black holsters with black stitching, pretty much any maker. There's the picture of Himmler with his black holster with an SS PP or PPK. So I do the holsters and then I do the accessories. Remember early on I said we found one exception. We did find one holster that went to the SS and it came with an SS gun and it does have SS ruins. So I have a written opinion from John Pearson that this is likely original, but I'd say it's the only time I've ever seen a holster that maybe has real SS runes, most times they're not.
Boxes and Accessories
Then I have boxes and accessories. If you watch my channel, you already know all about the boxes because we talk about these all the time. But I actually have boxed SS guns, pictures and details and then also data, literature, pictures of SS guys. So an all-inclusive book, a must have for the Walther PP and PPK collector.
Hard Copy or E-copy, both will be Available
Alright, probably more than you needed to hear, some of you turned it off. But if you stayed till the end, you probably want to buy a copy. Obviously we have it available on our website. It's about $50 and also the Legacy YouTube website that's with non-gun items, we will have it available there and Amazon is going to have it for sale as well. Actually, they're helping with the production. So it should be available -- It will be available on Amazon. You can buy it there and you can even get an E-copy. I believe basically like a Kindle book, you can get an E-copy of it. I believe that would be cheaper. But for me, if I have a serial number list, I'd like a hard copy, something I can take with me when I'm going to a show. If I go to a collection, I don't need to take an E-copy. I want to take a copy of the book. So make sure you like and subscribe to our channel. But most importantly, if you want to buy the book, by all means, log on and get your copy now.