The protection of top officials of the state is a very important issue for any country. And Germany in the first half of the 20th century was no exception. Exceptional precautions were taken to protect the Fuehrer. There is evidence that Hitler's bodyguards had at their disposal many weapons specific for those times, worthy of the best pseudo-historical militants, in which the Reich is represented by a technocratic state.
A unique German pistol, which today is called the Luger P08 "Nachtpistole". To date, only two of these have survived. One is in a war museum in Germany, and the second in 2012 was replaced by a private collector, after another sale at auction. For an unusual lot, the new owner then laid out 184 thousand dollars. Who exactly owns the second Luger P08 "Nachtpistole" today is unknown. This weapon was mentioned and described in detail in Peter Hoffman's book "Hitler's Personal Safety".
What is the Luger P08? The most popular version says that this pistol was developed specifically for the personal protection of Adolf Hitler. The weapon has several design differences from the conventional army-type Luger pistol. However, not everyone shares this version. Since only two pistols have survived to this day, some researchers believe that at the time of 1944-1945, the weapon was nothing more than a prototype.
It is worth noting that the "Nachtpistole" really looks like the ideal weapon of a bodyguard at the time of the 40s of the XX century. It is small and handy. The pistol is lighter than its military model, made of better materials. The first thing that catches your eye is the presence of a small lantern on the barrel. This would be convenient to use when examining dark rooms. This flashlight is trickier than it sounds.
The fact is that there was a special mechanism on the pistol handle. It was enough to remove the fuse, and the pistol began to use the ability of human skin to conduct an electric current - the flashlight came on as soon as the shooter took the weapon in his hand. However, such a function raises several questions, namely, how to use a pistol with a flashlight in gloves or in the rain?
The main feature of the "Night pistol" was that, unlike the army Luger, he used a cartridge of not 9 mm, but 7.65 mm. It is important to note here that the Luger was originally designed specifically for 7.65 mm ammunition, but then it was redesigned for a more powerful bullet. This suggests that the Nachtpistole appeared long before the war.
Do you want even more interesting things about the most evil personalities in our history? How about to find out about 12 dishes dictators preferred … And even human flesh is on this list.