This has been sitting unloved in my closet for a few years, I forgot to put it up here when I first got it. It’s the holster for the German 1934 model flare pistol, here. This example is made primarily from a material called prestoff, which is a kind of treated, pressed paper pulp. The only leather on it is the parts that were likely to be flexed repeatedly. It’s well stamped but illegible.
This holster is manufactured to fit the Nambu Type 14 that I just imported from the States. The holster is made from rubberized canvas. In my experience Japanese leather was just terrible quality and little of it survived use. This material was substituted as it resisted the damp of the S.E.Asia battlefield much better. It’s marked with kanji inside but I have no idea what it says. I’ll be off to the internet to find out. The holster has a small pouch in the front for storing a 15 round carton of 8mm pistol ammunition. The cleaning rod is missing, something else for me to rectify.
The holster has two rows of kanji inside the flap. I am an idiot and have the photo upside down but basically the first row starts with “sho”, short for Showa, the emperors name. Then there is the kanji for the number 10 followed by a 5 or a 9. This would mean 1940 or 1944. 1940 is too early for one of these canvas holsters so it must be 1944. Then below is the mark for the Nagoya Arsenal and finally an acceptance mark.
This is the holster that I just sourced for my 1944 Walther P38 pictured below. By 1944 they had pretty much stopped making hard shell holsters (they do exist). Instead they supplied the pistol with a breakaway style holster as here. Folks call them a soft shell holster but that is incorrect.
This example is stamped bla 1944 and has the waffenamt WaA159. BLA is the code for the manufacturer E.G.Leuner GMBH in Bautzen. Interestingly the holster is also personalised to the U.S. Army soldier who captured it (or won it in a card game). Inside the flap is the name Henry J. Lavrich and his ASN 33688587. A quick googling reveals that Henry came from Pennsylvania, enlisted in 1943 and served in the 2nd Armoured Division in Europe. He passed away in 2011. An additional modification on this example is the cutting away of the upper, underneath the flap. This is common in these holsters and I expect it was an act by the user to make the holster easier to draw from.
The holster also contains a e/359 stamped magazine which is the correct magazine for this pistol.
A little while back I picked up a Red-9 Mauser C96 (see below). I only got it because I liked the quirkiness of the setup for the wooden shoulder stock. So I immediately started looking for a wooden holster to match. Doing my research I discovered a few tell tales that would be useful for someone else looking for the same thing. In this case, the original stocks always had the tensioning screw end up at an angle 20 or 30 degrees off true. The Red-9 stocks had the squared off grain on the thumb release and this is always perpendicular to the edge of the lid. And finally these stocks were supplied without the metal loop at the hinge. If your stock has a loop then it is likely a bolo stock and post-war. It’s important to get the right holster as the wood that was removed from inside the cap was different to conform with the cocking lever setup. In the Red-9 series these were always the small ring style thumb grip.
This is a 1914 stamped Luger Holster that came with my Erfert Luger. It has the takedown tool fitted into a small pocket inside the holster flap. The holster is manufactured by D. Heinichen of Dresden.
Kiwi Medals 