Forgotten Weapons
Mauser Volkspistole
2012 • E60 Aug 19, 2012
We have another experimental German WWII piece for you today, Mauser's last-ditch "Volkspistole". It was developed at the end of the war as an extremely inexpensive home guard weapon, although how much use a pistol would have been in fighting off the Red Army and US Army is pretty questionable. The program was also undertaken by Walther and Gustloffwerke, but this particular gun was designed and built by Mauser. Like the VG1-5 rifle, it was designed to use gas ports in the barrel to delay opening of the breech, although it was later reworked as a simple direct blowback action. The design never went past the prototype stage because of the end of the war, but the theory can be seen turning up later in the H&K P7 and Steyr GB handguns.