Austrian Police Markings

[Schupo]

Gentlemen,

At the end of WWII German and Austrian police forces were separated into different departments. Austrian municipal Polizei and rural Gendarmerie forces were disarmed and were re-issued Allied pistols and rifles so that the Allied Occupation Forces could control the weaponry and ammunition used by these German and Austrian police.

These firearms were usually property marked by the German and Austrian police. The Austrian Police seemed to have used consistent markings but I am not aware of any published regulations. Anyone have any Austrian Police marking regulations?

Here is an example of a Smith & Wesson that was issued to the municipal Austrian Polizei by Allied Occupation Forces in Austria. The insignia is that of the US Forces Austria (USFA).

[Schupo]

This pistol was manufactured during WWII and bears US Property markings on the top strap.

[Schupo]

The pistol also has Austrian Police markings that indicate it was issued to the immediate postwar Osterreich Polizei.

[Schupo]

Austrian Police forces were also issued rifles as well as pistols during the occupation. All firearms issued to police forces were specified to be of "foreign manufacture" by the Allied Four Powers Agreements.

Here is an example of a British Enfield rifle that was issued to the Austrian Rural Police or Gendarmerie during this same time period.

[Schupo]

View of the receiver of the Enfield showing the British and the Austrian police markings.

[Schupo]

Close-up view of the Osterreich Gendarmerie property markings on the Enfield rifle. Notice the similarity of the die stamp to the municipal Polizei markings on the S&W pistol.

Anyone with examples of other Austrian Police markings?

Anyone with other Allied firearms with Austrian Police markings?

[Edward Tinker]

Very nice, thanks for the education.



Ed

[Ron Smith]

Hi George, I have never seen nor heard of a S.M.L.E with Austrian Police markings. I will be watching for them now. Thanks for the presentation.

Ron

[Schupo]

Ed and Ron,

Many thanks for the kudos. I think the Austrian Police are interesting in that during the war Austrian policemen became German policemen after the Anschluss. They regained their independent status after the war and were restructured into municipal and rural police like they were before the war. The Allied powers treated them a bit differently than they did the nationalized German police since they broke them up from a nationalilzed police force into various state police agencies, like they were prior to 1933.

Interestingly, the Soviets allowed the East Germans to re-arm with German weapons covertly and let them even begin weapons production once again. I guess the Americans, Brits, and French learned the lesson of the German Police re-arming during the time of the Weimar Republic but the Soviets did not because they made a separate peace and were not involved in trying to enforce the Treaty of Versailles. One might argue that the Soviets had a very narrow world view in this regard.

George

[policeluger]

I had an M&P just like this one, but sold it years ago...wish I had kept it.

[Ranger-CPT]

I have this Steyr Hahn that is marked W.C. According to a curator at the Austrian military muesum, he believed that the markings signified the Wach-Korps. The military had to provide its own Wachkorper for certain civil courts in the most important/large cities in the monarchy, and they shared responsibility for police tasks in those cities.

If anyone knows anything further about this or has seen another weapon with these markings I'd love to know. Ryan

[Schupo]

Howard,

I know what you mean about regreting selling your S&W. The only consolation that I have found is that you can't keep everything. At least, that is what I keep telling myself.

Ryan,

I am not certain what your "W.C." markings might indicate. I have seen various markings in this spot on the Steyr-Hahn. What is the date of manufacture of yours and is it a WWII re-issue? It appears there are other markings under these W.C. stamps. Your pistol does not appear to be a military pistol since it has the eagle/N proof mark. Does it have the eagle/L proof on the right side of the frame or the 08 stamp on the left slide?

[John Sabato]

There is another letter following the W.C. on your gun... it appears under magnification to be either a "B" or a "P" or and "R" followed by an additional period., and is somewhat obsucred by the pitting or denting in that area.

I don't think that Wach-Korps would be abbreviated as W.C.

[Schupo]

Ryan,

Here is an example of unit markings in the same location as yours. I don't know what these mean either, but they may be residual markings indicating an Ulan regiment, or an Unteroffizierschule, or a city/district police marking that begins with "U." These particular markings are on a police issue Steyr Hahn that was reworked in 1940 - 41 and has the Deutsche Polizei Eagle/L mark on the right frame along with the original 1918 Austrian date of manufacture. These Steyr-Hahn pistols are shown in the 1941 German "Waffentechnischer Lietfaden f�¼r die Ordnungspolizei" as the Steyr-Pistole M 12 but German police unit markings were out of use by that date, so they are probably from an earlier time, as are yours.

I hope this helps.

George

[Ranger-CPT]

George, thanks for the suggestions on the markings. My gun is a Nazi reworked gun with the E/L marking on the opposite side. It seems to me that the W.C. markings pre-date the rework because the E/N and the triangle look like they were squeezed in between the markings and the edge of the frame. I think some sort of solder was used to fill in another marking that was under it (as John has noted) that the bluing did not take to when the gun was reworked. I've never seen another Steyr with a similar marking in that location.

John, I realize that Korps is spelled with a "K" in German and there is a "C" in my marking. This was the suggestion of the curator of the Austrian Military Museum, Dr. Christian Ortner, who is a native German speaker. If he felt that W.C. could be an abbreviation for Wach-Korps, then I felt good with it too. You'll find in German that some letters are often interchanged with each other. Another example of this is the Heereszeugamt Ingolstadt is abbreviated "Jst" or "Jt" or sometimes even spelled Jngolstadt. Ryan