SOLD ASTRA 400 RARE 1941 NAZI SERIAL RANGE PISTOL…… SHIPPED OCTOBER, 1941

During the Second World War, Franco’s Spain was a close collaborator with Nazi Germany.  The Spanish firearms manufacturers Astra and Star supplied firearms to the German Military.  In the fall of 1941, 6,500 Astra 400 pistols were sent to the German Army.  This pistol is one from the lot that was shipped on October 18, 1941.  These pistols are quite scarce, as there were only ever 6500 purchased by the Germans and those that survived can only be identified by there serial numbers as the German placed no further markings upon them.  While the Germans used the standard 9mm Luger cartridge in these pistols they were very large and this led to the later development of the slightly smaller Astra 600.    Today these large model 400’s in the German serial range are quite hard to find, we have only had about 5 of them in the past 25 years.  It certainly is a missing link in a lot of Axis pistol collections.