Editing Luger pistol (section)

=== World War II ===
The P08 was technically replaced in service in 1938 by the [[Walther P38]], but ever-growing wartime demands for handguns resulted in continued P08 production by Mauser until December 1943.<ref name="Fitzsimons" /><ref name="JAN" /> Mauser production was supplemented by a small contract for Luger pistols given to Heinrich Krieghoff & Son of Suhl in 1935 to produce a Luger variant for the Luftwaffe; a second contract for 15,000 pistols was only partially completed when Krieghoff ceased Luger production in 1944.<ref name="JAN" /> The German Army took their last delivery of 1,000 Mauser-made pistols in November 1943.<ref name="JAN" /> A further 4,000 pistols assembled by Mauser in December of that same year were sold to Portugal, which renamed them the Model 943.<ref name="JAN" /> German military authorities refused to take any more Luger pistols, leaving a large stock of parts at the factory in Oberndorf.<ref name="JAN" />

Captured Lugers were much prized by Allied soldiers during both of the world wars as war trophies.<ref name="bishop2002">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MuGsf0psjvcC&pg=PA228|title=The Encyclopedia of Weapons of World War II|publisher=Metrobooks|year=2002|isbn=1-58663-762-2|editor1-last=Bishop|editor1-first=Chris|page=228|access-date=2 March 2010}}</ref> However, during World War II, German soldiers were known to sometimes use a discarded Luger pistol to lure unsuspecting trophy hunters, rigging it to detonate land mines or hidden booby traps when disturbed.<ref>Rottman p.49</ref> Word also spread of accidental discharges and deaths of Allied troops by users unfamiliar with the P08 and its safety mechanisms, as well as stories circulating that American soldiers were being executed if captured in possession of German weapons.<ref name="DAV" /><ref>Rottman p.32</ref>

Soviet forces captured tens of thousands of Lugers but they were never issued to their own troops, only kept in storage.{{sfn|Grant|2018|p=59}}