By 1931, before Hitler had taken power, the German Army had decided that it was time to consider a replacement for their standard service pistol - the P08 Parabellum (Luger). The Luger was a relatively expensive weapon and its design limited mass production methods. The P08 was maufactured to extremely tight tolerances which still amaze many gun enthusiasts - yet, ironically, the ‘close fit’ of all its parts actually made it less reliable in combat. A little dirt or a less than perfect round can easily jam a Luger, whilst a more ‘sloppily’ constructed pistol will carry on shooting in similar conditions simply because there is more slack between its moving parts.

In response to the Army’s need, the Walther Company began work on a series of designs that would ultimately lead to the P38. Their aim was to create a new pistol chambered for the proven and effective 9mm Parabellum round - a weapon which would be cheaper, more reliable, and made with fewer parts than the Luger.

The first design in this series of pistols was the Walther PP (“Polizei/Police Pistol”) which featured a blowback action and a double action trigger. This weapon was so successful that Walther began to think that they simply needed to enlarge the dimensions of the PP in order to have a successful military 9mm Parabellum design. The blowback system was seen to be the key; it was much cheaper to produce than any locking system.

Their first unlocked military pistol was known as the Walther MP (“Militarpistole”). It was very heavy, plus its recoil spring was problematic and unreliable. Only about a dozen of prototypes were produced.

Walther returned to a design based around a locking system. An American named Pederson had developed a promising system for the Remington Company; Walther decided to use it. The resulting weapon - a reworked PP - had a locking system with a rotating barrel. However it was oversized, costly and unacceptably heavy.

The Walther PPK - variously designated “Polizei Pistole Kriminal” or “Polizei Pistole Kurz” (Kurz = Short) - was another project which influenced the make-up of the P38. Regardless of which designation you want to use, it was (and still is) marketed as a smaller, more easily concealed version of the regular PP model. The PPK has several cost-reducing features. The savings began with its frame which cut back on material by not having a back strap. The back strap’s function was taken over by plastic wrap-around grips. This idea re-emerged in the P38.

Walthers' next design - the AP (“Armee-Pistole”) had an enclosed hammer and there were experiments with lighter alloys (rather than steel) construction. The Army wanted a free floating barrel to increase reliablity, so Walther incorporated one into the AP. This pistol had a take down lever like the P08, and the PP’s double action trigger system. It also had a locking system, but it differed from the MP with only having a single locking block rather than two. The Army didn’t accept the AP; although it was a step in the right direction, the military testers indicated that an external hammer and steel construction would be preferable.

Walther made changes to meet the Army’s criteria and the new version was dubbed the HP “Heeres Pistole” (Army Pistol). The HP had an external hammer and a single case hardened locking block, which prevented it from cracking. By late 1938 the Walther HP was in production, for commercial sales. With some minor changes, the pistol was accepted by the German army and designated the "P38".

The earliest HPs had a manual safety which caused the firing pin to retract into a recess in the slide, locking it as the hammer fell over the firing chamber. This system was extremely safe, but expensive to manufacture. At the Army's request, Walther altered the safety so that it only locked the firing pin in place before the hammer fell. The very first HPs and very early P38s had a square-tipped firing pin. Subsequent examples had a round tip and a square shaft until the end of World war II.

The first HPs had attractive walnut checkered grips but as more pistols were ordered by the Army, Walther switched to Bakelite plastic grips. The original grips were unpopular with soldiers who fought in muddy conditions. Removing dirt from the checkered grips was difficult and time-consuming. Thus the now familiar P38 grips with smooth grooves were introduced.

The army initially ordered 800 pieces on April 1, 1939. Many of these pistols had mixed parts between the HP and P38. All of them were manufactured by hand! By the end of the war 1.2 million P38s had been produced, Walther made about 580,000 of them. Because the Wehrmacht needed more than 10,000 pistols per month, other manufacturers also produced the P38.

After Germany was defeated, Walther were prohibited from making firearms; but many of their weapons were constructed under license in other countries (notably France) until the 1950’s when Walther were able to return to gun-making. The P38 featured amongst their reinstated line of products and new variations on the design were created too.

The P1, accepted by the Bundeswehr (West German Army) and the West German Police as its standard sidearm, benefited from the knowledge of lighter-weight alloys gained whilst experimenting with the AP - those forces were offered the all-steel P38 but preferred the aluminium-framed version. The P 4 is a shorter-barrelled P38-type which was most often issued to Police Officers.

Note: The parts of Nazi era and post-war P38s are not completely interchangeable because of slight differences in dimensions.