Walther P.38 was a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol that was developed by German gun manufacturer Walther at the beginning of World War II. By the end of the war, around 1.2 million of the P.38 had been produced.
The Walther P.38 was intended to replace the costly Luger P08 (the first pistol chambered in 9mm), although many Luger P08, Walther PP and Walther PPK (later made famous by James Bond) pistols remained in service among officers within the German Army during World War II.
Since the German army wanted to prevent that weapons captured by the Allies could be connected to an arms factory in Germany (to prevent them from being bombed), the pistols were given a code instead of a manufacturer name. That's why the codes "ac" (Walther Zella-Mehlis), "cyq" (Spreewerk Grottau) or "byf"/"svw" (Mauser Oberndorf) are engraved on the pistols, that were produced during WWII.
After World War II the pistol was again manufactured and again adopted by the then newly founded German Bundeswehr under the name Walther P1 from 1957 until 2004. The successor to the P1 in the Bundeswehr is the Heckler & Koch P8.
The Walther P.38 had a major influence on the development of the Beretta 92 by Italian gun manufacturer Beretta, which was adopted by the US Army under the name M9 as the successor of the Colt M1911 (used by the American troops in World War I, World War II, the Vietnam War and others) as official sidearm in 1985.
The P.38 features a open slide design (like the Beretta 92/M9) and was the first locked-breech pistol to use a double-action/single-action (DA/SA) trigger (the earlier double-action PPK was an unlocked blowback design, but the more powerful 9×19mm Parabellum round used in the P.38 mandated a locked breech design).
Double-action/single-action means, that pulling the trigger cocks the hammer before firing the first shot with double-action operation. The firing mechanism extracts and ejects the first spent round, cocks the hammer, and chambers a fresh round for single-action operation with each subsequent shot.
The moving-barrel mechanism is actuated by a wedge-shaped falling locking block underneath the breech. When the pistol is fired, the barrel and slide recoil together, until the locking block drives down, disengaging the slide and arresting further rearward movement of the barrel.
The slide continues its rearward movement on the frame, ejecting the spent case and cocking the hammer before reaching the end of travel. Two recoil springs on either side of the frame and below the slide, having been compressed by the slide's rearward movement, drive the slide forward, stripping a new round from the magazine, driving it into the breech and re-engaging the barrel; ending its return travel with a fresh round chambered, hammer cocked and ready to repeat the process.
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