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Description: | [1] SO monogram // 8 // 18
Initially adopted by the German Navy in 1904, and by the German army in 1908, for the Luger (Parabellum Pistole '08) this very efficient pistol cartridge has become one of the best known and most widely used in the World. 'Parabellum' comes from the telegraphic address for DWM (Deutsche Waffen und Munitions fabriken, who developed the pistol and cartridge), 'Si vis pacem, para bellum' ('If you seek peace, prepare for war', attributed originally but in a slightly different form to Flavius Vegetius Renatus, "De re militari", 390 BC): Like almost all self loading pistol cartridges of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it has a military style full metal jacketed bullet. Early German military patters had a truncated cone form of bullet, although a conventional round nosed form was adopted in 1915, and the truncated cone form began to be phased out in German service. It proved an excellent submachinegun round. It is now the standard NATO pistol round. There is some indication that its initial adoption in Germany stemmed at least in part from humanitarian reasons, as a view was growing that traditional soft lead revolver bullets were not in the spirit of the St Petersburg Declaration and Hague Convention (which pre-war Germany strongly supported) as they could cause unnecessary suffering. Ironically, for post-Second World War police use, much effort has been expended in designing expanding bullets to improve the 9mm Parabellum's terminal performance to about that of the old lead revolver bullets it supplanted, partly to ensure the quickest possible incapacitation of the target, partly to prevent over-penetration, which puts innocent third parties at risk. This specimen is First World War production. The 'SO' monogram is sometimes referred to as a 'knot' as it is difficult to interpret.
description: brass case with steel jacketed round nosed bullet. | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Sprengstoffwerke Oberschlesien (Germany & Silesia) | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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