Help identifying this WWII Semiauto

[allen820]

My father-in-law brought a small semiauto pistol back from his service in Europe during WWII. He said it came from a German officer, but I am thinking it had it origins somewhere else. I can send a pic by private e-mail; I cannot get it to upload to this site (yes, I do have techno challenges!). Anyway, the little pistol is about 4 1/4" long overall and 3" tall. It says CAL. 6-35 on both sides of its hard black rubber handles. It reads "Pistol Automatic CAL 6.35" on the left side of the slide, and has nothing on the right. Just under the "pistol . . . etc." on the slide are the letters "DOG," and then under that are some odd symbols which are written vertically, one on top of the other, if you hold the gun with the barrel toward the ceiling. The top symbol looks like a little stick lion (kinda like you might see on a midievial drawing). Under that is a line, then the letters PV, then a star, then a C, then under all that is a symbol that looks like a modern day radio tower, i.e. a short line coming from a base. This same set of symbols also appears on the frame of the pistol near the trigger guard on the left hand side of the gun. The number 534 appears to be stamped on the frame. The magazine looks like it would hold about six shots, and the slide is seriated at the back. The hammer is not exposed.

Wow. As I was examining the gun for this post, I found the same symbols described above on the side of the barrel, and in addition to these, just under the PV, as described above, there appears a picture of a crown over the letter R, then the star and the C and under that is the "radio tower," and under that is an egg shape with a crown on it, with an LG inside. The number 46 is on the opposite side of the barrel. The little lugged, 2 1/8" barrel is rifled.

Does anyone have a clue what I have, or where it might have come from?

Thanks for your help.

Allen

[MikeG]

The proofs sound Belgian, and 6,35mm is European for .25ACP.
Maybe a Baby Browning?

[SDC]

It's definitely Belgian, but if you PM or email me some pictures, I can post them for you (and maybe tell you what it is as well); "DOG" doesn't ring any bells with me, but the monograms on these things can be hard to read sometimes.

[dutchy]

Famous Quote:

"A picture speaks a thousand words"
?

[RJay]

The markings you describe are all Belgium proof and acceptance markings. It's not a Browning , they are clearly marked as such. In fact most of the well known Belgium pistols , Melior, Bayard, Piper, Heneard, Clements, Reunies are so marked either on the frame or the grips as to the manufacturer.
A couple of the earlier Pipers and Clements lacked definite ID markings but they had the makers logos on the grips. As stated only a picture can help ID it. As to the acquisition of the fire arm, I've found that 99 and 99/100 of all the bring backs were taken from high ranking SS officers. I'm beginning to think that the German Army had no enlisted soldiers

[MikeG]

I was thinking the "dog" is a German ordnance code - for secrecy, they gave arms factories a two or three letter designation instead of marking the manufacturer in the clear. I don't see 'dog' on the following site, but could it be possible?

http://www.radix.net/~bbrown/codes_full.html

[RJay]

There are very few (if any) Belgium 6.35 automatics with German ordnance codes stamped on them. They were not an issue item.

[Tom2]

I see he posted this question twice for some reason. He needs to post a picture. I hate it when someone gets alot of advice and never comes back to his thread to say yay, nay, or have a nice day! Guess he will leave us all in the dark....

[allen820]

I had sent an e-mail pic to another member who was going to post it. Guess he never got aroung to it. Actually, as I said in my initial post, I do not have a digital camera (still have my ol' 35 mm; works just fine in most instances!), so the pic I sent was a pretty bad cell phone pic. Showed the gun, but lacked a lot of detail.

Also, I really did not post my question twice. I saw that, too, and the times between the two posts were kinda odd -- really have no clue why that happened.

Anyway, the info about the pistol being Belgian is quite helpful to me. I really had no idea where the thing came from. I do wonder about its age. My guess is that it was a private carry weapon of some German soldier, and probably never issued by the German army.

If I get the means to do a pic, I am sure that would realy help reduce the guessing.

I appreciate all the help.

Allen