Leuchtpistole Kommandantur Lille

[Highlander]

Hi all,

I'm Stuart from Scotland.

for years our family had what we believed to be a British WW2 Flare gun.

It belonged to my grandfather who served in the 49th Infantry Division (Polar Bears) Bridging Platoon, Royal Engineers during WW2 and has been in the family since then.

My grandfather died in 2000 without really telling anyone about it, he kept it in his tool box.

It still has his name on it and has "Lille" and "Kdtur" burnt into the wooden grip.

The mechanism, trigger etc all work although it is a pretty basic design.

I have just found this site as the result of a bit of Googling and a few people pointing me in your direction and now believe this is a German WW1 Flare gun

It looks like the Leuchtpistole Kommandantur Lille (bottom model in these pics...)

viewtopic.php?f=29&t=87

Mine has been painted olive green at some point but this is pretty worn and doesnt show well in the following pics.

I have also come across someone on another forum who has one painted green but in far better condition.

http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/ ... p?t=439761

In fact the one in the pic on this site may well show signs of paint on it too, were they all painted?

Here's mine, sorry for the poor quality pics..

[signalman]

Hello, that is a nice example of a K Lille. They really can be quite crude looking.

I do not think it is original finish. Most examples I run across have a mix of dark patina and in the white.

That said, I have run across all types of finishes on these including black and green paint which I believe was added sometime after production.