Walther P38

The Walther P38 is a semi-automatic pistol featured in Call of Duty: World at War and Call of Duty 3 multiplayer. It makes a cinematic appearance in Call of Duty: Black Ops. This pistol seems to have replaced the Luger as the German sidearm in the later games.

Call of Duty 2: Big Red One
The P38 is the standard pistol of the German and Italian teams in multiplayer. It cannot be found in the campaign, as no handguns appear in the campaign.

Call of Duty 3
"9mm pistol. Sidearm issued to the German military in WWII. Safer, more reliable and easier to operate than the Luger it replaced. 8 round magazine. Effective range of 25 meters."

- Bonus materials description

The Walther P-38 appears in Call of Duty 3.

Campaign
The P-38 does not appear in the campaign.

Multiplayer
The P-38 appears in multiplayer as the standard sidearm for all Axis classes. It has low recoil and a speedy reload time, but is relatively weak. It takes around 4-5 shots to kill an enemy, and the magazine only holds 8 rounds. Therefore, it is very difficult to kill multiple enemies with a single magazine of the P-38. It should only be used strictly as a backup weapon. However, it's magazine size does mean that it holds an advantage over the Allied Colt .45, it's equivelant.

Call of Duty: World at War
"German semi automatic pistol with high rate of fire. Effective at close range."

- Create a Class description.

Campaign
The Walther is the same as the other non-Magnum pistols except for its appearance and reload times. It has the second slowest mid-magazine reload and the slowest empty reload. It is first seen, and can be used in the mission "Vendetta". This is the weapon that Dimitri Petrenko is severely wounded with by the last German on the Reichstag at the end of "Downfall". It also has no visible recoil. It is hard to find it anywhere on the map, as the best chance to obtain it its by putting a German soldier into Last Stand, wait for him to pull it out, and then finish him. This must be done also in order to re-stock ammo. Near the start of the mission, "Vendetta", when being sniped across the river, there is a Walther P38 on the table next to the sofa and on the table to the right of the doorway after the player goes up the stairs. This is a good opportunity to get a good sidearm.

Multiplayer
The P38 is unlocked at level 3. Its damage is identical to the other non-magnum pistols. As such, it is a relatively good choice for a sidearm. Its reload time is slow in relation to the other non-magnum handguns, but in return, it also has lower recoil than the other pistols.

Call of Duty: Black Ops
The Walther P38 also makes an appearance in Call of Duty: Black Ops during "Project Nova", when Viktor Reznov encounters Friedrich Steiner holding a Walther P38. Steiner can later be seen with the P38 on him during the remainder of the level, even when he is carrying a Mosin-Nagant﻿; the P38 seems to be part of his character model. It's pick-up icon can still be found in the game files but it's texture and 3D files are missing.

Trivia

 * When the player picks up the gun in the Call of Duty: World at War singleplayer or co-op campaign, the player always cocks the hammer back, while in multiplayer, the player just picks it up. The same goes to the MP40 and the Nambu.
 * It is possible to obtain the P38 in any Nazi Zombies map by using the "give all" console cheat, yet it can't be Pack-a-Punched in Der Riese.
 * In Call of Duty 3, when the player looks down the iron sights, the hammer falls forward into the double-action position.
 * In the Call of Duty: World at War's Create-A-Class screen, the P38 is described as having a high rate of fire, despite being identical to other pistols.
 * An interesting thing to note is that the Walther's slide cocks back so slowly that it is possible to see it move when aiming down the sights and shooting.
 * In the Wii version of Call of Duty: Black Ops, during "Project Nova", after escaping from the gas chamber and being attacked by the British Commandos, a poorly rendered P38 will appear on the ground to the left of the spawn point on the catwalk. It will say "Press (action) to pick up Walther P38", but if the action button is pressed the weapon will say "Grenade" in the weapons slot, and the player will be holding an idle RGD-33 in their hand.
 * In Call of Duty 2: Big Red One, the player never operates the slide, even after an empty reload.

Walther P38