Question about the Walther P-38/P5 handguns

[maxmanta]

As near as I can tell, the Walther P-38 and P-5 series of handguns are the only mass-produced handguns that were designed to eject the empties TO THE LEFT of the gun.

I've asked this question of others, but no one seems to have a good answer. Can anyone enlighten me?

[Onmilo]

As for mass produced Walther also made a pocket pistol, the Model 9?, that ejected cases to the left.
There are other pistols that used a similar set up, but who made them eludes me at this very moment.

[SoftRocker]

I've asked the same question to P38 gurus. The answer is usually "well, it has to eject somewhere". Lugers, by the way, eject virtually straight up.
Here is a great forum for P38s:
www.p38forum.com

[maxmanta]

I got to talking about this with another shooter today. We came up with the theory that the P-38 was designed for German officers on horseback (alot of the German army was horse-drawn in WWII, even though the movies and films don't show it). The rider would control his horse with his right hand and shoot with his left.

The theory falls apart when one notices that the P-38's controls are for the right hand, but we further theorized that, since two hands are needed to reload a pistol, the officer would halt his horse, switch the gun to his right hand, reload, switch the pistol to his left hand again, and get his horse going again.

It is just a theory, but it works.