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There have been a considerable number of sightings of the MP-443 pistols in Ukraine over the past two months, unsurprising as it is the Russian armed forces issue sidearm. In this video we look at the pistol's history, design and use in Ukraine.
In 1976, with criminal and terrorist activity on the rise the West German Federal Police launched a search for a new small, lightweight service pistol to replace their stocks of Walther P38/P1′s and various 7.65×17mm pistols.
Entries to the trials included the Walther P5, the HK PSP (P7) and the SIG Sauer P225 (P6). All three pistols performed well and saw various police forces adopt them.
Developed for the US military's Joint Service Small Arms pistol program, the HK XM9 was a refined version of the P7 pistol, initially developed for the West German Police pistol trials.
When the trials began in the late 1970s, Heckler & Koch submitted the P9S and the VP70. Trials officers rejected both of these pistols due to various issues with accuracy and ergonomics. When the second phase of trials was launched in the early 1980s Heckler & Koch submitted a version of their P7 pistol which had been successful in the recent West German pistol trials.
P7A10 XM9 submission with an extended 10 round magazine with lanyard loop (source)
Heckler & Koch submitted three versions of the pistol, the first in June 1981, was the P7 in its original spec. They followed this with the P7A10, simply a P7 with an extended 10-round magazine and finally the P7A13 with a double-stack 13 round magazine and a US-style magazine release. The P7A13 was later sold commercially as the P7M13.
The trials resumed in 1981 and continued until 1983. The winning pistol had to fulfil 85 specific requirements, of these 72 were essential and 13 were desirable. All four pistols submitted, the Beretta 92, SIG Sauer P226, Smith & Wesson 459M and the Heckler & Koch entry all failed. In 1984, the US launched a second round of testing with new entries including the Colt SSP, the FN Double Action Hi-Power, the Steyr GB, and another German entry the Walther P88. For this round of testing Heckler & Koch submitted the P7A13.
While the P7A13 performed well in the reliability, accuracy and mud tests it lost out to the Beretta 92 and SIG P226 which were both simpler and cheaper to produce.
Source:
Images: 1 2
By the early 1950s the French Army was armed with an assortment of pre-war and wartime sidearms chambered in numerous calibres. These included the pre-war MAB Model D, the Modèle 1935A and the Modèle 1935S. Along with Lend-Lease Colt M1911s and captured German pistols such as the P38s and P08s. A logistical nightmare.
The newly established Section Technique de l'Armée (Army Technical Section), formed in 1946, tested a number of pistols during the 1947 trials. A pistol from Manufacture Nationale d’Armes de Saint Étienne (MAS) developed from the M1935S, a development of the M1935A from Societe Alsacienne de Constructions Mécaniques (SACM), a civilian market SIG SP47/8 (later known as the P210) and entries from Merlin-Gérin (MGD) and Manufacture Nationale d'Armes de Tulle (MAT), both of which were quickly rejected.
While the SIG performed excellently it did not conform to the French military’s 1946 pistol specification. The French did not wish to purchase a license to manufacture a Swiss pistol when they had indigenous designs available. The pistol developed by MAS suffered numerous failures, parts breakages and cracks appearing in the slide after several thousand rounds fired. Despite this the French selected the MAS design on the 16th August, 1950. The French army adopted the pistol as the Modèle 1950, and revised the design until it performed well in endurance trials in 1951.
In the new pistol the French moved away from the diminutive 7.65x20mm Longue cartridge and standardised to 9x19mm. The new pistol is larger than its predecessors but retains a single stack magazine, holding 9-rounds. The Modele 1950 is extremely simple to disassemble with a captive recoil spring and an easily removeable cassette containing all of the pistol’s lock work (see image #3). The pistol has a parkerized finish and uses serrated plastic grip panels.
The Modèle 1950 combined elements from both the earlier French service pistols taking the M1935A’s more ergonomic grip profile and combining it with the slide shape of the M1935S. The new pistol used the Colt 1911′s short recoil locked breech system abandoning the double barrel links of the M1935A and the M1935S’ raised shoulder for a single link and barrel lugs for locking (see image #3). The Modèle 1950 retained the earlier pistol’s slide mounted hammer block safety.
Despite having designed the pistol, MAS were not the first of France’s state-owned arsenals to manufacture it. Manufacture Nationale d’Armes de Châtellerault (MAC), who had produced M1935S pistols after the war, began production of the M1950 in March 1953 continuing until 1963. In 1961, MAS began to take over production until manufacture of the M1950 ended in 1978, with a total of 342,000 pistols made over 25 years.
The M1950 saw action first during the First Indochina War and later during the Algerian War and Suez Crisis. It served during France’s interventions in former African colonies such as Chad and Djibouti and during the 1990 Gulf War.
The Modèle 1950 remains in limited service with the French military and police forces. In 1989 the French military adopted the PAMAS G1, a licensed version of the Beretta 92, to replace the Modèle 1950.
Source:
Images: 1 2 3
French Model 1950 Pistol, Small Arms Review, J. Huon (source)
Charles Petter, a Swiss-born soldier who served as an officer in both the Swiss Army and French Foreign Legion, developed his pistol in the early 1930s and patented it first in France in 1935. At the time Petter was the director of the French small arms company Societe Alsacienne de Constructions Mécaniques (SACM). In 1937, the French army adopted his pistol as the Modèle 1935A.
Petter was influenced by John Browning’s short recoil locking system, used in the Colt 1911. Petter’s design, however, utilised two links at the rear of the barrel rather than Browning’s one and a captive recoil spring. His design used the same barrel lugs to lock the breech into the slide when firing but linked the pistol’s lockwork together in a removable unit. This had been stipulated in the French Army’s 1935 trials specification.
While the French military appreciated the Colt 1911′s design, and many of its features which they sought to incorporate into their new pistol, they disliked the American .45 ACP round. They felt it unnecessarily powerful and in 1927 formalised the adoption of the diminutive 7.65x20mm Longue cartridge.
Another stipulation of the specification was a slide mounted manual safety which blocked the hammer. The pistol fed from an eight round, single stack magazine. Like the Colt 1911, the Modèle 1935A, had a push button magazine release. During the trials the Modèle 1935A beat submissions from both FN and MAS. While it proved to be an excellent design circumstances intervened and as renewed conflict with Germany seemed likely France began to rearm more rapidly. As a result in September 1938 the rival Manufacture Nationale d’Armes de Saint Étienne (MAS) design was also adopted as the Modèle 1935S.
The MAS Modèle 1935S shares some of the characteristic of Petter’s pistol, however, it differs internally (source)
Perhaps 10,000 pistols had been manufactured before the German invasion halted production at SACM’s factory in Alsace-Lorraine in May 1940. Production under occupation restarted in October and the Wehrmacht took the pistol into inventory as the Pistole 625(f). From 1940 until 1944 the SACM’s factory produced perhaps 25,000 pistols. These were most likely issued to forces loyal to the French Vichy puppet government. After the occupation ended the pistols were again issued to Free French forces.
As such the Modèle 1935A saw service with both sides during the war and with the French military during the First Indochina War (1946-1954). Total production reached 84,950 pistols by the time production ended in February 1950. The M1935A and M1935S were both replaced by the MAC Modèle 1950. Petter’s design found greater longevity in Switzerland where Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft (SIG) purchased the design’s patent rights and developed the 9x19mm SIG P210. This pistol was produced under license and adopted by both Switzerland and Denmark, serving for many decades.
Sources:
Images: 1 2 3
The 1935 French Service Pistols, unblinkingeye.com, E. Buffaloe (source)
French Mle.1935 A, C&Rsenal, (source)
‘Automatic Pistol’, Swiss Patent #185452, C.G. Petter, 31/07/1936, (source)
In 1940, the Swiss began the search for a new semi-automatic pistol to replace the Luger P06/29. By 1943 both SIG and Waffenfabrik (W+F) Bern had developed designs. Bern initially offered the P43 series, a clone of FN’s High Power. However, by 1947 a new more unusual design had developed.
The W+F Bern Pistole 1947, chambered in 9x19mm, used a gas-delayed blowback action. The chamber had three gas ports which bled high pressure gas into a gas piston chamber beneath the barrel. This forced the slide to remain forward, and locked, until the pressure dropped in the gas chamber allowing the slide to travel rearwards cycling the action. The P47 had a single control, the safety, at the rear of the frame. Unlike the P43 series, the P47 had a heel magazine release.
This was the first post-war use of the Barnitzke system, developed during the war by Karl Barnitzke. It was initially used in a retrofitted MG34 and later in the VG 1-5. Similar systems were later used in Steyr’s GB Pistol and perhaps most famously Heckler & Koch’s PSP/P7.
W+F Bern assembled approximately 10 to 15 P47s, however, just like the earlier P43 pistols, the Swiss military rejected the P47 after trials and SIG’s S.P. 47/8 was eventually adopted in 1949 as the Selbstladepistole SP/49 (commercially offered as the P210).
Sources:
Images Source
Handguns of the World, E.C. Ezell (1981)
The Swiss Ordnance Commision began developing revolvers in the early 1870s, first with the Modell 1872, chambered in 10.4mm rimfire before transitioning to a centrefire cartridge in the Modell 1878.
In 1882, Colonel Rudolf Schmidt developed a new revolver chambered in a 7.5mm cartridge, with a cylinder that held six rounds. The design is often mistaken for a variation of Emile Nagant’s revolver, however, the Modell 1882 has more in common with the French Chamelot-Delvigne M1873. It is a double action design with a rebounding hammer and a hinged side plate allowing easy access to the revolver’s lockwork. The Modell 1882 was light, weighing 28oz (0.79kg) and was just over 9 inches (23 cm) in overall length.
The pistols loaded and unloaded through a loading gate on the right of the frame. The revolver used Ismael Isaac Abadie’s system where once the gate was open the the cylinder can only be turned by pulling the trigger, the hammer remains stationary while the indexing pawl rotates the cylinder. The user ejected spent casings by manually cycling the ejection rod fixed below the barrel.
By 1886, the Swiss Army had equipped all its infantry officers with the Modell 1882. The revolvers was slowly rolled out throughout the Swiss Army for use by cavalry and NCOs, slowly replacing the older 10.4mm revolvers. The pistols were extremely well made by Waffenfabrik Bern. With the first 20,000 revolvers having rubber grips (see images #1 & #2) with a second batch of 17,252 pistols having wooden grips (see image #3 & #4).
Bern and SIG also manufactured the pistols for private purchase, the Bern revolvers had a ‘p’ prefix to their serial numbers. In 1901, the Swiss adopted the Luger semi-automatic pistol, however, production of the Modell 1882 continued into the 1930s with a further 18,000 slightly improved Modell 1882/29 made. As the Luger came into frontline service the Swiss continued to issue revolvers to garrison and supply troops, cavalry NCOs and bicycle troops. The Luger initially cost approximately 400 Swiss Francs to manufacture, this was later reduced to 225 Francs, while the revolver was significantly cheaper, costing 120 Swiss Francs. As a result the Modell 1882 remained in service for many years after the Second World War with some sources suggesting the last pistols left service in the 1960s.
Sources:
Images: 1 2 3 4
Handguns of the World, E.C. Ezell (1981)
Swiss Handguns 1872-Present, Swissrifles.com, (source)
The HsP (Hahn-selbstlade Pistole or Hammer-fired Self-loading Pistol) represented Mauser’s last attempt to win a service pistol contract. It was offered in response to the West German police’s 1976 specification calling for a new compact service pistol. Mauser’s design would compete with pistols from Walther, Heckler & Koch and SIG-Sauer.
Before the war Mauser had manufactured the HSc which was widely used by German police and security forces. However, at the end of the war Mauser’s tooling and personnel were dispersed with the machine tools taken to France. In the late 1960s production of the HSc began again in Germany but ceased in the mid 1970s. Mauser began developing a new pistol chambered in 9mm but development suffered from a lack of experienced staff.
Mauser HsP cutaway diagram (source)
The HsP was chambered in 9x19mm and came in two variations a full sized version with a 86mm long barrel and a compact variant (see image #2) for plain clothes officers. The frame remained the same while the barrel and slide could be swapped out to vary the length of the barrel. It had an 8-round single stack magazine and was recoil rather than blowback operated. The HsP was double action and had a large de-cocker lever and a semi-shrouded hammer.
The pistol used a short recoil action but the method of locking differs depending on source material with some sources stating a single locking lever which is unlocked by a block in the frame as the slide recoils, pushing the lever downwards and unlocking the action. While others suggest a roller-delayed action. After Mauser abandoned the project several companies producd similar pistols. The Norton DP75, was produced in the US while the Korriphila pistol was manufactured in Germany. While the DP75 used the lever locking system the Korriphila used the Budischowsky roller-delayed system.
It is believed up to 20 pistols were made for the police trials but they were dropped at an early stage suffering from durability issues. The pistol project was officially abandoned in 1983 with Mauser’s management believing continued development to not be cost effective with the company focusing on autocannons such as the Mauser BK-27 and on civilian sporting rifles. The HsP’s three rivals from Walther, HK and SIG-Sauer were all selected by the trials.
Sources:
Images One & Two Source
Image Three Source
The History of German Police Pistols, S.Makoa (source)
Pistols of the World, I. Hogg & J, Weeks, (1992)
