Osprey WPN 073 The Browning High Power Pistol By Leroy Thompson True PDF.pdf

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THE BROWNING
HIGH-POWER PISTOL
LEROY THOMPSON
THE BROWNING
HIGH-POWER PISTOL
LEROY THOMPSON
Series Editor Martin Pegler
Illustrated by Adam Hook & Alan Gilliland
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
DEVELOPMENT
Towards the High-Power
4
6
27
66
76
78
80
USE
The High-Power goes to war
IMPACT
An influential handgun
CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
INTRODUCTION
After 1945, the FN High-Power Pistol ranked as the world’s most widely
used military handgun, and remains one of the most iconic combat pistols
of all time. More than 90 countries have issued the High-Power to military
forces or law-enforcement agencies and it has seen use in conflicts from
World War II through to the ‘War on Terror’.
Chambered for the 9mm Luger (9×19mm) cartridge, which became
the world standard during the years after World War II, the High-Power
offered the largest magazine capacity of any production handgun (13
rounds) during its first decades and even today offers a capacity close to
that of contemporary military pistols. Designed by John Browning, the
High-Power improved on the classic Colt M1911 design, especially in its
use of a far simpler takedown system. Accurate and reliable, the High-
Power was considered the world standard for a semi-automatic combat
pistol for a half-century.
The impetus for the design of the High-Power was a French military
requirement for a new pistol, the first trials being in 1922. Two French
names for the pistol were used:
Grand Rendement
(High Efficiency) and
Grande Puissance
(High Power). Note that models distributed by
Browning in the US would be called the ‘Hi-Power’, while throughout
most of the world the pistol was known as the ‘High-Power’.
John Browning, who was commissioned to design the pistol, built a
pair of prototypes – one locked breech and one blowback – for which a
patent was granted in 1927. Both designs incorporated a high-capacity
magazine designed by Dieudonné Saive that staggered the cartridges for
higher capacity without unduly increasing the grip size. The locked-breech
design with a 16-round magazine was the one carried forward for testing.
When the Colt M1911 patents expired in 1928, Saive incorporated some
aspects of the M1911 design into the
Grand Rendement.
By 1931, the
magazine had been shortened to accommodate 13 rounds, the back strap
had been curved for a better grip, and the barrel bushing was part of the
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slide rather than separate as on the M1911. France did not adopt the
pistol, but the Belgian Army did in 1935 as the P 35, a designation by
which the pistol is still widely known. During its long production – more
than 80 years – the design has evolved slightly, but a current-production
High-Power is still easily recognizable as a descendent of the original P 35.
Pre-World War II users of the High-Power included Argentina,
Belgium, Estonia, Lithuania and Paraguay. After conquering Belgium in
May 1940, Germany went on to make use of FN’s manufacturing plant
to produce more than 300,000 High-Powers for use by the Waffen-SS,
Fallschirmjäger
(airborne troops) and others. The High-Power as
produced by Inglis in Canada also saw usage with the Canadian, British
and other Commonwealth armed forces during World War II. Inglis also
produced the High-Power for the Chiang Kai-shek regime in China.
In the years after World War II, the High-Power became standard for
most NATO armed forces as well as scores of others throughout the
world, though many have subsequently replaced it with newer pistols such
as the SIG Sauer P226, Glock 17 or FN Five-seveN.
ABOVE LEFT
The High-Power was a staple of
the Free World forces during the
Cold War. Here, during May 1983,
a Canadian soldier loads his
Browning High-Power during
exercises with US troops at Fort
Wainwright, Alaska. The slide is
locked back but the soldier is not
doing a ‘combat reload’ in which
he would be holding the pistol in
normal shooting grip but with the
finger off the trigger. (AirSeaLand
Photos)
ABOVE RIGHT
February 2008: during his military
service as a Tactical Air Controller
in Afghanistan, Prince Harry is
armed with an L9A1 High-Power.
The pistol would have been kept
close in case of possible attack
within the base area and also
carried as a back-up to the L85A1
rifle when flying. (Anwar Hussein
Collection/ROTA/WireImage)
This standard FN High-Power is of
interest because it is the one
used by Mehmet Ali Ağca during
his unsuccessful attempt to
assassinate Pope John Paul II in
St Peter’s Square, Vatican City on
13 May 1981. (Guglielmo De
Micheli/The LIFE Images
Collection via Getty Images)
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