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The Vis (Polish designation ''pistolet wz. 35 Vis''; German designation ''9 mm Pistole 35(p)'', or simply the Radom in some English sources and Vis wz. 35 in Poland) is a Polish 9×19mm caliber,
single-action A trigger is a mechanism that actuates the function of a ranged weapon such as a firearm, airgun, crossbow, or speargun. The word may also be used to describe a switch that initiates the operation of other non-shooting devices such as a t ...
,
semi-automatic pistol A semi-automatic pistol (also called a self-loading pistol, autopistol, or autoloading pistol) is a repeating firearm, repeating handgun that automatically ejects and loads cartridge (firearms), cartridges in its chamber (firearms), chamber afte ...
. Production of the Vis began in 1935 at the Fabryka Broni factory in
Radom Radom is a city in east-central Poland, located approximately south of the capital, Warsaw. It is situated on the Mleczna River in the Masovian Voivodeship. Radom is the fifteenth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest in its province w ...
, and was adopted as the standard handgun of the
Polish Army The Land Forces () are the Army, land forces of the Polish Armed Forces. They currently contain some 110,000 active personnel and form many components of the European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military histor ...
the following year. After the
Polish Campaign The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak Republic, and the Soviet ...
of 1939 that marked the start of
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, occupying German forces took over the country's munitions and industry; the pistol was valued by the Germans, who continued its production and eventually issued it to
Waffen-SS The (; ) was the military branch, combat branch of the Nazi Party's paramilitary ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, volunteers and conscr ...
units. The Vis is highly prized among collectors of firearms and considered by some to be one of the best firearms of the period, combining some of the features present in the
Colt M1911 The Colt M1911 (also known as 1911, Colt 1911, Colt .45, or Colt Government in the case of Colt-produced models) is a single-action, recoil-operated, semi-automatic pistol chambered primarily for the .45 ACP cartridge. History Early histor ...
, the
Browning Hi-Power The Browning Hi-Power is a single-action, semi-automatic pistol available in the 9×19mm Parabellum and .40 S&W calibers. It was based on a design by American firearms inventor John Browning, and completed by Dieudonné Saive at FN Herstal. ...
, and the Ruby .45 ACP.


History


Background

The Polish Army inherited a large collection of different types of weapons following the country independence after
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, and in 1929 the Department of Armaments decided buy a license from
Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...
to build vz. 24 pistols to simplify logistics, but the Army and Polish experts objected to the decision, saying that the design was too complicated and the cartridge it used was too weak. Spurred by the announcement, two Polish designers Wilniewczyc and Skrzypiński began working on a Browning-type
locked-breech Locked breech is the design of a breech-reloading firearm's action (firearms), action. This is important in understanding how a self-reloading firearm works. In the simplest terms, the locked breech is one way to slow down the opening of the bree ...
prototype firing the
9×19mm Parabellum The 9×19mm Parabellum (also known as 9mm Luger, 9mm NATO or simply 9mm) is a Rim (firearms)#Rimless, rimless, Centerfire ammunition, centerfire, tapered cartridge (firearms), firearms cartridge. Originally designed by Austrian firearm designer ...
round.


Design

The pistol bears many internal and external similarities to the famous Colt M1911A1, which was the main inspiration behind the project – to the point that some consider the Vis to be an iteration of the Colt M1911. The Vis was designed by Piotr Wilniewczyc, and in 1930 at the Fabryka Broni (Arms Factory) in
Radom Radom is a city in east-central Poland, located approximately south of the capital, Warsaw. It is situated on the Mleczna River in the Masovian Voivodeship. Radom is the fifteenth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest in its province w ...
under Director Kazimierz Ołdakowski. The first prototype version was ready in 1930 and patented in 1932, when 134 prototype handguns of the ''Vis wz. 32'' were produced. The pistol operates on the short-recoil principle, with the
barrel A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden stave (wood), staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers ...
being cammed down and away from the locking lugs in the slide. Unlike the M1911, the Vis was not cammed by a link, but by a ledge of sorts, which contacts a portion of the barrel and forces it down as it is moved rearward with the slide by the recoil force. It shares some similarities to the Spanish Ruby .45 ACP. A characteristic feature was a trapezoid grip shape, wider at the bottom, offering good ergonomics and firm grip. On the right side grip cover, the Polish pistols had the letters "VIS" in a triangle, on the left side—FB (for ''Fabryka Broni''—"Arms Factory"). Initially it was named ''WiS'' (an
acronym An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase. Acronyms are often spelled with the initial Letter (alphabet), letter of each wor ...
of the Polish designers' names), later the name was changed to Vis, meaning "force" in
Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
, with the ''wz.'' abbreviation for ''wzór'' ("model"). The tests proved that the handgun was very accurate and stable (due to its size and mass, most stresses are absorbed and not passed on the shooter), while at the same time remaining reliable after firing more than 6,000 rounds. The Vis was generally regarded as one of the best military pistols of that period.


Military use

Mass production started in the state armoury Fabryka Broni in
Radom Radom is a city in east-central Poland, located approximately south of the capital, Warsaw. It is situated on the Mleczna River in the Masovian Voivodeship. Radom is the fifteenth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest in its province w ...
in late 1935, and the following year it was introduced as the standard firearm of Polish infantry and cavalry officers. Successively, other units were to be equipped, and by 1942 all other handguns were scheduled to be withdrawn from service. By mid-1938, it was introduced to the armoured and air forces. Before the
invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...
, approximately 49,400 (out of 90,000 ordered) were delivered to the army. In addition to the 9mm, there was also a small information series of
.45 ACP The .45 ACP ( Automatic Colt Pistol), also known as .45 Auto, .45 Automatic, or 11.43×23mm is a rimless straight-walled handgun cartridge designed by John Moses Browning in 1904, for use in his prototype Colt semi-automatic pistol. After su ...
version, with 7-round magazine, but they were not produced in greater series. Most probably only for the Argentinian competition the wooden stock-shoulder was issued but it has not survived. A .22 LR variant also existed, but no details are known, and its series was not produced in great numbers. After the Polish defeat in 1939, the
Germans Germans (, ) are the natives or inhabitants of Germany, or sometimes more broadly any people who are of German descent or native speakers of the German language. The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, constitution of Germany, imple ...
took over the Radom Armoury and continued production of the Vis under the new name of Pistole P 35(p), after its first year of manufacture while the suffix 'p' is for "Polnisch" (Polish). The German pistols of the first series had inscriptions VIS Mod.35 and P.35(p) on the left side. According to Hogg, about 375,000 pistols were produced for the Heer. Polish technicians working in the armoury stole many handgun parts to be assembled clandestinely and supplied for use by the
Home Army The Home Army (, ; abbreviated AK) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) established in the ...
in their fight against the German occupation; when the Nazis discovered this, some of the Polish workers were hanged publicly in front of the factory while others were sent to
concentration camps A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploit ...
. The Germans moved production of barrels and final assembly to
Steyr-Daimler-Puch Steyr-Daimler-Puch () was a large manufacturing conglomerate based in Steyr, Austria, which was broken up in stages between 1987 and 2001. The component parts and operations continued to exist under separate ownership and new names. History Th ...
in the " Ostmark" (Austria). However, underground production of Vis barrels was started in Warsaw and Kielce-based Huta Ludwików, and several hundred Vis pistols were assembled using parts smuggled from the factory, delivered to the Home Army, and used extensively during the
Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising (; ), sometimes referred to as the August Uprising (), or the Battle of Warsaw, was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from ...
, among other battles. Vis pistols made by the Germans after 1939 were issued in four different series, each with small modifications to simplify production. In late 1944, all production was moved to the Steyr works in Austria, where the last simplified model of the fourth series was produced (with no inscriptions at all, apart from ''bnz'' signature). The Vis remained in production until April 1945. Generally, the wartime Vis were of much lower quality than the original Polish versions, and further declined towards the end of the war.


Post-war developments

After the war, production of the pistol was not continued, as the Army of the
People's Republic of Poland The Polish People's Republic (1952–1989), formerly the Republic of Poland (1947–1952), and also often simply known as Poland, was a country in Central Europe that existed as the predecessor of the modern-day democratic Republic of Poland. ...
used the
Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
TT-33 The TT-30, commonly known simply as the Tokarev, is a Soviet-made semi-automatic pistol. It was developed during the late 1920s by Fedor Tokarev as a service pistol for the Soviet Armed Forces and was based on the earlier pistol designs of John M ...
pistol, produced in the former ''Fabryka Broni'' in Radom due to Warsaw Pact regulations. It was considered much inferior to the Vis, especially in ergonomics and reliability, but political considerations and Soviet influence were decisive. The Vis pistol saw limited use in the post-war period with the East German police. By the late 1980s, it was declared obsolete and withdrawn from service. In August 1997, the Łucznik Arms Factory in Radom reintroduced the Vis pistol and produced a small series of some 27 pistols on the basis of the original plans and specifications, mainly for the US collectors' market. But it differed from the original pre-war pistols with the shape of the rear sight notch and the Eagle on the slide. In 2010 another short series was manufactured. In 2012 IWA Radom Factory has presented the piece dated 2010 that was chromium coated instead of blued. On the 90th anniversary of the arms factory, 50 more handguns were produced for collectors in 2015. In December 2017, FB Radom's chairman, Adam Suliga, confirmed to the Polish magazine ''MILMAG'' that the Vis would be returning to production, and is planned to be available for retail in the second half of 2018. This will not be a single commemorative series, but rather, according to ''MILMAG'', FB Radom reportedly hope to continually offer the wz.35 for the export market.


Overview

The Vis pistol is a single-action, hammer-fired, locked-breech design. The control on the slide is a decocking mechanism that releases the hammer while camming the firing pin up into the slide. There is a grip safety blocking the sear unless fully compressed, but the control in the same position as a thumb safety on a Browning Hi-Power or M1911-style pistol is not a safety. The take-down lever is used to lock the slide back (as the Browning Hi-Power safety is used) during disassembly to allow removal of the slide release lever. In later variants, this lever is omitted and the slide must be manually aligned to remove the slide release lever. Once the slide and frame are aligned (by the disassembly lever or manually), the recoil guide is pulled forward to release the slide release lever and allow it to drop free. The slide will then be free to run forward and be removed from the frame. The magazine catch is to the rear of the trigger guard and not at the heel of the grip in the typical European fashion of the time. A pistol lanyard is installed in the heel position for pistol retention. There is no magazine safety.


Users

* − Standard issue sidearm of the
Polish Army The Land Forces () are the Army, land forces of the Polish Armed Forces. They currently contain some 110,000 active personnel and form many components of the European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military histor ...
from 1935 to 1939, later they were used by
Polish Underground The Polish Underground State (, also known as the Polish Secret State) was a single political and military entity formed by the union of resistance organizations in occupied Poland that were loyal to the Government of the Republic of Poland ...
, and also by the Polish post-war independence and anti-communist underground. * − Factory captured in
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, used primarily by the Heer and
Waffen-SS The (; ) was the military branch, combat branch of the Nazi Party's paramilitary ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, volunteers and conscr ...
. Designated as the Pistole P 35(p). * − Used by the
Volkspolizei The (DVP, German for "German People's Police"), commonly known as the or VoPo, was the national uniformed police force of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1945 to 1990. The Volkspolizei was a highly- centralized agency re ...
, withdrawn from service during the 1980s


Non-state actors

*
Italian Partisans The Italian Resistance ( ), or simply ''La'' , consisted of all the Italian resistance groups who fought the occupying forces of Nazi Germany and the fascist collaborationists of the Italian Social Republic during the Second World War in Italy ...
− Captured from German soldiers. * − Captured from German soldiers and used by resistance fighters.


References


Bibliography

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External links

* * * * * * * {{Authority control Semi-automatic pistols of Poland World War II infantry weapons of Poland World War II infantry weapons of Germany Polish inventions Science and technology in Poland 9mm Parabellum semi-automatic pistols World War II infantry weapons 1911 platform Military equipment introduced in the 1930s Weapons and ammunition introduced in 1935