Pistolet maszynowy wz. 39 Mors (''Mors'' is

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 ...

for ''death'', Polish for ''

walrus The walrus (''Odobenus rosmarus'') is a large pinniped marine mammal with discontinuous distribution about the North Pole in the Arctic Ocean and subarctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. It is the only extant species in the family Odobeni ...

'') was a Polish

submachine gun A submachine gun (SMG) is a magazine (firearms), magazine-fed automatic firearm, automatic carbine designed to fire handgun cartridges. The term "submachine gun" was coined by John T. Thompson, the inventor of the Thompson submachine gun, to descri ...

designed by Piotr Wilniewczyc and Jan Skrzypiński between 1936 and 1938. It was to have become the standard submachine gun 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 ...

some time in the 1940s. However, its production was halted by the 1939

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 ...

and

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 ...

Design and History

The design was generally modelled after the German

ERMA EMP-35 The German submachine gun EMP (''Erma Maschinenpistole'') also known as MPE (''Maschinenpistole Erma'') was produced by the Erma factory, and was based on designs acquired from Heinrich Vollmer. The gun was produced from 1931 to 1938 in roughly ...

. Common features of the two weapons included a wooden butt and forward pistol grip; the most noticeable difference was the magazine extending downwards in the Mors rather than to the left side of the ERMA. The SMG was to be issued to some of the infantry units, as well as to tank crews and boarding parties of the

Polish Navy The Polish Navy (; often abbreviated to ) is the Navy, naval military branch , branch of the Polish Armed Forces. The Polish Navy consists of 46 ships and about 12,000 commissioned and enlisted personnel. The traditional ship prefix in the Polish ...

and

armoured train An armoured train (Commonwealth English) or armored train (American English) is a railway train protected with heavy metal plating and which often includes railway wagons armed with artillery, machine guns, and autocannons. Some have also h ...

s. Later the idea of equipping tank crews was abandoned due to its size. After extensive tests, the construction proved to be reliable and durable. The first trial series of 36 was ordered in March 1939 and additional purchases were planned. However, until September 1939 the Fabryka Karabinów in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

produced only 39, 3 of these being the prototypes (however some sources state that up to 52 were manufactured). After the start of hostilities, all were issued to the 3rd Rifle Battalion, which used them during the battle for Warsaw, and to the staff company of the 39th Infantry Division. Only 4 incomplete SMGs have survived: one in the Polish Army Museum in Warsaw (no.38, acquired from the Soviet Union in 1983), two in Russia (no.19 in Petersburg and no.39 in Moscow) and one in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

museum, since 2013 loaned to Land Forces Museum in

Bydgoszcz Bydgoszcz is a city in northern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Kuyavia. Straddling the confluence of the Vistula River and its bank (geography), left-bank tributary, the Brda (river), Brda, the strategic location of Byd ...

.Wilk, Remigiusz: ''Drugi Mors w Polsce!'', "Broń i Amunicja" Nr. 03/2013, p.41

Bibliography

* Konstankiewicz A., Broń strzelecka Wojska Polskiego 1918–39, Warsaw 1986 * Głębowicz W., Indywidualna bron strzelecka II wojny światowej, Warsaw 2010

External links

Prezentacja pistoletu maszynowego Mors, from series of documentaries ''Z Arsenału Muzeum Wojska Polskiego''
World War II submachine guns World War II infantry weapons of Poland Submachine guns of Poland Science and technology in Poland 9mm Parabellum submachine guns {{submachinegun-stub