German Hi-Power

After the invasion and occupation of Belgium in May of 1940, the Germans took control of the Fabrique Nationale (FN) factory in Herstal. Not letting the world-class arms manufacturing go to waste, the Germans resumed production of a few key arms and incorporated them into their own weapons supply. Among those was the Belgian "Grande Puissance", or GP35.

Grande Puissance" meaning High Power in French. This nomenclature is most often attribution to the pistol's high capacity of 13, an extraordinary amount for its day.

The German designation for the Hi-Power was Pistole 640(b), the "b" being for Belgium. The initial German pistols were simply captured Belgian production but quickly new production under German control commenced. There are a few variations of German Hi-Powers, the first being pistols with tangent rear sights and a slot in the grip for attaching a stock. The next variant is pistols with the tangent rear sight but no slot. The last variant is the most common, seen here, with a fixed rear sight.

Even under German occupation, the slides were marked with their standard commercial markings, including the acknowledgement of the use of Browning's Patents.

The largest give-away that a pistol was made under German occupation is the usage of Nazi eagle proof marks and waffenamt stampings. WaA140 being the waffenamt code found on this particular pistol. These markings were stamped by hand at various stages of production and are often imperfectly done.

There are three main serial numbers on German Hi-Powers: on the frame, slide, and barrel. Notice how on this example the frame number is very close, only two off from the others.

The scallop cut out on the slide is meant to make disassembly of the pistol easier. When the slide is in lined up for disassemble, the cutout lines up perfectly.

The Germans omitted the magazine safety around the middle of 1943. This omission improves the trigger pull and enables the magazine to fall free from the pistol by simply pressing the magazine release.

The Hi-Power's safety is on the small side for a pistol of it's size. Using it is more of a deliberate action than on other pistol's such as the M1911A1.

When activated, the safety locks the slide, a carry-over from previous Browning designs. The safety makes carrying this pistol in "Condition 1" possible. Again, it's small size makes it a very deliberate action to push it down with the thumb before firing. Probably a safety over usability mindset when this was developed.

Hi-Powers are a very collectible part of milsurp handguns and I would recommend them to anyone looking for a neat addition to their collection. From pre-war FN contracts to stocked Chinese Inglis pistols, Hi-Powers offer a surprising variety within just one design.