The first Finnish pistols
Renowned Finnish radio commentator Enzo Sevon is reporting from the front. In his left hand is an FN Model 1910 pistol. (Source SA-kuva)
never overkill
even when
every doubt sleeps.
William Shakespeare
When it comes to Finnish pistols, that is, pistols designed in Finland, the Lahti L-35 is usually remembered. Meanwhile, Aimo Lahti was not the first or even the second in the list of Finnish pistol designers. He was third. Moreover, when considering the issue, serious doubts arise that Lahti created his pistol "from scratch".
But more on that later.
First try
The Finns made their first attempt to acquire a pistol of their own production literally at the dawn of independent Finnish statehood - in 1918.
The newly created army had to be armed with something, including pistols, and the audit of the inherited "inheritance" showed that the Finns got a lot of pistols, only "a lot" in this case meant not the number of pistols, but the number of pistol samples. The score was literally dozens. Moreover, along with such famous pistols as the Luger P08 or FN-Browning M1910, there were completely exotic samples like the German Lignose Einhand, Jager Pistole or the Belgian Melior from Manufacture Liegeoise d'Armes a Feu Robar et Cie.
The Jager pistol, developed in 1914 by Franz Jager & Co, Suhl, which is famous for the production of hunting weapons... Produced from 1914 to 1917. Caliber 7,65 mm, weight without cartridges 650 grams, magazine capacity - 7 cartridges. The pistol is interesting in that most of its parts were made by stamping. However, at that time, such a progressive technology frightened off the military, and the pistol was in circulation only on the civilian market..
Providing such a motley arsenal with spare parts and ammunition is a non-trivial task for a country with developed weapons production. And in Finland, which has existed for less than a year, even more so.
Several private firms, where it was possible to place orders, coped with the task with difficulty. Among them was Ab H. Ahlberg & Co Oy from Turku. Hugo Ahlberg, a graduate engineer, was the director and shareholder of the firm. The enterprise, which produced internal combustion engines and metalworking equipment, had at its disposal a sufficiently modern machine park for its time, foundry and blacksmith production, and even electric welding equipment. During the war, the firm already fulfilled some orders for the Russian Ministry of War for the manufacture of spare parts for small arms, including machine gun locks.
Hugo Ahlberg. Unfortunately, story did not even keep a high-quality photograph of the creator of the first Finnish pistol.
Having understood the problem, Ahlberg offered the military department the most optimal, in his opinion, solution - to produce an unlicensed copy of the FN-Browning M1910 at his enterprise, and even presented a prototype of such a product.
The Finnish military agreed and signed a contract with Ahlberg for 1 of these pistols in September 000. The only significant change was made to the pistol - the barrel length was increased by fifteen millimeters and, accordingly, the bolt casing.
Left - FN-Browning M1910, right - AHLBERG pistol. The differences are clearly visible - the Finnish pistol has a longer barrel, wooden lining instead of plastic and low quality bluing.
But Ahlberg, as practice has shown, overestimated both the capabilities of his enterprise for the mass production of weapons, and his own - as a designer. According to the contract, the first 30 pistols were to be delivered by November 1918, but until February 1919 the company managed to present two (!) Pistols, moreover, there was even no bluing on the produced samples.
In February, things seemed to move, and seventy pistols were made, but ten of them were rejected. Fifty-eight were made in March, ten of them were rejected again. In addition, serious difficulties arose with the manufacture of stores and their assembly with springs.
By June 1919, about 600 pistols were manufactured, while the percentage of rejects remained at the original level. The following fact speaks well about the level of production - parts of different pistols were often not interchangeable.
The patience of the military department was exhausted, and the contract for 1 pistols was canceled, and the next one, which was being prepared for signing, for 000 pistols, was canceled. Desperate to get their own pistols, the Finns bought from the French 3 Pistolet Automatique de 000 millim.10 genre Ruby pistols, which were gathering dust in the warehouses.
Alberg managed to sell the manufactured pistols to the Finnish White Guard and the police, but this did not compensate for the financial costs. And besides, the chief accountant of the company was burned out by financial fraud, which finally finished off the company - it went bankrupt and was sold under the hammer.
During World War II, Alberg's pistols were transferred to the army and were in service with the rear services. By the end of the 1960s, the most worn out of the remaining 125 pieces had been disposed of, the rest were put up for sale to the military as souvenirs. Today this pistol is rare and rarity.
Alberg pistol. Caliber - 7,65 mm, weight without cartridges - 660 grams, length - 167 mm, barrel length - 102 mm, magazine capacity - 7 rounds.
(Source - Digitaltmuseum.se - original photo by Armémuseum (Sweden)
In short, the Finns' first pancake turned out to be clearly lumpy, and until the mid-1920s, no more attempts were made to establish their own production of pistols in Finland.
Second attempt
The Finnish Defense Ministry returned to this issue in 1926.
It was not planned to create our own design, they decided to release the Luger P08. The choice for this pistol was not accidental. At that time, the backbone of the Finnish officer corps were those who during the First World War served in the German army as part of the 27th Royal Prussian Jaeger Battalion, and the Luger P08 was well known to them.
The opportunity to consider the production of Luger P08 in series of 2, 000 and 5 pieces was offered to Lindelöfin konetehdas (Lindelöf Engineering Works).
At that time, this plant was one of the few in Finland that specialized in the production of ammunition and weapons. And its owner Leonard Lindelof, despite the fact that he had a master's degree in philosophy, was noted for several inventions in the field of weapons, including an improved Maxim machine gun lock.
However, a series of meetings held by representatives of the Ministry of Defense and the plant ended in vain. Lindelof did not take up the production of pistols. Maybe he soberly, unlike Alberg, assessed the capabilities of the enterprise, and perhaps there were other factors, but nevertheless the issue remained unresolved.
Then the head of the armaments department of the Ministry of Defense, Major Arvo Saloranta, makes a proposal to develop a pistol that would not be inferior in characteristics to the Luger P08, but would be simpler in design so that its production would be possible in Finland. Moreover, he undertook to develop this pistol himself.
Arvo Saloranta. He was one of the first Finnish officers to study in foreign educational institutions, having graduated from the military-technical department of the Royal Danish Military Academy. As a captain, he took up the colonel's position as head of the armaments department of the Ministry of Defense.
The design was based on two Saloranta pistols - Luger P08 and Bergman-Bayard. From Luger - the barrel, the handle, the magazine were taken, from Bergman-Bayard - the principle of operation of the automatics (using the recoil of the barrel with its short stroke), the design of the bolt and the locking unit. Locking was carried out by a wedge moving in a vertical plane.
Development took almost three years, and in early 1929 Saloranta, who had by then become director of the newly built state-owned arms factory Valtion Kivaari Tehdas (VKT), presented his pistol, a prototype of which was made at the Weapon School.
Salorant's pistol. Caliber 9 mm, weight without cartridges 1 105 grams, length 240 mm, barrel length 117 mm, magazine capacity 8 rounds.
The pistol functioned normally, but then the so-called "over-barrel scandal" broke out.
Briefly, the essence of this question is as follows.
By the mid-1920s, about 200 Mosin rifles with completely worn barrels had accumulated in the army warehouses of Finland by the mid-000s. It was not possible to produce such a number of new barrels within an acceptable time frame, either from the technical or financial point of view.
Then Saloranta suggested using the "Salerno method." This method was used by the Italians during the First World War to remake the M1870 Vetterli rifles, which had a 10,4 mm caliber chambered for the 6,5 × 52 mm Carcano cartridge. For this, the old barrel was drilled out and a liner for a new caliber was installed in it. The chamber also underwent a corresponding alteration.
Thus, during 1917-1925, 14 rifle barrels and 940 barrels for the Maxim machine gun were restored.
A scandal arose around these trunks.
The first commission, which checked the quality of the remanufactured barrels, recognized 15% as suitable, the rest - either unusable at all, or requiring revision. Three years later, a new commission was assembled. Its conclusions were even more disastrous - only 14% of the trunks were recognized as suitable, and 51% were completely unusable.
The case was taken to court. Saloranta was found guilty and sentenced to 20 days in prison and a fine of 1,34 million Finnish marks (approximately 450 euros in current prices), in addition to being accused of unauthorized changes to the drawings of the Lahti machine gun.
He was removed from the post of director of VKT and transferred to the insignificant position of head of the Weapon School, having been removed from all developments, including the development of a pistol.
True, in 1938, when clouds began to gather over the Finns, the rejected trunks were rechecked again. And it turned out that they are quite suitable for themselves. Salorant was acquitted and the money paid to him was returned, but the time was up.
Third attempt
And the development of the pistol was not puzzled by anyone, but Aimo Lahti.
Lahti fully justified the high confidence placed in him in the creation of a Finnish pistol and literally a few weeks later delivered a ready-made sample - L-29.
The Lahti L-29 pistol is strikingly similar to the Saloranta pistol, not only externally, but also “internally”, and very similar.
In the upper picture is the Saloranta pistol, in the lower one is the Lahti pistol. As you can see, the device is identical. The same grip and barrel are from the Luger P08, and the automation and bolt group are from Bergman-Bayard. Locking with a wedge moving in a vertical plane. As we can see, there is no accelerator yet. It will appear much later, on the L-35.
There is no documentary evidence that Lahti "borrowed" the design from Salorant. Saloranta did not complain about plagiarism, Lahti, accordingly, did not admit it. But the relationship between them, as Finnish historians write, have never been friendly.
Well, Lahti from L-29 to L-35, about which there was an article recently on the pages of the website "Voennoye Obozreniye", took another six years of hard work.
This article is based on this book.
The three-volume edition Small Arms of Finland. 1918-1988 ". The publication is truly comprehensive. Hence, most of the illustrations, because they are black and white.
Использованная литература:
Sotilaskäsiaseet Suomessa 1918-1988 / Military Small Arms in Finland 1918-1988 by Markku Palokangas.
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