Submachine gun of the Polish underground: Bechowiec
During the Second World War, an extensive network of armed underground operated in Poland.
The most numerous underground Polish military organizations were the Craiova Army, the Peasant Battalions and the Ludov Guard (later the Ludov Army). All of them experienced problems with the supply of small arms during the war years. weapons and ammunition and tried to solve them by any means available.
So, in the Peasant Battalions there was a unique self-taught blacksmith without an engineering education, who managed to design a submachine gun in military conditions.
The weapon was released in a tiny batch of only 11-12 copies.
However, the very fact of its creation is very interesting.
At least one sample of this handicraft submachine gun has survived to this day, which is stored in the Museum of the Polish Army in Warsaw.
Creator of the Bechowiec submachine gun
Surprisingly, a submachine gun for the Polish resistance movement was designed by a man who, at first glance, is far from firearms.
It was in its own way a brilliant self-taught designer Henryk Strąpoć with the pseudonym "The Seagull". Before the war, he managed to finish only six grades of elementary school, lived in the countryside and had never seen an automatic weapon before.
Henrik Stronpoch was born on March 13, 1921 (according to other sources - 1922) in the small village of Chervona Gura, Opatow County, part of the Kielce Voivodeship, into a simple peasant family.
Today, the city of Kielce, located 170 kilometers from Warsaw, is the center of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship in the southeast of the country.
From childhood, Henrik was fond of technology and blacksmithing.
Talents began to appear already in childhood.
At the age of 15 Henrik designed the first self-loading pistol. He modeled it on a Belgian FN Browning M1900 pistol that a relative had shown him. The young man, having examined the weapon, managed to disassemble it and assemble it correctly. Most likely, Henrik had a photographic memory and an outstanding technical talent.
On this baggage of knowledge with a peasant education and a complete inability to read technical drawings, the young man created his first pistol literally on his knee. He had no access to a locksmith, let alone a weapons workshop.
Young Kulibin brought his invention to school, where the gun was safely taken away from him, and the police who came home explained that the manufacture and storage of weapons was prohibited.
At the same time, the school director appreciated the student's talent and wanted to recommend him to continue his education at a vocational school, but these plans did not materialize.
Finally, all plans for vocational training were buried by the Second World War that began on September 1, 1939, which reached the places where Henrik Stronpoch lived in just a few weeks. At the same time, the voivodeship occupied by the Germans was restless, since Polish partisan detachments of various political orientations very quickly began to form here.
In 1942 Henrik also joined the partisan movement.
Largely because of his background, he chose the Peasant Battalions (Battaliony Chłopskie). It was the second largest Polish underground organization, which at the peak of its power united more than 170 fighters operating in about 300 independent units. At the same time, Stronpoch was an active combat member of the organization, initially joining it with his personal weapon - a self-loading pistol.
Having joined the Peasant Battalions, he took the call sign "Chaika", very soon becoming a liaison officer of an underground organization in his native Opatow county.
In the partisan detachment, Henrik did what he knew how to do well - he was responsible for the repair and repair of weapons, and also engaged in the manufacture of homemade grenades.
Already in the fall of 1942, on the instructions of the command, the former peasant blacksmith began to create a submachine gun. The Polish underground was in dire need of such weapons.
Development of a submachine gun for Polish partisans
Submachine guns were the most sought-after weapon among partisan detachments due to their relatively small size and high firepower. These weapons, unlike rifles, could be hidden under a raincoat or coat, which was also important for the underground.
At the same time, the Polish resistance movement experienced a huge shortage of any small arms. The partisans had at their disposal only a few captured MP-40s and its variants and the "Walls", which were dropped along with other weapons and equipment of the British aviation.
At the same time, by that time, Henrik Stronpoch had only theoretical knowledge about automatic weapons. Despite this, based in many respects only on visual representations of submachine guns, the self-taught designer launched active work in the smithy of his brother.
The barrel, which was the most difficult to make in artisanal conditions, was taken from old 7,9-mm rifles that had survived from the First World War. The barrel was shortened to the required length and bored for a 9mm pistol cartridge.
Among other things, Henrik had to make his own tools for creating weapons.
The first submachine gun, which Stronpoch made completely by hand, was ready in the spring of 1943. At the same time, the shooting of the model and the demonstration to the command of the Peasant Battalions took place.
To the surprise of everyone, including the designer himself, the sample was quite working, giving only a few minor delays during the tests.
Further, the weapon fell into the hands of the draftsman Jan Svat, who worked at a steel plant in the nearby town of Ostrowiec-Swietokrzyski. Swat literally fell in love with a unique sample, quickly making a set of drawings for mass production based on the presented model.
The manufacture of parts for weapons took place at enterprises controlled by the Germans. This seriously hindered the deployment of full-fledged mass production.
From blanks secretly prepared at the factory according to the drawings of Jan Swat, 11 submachine guns with the BH brand were assembled. According to one version, there should have been the designation BCH (short for Bataliony Chłopskie), but there was no stamp with the letter “C” at the enterprise. So the designation BH remained on the submachine guns, and they themselves received the nickname Bechowiec.
A total of 11 factory-built submachine guns and one hand-built Stronpoch prototype were assembled.
The plant still had blanks for the production of at least a dozen submachine guns, but the approach of the front in the second half of 1944 made the manufacture of weapons impractical.
It is believed that the cost of each submachine gun was approximately 6 thousand occupation zlotys. These funds were spent on transportation, production and bribes for the protection of enterprises.
Features of the Bechowiec submachine gun
Most of the manufactured Bechowiec submachine guns were created under the 9x19 mm pistol cartridge, but the last three copies were assembled under the Soviet cartridge from the TT pistol 7,62x25 mm, which by that time had also become quite massive among the Polish partisans.
The submachine guns were fed from box magazines designed for 32 rounds.
An interesting feature was the presence of 13 holes on the front wall of the magazine, which made it possible to control the consumption of ammunition.
This was not the only interesting detail in the design of the submachine gun, which was created in artisanal conditions by a blacksmith without technical education.
The concept of the Bechowiec submachine gun was more reminiscent of self-loading pistols, with which Stronpoch was much more familiar. A casing was pushed onto the frame with a receiving window for the store in front of the handle, in which the bolt was fixed, which moved back and forth when firing.
A similar design of submachine guns with a trigger-type trigger was very unusual at that time.
An interesting innovation was the possibility of cocking weapons using a carrying strap. Such an idea would be implemented again only a quarter of a century later on the Austrian submachine gun Steyr MP 69.
Although Henrik Stronpoch obviously wanted to make the weapon as simple as possible, some of the elements were too complex for a wartime model that was going to be handicraft.
Stronpoch equipped his submachine gun with a flag switch for firing modes (single / automatic), which also served as a fuse, which could be switched with the thumb. Such an idea was also drawn to the innovative, although it was quite possible to do without it to simplify the model.
An important advantage of the submachine gun was its low weight - only 2,43 kg without a magazine, 2,83 kg with a magazine.
At the same time, the length of the weapon did not exceed 455 mm, and the length of the barrel - 240 mm.
The most effective submachine gun could be used at a distance of up to 100 meters.
The compact dimensions were well suited for concealed carrying of weapons, and the rate of fire of 650 rounds per minute provided the necessary density of fire.
The weapon could be used effectively from forest ambushes and in urban combat.
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