A submachine gun... unlike anything else
A one-of-a-kind Vaclav Holek ZB47 submachine gun. East Bohemian Museum at Pardubice Castle in Pardubice
“Czech variety” – excellent light beer
with Zatec hops and slight bitterness.
A glass of Czech with meat sausages –
This is an option when you want to relax
after a hard day and relax.
We remind you that for this type of foam
There is a 2+1 promotion.
We are waiting for you in our store!”
Modern advertising of one of the Russian stores
with Zatec hops and slight bitterness.
A glass of Czech with meat sausages –
This is an option when you want to relax
after a hard day and relax.
We remind you that for this type of foam
There is a 2+1 promotion.
We are waiting for you in our store!”
Modern advertising of one of the Russian stores
stories about weapons. Good beer is made today in the Czech Republic. I tried it, and on the spot. And there it is much better than what we released under the same brands! But the Czech Republic was famous not only for beer. In the middle of the XNUMXth century, weapons produced in Czechoslovak factories could rightly be considered among the most advanced models in the whole world.
Being occupied by Germany, the Czech Republic became the forge of the Third Reich. Well, the quality of its products at that time and the level of production is evidenced by the fact that back in 1940, on the basis of the Zbrojovka Brno (ZB) arms concern, the Germans created the SS Weapons Academy (SS-WafTenakademie), which, based on Czech experience, began to train specialists - gunsmiths for Greater Germany.
Czech submachine guns from the book by Jaroslav Lugz, German reprint 1984. Pp. 332
The defeat of Germany in 1945 did not in any way affect the work of Czech designers, who already in 1946-1948 presented the new government with about 30 projects of just new submachine guns, designed to use both German 9x19 Parabellum pistol cartridges and Soviet 7,62x25 TT.
Vaclav Holek (1886–1954)
And it was precisely among them that the ZB47 “Cholek” submachine gun, designed by Vaclav Holek, appeared.
In his native Czech village*, where he was born, Vaclav already as a child worked as an assistant to a local blacksmith, who also repaired hunting rifles. The guy was interested in this work, and he, like John Moses Browning, made several guns on his own, assembling them from parts from weapons that could not be repaired.
He was fascinated by the profession of a gunsmith, and he entered a vocational school in the city of Pisek, in Bohemia, where there were many weapons workshops and educational institutions of the corresponding specialization.
Vaclav Holek's ZB47 submachine gun with its magazine. East Bohemian Museum at Pardubice Castle in Pardubice
After completing his studies, V. Holek worked first in Vienna, then from 1910 in Prague, as an employee of Jan Novotny’s company, which produced very high-quality hunting rifles. So Kholek had someone to learn from and something to improve his technical skills on.
Well, he decided to try himself as a designer in 1921, introducing the Prague 1921 self-loading pistol. Following this, he designed the ZB26 light machine gun, which formed the basis for the most famous British light machine gun of World War II, the Bran. It was followed by the vz heavy machine gun. 37, which in the same England was produced under the name Besa and was used in the same way to arm the Czechoslovak tankswho fought against the USSR.
He did not express any protest against the occupation of Czechoslovakia by German troops, but he did not create any new projects during the war. He didn’t join the partisans, but he wasn’t particularly zealous at work either.
Disassembly of ZB47. East Bohemian Museum at Pardubice Castle in Pardubice
But Kholek’s machine guns fought everywhere, and whoever was not armed with them: the German Wehrmacht, the Finns, partisans and nationalists of all stripes, from the Croatian Ustasha to the Yugoslav “titushki”, Chetniks, Lithuanian “forest brothers”, OUN-UPA fighters and the Chinese from the Kuomintang army.
In the post-war period, Kholek machine guns continued to be actively used in China, South America, the Middle East and Africa, and in North Korea they can even be seen on monuments!
ZB47, equipped with a wooden stock. East Bohemian Museum at Pardubice Castle in Pardubice
But Kholek’s most, so to speak, original weapon, created immediately after the war, was the ZB47 submachine gun, intended for arming tank crews.
The pistol grip was made from a hole in the rear of the receiver. But the box magazine with a capacity of 72 rounds of 9x19 mm caliber was not noticeable at all, since it was entirely hidden in the receiver.
Many accused Kholek of being apolitical. Like, he worked for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and for independent Czechoslovakia, and for the German Reich, and then for socialist Czechoslovakia.
But, on the other hand, it is quite possible that he simply loved his job, and he simply... didn’t give a damn about all these political conditions, parties and ideologies!
Store location. Scheme from “Manual ZB47 “Kholek”
Well, now we will briefly interrupt our story about Kholek himself and his submachine gun, for the sake of a little reference to the past.
And it so happened that for the first time I happened to see an image of a total PP in 1984 in a book on small arms published in the GDR. Moreover, this was a reissue of the book by Jaroslav Lugz, published by the publishing house “Our Army” in Prague in 1956.
Naturally, a lot of attention was paid to Czech and Austrian weapons, and it was there on the page dedicated to Czech submachine guns of the war and post-war era that his image with a wooden and folding metal butt was placed.
Of course, I was very interested in learning more about such a strange-looking weapon, but in those early years it was, of course, impossible to do this.
I was able to satisfy my interest only in our days. Moreover, I managed to get not only color photographs, but also a “Manual” on ZB47 in Czech, which, among other things, that is, technical data, turned out to be a very interesting publication from the point of view of... advertising! This is something that is simply impossible to see in our “manuals” on handling weapons.
Automatic operation diagram: at the top – the bolt and pusher lever at the maximum distance from the chamber and magazine; below - the bolt goes forward, the lever rests on the feed gear
Automatic operation diagram: at the top - the pusher lever turned the feeder gear, and it brought the cartridge to the chambering line; below - the bolt, continuing to move, sends the cartridge into the chamber
Well, now you can turn directly to the technical structure of this submachine gun.
From the very beginning, its designer wanted to create a weapon with an exceptionally capacious magazine, without resorting to installing either a round drum magazine or a flat box magazine on it. And all because, with a standard location under the fore-end or barrel, it would be too long.
72 rounds in a flat magazine - that's something!
That's why he placed it in the butt so that the cartridges in it were in a vertical position, and there were not 20, not 30 or 32, but... 72 - a kind of record for submachine guns with a flat, pistol-type magazine!
This is how this submachine gun had to be held on a belt near the waist
And this is how to hold it while shooting
The feed mechanism was originally designed.
The free bolt, like most submachine guns, had a pusher lever in the front. When moving forward after rolling back after a shot, with this lever he activated the feeder, which had the appearance of a four-tooth gear, to which the magazine was pressed closely and, accordingly, the next cartridge located on its feeder.
The lever was pushed by the feeder, which with one of its teeth grabbed the cartridge from the magazine and raised it to a position in which the bolt, which continued to move forward, pushed it into the chamber.
Well, then everything happened as usual: the shot is fired, the bolt goes back, removes the empty cartridge case from the barrel, throws it out, after which the whole cycle is repeated. To start shooting, it was necessary to turn the cartridge feed mechanism, and then cock the bolt using the handle on the right.
Changing the magazine: the fighter on the left – removes, the fighter on the right – inserts
True, it is quite possible that it was precisely this unusualness that let this submachine gun down. In any case, despite the “advertising booklet”, which, in fact, was a “manual” on its use, it was not adopted by the Czech army.
The military liked another model - ZK476 by V. Kholechek, F. Myshka, J. Kratochvil and V. Zibar with a magazine in the pistol grip. In 1948 it was put into service under the name “9 mm samopal vz. 48a" (with a wooden butt), and vz. 48b (with side folding metal stock)**. Moreover, although it was a very modern example of such a weapon for that time, it still did not have such a capacious magazine!
But these are advertising “pictures” that will not leave anyone indifferent. In theory... Here a certain bearded oriental person in a turban is armed with a Kholek submachine gun!
It can also come in handy in banana thickets!
And, of course, it will be useful to a soldier in the bamboo thickets!
On this page are all his technical characteristics and a drawing of a policeman from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police with a ZB47 in a holster near the saddle. Why not?
This drawing finished me off: el gaucho in a sombrero and with a ZB47 – that’s absolutely something!
And the last picture (very touching): the prisoners in the quarry are working, moving stones, and the guard is sitting and watching over them. ZB47 is in its place here too! This is where the 72-round magazine comes in especially handy. There are a lot of prisoners. What if they run...
* The Czech Republic at that time was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
** In the spring of 1950, the Czechoslovak Army changed the name of these submachine guns: which became known as Sa 23 and Sa 25. In 1951, they were converted to the Soviet 7,62x25 mm TT cartridge and became known as Sa 24 and Sa 26, respectively.
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