Błyskawica submachine gun
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The Błyskawica (
Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...
: 'lightning') was a submachine gunhttp://www.cruffler.com/trivia-October00.html. produced by the Armia Krajowa, or Home Army, a Polish
resistance movement A resistance movement is an organized effort by some portion of the civil population of a country to withstand the legally established government or an occupying power and to disrupt civil order and stability. It may seek to achieve its objective ...
fighting the
Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...
in
occupied Poland ' ( Norwegian: ') is a Norwegian political thriller TV series that premiered on TV2 on 5 October 2015. Based on an original idea by Jo Nesbø, the series is co-created with Karianne Lund and Erik Skjoldbjærg. Season 2 premiered on 10 Octobe ...
. Together with a Polish version of the
Sten The STEN (or Sten gun) is a family of British submachine guns chambered in 9×19mm which were used extensively by British and Commonwealth forces throughout World War II and the Korean War. They had a simple design and very low production cos ...
sub-machine gun, with which it shares some design elements, it was the only weapon mass-produced covertly in occupied Europe during World War II.


History

In 1942 engineer Wacław Zawrotny proposed to the Armia Krajowa command that he and his colleagues prepare a project of a cheap, home-made
machine pistol A machine pistol is an autoloading pistol capable of fully automatic fire. The term can also be used to describe a stockless handgun-style submachine gun. The term is a calque of ''Maschinenpistole'', the German word for submachine guns. Ma ...
for use by the Polish resistance. Its main feature was its simplicity, so that the weapon could be made even in small workshops, by inexperienced engineers. The idea was accepted, and Zawrotny, together with his colleague Seweryn Wielanier, prepared a project of a sub-machine gun, soon afterward named (Polish for 'lightning'). To allow for easier production, all parts of the weapon were joined together with screws and threads rather than bolts and
welding Welding is a fabrication process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by using high heat to melt the parts together and allowing them to cool, causing fusion. Welding is distinct from lower temperature techniques such as bra ...
, which were commonly used in firearm production since the 17th century. The design was based on two of the most popular submachine guns of the era. The external construction with a retractable butt and magazine mounted below the gun was borrowed from the successful German
MP 40 The MP 40 (''Maschinenpistole 40'') is a submachine gun chambered for the 9×19mm Parabellum cartridge. It was developed in Nazi Germany and used extensively by the Axis powers during World War II. Designed in 1938 by Heinrich Vollmer with in ...
. The internal design of the mechanism was modeled after the British
Sten The STEN (or Sten gun) is a family of British submachine guns chambered in 9×19mm which were used extensively by British and Commonwealth forces throughout World War II and the Korean War. They had a simple design and very low production cos ...
. The blowback action with an open bolt offered good performance and high reliability. Unlike the Sten, and its Polish clone called the Polski Sten, it employed a free-floating
firing pin A firing pin or striker is a part of the firing mechanism of a firearm that impacts the primer in the base of a cartridge and causes it to fire. In firearms terminology, a striker is a particular type of firing pin where a compressed spring ...
and two springs behind the bolt – one served as the return spring and the other as the buffer spring (similar to the later Sterling submachine gun). The weapon was designed in this fashion so that resistance army members could use any captured stocks of German MP40 ammunition cartridges. The documentation was ready by April 1943, and by September a prototype was ready. After extensive tests in the forests outside of
Zielonka Zielonka is a town in Wołomin County, Masovian Voivodeship, Poland, with 17,398 inhabitants (2013). It is located about 13 km to the north-east of the centre of Warsaw. Zielonka borders Warsaw and several other towns of the Warsaw metrop ...
near
Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
, the weapon was presented to the commanding officer of the
KeDyw ''Kedyw'' (, partial acronym of ''Kierownictwo Dywersji'' ("Directorate of Diversion") was a Polish World War II Home Army unit that conducted active and passive sabotage, propaganda and armed operations against Nazi German forces and collabora ...
, August Emil Fieldorf, who found the design acceptable. In November the plans were sent to a number of workshops spread throughout occupied Poland and a serial production run was initiated. The name was coined after the three lightning bolts carved on the prototype by its designers, pre-war workers of the
Elektrit Elektrit Radiotechnical Society ( pl, Towarzystwo Radiotechniczne „ELEKTRIT”) was the largest privately owned company in Wilno, Second Republic of Poland (now Vilnius, Lithuania) (1925–39). With over 1100 workers, the society produced appr ...
company that used a similar logo. The production started in a workshop officially producing metal fence nets in Warsaw. After the tests of a prototype series of five pistols, the
KeDyw ''Kedyw'' (, partial acronym of ''Kierownictwo Dywersji'' ("Directorate of Diversion") was a Polish World War II Home Army unit that conducted active and passive sabotage, propaganda and armed operations against Nazi German forces and collabora ...
ordered 1000, and later an additional 300. Until July 1944 and the start of
Operation Tempest file:Akcja_burza_1944.png, 210px, right Operation Tempest ( pl, akcja „Burza”, sometimes referred to in English as "Operation Storm") was a series of uprisings conducted during World War II against occupying German forces by the Polish Home ...
roughly 600 pieces were built in Warsaw. During the
Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising ( pl, powstanie warszawskie; german: Warschauer Aufstand) was a major World War II operation by the Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occurred in the summer of 1944, and it was led ...
an additional 40 were built. It is also possible that the Błyskawica was also produced in small quantities outside of Warsaw.


Bibliography

*Kazimierz Satora, ''Produkcja Uzbrojenia w Polskim Ruch Oporu 1939–45'', Warsaw 1985 *Kazimierz Satora, ''Podziemne zbrojownie polskie 1939–1944'', Dom Wydawniczy Bellona, Warsaw 2001


See also

*
KIS (weapon) KIS was the name of a Polish submachine gun from the time of the Second World War. It was designed and manufactured by engineers in Jan Piwnik's "Ponury" ("Grim") partisan group that was operating in Holy Cross Mountains region. The weapon was ...


References


External links


The Blyskawica and Polish Sten guns

Argentine copy of the Blyskawica made by Hafdasa

Błyskawica SMG at Forgotten Weapons
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blyskawica Submachine Gun World War II submachine guns Submachine guns of Poland Science and technology in Poland 9mm Parabellum submachine guns Insurgency weapons