John Moses Browning (1855-1926) (pictured with his famous semiautomatic shotgun Auto-5) was the greatest inventor in the history of firearms. His field of interest was very wide-from a vest pocket pistol (mod. 1906 and Baby Browning) in 6,35 mm (.25 ACP) to heavy machine gun in 12,7 mm caliber (.50 Browning). HP 35 (High Power) or GP 35 (Grand Puissance) was the latest of the Browning designs, although, it was not (completely) the product of ingenious J.M. Browning.
The second prototype
In that time (beginning of the 20 century) Browning’s pistols were made in Belgium by the famous Belgium firm FN (Fabrique National) because Colt had no interest for making a self-loading pistols whatsoever (revolver was still #1 then). The idea for heavy-duty 9mm pistol was born in 1920’s (in that time French ministry of war opened a contest for a new service pistol in 9 mm caliber) so John and his brother Ed decided to take a shot. In theirs work shop in Ogden (Utah, USA) after few weeks they finished two prototypes. The second (left) was a forerunner of the Hi-Power (it had a 15 round double-column magazine, first time in the history).
The locking system was the same as on the final version: the barrel with its twin lugs which engage with recesses in the upper part - the breech is locked. After the shot was fired, the barrel and the slide are moving together for 5 mm, then the lower part of the barrel (under the chamber) engages the cross bar in the main frame which force the barrel to move down and unlocks the breech.
The slide is now free, and it’s moving backwards ejecting an empty case. This locking system is very reliable and robust, and it’s in use by many different pistols (i.e. SIG-Sauer 22X series uses the same principle in locking a breech, although it has no lugs on the barrel nor any recesses in the slide).
The FN was very interested in that second prototype, so John’s son Val went to Belgium to work on the project. Soon, as the result came the mod.1922 which was patented in 1927 three months after death of J.M. Browning.
Mod. 1923 Grand Reudement
This model on the left is mod. 1923 it was a shorter version of the mod. 1922 with only few changes:
- external hammer
- manual safety
- magazine safety (you can’t fire the pistol without the magazine in the butt)
- simplification of disassembling
The man deserving for these changes was Dieudonne J. Saive, the chief engineer in FN.
In 1925 the French commission has tested mod. 1923, and they were very pleased, but Dieudonne J. Saive had to improve some parts of the construction:
- pistol was still to big and heavy, so he had to “cut” its slide and barrel along with the butt and of course the magazine (capacity was reduced from 15 to 13).
- magazine had no holes, so it was impossible for shooter to visually check the number of rounds left. In a further development of the pistol, Saive was combining the solutions on Colt’s 1911 A1 (Browning constructed it for the Colt Co.) and FN’s mod. 1923.
Model 1928
As the result of that development came out the mod. 1928 (left). It had a straight butt and a rounded hammer (European style). The breech was an integral part of the slide, not a separate part-like on the earlier models. The barrel and the recoil spring were joined like on the Colt’s 1911. During 1929 mod.1928 was changed: the butt was rounded again and the slide stop was refined.
The new Model (mod. 1929) was very close to the final version. The French obviously were not interested in Belgium weapon although FN’s mod. was highly rated, the inferior French MAS 1932 type B#3 has won the competition.
In 1934 mod. 1929 was slightly changed and that version was called the High Power. Since then millions of HP’s have been produced by various manufacturers besides FN, and HP 35 become standard sidearm in many countries (over 50). And even now it is the standard pistol in the SAS - I think that I don’t have to say anything more.
Browning HP 35 is still in production and there are five models that are still available. I’m hoping that this magnificent weapon will stay with us for a long, long time!
