Browning High Power: High Browning High Power

Browning High Power Pistol

When you pick up a Browning High Power, the bulky size of the butt grip is instantly obvious. Inside is a double-row magazine containing 13 rounds, just one short of twice the magazine capacity of the famous Colt .45 M1911. The Browning was the first pistol to have such a large magazine, and this has been one of the main reasons for its success as a miliary weapon and for its popularity with soldiers.

Safe and reliable

John Browning began the gun that bears his name shortly after he had designed the Colt M1911. The High Power was of simpler construction but retains the reliability and safety of the Colt. Three major design changes were made, of which the most significant was the adoption of a cam system to lock the breech. A forged lump was positioned underneath the chamber and a shaped cam path cut into it. This engaged with a cross pin in the pistol frame, so that as the slide and barrel recoiled after firing, the cam, riding on the cross pin, drew the rear end of the barrel down and freed it from the slide. This is more linear than the curving movement involved in the "swinging link" system used in the Colt.

The second major change was the replacement of the stirrup that connected the trigger with the hammer with a connecting bar that was mounted in the slide, and so doubled as a disconnector. Only when the slide was properly forward and the breech securely locked was the trigger connected to the striker. In his original design for the High Power, Browning replaced the external hammer of the Colt with an internal firing pin driven by a spring.

Perhaps the most remarkable change was in caliber. Long before anyone had really studied the matter, Browning had realized that 9-mm Parabellum was going to be the most important pistol cartridge of the future, and he designed his new gun around it. Today, this cartridge is universally employed and manufactured all over the world.

Belgian development

Browning took his pistol design to Fabrique Nationale in Belgium in 1923, and continued to work on it until his death in November 1926. Thereafter, development was in the hands of Dieudonne Saive, FN's chief designer, and much of the final form of the pistol is due to him rather than to Browning. One of his first moves was to develop the double-row magazine, giving (for those days) the unprecedented ammunition capacity of 13 shots. In this respect, Browning's 'transfer bar' trigger connection was most fortunate, because it would never have worked with the stirrup connection. Saive's other good idea was to remove the internal striker and fit an external hammer, which makes it instantly obvious whether your pistol is cocked.

Grand Puissance

The name 'High Power' conjures up an image of a pistol of awesome strength but the Browning is not a monstrous magnum automatic. The title is a translation of 'Grand Puissance', the name given to it by the Belgium army, which adopted it in 1935. It was simply much more powerful than anything the Belgians had used before. Its official designation was 'Model 35' pistol'.

Both sides used the Browning during World War II. Some 56,000 weapons had been produced prior to the German occupation of Belgium and the Germans manufactured 329,000 under the designiation 'Pistole 640(b)'.

However, Saive and some of his design staff escaped from Belgium and settled in Britain, where they were soon employed at the Royal Small-Arms Factory, Enfield. The British were interested in the High Power and, although the records are vague, there seems little doubt that a small number of pistols were made in Enfield in 1941: there is a record of a 'Pistol, Browning (FN) Automatic Mark 1 (UK)', formal approval for which was officially cancelled in April 1945.

Chinese model

In 1942 the Chinese army, now allied with Britain against Japan, wanted to be supplied with the High Power. The British passed their request to a Canadian gun manufacturer, John Inglis of Toronto. But unfortunately the original drawings of the pistol vanished during the attempt to smuggle them across Occupied France and out to England, so the Inglis design office had to obtain six pistols from China and 'reverse engineer' them, producing drawings from the dismantled pistols.

The Chinese design incorporated a Mark 1'. After a short production run some small changes were made in the design of the extractor and ejector and in some components of the trigger mechanism in order to ensure complete interchangeability, and the pistols were then 'Mark 1*'. Inglis produced 151,816 pistols before ceasing manufacture in September 1945.

Back to Belgium

After the war FN began production at Liege in Belgium once again, calling the pistol the 'Model 1946' for military sales and the 'High Power' for commercial sales. After their wartime experience the British, Australian, and Canadian armies adopted it as their standard service pistol, and their example was rapidly followed by other armies, so that it is now in miliary service in some 55 countries. It has also been manufactured under license in Argentina and Indonesia, and an identical copy is made in Hungary.

Getting old

In the 1990s, it must be admitted, the High Power is feeling its age, and apart from the 13-shot magazine has very little in common with the more modern pistols that now challenge its position in the market. But the fact that it has been in service for so long proves its reliabiity as a miliary weapon. It is accurate, easy to master, and, apart from a somewhat 'sticky' trigger pull, has no vices. It is now manufactured in the 'Mark 2' version which has slightly different grip plates and an ambidextrous safety catch.

Added:  Saturday, April 08, 2006
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