By Frank Iannamico

One of the most famous military pistols of all time is arguably the P.08 Luger. The Luger has often been recognized as the standard issue handgun of the German Wehrmacht. The Luger was actually the standard German pistol of World War One and issued in great numbers during that conflict. Although the Luger continued to be manufactured during the Second World War, the P.38 was the predominant German pistol from 1940 to 1945. The double action P.38 was much better suited for military use than the labor intensive Luger. The P.38 was issued to all branches of the German military during the war. The Germans used a large variety of handguns during WWII. Other pistols issued to the German troops like the Belgium Browning Hi-Power and the Polish Radom were produced by forced labor in countries that the Nazis had occupied.

Walther Waffenfabrik of Zella-Mehlis designed and developed the P.38. The P.38 was preceded by two prototypes; the MP Militar Pistole and AP Armee Pistole, both of these designs were rejected by the German Army. The Walther Company had been briefly closed shortly after the conclusion of WWI because of the restrictive treaty of Versailles that disallowed the Germans from developing or manufacturing firearms. The company reopened in 1920 and began to produce handguns for the civilian and police market. During the 1930s many militant groups within Germany were secretly rearming in preparation for a revolution against the countries that had plunged the country into post war chaos. Walther, like most other German firearm manufacturers, was quietly developing weapons for the military. The P.38 double-action design was patented in January of 1938. The prewar P.38s were offered as the Heeres Pistol or HP model and sold on the civilian market. The HP was beautifully fitted and finished. The pistol was offered and exported to quite a few countries including the United States. The Walther pistol was offered in several calibers including 9mm, 7.62 Parabellum (.30 Luger) and .45 ACP. The retail price of the HP pistol was quite expensive and few were sold.

The P.38 was the third production double-action pistol design built by Walther (the P.38 was preceded by the PP and PPK models). The pistol was very advanced for the time. The conventional double-action design allowed a round to be safely carried in the chamber. The pistol could be quickly fired by simply pulling the double-action trigger. Subsequent shots would be fired with the hammer back (single-action). There were a few minor changes in the design once production had begun. One modification was made to the firing pin, changing it from a triangle configuration to an easier to manufacture round type. The other change was to the extractor. The original extractor design was considered difficult to clean and was redesigned to the exposed style. The rear sight is a large rear U notch, the front sight is a triangle shaped affair that can be drifted right or left if necessary. A slide-mounted “hammer drop” safety operates opposite the U.S. 1911. On the P.38 the fire or feuer position is obtained by pushing the lever upward. Safe or Sicher position is down. In 1943 the frame was redesigned to be strengthened around the trigger pin. A slight bulge extending down into an otherwise symmetrical trigger guard can easily identify these pistols. The all steel P.38 weights 34 ounces unloaded. An eight round capacity magazine is positioned inside the grip. The magazine release lever is the awkward “European” style located at the base of the grip. A six-groove 1:10 twist barrel is 4 15/16 inches in length. The overall length of the pistol is 8 7/16 inch. A loaded chamber indicator was incorporated in the design. The indicator pin protrudes from the rear of the slide when the weapon is loaded, and could be easily felt with a fingertip at night. One characteristic of the P.38 that many American shooters find unique is that it ejects spent cases out of the left side of the slide. A black or brown leather holster of varying styles was issued for carrying the pistol.

Walther P.38 pistols were produced in several variations that differed mainly in finish and markings. The first ones produced for the military contracts were similar to those made for the civilian market. The early contract pistols are known by collectors as the zero series, because of the zero first digit in the serial number. The slides on these pistols featured the Walther name and banner. The zero series was followed by the newly assigned Walther wartime code 480. The 480 code appeared only briefly until the Germans changed from numeric to letter codes. Walther P.38s were assigned the letter code ac. Slide markings on Walthers were subsequently marked with the letter code ac followed by a two digit number designating the year the particular weapon was manufactured. A number of P.38 pistols were sold to Sweden for their military. Those pre-war pistols are identified by an H on the frame. The Swedish issue P.38 was designated as the M39 pistol.

After the German Wehrmacht officially adopted the P.38, civilian and export sales were suspended and all available production went to the military. As WWII escalated the demand for sidearms grew. Walter’s production could not keep up with the demand and new companies were contracted to produce the pistol. Mauser-Werke at Oberndorf, who was also manufacturing the P.08 Luger, began tooling up to produce the P.38. By November of 1942, the first Mauser manufactured P.38s were coming off the assembly lines. Mauser had been experimenting with a phosphate finish for their pistols and many that were manufactured by them had components, and even complete pistols that were phospated in a gray color. Mauser produced pistols were marked with the manufacturing code byf and the Waffenampt inspector’s mark 135. While most wartime P.38s had brown or black plastic grips, Mauser installed stamped sheet metal grips on some weapons. Mauser also made the P.38 for the German police; the markings are different on the police contract pistols. In 1945 Mauser’s manufacturer code was changed to SVW.

Spreewerk, a third manufacturer, was selected in 1943 to begin production of the P.38. The Spreewerk factory was manufacturing heavy artillery pieces. Mauser assisted Spreewerk in setting up their P.38 production line. The Spreewerk manufactured P.38s are recognized by the assigned factory code cyq, and Waffenampts WaA 88, although Spreewerk pistols were also assembled using Walther and Mauser parts. Pistols manufactured by Speewerk did not include the year of manufacture stamped on the slide. Spreewerk operated two factories that assembled the P.38, one in Czechoslovakia the other at Spandau, Germany. Like other P.38s the Spreewerk guns had a four-digit serial number with a letter suffix. After the letter z was reached, the lettering was started again at the letter “a” but as a prefix instead of a suffix. All P.38s have their serial numbers stamped on the frame, slide and barrel. Because of their efforts to expedite production, Spreewerk pistols normally have a rougher machine finish with excess tool marks. By December of 1943 completed Spreewerk pistols were being sent into service. Late manufacture Spreewerk pistols, like the early Walther manufactured P.38s also had a limited run of “zero” prefix serial numbers, these pistols were hastily manufactured as Russian troops were closing in on the factory in the spring of 1945.

After the Allies captured the Mauser factory, manufacture of the P.38 was temporarily halted, and the French occupied the factory. The French being short on weapons for their police and occupation troops soon resumed production of the pistol. The French began assembling pistols from the parts that were left inside the factory.

The French P.38s are identified by a five point star stamped on the left side of the slide. The pistols also retained the Mauser code SVW, usually marked with the year 45 or 46. The pistols destined for police use were blued while the military guns were finished in a gray phosphate. Collectors refer to the latter guns as “Gray Ghosts”. The French P.38s eventually found their way to Indo China and Algiers in the holsters of French troops.

When the Spreewerk and Walther plants were taken over by the Allies, there were enough parts remaining to assemble a fair amount of additional P.38 pistols. After the war had ended the Czechs and East Germans, like the French, opened the factories to assemble complete pistols from the parts. The Czech pistols were stamped with that country’s Rampant Lion symbol. The pistols were used for issue to the police and military. The East German Police (Vopo) P.38s were marked with a “sunburst” stamp and/or a crown, and various letters or numbers. Beginning in 1957 Walther began to manufacture the P.38 design once again. A new alloy frame post war model was introduced as the P1. The pistol was for police and military sales. In 1962 Walther began offering the P1 to the civilian market.

The P.38 was quite an advanced military handgun for its time. Those familiar with the U.S. Army’s current issue M9 pistol will see quite a few similarities between the two designs. The WWII P.38 can be easily located on the collector market and is usually very reasonably priced when compared to other weapons of the era. There are enough variations of the pistol to intrigue any collector.

Many analysts found the CZ-75 a combination of the good features incorporated in such pistol designs as the Browning High-Power and the S&W M39. Especially the American gun writers found the internal machining unduly complicated but of relatively good quality. As the Czechoslovakian government of the time had enough service pistols for their military and police the sales efforts were export oriented. An export company named Merkuria found several end users in Central America and Scandinavia alike. All these volume sales and user feedback thereof were very important for the technical development of the basic model.

The basic CZ construction was later copied by several other gun producing companies as either direct clones like Swiss or Italian models, or as modifications like Israeli models. All of the pistol products based on the basic design have been popular. The original Ceska Zbrojovka factory still produces the CZ-75 in over ten different variations, from the compact model to a gunsmith-tuned IPSC competition model. The range of caliber include 9x21mm and .40S&W. An evolution model called the CZ-85 with an ambidextrous approach has found popularity in the sporting markets as an economical IPSC pistol.

One CZ-pistol model has received less public attention and this is due to the authority oriented specialty market. This small and fast paced selective-fire submachine gun, or machine pistol if you like, is based on the CZ 75B version of the standard pistol and is called 9x19mm CZ 75 Automatic.

Machine pistol or SMG

The terminology has been pondered upon before. Machine pistol gives us the impression of a service pistol-sized gun that delivers selective fire. On the other hand SMG (submachine gun) includes a larger amount of different weapon constructions offering full and semi-automatic fire and using service pistol calibers.

There has been a need to experiment with machine pistol constructions since the beginning of the modern self-loading pistol. Scrutinizing the more modern end of the history we can find products such as the H&K VP70, Beretta M93R or Glock-18 and all of these have found special applications by the authorities, police and military.

Perhaps it is not so surprising that Ceska Zbrojovka from Uhersky Brod brought their own small machine pistol to the market in the middle of 1990 to compete for these niche markets. As this small submachine gun is not equipped with a shoulder stock it should be compared to the Austrian Glock-18 machine pistol.

This CZ-modification shows practicality and sound technical solutions and it is clear that the project of design has had a suitable amount of resources to produce prototypes before the production series.

After initiating the project, the first selective-fire prototypes were made based on the newer CZ-85 ambidextrous model. The chief designer was Mr. Martin Kouba and the construction was presented at the 1992 IWA gunshow in Germany. This machine pistol design was not taken further and the basis for the next version was the CZ 75 pistol. Engineer Alexander Koten finished the actual CZ 75 machine pistol conversion during 1993 and after extended trials, production commenced with the marketing to military and police end users. This model was based on the modernized frame of the basic pistol and has been on the market since 1994, and aptly named 9x19mm CZ 75 Automatic sub-machine gun. Parallel to the prototype development of the CZ 75 Automatic Mr. Stanislav Strizik made a single-action selective-fire workshop prototype which, like the CZ-85 select fire was a project discontinued.

CZ 75 Automatic machine pistol

The CZ 75 Automatic is an all steel handgun. The barrel is hammered and machined, the slide and lower receiver are precision cast and machined. The trigger mechanism is double- and single-action. The user has the option of a first shot with either activating the hammer with the full double action press of the trigger or by cocking the external hammer and placing the selector on safe, for single action mode when needed. Even if the machine pistol has an external hammer it does not have a hammer release lever. This means that if the hammer is cocked it must be triggered and released under control of the thumb to place the gun in the double-action mode.

The locking mechanism of this pistol is no surprise as it follows the Browning principle of locking lugs on the barrel breech block connecting into recesses on the upper inner surface of the slide, when the slide is in its forward position. The connection is opened only after the short connected barrel-slide travels to the rear during the recoil cycle when a cartridge is fired. The breech end of the barrel is forced slightly down and stopped by the guiding pin, the connection unlocking letting the slide retract the full movement of its cycle. The force of the return spring slows its speed and eventually returns it to battery in its forward position. During the retracting movement of the slide the cartridge case is extracted and ejected and when the slide goes forward it forces the next cartridge from the magazine into the chamber.

This small CZ 75 Automatic machine pistol has at least two technical solutions that merit special attention;

• 1. The external arrangement of the selector. The safety switch situated on the left side of the pistol functions as the selector lever. It incorporates a simple feature that prevents any unintentional rotation into the full automatic position. When the selector is in its uppermost position (pointing 10 o’clock) the pistol is set on safe. When the selector is turned to the middle position, a very logical horizontal position pointing into the firing direction (9 o’clock) and showing one red dot the gun is set at semi automatic fire.
  
  To place the selector lever into its lower position (8 o’clock) for cyclic fire the middle part of the lever must be first pressed in the firing direction to facilitate the downward movement of the selector. The lever has in effect to be pressed forward and downward, and in its lower position two dots are showing as a mark of full automatic fire mode.
  
  For example, the Glock-18 machine pistol does not have any safety locking of its selector lever. The Glock selector, which is placed on the rear of the slide’s left side is safeguarded from accidental cyclic fire with a long movement of the selector switch. When in semi automatic mode the lever points at 11 o’clock and only turning it counterclockwise into the position 7 o’clock will facilitate full automatic fire.
• 2. The spare magazine functions as the front grip. The front of the lower receiver has a machined rail, and on the left side a spring actuated small latch. The floorplates of the magazines have similar machined tracks as the rails in the frame and a small recess for the frame latch. If the machine pistol operator wants a substantially firmer grip for firing cyclic he can connect the reversed spare magazine from its floorplate to the underside of the lower receiver. This gives an ergonomic grip pointing slightly forward. The magazine is locked in place by the small latch. To release the magazine the latch has to be pushed upwards and the magazine slid off in firing direction.
  
  In comparison the Glock-18 smg does not have a front grip and can not even facilitate one and the Beretta M93 smg has a small foldable front grip in the lower receiver.

Tryout at the range

The semiautomatic features of the CZ 75 Automatic are in par with any requirements of a standard service sidearm. The optional integrally compensated barrel offers slightly lesser recoil-movement of the gun but on the other hand the markedly higher gun report due to the gas ports, is not worth the gain. The compensated barrel has six openings in the front part of the barrel, they open up and to the sides, three on both sides. Personally, I favor the standard barrel giving a slightly shorter total length.

The sightspan of the open sights is 155 mm and they utilize a white three-dot system, with one dot in the bead and two on either side of the rear notch.

The cyclic rate of the machine pistol is approximately 22-25 cartridges per second. This rate is so high that it is hard to decide on sound if it was a single shot or a two-cartridge burst. During an extended burst the cartridges are positively ejected to the right of the gun. Cyclic firing with this weapon offers a lot of torque to the supporting hands. A double handed grip is always recommended, and the operator should connect the front grip if the firing distance exceeds 15 meters. If the range is 10 meters or less it is possible to keep all hits on a target area of 1x 0.5m. The hits are divided over the total area. After practice it is possible to keep the length of the bursts at 2-4 cartridges and this increases hit probability for longer ranges. The fifteen cartridge magazine seems too short for the novice practicing full automatic firing with the CZ-75 A, but to keep the running temperature of the gun at reasonable levels during training it is good practice to let the gun cool down. The risks involved having a gun that is too hot a the “cook-off” effect on a chambered cartridge. That happens when the temperature of the chamber area of the gun is so high that it transfers to the powder charge in the cartridge and ignites it. At the very least an overheated gun is mechanically under great stress and the normal lubrication evaporates. The optional magazine holds 25 cartridges.

The gun is easy to strip for standard maintenance. Remove the magazine and check the chamber and remove any cartridge. Pull the slide to the rear so that the slide and receiver marks (at the rear left side) meet. The slide stop is removed to the left by pressing at the end of its axle on the right side, and pulling it out of the lower receiver. Let the slide carefully to the forward position and pull it off the lower receiver. The return spring and its guide can be released from below the barrel, and the barrel pulled out of the slide down and to the rear. The gun can be assembled after cleaning in the reversed order.

As a machine pistol the CZ 75 Automatic is a very interesting, well-designed and technically reliable small submachine gun. It remains to be seen in which direction the Czech company Ceska Zbrojovka will take its newest prototype weapons. Perhaps there eventually will be something in the Belgian caliber 5.7x28mm.

Please see the article on the Semi-Auto CZ-75 in this issue by Frank Iannamico…