July/August 1978 - American Handgunner

tbemilitary PistolBy GORDON BRUCEMONG the pistol-collecting fraternityA in the United States, the name ofSchwarzlose is generally associated witha rather unique type of German handgunin which the barrel moved away from thebreech when the weapon was fired. This'Blowforward' system pocket pistol wasintroduced during the year 1907 butachieved only a limited amount of success,mainly due to the unconventionalnature of the design. Today, it merelyprovides an interesting addition to someof the more specialized collections. However,if we revert to the origins of automaticpistol designing in Europe towardsthe end of the nineteenth century, we canobserve that Schwarzlose was certainlyamong the earliest of patentees in thiscategory. Throughout the period from1892 until 1897, while still in his twenties,he made a particular study of self-loadinghandguns and was later to innovate variousfeatures which remain at the presenttime fundamental to good pistol designing.By the year 1912, Schwarzlose had obtainedno less than 58 firearms patents inhis native Germany and had also registeredspecifications with several othercountries. Many of these inventions wereconcerned with larger weapons, since agreat deal of his later work involved thedevelopment of a heavy caliber machinegun.Andreas Wilhelm Schwarzlose wasborn on July 31, 1867 in Wust, Altmark,Northern Germany, and his formativeyears were spent working on the smallfarm owned by his father. As a youngman, Andreas enlisted for military servicewith an Austro-Hungarian Artilleryregiment, where he first began to cultivatean affinity for small arms. He eventuallyassumed a special interest in thesubject after his admittance to the OrdnanceTraining School at Suhl. Following30his military discharge in the 1890s,Schwarzlose began to involve himselfwith the application of automatic principlesto firearms of his own design.His first creation had been a somewhatbizarre form of self-loading pistol, inwhich the cartridges were housed verticallywithin a reservoir beneath the barrel(Fig. 1). The ammunition for this weaponwas standard revolver type, apparently of7.65mm caliber, whose rimmed casesplayed an important role in the adequatefunctioning of the loading mechanism. Atleast one specimen of this strange armwas known to have survived and had oncebeen retained in the small arms collectionof the Mushe d'Armes in Liege, Belgium.(It was reported stolen in 1970, togetherwith other rare pistols. Some of theseweapons were eventually recovered butnot, unfortunately, the valuableSchwarzlose.)(All photographs courtesy Royal SmallArms Factory, Enfield).COPYRIGHT 1977 GORDON BRUCE.SCHWARZLOSEModel 1901 MilitaryPistol Calibre 7.65mm \AMERICAN HANDGUNNER JULYIAUGUST 1978