Small-arms exports to Switzerland

[Graham Clayton]

In the middle of 1943 Finland exported 10 Lahti L-35 pistols to Switzerland. Were there any other examples of small-arms being exported to Switzerland during the war?

[peeved]

According to http://mekri.uef.fi/sotahistoria/suomikp.htm in 1942-43 5100 Suomi SMGs from Finland.

Markus

[phylo_roadking]

Markus, Chris Bishop's Encyclopedia of Weapons of WWII says that they were licence-produced IN Switzerland for the Swiss Army...?

EDIT: Yep, found an entry in Stackpole's old "Small Arms of the World 1969"! They were indeed manufactured in Switzerland by Hispano Suiza, and in Swiss service it was called the MP43/44. The Swiss version had a flip-over sight and a bayonet lug.

[phylo_roadking]

Graham - the Swiss conducted tests for a new standard sidearm for the Swiss Army from 1943 to 47...which competition eventually resulted in the SIg Sauer Selbstladepistole SP/49 (or Pistole 49) being adopted as said sidearm. I presume that's why the purchase batch was so small

The Lahti seems to have fallen by the wayside early in the competition, along with the Luger - the final competitors were the above mentioned SIG in its earlier form, the 47/8, and the W+F 47, a product from Waffenfrabrik Bern, the state-owned arsenal in Berne.

[peeved]

Markus, Chris Bishop's Encyclopedia of Weapons of WWII says that they were licence-produced IN Switzerland for the Swiss Army...?

That is true, too. The Finnish imports were designated Mp 43 and the Swiss-made SMGs Mp 43/44.

Markus

[phylo_roadking]

Markus, see my edit; the 1969 book says that the Swiss "purchased" 5,000 ....and Hispano obtained a licence to produce the weapon in Switzerland. However, it doesn't specify if what happened was that an initial batch of c.5,000 was imported, or the Finns sold Hispano Suiza a 5,000-item production licence...

The only way to know would be if we had total production numbers for the MP43/44...

[peeved]

According to Bewaffnung und Ausrüstung der Schweizer Armee seit 1817, Vol. 13 by Reinhart & am Rhyn up to 1945 5200 Mp 43s were delivered from Finland. The Swiss production continued until 1951; Serial N:os 100001 to 122470 of which 22 468 were submitted to Swiss acceptance tests (eidgenössische Waffenkontrolle).

Markus

Edit: S/N range corrected

[phylo_roadking]

That's great, thanks for that!