The mother of invention — The Blyscawica Submachine Gun.In 1942 Poland was enjoying her third
The mother of invention — The Blyscawica Submachine Gun.In 1942 Poland was enjoying her third year as a nation occupied by the Third Reich, and resistance fighters all over Poland struggled to oppose the German occupiers. However, times were tough and the resistance wasn’t very well armed. Far from Britain, in the heart of the Nazi empire, they received little in the way of Allied airdrops. The Pols had to make due with whatever they had on hand.Two mechanical engineers, Wacław Zawrotny and Seweryn Wielanier, decided to try and solve this problem. While having no background in firearms, and few reasources, they created their own design for a simple, easy to build submachine gun. At first they studied the Sten design; simple and easy to build, the sten was copied and produced all over Europe by resistance fighters, including Poland. However they disliked the its awkward ergonomics. They also studied the German MP-40, favoring its ergonomics and concealability, but it was way to complicated to be produced by the resistance. So they created their own design incorporating the simplicity of the Sten, and the handling of the MP-40. Thus the Blyskawica was born.Made almost entirely from stamped sheet metal, the Blyskawica utilized an open bolt blowback action and was fully automatic only. It also had a folding buttstock and non-adjustable fixed sights. It magazine held 32 9mm cartridges. While there were thousands of Sten copies in Poland, the Blyskawica was a favorite among Polish fighters. The most amazing thing about these guns were their production. With the Germans controlling all industry, they had to be produced totally in secret. They were often made in small clandestine shops, basements, and attics all over Poland. Its impossible to know exactly how many of these guns were produced during the war, but its estimated that 750-1,000 were made. 2,000 - 4,000 Stens were also made in a similar fashion. -- source link
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