Browning Hi Power 9mm Pistol/L9A1

The Browning Hi Power 9mm Pistol was used by the British Airborne Forces from the 1940s onwards.

The Browning Hi Power pistol also known as:

HP  Hi Power or High Power

GP  French for Grande Puissance

BAP  Browning Automatic Pistol

BHP  Browning High Power

P-35 & HP-35 based on the date (1935) of the pistol.

Pistol number 2 Mk1 & Mk1* or L9A1 are how the British military referred to the BHP

9mm Pistole 640b   as known to the German military in The Second World War era.

The BHP is also available in .40  Smith & Wesson calibers.

The BHP is the most popular 9mm pistol ever produced. Used by around 96 countries for Police & military use. It is a single action, semi automatic pistol fed by a 13 round magazine. Almost twice as many rounds as it's contemporaries, the Luger & Colt 1911. Thanks to this innovative staggered stack magazine design, 13 rounds could be held without making the pistol grip too large to hold.

John Browning a famous gun designer at the beginning of the 20th Century started it's design in 1923. After his death in 1926 Dieudonne Saive from Fabrique Nationale (FN) took Browning's initial design and completed it. The patent for the 1911 ended in 1928, enabling Saive to freely incorporate many of the design features of the 1911 in his design of the BHP.

The French military were the first to place an order for the BHP.

However, the Belgian FN plant was captured by the Germans, but not before the designs for the BHP were stolen by spies and smuggled to the UK. Therefore, this pistol became widely used by both Allied & Axis forces during the Second World War. The German Waffen SS & Fallschirmajager were even issued with a special 20 round full auto version called the WAG13. It was not until 1962 that the British Special Forces were issued with a fully automatic version.  

The British sent the plans to John Inglis & Company in Toronto, Canada. Production began in late 1944. The BHP was then issued in March 1944 ready for the airborne crossing of the Rhine, Op. Varsity.

From 2013 the British Army started to replace the Browning with the polymer-framed Glock 17 Gen.4 Pistol.

In 2017 FN ended production of the Hi Power. However, under licence it is still being manufactured by The Ishapore Rifle Company in India.

Browning Hi Power

weight 1kg

Length 197mm

Muzzle velocity 335m/s

Effective range 50m