#m1935s

Modèle 1935A

Charles Petter, a Swiss-born soldier who served as an officer in both the Swiss Army and French Foreign Legion, developed his pistol in the early 1930s and patented it first in France in 1935. At the time Petter was the director of the French small arms company Societe Alsacienne de Constructions Mécaniques (SACM). In 1937, the French army adopted his pistol as the Modèle 1935A.

Petter was influenced by John Browning’s short recoil locking system, used in the Colt 1911. Petter’s design, however, utilised two links at the rear of the barrel rather than Browning’s one and a captive recoil spring. His design used the same barrel lugs to lock the breech into the slide when firing but linked the pistol’s lockwork together in a removable unit. This had been stipulated in the French Army’s 1935 trials specification. 

While the French military appreciated the Colt 1911′s design, and many of its features which they sought to incorporate into their new pistol, they disliked the American .45 ACP round. They felt it unnecessarily powerful and in 1927 formalised the adoption of the diminutive 7.65x20mm Longue cartridge.

Another stipulation of the specification was a slide mounted manual safety which blocked the hammer. The pistol fed from an eight round, single stack magazine. Like the Colt 1911, the Modèle 1935A, had a push button magazine release. During the trials the Modèle 1935A beat submissions from both FN and MAS. While it proved to be an excellent design circumstances intervened and as renewed conflict with Germany seemed likely France began to rearm more rapidly. As a result in September 1938  the rival Manufacture Nationale d’Armes de Saint Étienne (MAS) design was also adopted as the Modèle 1935S. 

The MAS Modèle 1935S shares some of the characteristic of Petter’s pistol, however, it differs internally (source)

Perhaps 10,000 pistols had been manufactured before the German invasion halted production at SACM’s factory in Alsace-Lorraine in May 1940. Production under occupation restarted in October and the Wehrmacht took the pistol into inventory as the Pistole 625(f). From 1940 until 1944 the SACM’s factory produced perhaps 25,000 pistols. These were most likely issued to forces loyal to the French Vichy puppet government. After the occupation ended the pistols were again issued to Free French forces. 

As such the Modèle 1935A saw service with both sides during the war and with the French military during the First Indochina War (1946-1954). Total production reached 84,950 pistols by the time production ended in February 1950. The M1935A and M1935S were both replaced by the MAC Modèle 1950. Petter’s design found greater longevity in Switzerland where Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft (SIG) purchased the design’s patent rights and developed the 9x19mm SIG P210. This pistol was produced under license and adopted by both Switzerland and Denmark, serving for many decades. 

Sources:

Images: 1 2 3

The 1935 French Service Pistols, unblinkingeye.com, E. Buffaloe (source)

French Mle.1935 A, C&Rsenal, (source)

‘Automatic Pistol’, Swiss Patent #185452, C.G. Petter, 31/07/1936, (source)