The Blyskawica, A Uniquely Designed And Manufactured Sub Machine Gun By The Polish Underground In Warsaw.

The Blyskawica or Lightning Gun was the Polish Army’s first successful sub machine gun of World War II. It was a knock off of the British Sten and the German MP-40. It was created in the context of a series of invasion and occupation of Poland by the Nazis and the Russians. Seweryn Wielanier and Wacław Zawrotny, two Jewish mechanics offered to design and create a light sub machine gun for the Polish Home Army. Working with underground vendors, and secret contracts, the Poles were able to produce 700 of these 9mm guns. Remember these were basement factories and closet parts makers all doing this under the nose of the Nazis.

The gun had to be designed so it could be made without complex iron works or high quality machine shops. It had to be something that would be made with off the shelf mechanical parts and otherwise easy to manufacture parts. It had to be test fired in a secret facility under the basement of the Roman catholic Church of All Saints in Warsaw. Firing tests were made only under the street during traffic.

sources: http://www.forgottenweapons.com, wiki

Tagged as: Blyskawica, polish underground machine gun

Originally published at civilianmilitaryintelligencegroup.com on May 24, 2014.