Before the High Power was the FN Grand Rendement
Belgium
•
12m
The Browning High Power story begins with a French 1921 request for a new military pistol. FN engineer Dieudonné Saive developed a double stack, single feed magazine and John Browning adapted a Browning 1903 pistol to use it, and this was sent to France for consideration. This pistol worked well enough, but the French trials board requested changes...and they would continue requesting changes and more trials for the next decade.
By 1931, FN felt that the current iteration of the pistol - while still not meeting all the French requirements - was good enough to stand on its own as a service pistol for the Belgian Army and other clients. They named it the "Grand Rendement" (High Efficiency) and began marketing it. The Belgian Army showed a definite interest, and bought 1,000 pistols for field trials, based on the prototype example we have in today's video. These would become the Grande Puissance, aka the High Power.
For more details on this and other FN Browning pistols, I highly recommend Anthony Vanderlinden's "FN Browning Pistols"
Up Next in Belgium
-
Belgian GP-35: Pre-War Browning High ...
The Browning High Power (“Grande Puissance”, aka GP-35) was developed by Fabrique National in Belgium, designed primarily by John Browning’s apprentice Dieudonné Saive. It began in the very early 1920s as a pistol designed for a new French Army requirement, but eventually split into two separate ...
-
Vigneron M2: Belgium's Little-Known P...
After World War Two, the Belgian military wanted to replace its many Sten guns with a better standard SMG. The solution was designed by Colonel Georges Vigneron in 1953, and adopted by all branches of the Belgian military (as well as the Force Publique in the Belgian Congo) in 1954. This is a ver...
-
A Belgian Sten Replacement: Vigneron ...
The Vigneron was adopted to replace the Sten in Belgian service – so is it actually better than the Sten? In my opinion, yes. The sights and overall handling are better. The pistol grip is a welcome addition, although its contours make the grip safety a bit difficult for me to fully depress.
