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Bechowiec: Polish Teenager Makes a Resistance SMG (ad-free)
🕑 Added 2023-01-25 12:00:03 +0000 UTCThe Bechowiec (or Beha) is a fascinating SMG produced in small numbers in southern Poland under German occupation during World War Two. It was made for use by the Bataliony Chłopskie (Peasant Battalions) by a young man named Henryk Strąpoć.
Henryk built his first (quite illegal) gun at the age of 15 in 1937, and was promptly arrested for it. He avoided prison only on account of being a minor, and promised not to do it again. Well, at least he promised not to get caught again - he built three more guns (two semiauto pistols and a revolver) by the time Germany invaded Poland in 1939. During the occupation he joined the the resistance and set to work doing what he must have fantasized about; building clandestine small arms.
Being more or less familiar with pistols but having never handled a submachine gun, he made some creative design choices. His SMG is basically a scaled-up Ruby-type action - chambered for 9x19mm with a simple blowback slide, it is hammer fired from a closed bolt. He designed a complex but effective selective-fire trigger system, complete with a correct auto sear. The first gun was ready in the spring of 1943, and he had a makeshift production going by early 1944. A total of 11 of the guns were made by July 1944, some in 9mm (using bored-out WW1 Mauser barrels) and some in 7.62x25mm Tokarev (using Mosin Nagant barrels).
Only one example survives today, and it is housed in the Polish Army Museum (and sadly, deactivated). Many thanks to the Museum for giving me access to film it for you! Check them out at: http://www.muzeumwp.pl/?language=EN
Comments
Library of Context
If they bored out WW1 Mauser barrels for the first guns, did those 9mm guns have any rifling?
Guido Schriewer
impressive.
Strypgia
It's super crude but the design is very clever. Makes me wonder what this guy could have done if he'd had a real machine tool factory to work with.
Cool story!
Minion
As Ian progressed with the story of the gun's development, I had this fear that Henryk wouldn't make it to war's end. I hope that after the war, he had a long and uneventful life.
Norman A. Letterman
I immediately thought of the Owen too. Except the backstory is a lot more grim.
Oliver Gilkes
Fascinating. Any idea what happened to Henryk Strąpoć himself?
Minion
Wow. Henryk sounds like Evelyn Owen. The rules breaking as well just confirms the similarities between Poles and Australians.
