Hi, I recall reading somewhere a story about Fabrique National (belgian weapon maker) during WW2, but since I'm not able to find it anymore I'm guessing was made up by someone.
The story was about that, when nazi germany invaded belgium, someone at FN (maybe the head?) fled with the blueprints of weapons and took them to england to give it to the allied forces.
Was this story made up by someone on internet? Or is it real?
TY!
Yes, the story is true. I'm afraid I haven't got my books handy, so here's the short version based on memory and notes, so I'm hoping someone will correct me if I'm wrong about the details.
When it became obvious Belgium would fall after the German invasion in 1940, the head designer of FN, Dieudonné Saive, fled the country. By 1941, he was working at the Enfield design department, redrawing the blueprints from memory (aided by some sample guns).
It wasn't until early 1944 that the first Browning HP's were manufactured by John Inglis & Co. in Toronto, Canada, for the Chinese, who ordered 180 000 with wooden stocks that doubled as holsters (similar to the Mauser C-96). Very few of the first Chinese contract actually arrived in China, and the majority were instead diverted to the Canadian and British armed forces.
About 150 000 Inglis Browning HP's were produced before the end of the war and production, out of which a total of about 40 000 were eventually delivered to China. FN resumed production after the war, and versions of the pistol are still produced by several companies.
Aside from all of this, over 300 000 FN Browning HP's were produced during the German occupation of the FN plant, used by the Wehrmacht under the name Pistole 640(b). Additionally, the ones captured from the Belgian armed forces were used by the Germans under the same designation.
If you're really interested in the history, I'd suggest picking up Inglis Diamond – The Canadian High Power Pistol by Clive M Law and/or The Browning High Power Automatic Pistol by R Blake Stevens, both from Collector Grade Publications.