P.S. I've had my Hi Power for almost 40 years
Indeed. I first started using one *for real* in 1967, when a military job as a driver and de facto bodyguard came my way, for which we were required to wear civilian clothing and carry non-issue personal handguns- most of the USAF commo folks with us brought along S&W .38 revolvers similar to their USAF-issue .38 Combat Masterpieces; the Army folks on the project were a bit more varied in their choices.
I was on the lookout for a steel-framed WWII-issue Walther P.38, rather than the then-available alloy-framed P.1 that the German Army was using. Instead I got a very nice deal on a Browning G.P. [as they were known in the former francophone colony where we were at work, and which I've called the things ever since.]
Despite newer and *more modern* designs, the GP/Hi-power/P.35 fits my hand particularly well, and I still prefer a steel-framed handgun with an external hammer for serious use. And of course those who snicker at the designation of the 9mm as being a *high-powered* handgun cartridge are doing so without the viewpoint of the users of earlier-issue weapons such as the M1922 Browning and Ruby .32/7,65mm autopistols or the French MAS 35A and .35S handguns, also in a French-developed .32 chambering. My suspicion is that the Browning GP pistols purchased by Finland for their air force prior to the Soviet invasion of Finland in 1939 were likely the first to see combat usage [along with their army's Finnish-design p/35 Lahti handguns] though a few may have seen service during the Spanish Civil War, and it's been reported that some prototypes may have seen action during the 1928-1935 Gran Chaco War between Bolivia and Paraguay, during which the American Thompson SMG also made an occasional appearance in the hands of knowledgable users. But they've been around a good long while, and have satisfied a good many other folks since then, all over a troubled globe:
BROWNING'S HIGH-POWER
The last semi-automatic pistol John Moses Browning designed is said by many to have been his best. In reality, he died nearly a decade before it was perfected and actually placed into production. Known variously as the P-35, High-Power and by that term's French translation, the Grand Puissance, its development began in the early 1920's and continued following Browning's death in 1926; finally coming to market in its now familiar form in 1935.
When Browning died, there remained a number of components that had yet to be refined before it would be ready for production. Work on it was continued by his protege', Dieudonne' J. Saive, whose most significant contribution to the project was the design of a double-stack magazine that permitted the pistol to be loaded with as many as five more rounds of ammunition than the pistol might have accommodated with an ordinary single-row magazine design. By virtue of this extraordinary capacity it became the first of the pistols now known as the "Wonder-Nines."
Production of the High-Power was originally planned to begin in 1929, but the collapse of the American stock market triggered an international monetary crisis and the resulting depression affected the entire civilized world. The original manufacturer, Fabrique National d'Armes de Guerre, of Liege, Belgium, employed more than 9,000 people in the summer of '29. Over the course of the next five years the work force was radically reduced by the loss of more than 6,500 jobs. It took until 1934, when the prospect of military contracts for the pistol began to show promise, for it to finally be made. The Belgian Army was the first military force to adopt it. They dubbed it the Modele 1935 pistolet automatique, Grand Puisance. With variations and adaptations to accommodate a variety of languages, the name has stuck.
The High-Power attracted international attention very quickly. By the end of 1938 it had been sold to such diverse nations as China, Estonia, Lithuania and Peru. But the clouds of war were once more looming on the European horizon. The Belgian government and the management at FN began making plans to evacuate machinery and personnel, but when the Germans finally invaded on May 10th, 1940, they moved so swiftly that Liege fell to them just two days later. There hadn't been sufficient time to get out.
The Germans took the FN arms complex over immediately and began bringing in employees of their own munitions industry to oversee production. Along with the manufacture of Model 1898 Mauser rifles, the invaders continued production of the High-Power under their control. The pistol was produced for the Heerwaffenampt and designated the Pistole 640(b). More than 319,000 units were to be made while the plant was in German hands.
Here begins one of the more interesting stories of World War Two. In deepest secrecy, a number of FN's senior personnel left Belgium for England. In order to get there they had to travel through France, which was by that time also occupied by Nazi forces. They were smuggled over the Pyrenees mountains to Spain, which remained neutral through the war, but was sympathetic to Germany. From there they made their way through Portugal, also neutral, but a hotbed of international intrigue that was virtually crawling with Nazi spies. Upon arriving in England they went immediately to work for the British Armaments Ministry.
The German invasion of Belgium didn't prevent the High-Power from contributing to the Allied war effort. Early on, half a dozen pistols were smuggled out of Belgium and taken to Canada. There, the John Inglis Company, headquartered in Toronto, used those pistols to construct the necessary blueprints for manufacture. By war's end nearly 152,000 had been made and issued for service in the armed forces of Britain, Canada, China and Greece.
The pistol acquitted itself so well, on both sides, during the course of that conflict that its subsequent adoption by, literally, dozens of nations and hundreds of police agencies throughout the world should come as no surprise. It proved itself one of the finest handguns of this century.
Fabrique National continues to make the P-35, although assembly is now done in Portugal. Yet, copies of it have been made, under license, by pirating or by virtue of expired patents in so many places throughout the world that it has been standard military issue in the armed forces of at least 64 different nations.
More than sixty years have passed since its introduction to the public and its popularity continues apace. It remains the choice of many military units, lawmen and individuals for sport and personal protection. Close copies of it are currently made in Argentina and Hungary. Even the Israel Defense Force, one of the most modern and best equipped armed forces in the world, has chosen it for use in the form of the Kareen II.