Kbsp wz.38M

The rifle was designed by the Polish engineer Józef Marošek (1904–1985). He was known mainly as the designer of the Polish wz.1935 anti-tank gun . Maroszek was one of three winners of the 1934 self-loading rifle competition for the Polish army . Several prototypes and prototypes of his rifle were manufactured from 1936 to 1938 . ^[1] After receiving the approval of the Polish army in 1938 began small-scale production. It is believed that before the German invasion of Poland, about 150 rifles of this model were produced ^[2] . Under German occupation, production was not resumed. Rifles wz.38M produced enterprises Zbrojownia Nr. 2 (Arsenal number 2) in Warsaw ( near Prague ). Barrel production was carried out at the State Infantry Factory (Panstwowa Fabryka Karabinow) in Warsaw.

The highest serial number is 1054 (it is assumed that the numbering starts with “1001”, not counting prototypes and prototypes) ^[2] . Mass production of rifles was planned to deploy at the plant Radom . ^[2] . However, it is not clear whether they managed to start production at the Radom plant before the German invasion (all the surviving examples are marked “Zbr.2”).

The rifle works on the principle of removal of powder gases . The vapor tube is located under the barrel. The rifle used the Browning / Petter system, in which the shutter leans all the way; in the case of Kbsp wz.1938M, against the leading edge of the discharge / charge opening in the upper part of the receiver ^[3] . The rifle had a 10-round built-in magazine , loaded with clips from the wz.29 rifle. The fuse is located on the right side of the receiver, just above the trigger . Kbsp wz.1938M used an identical rifle wz.29 sight , with markings from 300 to 2000 m. The bayonet mount was designed for mounting a bayonet from a wz.29 rifle. The barrel was equipped with a muzzle brake to mitigate recoil .

The design of wz.38M was simple and functional. For example, it consisted of several sections connected by one removable steel pin and thus could be quickly disassembled.

There is only one known example of the military use of this rifle, and it was Maroshek himself who used it. During the evacuation of the staff of the Military-Technological Institute (Instytut Techniki Uzbrojenia), the train in which they were traveling was attacked near the city of Zdolbunov by two German military aircraft flying at low altitude. According to his memoirs, Marochek, he continued to shoot out the window, eventually killing the shooter and injuring the pilot of one of the aircraft, causing him to land. This event was confirmed by other passengers ^[4] .

In addition, Marošek claimed that in 1940, he saw a group of German soldiers armed with wz.38M rifles in occupied Warsaw. This is perhaps the only evidence that Maroshek's rifles were used by the Germans.

After the war, several copies of this rifle were reportedly found in Poland , but as “unidentified” they were destroyed. Currently there are six surviving Kbsp wz. 38M (numbers: 1017, 1019, 1027, 1030, 1048, 1054) ^{[5] [6]} . Two rifles are in a private collection in the USA (serial numbers 1017 and 1048), the third (deactivated) in the collection of the Polish Army Museum in Warsaw (number 1027, obtained as part of a museum exchange with the USSR ), another in a private collection in Germany , one in The Central Museum of the Armed Forces in Moscow (number unknown) and another rifle from a private collection from Frederiksberg in the state of Virginia at number 1019 was auctioned in March 2013. As a result of the agreement concluded between the collector and the government of Poland, this rifle was bought for $ 25,000 ^[7] . By virtue of the provisions of the agreement, the weapon became the property of the Museum of Polish History, which transferred the rifle to the Museum of the Warsaw Uprising ^[8] . Rifle number 1019 arrived in Poland in April 2014 ^[9] .

In April 2017, a rifle with the number 1048 was bought at an auction by the Polish Ministry of National Defense for $ 69,000. ^{[10] [11]}

• ZH-29

• Zbigniew Gwóźdź, Piotr Zarzycki. Polskie konstrukcje broni strzeleckiej. - SIGMA NOT, 1993. - ISBN 83-85001-69-7 .
• Józef Maroszek: Wspomnienie o profesorze Politechniki Warszawskiej inż. Józefie Maroszku (1904-1985), konstruktorze karabinów samopowtarzalnych wz. 32, wz. 38 „M” i przeciwpancernego „UR” wz. 35. W: Społeczeństwo, wojsko, polityka: studia i szkice ofiarowane profesorowi Adamowi Czesławowi Dobrońskiemu w okazji 70 urodzin. Małgorzata Dajnowicz, Adam Miodowski, Tomasz Wesołowski (red. Nauk.), Juliusz Łukasiewicz (rec.). Białystok: Wydawnictwo PRYMAT Mariusz Śliwowski, 2013, s. 313–335. PB 2014/25973. ISBN 978-83-7657-192-8 . (pol.)
• Ciepliński Andrzej, Encyklopedia współczesnej broni palnej (od połowy XIX wieku) , Warszawa 1994
• Konstankiewicz Andrzej, Broń strzelecka i sprzęt artyleryjski formacji polskich i Wojska Polskiego w latach 1914-1939 , Lublin 2003

• Forgotten Weapons. Polish wz.38M