Saturday 21 April 2018

Browning's FN Model 1910 - Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand - June 28 1914 - THE GUN:

It looks to be in poor condition with extensive surface pitting but this gun and others are said to have been new when provided by the Serbian plotters.

The heir to the Austro-Hungerian throne and his wife - leaders of the occupying force in Sarajevo - were shot in their car by student Gavrilo Princip .. starting World War I.

Big wars can be started both by unexpected consequences or by deliberate aggression.

 This FN pistol No. 19074 was souvenired by a Jesuit priest living in Austria - after he tried to help the wounded couple - and years later (after he died) it was loaned to the Vienna museum.
FN M1910 After 100 years with One Careful Jesuit Custodian.
(They Look After 'Souls' Too)

- But this is the gun that fired the shot that started World War I.

Three assassins from Belgrade testified that SERBIAN Major Tankosić, directly and through Milan Ciganović (a Bosnian-Serb) .. not only provided six hand grenades and four new Browning FN Model 1910 automatic pistols together with .380 ACP ammunition, but also money, suicide pills, training, and a special map with the location of gendarmes marked.

FN Browning M1910 Pistols serial numbers 19074, 19075, 19120 and 19126 were supplied to the assassins.

Wikipedia says this about this historically important weapon:
Weapon

Princip's FN Model 1910 pistol, Museum of Military History, Vienna, 2009
Princip's pistol was confiscated by the authorities and eventually given, along with the Archduke's bloody undershirt, to Anton Puntigam, a Jesuit priest who was a close friend of the Archduke and had given the Archduke and his wife the last rites. The pistol and shirt remained in the possession of the Austrian Jesuits until they were offered on long-term loan to the Museum of Military History in Vienna in 2004. It is now part of the permanent exhibition there.[29] The weapon is a "9-mm short", .380 ACP pistol FN Browning Model 1910 made in Belgium by Fabrique Nationale d'Herstal with the serial number 19074.



NOTE:  The .380" ACP round (9x17mm) IS NOT the same as the .38" ACP (9x23mm) - a more ;powerful cartridge designed in 1900(ish) by John M Browning. This 38ACP has been widely superceded by the more efficient, higher pressure 9x19mm '9mm Luger Cartridge'.. (but the 38ACP's "38 Super" form is used by some IPSC competitive race gun users.)

- Just to add further confusion - there are several wrong reports that assassin Princip's gun was a FN Model 1900 in .32" ACP . .. Close but no cigar eh.😃

Here's a great & intelligent article about John Browning's .32ACP cartridge and his early pistols:Link:

Marty K.


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