(Selbstladepistole "Parabellum", kaliber 7,65 mm)

(9 mm Parabellum-pistole Modell 1908, P-08)

PICTURE: Parabellum M/23 (Photo taken in Sotamuseo). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (31 KB).

(*) Originally German manufacturs had manufactured two barrel lenghts for these pistols - 95-mm and 98-mm. Later Finnish Tikkakoski factory manufactured also 100-mm and 120-mm long replacement barrels for them.

PICTURE: Parabellum M/23 (Photo taken in Sotamuseo). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (61 KB).

(**) Original barrel lenght for normal P-08 pistol was 100-mm. Tikkakoski made 9 mm x 19 calibre replacement barrels were manufactured in two lenghts: 96-mm and 120-mm.

The name Parabellum originates from old Latin phrase "Si vis pacem, para bellum" ("If you want peace, prepare for war"). Another name, with which the pistol is commonly known (especially in the US) is "Luger" coming from the pistols inventor Georg Luger. The toggle-mechanism used by Georg Luger in his parabellum pistol was based to one used in Borchardt C93 pistol. First country to accept Parabellum pistol as military weapon was the Swiss one, which used Parabellum pistol models 06 and M06/29 chambered for 7.65 mm x 21. However also 9 mm x 19 cartridge had been developed for this pistol already in 1902. The two cartridges were pretty much interchangeable when it comes to Parabellum pistol - to change from one cartridge to another only barrel and return spring need to be changed. 9 mm x 19 ammunition started its way to worldwide standard when German Navy accepted 9 mm Parabellum pistols with 150-mm long barrels in 1904. But the really large deal didn't come until German Army selected 9-mm P-08 pistol as their official sidearm in 1908. P-08 and its artillery- (with 20-cm long barrel) and Navy-versions (with 15-cm long barrel) remained in production until end of WW1. Before and during WW1 German armaments industry (basically DWM and Erfurt factories in this case) manufactured some 1.5 - 2.0 million Parabellum pistols (depending source). About 178,000 of these pistols were Artillery-version. After loosing WW1 Germany was forbidden in treaty of Versailles to manufacture pistols that had 9 mm x 19 calibre or barrel length that exceeded 100 mm. This lead to Parabellum M/20 with 7,65 mm calibre and 95 mm / 98 mm long barrel being introduced to production in Germany around 1920. Even if P-38 officially become new military pistol of German Reich in late 1930's P-08 remained in use of German military through WW2 and also remained in large scale production until 1942. Largest manufacturer of P-08 in 1930's and during WW2 was Mauser factory in Oberndorf, which manufactured over 1-million P-08 pistols before ending its production in 1942. Much smaller Krieghoff factory continued manufacturing P-08 for Luftwaffe until 1945.In many countries Parabellum pistol developed a high reputation when soldiers who had fought against Germany in WW1 and WW2 took a lot of these pistols home as war-souvenirs. Production of 06/29 continued in Switzerland until 1947. Also Dutch military used Parabellum M/1906 pistols in WW1 and WW2. Vickers Ltd in Great Britain manufactured 10,000 of the Dutch pistols.

Finnish Army had a shortage of military pistols in early 1920's and large amount of pistols bought from France in 1919 had proved to unsuitable for military use. So decision about purchasing new military pistols was made. At 1920's large part of Finnish officer corps was "Jaeger officers", who had served in German Prussian Jaeger Battalion 27 during WW1 and had formed officer corps after their return in middle of Finnish Civil War in 1918. They had previous good experiences and very favourable opinions about P-08 Parabellum pistols, so naturally Parabellum P-08 become the pistol first considered for Finnish military. Finnish firm N.C. Fabricius Oy was used as a middle-hand. It soon become apparent that only Parabellum pistols available from Germany were new 7,65 mm pistol M/20. At that time 9-mm Parabellum pistols were manufactured in Belgium, but they were much more expensive and had longer delivery times. The Finns decided to buy the 7,65-mm version and the first shipments of 2,000 pistols arrived in July of 1922. Year 1923 another 2,000 pistols were bought and at that time pistol was officially named as "M/23" for Finnish Army. More M/23 pistols were bought later and by summer of 1929 Finnish Army had about 8,000 pistols M/23. After decision about developing of domestic pistol type (L-35) was made around 1929 purchases of M/23 were stopped. Also Suojeluskunta (Civil Guard) and its members purchased thousands of Parabellum pistols in 1920's and 1930's from commercial market.

During Winter War pistols M/23 were issued mainly to front-line troops, this lead quite a high losses and in summer of 1940 only 7,082 M/23 remained. During Continuation War M/23 pistols were again mostly used by frontline-troops and in February of 1944 only 4,850 remained. Not only were lot of these pistols lost or broken in battles but also hard use also wear out lot of them. Year 1951 only 3,724 of the original 8,000 pistols remained. Pistol M/23 remained as most usual sidearm of Finnish military until 1980's. Finally in 1980's new "pistol 80" (FN HP DA) replaced it and old M/23 pistols were mostly sold to collectors. Pistol M/23 had very good reputation among Finnish troops and served very well during its long career.

Finnish Army used also smaller number of 9-mm calibre Parabellum M/08 (P-08) pistols during World War 2. Some had been left behind from Civil War of 1918, during which Finnish White Army and Jaegers had succeeded acquired small number of them. Some had also ended up to Army later little by little (largest single wartime purchase: 56 pistols bought from Belgium in February of 1940). By summer of 1940 some 224 Parabellum pistols of 9-mm calibre had ended up to Finnish Army use. In addition to this many of the Jaegers now serving as officers of Finnish Army had privately acquired Parabellum pistols. During Continuation War small amount of pistol M/23 were modified by replacing their 7,65-mm barrels with new 9-mm barrels (this continued in small numbers also after the war) made by Tikkakoski. Tikkakoski factory also manufactured 7.65-mm replacement barrels, so replacing the barrel didn't always lead to change of calibre. Besides typical P-08 like M/08 pistols Finnish military also had small number (likely between 100 - 200) of the pistols artillery-version (with 20 cm barrel). At least 100 of these Artillery-version Parabellums had been bought from Germany in 1918 and small number may have arrived with Jaegers during Civil War. According one source also very small number (at least 22) of Navy-version arrived to Finland with Jaegers in December of 1917. During World War 2 Finnish troops commonly used 9 mm x 19 ammunition manufactured for Suomi submachinegun M/31 with these pistols. This proved very dangerous as Finnish submachinegun-ammunition had too powerful load for practically all pistols. Many of the Finnish Army 9-mm Parabellum P-08 pistols broke down because of Finnish submachinegun-ammunition used with them. Usually the toggle-lock seems to be the part of these pistols, which breaks down first. Around 1987 most of the remaining 9-mm Parabellum pistols were sold abroad. Only small number was kept for couriers of Finnish Army. From the two calibre options the 7,65-mm version has gained better reputation in Finland - generally speaking Parabellum pistols chambered to that calibre are known more accurate, more reliable and more durable then their 9-mm chambered counterparts.

Nowadays Parabellum pistols are again quite popular among those Finns who seek nostalgic, but accurate pistol. However ammunition availability is bit difficult. Ammunition in 7.65 mm x 21 calibre can be difficult to find and 9-mm version demands certain kind of ammunition being used. If a lot of shooting is done with 9 mm x 19 calibre Parabellum pistol, then using ammunition less powerful then the European standard in these days is recommended. In Finland Lapua manufactures 9 x 19 ammunition with 8-gram/123-grain FMJ bullets and 320 m/sec muzzle velocity - this is about the maximum load for old P-08 pistols. Nowadays Parabellum-pistols are valued collectors items.

PICTURE: Lahti L-35 pistol belonging to series 1. Notice loaded cartridge chamber indicator on top of ammunition chamber and "curve" in top of the slide. This "curve" wasn't no longer present in later series. Finnish L-35 pistol has serial number only in three places, two of which are both visible in this photo. (Photo taken in Sotamuseo). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (29 KB).

Aimo Lahti got the idea for developing this pistol from his superiors in autumn of 1929. In those days Lahti was supervising the mass-production of Lahti-Saloranta light machineguns, so he had very little free time. To be accurate he didn't receive exact order for developing a new military pistol, it was more like suggestion for of seeing if he could develop new pistol for tests, which would be arranged in near future. The original rather vague specifications for the new military pistol were simply:

• Good reliability.
• Structural simplicity.
• Easy to dismantle and assemble.
• Have to have enough punch to be able put bullet through German steel helmet with submachinegun-calibre ammunition from distance of 50 meters.

Weapon against which the new pistol would be naturally compared was German Parabellum used by Finnish Army at that time. Lahti managed to get the first version designed already in autumn of 1929 and Weapons-technical depot in Helsinki made the first prototype. Locking mechanism used by Lahti in his pistol had its roots in Parabellum, but in the new locking mechanism the bolt retreats directly backwards with its full length. Pistol has a clear visual resemblance to Parabellum, but its mechanism is very different. First prototype L-29 was in 9 mm x 19 (Parabellum) calibre, but it had been designed suitable for both 7.65 mm x 21 and 9 mm x 19 Parabellum cartridges. But soon 9 mm x 19 ammunition was selected as its future calibre because it was more suitable for submachinegun use (making large capacity magazines was easier for it). Even today the original L-29 prototype still exists, after being originally tested by shooting 6,000 rounds.

Year 1931 Lahti made some improvements to blueprints of L-29 pistol. These improvements mainly concentrated removing problems, which would have hampered its mass-production. Prototype of improved L-31 pistol was manufactured, but it broke down in tests. Lahti made several further improvements, which lead into test version L-29/35 in 1935. In this version the shape of slide and bolt has been modified to be more angled and a new safety switch was added.

First tests arranged with-in the Army gave a cold shower. Shooters accustomed to Parabellum-pistol found many things to complain in this new pistol. The most usual complaints were:

• The pistol was too heavy and big.
• Trigger was too stiff and its trigger-feel too uneven.
• Pistols mechanism could go full-auto.

June of 1935 weapons committee of infantry and light anti-aircraft weapons decided that the pistol could be put into production as soon as the certain problems had been fixed. The trigger mechanism was improved, but the pistol remained heavier and larger than Parabellum. 28^th of January 1936 order of 2,500 L-35 pistols was sent to VKT. Price per pistol was to be 650 Finnish marks. February of 1937 pistol L-35 was accepted into mass-production, but the decision demanded grip panels first to be replaced with non-wood ones. Tests had revealed that the grip panels made from wood could become bloated after getting soaked and block the trigger mechanism.

Modifications made for the design further delayed starting of mass-production and also the original cost per pistol proved to be too small. When the pistols per unit price was re-calculated in 1938 it proved to be almost double the original, being now 1,290 Finnish marks per pistol. Test series of five pistols were not finished and given to Army until March of 1938, in July of that same year a larger test series of 94 pistols was completed. Tests done with this test series in Army units revealed several problems, luckily Aimo Lahti had already predicted most problems and managed to develop improvements needed for removing them. These prototypes had wooden grip panels, all actual production pistols had brown bakelite grip panels with VKT-marking.

July 1938 the old order of 2,500 pistols was cancelled and a new order of 7,642 L-35 pistols was introduced. The price in this new order was now 1,290 marks/pistol. VKT, which made these pistols, was to deliver them in deliveries of 1,000 pistols in every 3 months. However, the manufacturing didn't start as fast as planned and in summer of 1939 Finnish Armed Forces were still waiting for the first delivery. Whole production had been halted for checking construction of these pistols. March of that year 28 pistols with improved structural design were given to military units for tests. The test results showed that they were much better then earlier tested prototypes. The newly added 23 improvements had resulted much better pistol. Further comparison tests between L-35, Colt 1911A1, FN High Power and Swedish FN (Husqvarna) m/07 were also made in March of 1939. After this test a decision was made to hasten the production of L-35.

Collectors usually divide production of L-35 pistol the following way:

As mentioned VKT (Valtion Kivääritehdas = State Rifle Factory) in city of Jyväskylä was the only manufacturer of this pistol in Finland. Name of the factory was changed as Valmet (Valtion Metallitehtaat Tourulan Tehdas = State Metal Factories Tourula Factory) after World War 2. Whole production of L-35 in Finland had a total of less then 9,000 pistols. Obviously Finnish military was the main customer - some 5,500 - 5,600 of these pistols were delived to Finnish Armed Forces. After series 4 it had become very clear, that L-35 was too complicated and expensive for further production. After all it was pistol with practically all its parts machined from steel. Spare-parts for L-35 were manufactured until 1970's. in 1985 Valmet Oy Tourula Factories made a 50-year commemoration series of 100 L-35 pistols with serial numbers 50001 - 50100. This was the last production series of L-35 pistol.

Finnish L-35 pistol was also known with nicknames "Lahti-pistooli" ("Lahti-pistol") and "Suomi-pistooli" ("Suomi-pistol") among Finnish military. It was reliable, accurate and sturdy pistol, but also one of the largest and heaviest 9-mm military pistols ever manufactured. Structure of the this strong looking pistol had its week point: Powerful submachinegun-ammunition often used by Finnish troops with these pistols could crack the pistols slide quite easily. As all 9 mm x 19 ammunition manufactured during World War 2 in Finland was hot loaded submachinegun-ammunition using this ammunition also pistols of same calibre unfortunately wasn't exactly unusual during World War 2 and years after it. When the slides of L-35 broke down in larger numbers Finnish military soon found itself needing replacements for them. Because of this many series of replacement slides were manufactured for Finnish military after World War 2.

PICTURE: Slides of L-35. Left to right are slides of production series 1 - 3 and after them the replacement slides manufactured after World War 2. (Photo taken in Sotamuseo). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (126 KB).

Production series of replacement slides manufactured for L-35 pistols:

About 500 slides manufactured by Valmet in 1979: Structurally beefier then in other slides. These don't have loaded chamber indicator. Markings in top of the slide are "Valmet" and "L-35".

PICTURE: Early series 4 pistol with moving parts pulled back. Notice missing stock attachment lug - only series 4 pistols don't have it. The loaded cartridge chamber indicator was left out around serial number 8000. Series 4 pistol slides have "Valmet" emblem and "L-35" text. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (43 KB).

Lahti-pistol was not sold abroad in large numbers until 1950's. Before that the only even somewhat worth mentioning export deliveries were:

• 50 pistols to Swedish Airforce, exported December of 1940.
• 10 pistols to Switzerland, exported in summer of 1943.

Both Estonian and Latvian military had been interested to get L-35 pistols to be tested in 1935 but VKT had not been able to deliver, so they bought their pistols from Belgium instead. Around 1951 - 1955 a batch of 600 L-35 pistols was delivered to Israeli Army. In addition to this number of L-35 were sold abroad to civilian market in 1950's.

Production license of L-35 pistol was sold to Swedish Husqvarna factory in 1940. Husqvarna made some changes to pistol and named it M.40. Its rather ironical that with the license the Swedes manufactured much larger number of M.40 pistols than the number of L-35 manufactured in Finland. Swedish Husqvarna factory manufactured some 82,480 M.40 pistols in several versions. Swedish M.40 was also exported to several countries, most important of which were Denmark and Norway. Unlike some sources claim Swedish M.40 pistols were never used in Finland.

As with Parabellum M/08 also Lahti pistol shoud be used only with moderately loaded ammunition. Originally the pistol was build for cartridge, which had 8-gram/123-grain FMJ bullet with only 290 m/sec muzzle velocity. Using too powerful ammunition can create problems with the pistols slide on the long run. Using submachinegun-ammuntion should be avoided in all times as shooting even moderate amount of powerful submachinegun-ammunition can break the slide of L-35.

PICTURE: Equipment for L-35 pistol. Up left cleaning rod and in its right side loading tool, which also be used as a screw driver. Below are Finnish made magazines for this weapon. Usually only two magazines were issued with each pistol. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (68 KB).

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SOURCES:

Markku Palokangas: Sotilaskäsiaseet Suomessa 1918 - 1988, 1 - 3 (= Military Small Arms in Finland 1918 - 1988 parts 1 - 3)

Timo Hyytinen: Arma Fennica 2, sotilasaseet (Arma Fennica 2, military weapons)

Jan Kronlund: Suomen Puolustuslaitos 1918 - 1939 (= Finnish Defence Department 1918 - 1939)

Ian Hogg and John Wells: Pistols of the World

John Walter: Luger

Article: Lahtipistoolin korjausmallit by Jussi Peltola in Ase-lehti magazine vol. 5/2005.

Article: Parabellum Pistooli 08 by Heikki Pohjolainen in Ase magazine vol. 6/1984.

Article: Parabellum Pistooli 23 by Heikki Pohjolainen in Ase magazine vol. 3/1985.

Article: Suomeen toimitetut Parabellum-pistoolit by Dr G.C. Stevens in Ase magazine vol. 4/89.

Article: Parabellumin tarina, Osa 1 - Keisarillisen Saksan pistooli by Mika Vuolle in Kaliberi magazine vol. 4/1997.

Article: Parabellumin tarina, Osa 2 - Kohti Kolmatta Valtakuntaa by Mika Vuolle in Kaliberi magazine vol. 6/1997.

Article: Keisarillisen laivaston parabellum by Mika Vuolle in Kaliberi magazine vol. 4/2003.

Article: Pitkä Pistooli 08 by Mika Vuolle in Kaliberi magazine vol. 6/2003.

Article: 50-vuotias Lahtipistooli by Taisto Kuortti in Ase magazine vol. 2/1985.

Article: Aimo Lahden sotilaspistooli by Mika Vuolle in Kaliberi magazine vol. 4/2004.

Military manual: Pistoolit 23 ja 19. Rakenne, huolto ja käsittely by Sotaväen Esikunta (1925).

Special thanks to Sotamuseo (Finnish Military Museum), Helsinki

Special thanks to Jalkaväkimuseo (Finnish Infantry Museum), Mikkeli

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Last updated 6th of January 2006
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