The Warzone by Oliver Parken 4/25/2024
The pistol, which has been in service with the Canadian military since 1944, leaves behind a significant legacy as Sig’s P320 replaces it. he Canadian military is set to finally part with its remaining World War II-era 9mm Browning Hi-Power pistols by the of the year. That the end is in sight for the Hi-Power's service in Canada comes as the country recently received the final deliveries of the 9mm Sig Sauer P320, which are replacing the classic Hi-Powers.
The updated timeline for Canada's disposal of its Hi-Powers was first reported by David Pugliese of the Ottawa Citizen, citing Cheryl Forrest, a spokesperson for Canada's Department of Defense. At present, none of the roughly 11,000 pistols left in the country's inventory have been disposed of (i.e., destroyed), Forrest confirmed. It is possible that a select number might be kept by the Canadian military for specific training purposes, or other special uses, although a firm decision has not been made as of yet, she said.
It was in 1944 that the Canadian military began using the Hi-Power. Chambered in the 9mm Luger cartridge, the Hi-Power (originally known as 'High-Power') is a semi-automatic pistol made of steel. The double-stacked magazine design boasts 13-rounds standard which, for the time at least, was a very large magazine capacity. The single-action only pistol is cycled via a short-recoil operated tilting barrel. The tilting barrel design is used in most modern semi-automatic pistols and is commonly referred to as the "Browning action" today.
The Hi-Power’s origins date back to the 1920s, when the French military required a new pistol. John Browning, whose work in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries did much to advance the gun industry, was selected to design the pistol. While France did not end up adopting it, the Belgian Army did in 1935 as the P35; it was the Fabrique Nationale Herstal (or FN) factory of Herstal, Belgium, which named the pistol 'High-Power' in reference to its high-capacity magazine. After conquering Belgium in May 1940, the Nazis went on to produce over 300,000 of the pistols out of the FN factory.
However, plans for the gun were sent from the FN factory to the U.K. before it became clear that Belgium would fall to the Nazis, and were subsequently sent on to Canada. FN went on to produce the handgun for Allied forces via a John Inglis Company plant in Toronto, where the weapon began to be called 'Hi-Power.' In the decades following the war, Hi-Power was used by countries the world over, including the U.K. and many of its Commonwealth nations. It also became a favorite sidearm of some notable individuals, including Saddam Hussein.
Canada's John Inglis Hi-Powers were all produced between February 1944 and October 1945. FN continued the original production line of the pistol until 2018. However, such was the popularity of the handgun that FN America brought an all-new Hi-Power back into production just a few years later.
More:
https://www.twz.com/news-features/canadian-militarys-wwii-era-browning-hi-power-pistols-are-finally-being-replacedI don't have a P320, but I sure like my P229.
