But these factory workers also played an important role in the Polish resistance.Īt great personal risk, workers in the plant manufactured parts with duplicate serial numbers and used other means to smuggle pistols to resistance fighters, where the guns were used in partisan attacks and the defense of the Warsaw Ghetto. The manufacturing of these pistols was still mostly done by Polish workers, suffering under the harsh occupation, as well as from slave labor provided by the Nazi concentration camps. They gave it the new designation the “P.35(p).” Various sources indicate that the P35 was issued to German paratroopers, police, and SS officers. For a time the Germans continued manufacturing these pistols in the factory at Radom, adding their own Waffen proof marks to the slides, frames, and barrels. After the rapid fall of Poland, the Nazi occupiers begin plundering and exploiting the defeated people, and they saw the value of sidearm as fine as the one on the Polish officers’ hips. The VIS Model 35 no doubt served honorably in the hands of the brave but overmatched the Polish Army in the country’s heroic and brief defense of the German invasion. It’s chambered in 9mm, features a de-cocking lever, has a takedown lever where a 1911 safety would be, and uses an early captive, telescoping guide rod assembly. The influence of the Browning Hi-Power drove much of the design, but the pistol also shares some 1911 features, such as the grip safety, single-stack magazine, and trigger design.

Manufactured in Poland by FB Radom, the VIS Model 35 was designed to serve as the sidearm of officers in the Polish Army. At the least, in WWII it was at the top of its class. Lots of gun enthusiasts wouldn’t recognize this pistol, yet it is cited by many sources as one of the finest handguns ever made. One time when I showed it to a buddy, he turned it over in his hand and said, “Wow, you probably had to be a real asshole to get issued this.” The Nazi markings on the slide and frame looked out-of-place on what at a quick glance resembles a not-quite-right version of the 1911. And even a utilitarian guy such as me can’t help but feel the weight of this pistol’s past. It once belonged to my grandfather, and now it belongs to me. Except for this one: my VIS Model 35, an underappreciated WWII-era pistol with a complicated story. I don’t fetishize my guns for reasons of nostalgia or history. I get why so many folks attach powerful sentiments and meaning to specific firearms, but it’s just not my nature. Guns that are practical and can be used and abused tend to be the ones that excite me.

Vis Radom Serial Numbers