Browning 1910
THE PISTOL WHICH STARTED WORLD WAR I
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Grant Sherriff |
There has always been great interest in a particular firearm if it has
been involved in some great historical event.
Most readers will be aware that the incident which sparked the First World War was the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand at Sarajevo on 28th June 1914.
Tradition has it that the pistol used in this assassination was the Browning Model 1900 in .32 acp. Most authors still quote this, in particular whenever a history of Browning firearms is written, and such information is in the FN archives.
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The pistol used was in fact the Browning Model 1910 in.380 Short. At the time of this assassination the Model 1900 pistol was obsolete, production ceasing in 1912 after 724,450 were made. It was replaced then with the much improved Model 1910, which was manufactured almost unchanged until 1983. |
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Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sofie were killed by assassin Gavrilo Princip, a member of the Serbian Black Hand terrorist group. Considering the importance of this mission it is logical to assume the hit group would be given weapons in first class condition, probably new to insure against failure. Taking cartridge power and concealability into account the 1910, in.380 would be a good choice.
According to newspaper reports of the day 6 Black Hand terrorists given the contact on the Royal couple were armed with "4 Belgain pistols", plus some Bombs.
One bomb attempt on the Archduke car failed, but later a second conspirator Gavrilo Vrincip fired two deliberate shots at close range when the car stalled in traffic. An eye witness stated "the pistol snapped twice with little noise as if it had fired blanks".
Four Model 1910 pistols were recovered from the conspirators, numbered 19074, 19075, 19120, 19126. The closeness of the serial numbers indicates they were purchased new from the same source.
There is however no record as to which pistol fire the fatal shots.
These pistols were located at Salzburg until 1945. Unfortunately the four .380s, were liberated, along with every other weapon that could be found by advancing US Army, which made Salzburg headquarters of the occupation forces in Austria.
The whereabouts of these pistols are now unknown, but no doubt are somewhere in the States.
If however you ever find a 1910 Browning in .380, of early manufacture, and bearing one of these serial numbers you would certainly have one of the most famous pistols of history.
