CZAK W

[Daddyursus]

I have recently meet a new friend from Poland, Grzegorz Plichta. He sells Holsters and other Polish military items. If interested, PM me and I will send you his email address. Many of his items are listed on Gunbroker.

Anyways, This is what he emailed me today:

Enclosed you will find a scan of a picture a prototype of the CZAK W pistol from a book I own.

Here is some information that I found on a Polish internet forum today and translated into English. It seems the P-64 has been developed as a weapon for undercover officers from the start. And it was only adopted by the army and the police because they had no alternatives.

" At the turn of 60s and 70s Poland needed a new gun for the military, police and the secret service (SB). The military wanted something smaller and lighter than the TT, the Ministry of Interior Affairs (MSW which supervised the Police and the SB) subordinate formations wanted a compact weapon for undercover carry (the equivalent of the Czech vz. 50, German PP / PPK, or, later, the Hungarian PA-63) a TT was deemed good enough for uniformed police officers. This is why the CZAK W (designed to be carried in a holster, so the larger size) and CZAK M (police, but mainly for undercover officers) were created. In 1962, the Army withdrew from the design proces because the then Chief of Staff Gen. Jerzy Bordziłowski ruled the TT is a proven design and there is no need to replace it with anything. The CZAK program was taken over by the Ministry of Interior Affairs on who's motion the slide catch was removed and the shape of the grips was changed. Both changes were made to reduce the risk of hooking on clothes when removing the gun from a hidden holster. In the mid-60s gen. Bordziłowski was replaced by brigadier gen. Mieczyslaw Bronowiecki and the Army again became interested in CZAK, but this time they decided not to return to the CZAK W (significantly different from the modified CZAK M) and only adopt the latter version."

[Hurryin' Hoosier]

I notice one odd thing about that. Unless it was an import mark, why would it say "model"? Was it not supposed to be a gun for issue within Poland? (Just wondering.)

[EMS]

Thanks for the recomendation Daddyursus.

The picture posted in this by Daddyursus was scanned by me from a book about the Wist-94 pistol which is the current service pistol of the Polish Army. The book has a short summary of the development of Polish pistols before and after the Second World War.

I notice one odd thing about that. Unless it was an import mark, why would it say "model"? Was it not supposed to be a gun for issue within Poland? (Just wondering.)

Model has the same meaning in Polish as it does in English.

It seems it is a photo of one of the prototypes of the CZAK W pistol, CNBPArt which is short for Centralny Naukowo-Badawczy Poligon Artyleryjski stands for "Central Scientific-Research Artillery Proving Grounds" and is a name of a military technical institiute that existed in the years 1952-1958 in Zielonka, a small city outside of Warsaw, the capital of Poland. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zielonka The institiute has changed it's name multiple times after 1958 and is now called WITU
http://www.witu.mil.pl/www/witu_en.htm

[Hurryin' Hoosier]

Model has the same meaning in Polish as it does in English.

Well, I'll be durned. Learned something again today!