A nice view of the french Petter mle 1939 submachine-gun prototype/preserie.
The PM Petter was conceived by the engineer Charles Gabriel Petter, for the submachine-gun programm of the french army (This programm was around since 1921, and was completly revised during the 30s; the result was the MAS 38). The first version of his submachine-gun was presented and patented during November 1936.
It fired the 7,65mmx20mm round (standard pistol round of the french army) at a rate of fire of 570 rpm, without a fire-selector. The capacity of the magazine was 32 rounds. A quite interesting feature of the Petter was it’s closed bolt, while nearly all automatic weapon of WW2 had a open one. This brang several avantages: Dust and dirt could hardly enter in the gun, giving a overall better reliabity in desert or muddy fields. The closed bolt also assured a much better accuracy than the open one in semi-automatic mode… something the PM Petter was absolutely unable, as it never had a selector. However, it made the gun more complicated and hard to manufacture, and it was prone to overheat.
The first variant of the Petter had a weight of around 2,1kg empty, and a muzzle speed of 380 m/s. Several close derivates were constructed and tested during 1937, but the weapon was not adopted for service.
Charles Gabriel Petter was not, however, discouraged, and presented a new version of the Petter submachine-gun by March 1939. The Petter mle 1939 was, in comparison to the first version, smaller, with a lenght of 64,5cm in comparison to 72 on the original version. The bareel was, however, longer, with 22cm in comparison to 20. The mechanism were the same, however, the magazine could now be folded for transport. It was also larger, with 36 rounds instead of 32. The rate of fire was sightly higher, with 600 rpm, however the Mle 1939 could now slow down the rate of fire, something impossible on the first variant. Semi-automatic fire was still impossible, however. The Mle 1939 was heavier than the original, weighing around 2,57kg with the magazine but without bullets, and 2,9kg loaded.
Altough it had original and modern features, such as a closed bolt or the folding magazine, the Petter mle 1939 was not chosen for mass-production, because of it’s complexity: The MAS mle 1938 could be as effective, for a much cheaper cost. However, it appear small batchs were still produced, for around 50 guns in (experimental) service by May 1940, and possibly 3000 in order (In comparison to 19 500 MAS mle 1938). The few guns in service were used during the Campaign of France, and disappeared during or following it. The only remaining picture of the Petter on Internet appear to be this picture, taken during the production. It is one of the least-known french weapon, but it might have influenced some postwar weapons, such as the MAS 48 C-3, and maybe even the MAT 49 (mainly for the foldable vertical magazine). WT Live // Image by Lord_Waka