FN BROWNING HIGH POWER Nazi "WAA 140" stamped

his firearm design is based in part on the ideas of the American firearms inventor John Browning, and was later patented by Fabrique Nationale FN. The Browning High Power Pistol was the last of John Browning's pistol designs he worked on from 1914 till his death in 1926.

The Hi-Power pistol has been known by several names through out its history. It is often referred to as simply HP which is short for Hi-Power or High-Power or as GP which is short for the French term, Grande Puissance which literally translated means high power. The Hi-Power pistols that were accepted by the German military will have one of three Waffenamt stampings or Weapons Office inspectors stamps found on them. These would be WaA 103, WaA 140, and/or WaA 613 The Germans manufactured over 315,000 of the Hi-Power pistols during their occupation of Belgium.

WaA 140  The third and final German WWII era made Hi-Powers will be found with the Waffenamt stamp WaA 140. These WaA 140 stamped pistols were manufactured from late 1941 until the liberation of the FN plant in Belgium in 1944. None of these pistols will have the shoulder stock slot, but the early made examples in the serial number range of 95,000 to 135,000 will have the tangent rear sight. When the tangent rear sight was removed, the Germans replaced it with a fixed rear sight that was drift adjustable for windage only. It appears that the first of these WaA 140 marked fixed rear sight pistols begin at around the serial number of 150,000 which leaves a gap in the serial number range between the tangent and fixed sight WaA 140 marked pistols.The fixed sight WaA 140 marked pistols continued until around serial number 200,000 which dates them toward the end of 1942. At the beginning of 1943, a new serial code numbering system is used which began at number 01a until number 99999a was reached. Then at the beginning of 1944 the serial number 01b began and continues to about 6300b, at which time German production ceased due to the liberation of the FN factory. All of the letter suffixed serial numbered pistols will be found with the fixed rear sight.