MAS Mle 1948
In the late 1940s the French Army began a rearmament program and made efforts to standardise some of their weapons. The post-war French army was equipped with a collection of pre-war, captured and lend-lease small arms.
Standardising their pistols to 9x19mm meant that a new submachine gun was also needed to replace the MAS Modèle 38. Trials to select a new submachine gun began in 1947 with many of France’s state arsenals, including MAS, MAC and MAT, as well as private companies submitting designs. The French Army requested a compact weapon and many of the submitted designs had a folding stock and magazine well.
Manufacture d'armes de Saint-Étienne (MAS) submitted a design in 1948 which was designated the Pistolet Mitrailleur de 9mm MAS Modèle 1948. Other submachine guns submitted included the Hotchkiss 'Type Universal’, Modèle 47/1 and the MAT Modèle 49.
A French soldier armed with a MAS 48-C3 in Indochina (source)
The MAS Mle 1948′s receiver was stamped and appears to have an ‘L’ shaped bolt which travelled above the barrel, similar to that seen in the Italian Armaguerra OG-43, Franchi LF-57 and later Walther MP. The weapon fed from a 32-round magazine and had an ejection port cover, a 2-position 100m and 200m rear sight and an enclosed front sight. The weapon had a large grip safety at the rear of the pistol grip. The magazine housing pivoted forward with a push button release just in front of the trigger while the magazine release was located at the base of the extended magazine housing.
A number of prototypes appear to have been made with some having a wooden side-folding stock while others have a hollow metal under-folding stock. There is also variation between the style of magazine housing and some examples have plain wooden grips while the example seen above has a finger grooved pistol grip and longer grooved magazine housing - similar to the MAT49s.
It appears that some MAS Mle 1948 were field tested as there are some grainy images of French troops equipped with them in Indochina. Following the trials the French military adopted Pierre Monteil’s MAT-49 in June 1949.
Sources:
Images: Many thanks to Peter Hokana for kindly allowing the use of his photographs.
MAS model 1948-C3, ArmesFrancaises, (source)
Submachine Gun, M. Popenker & A. Williams, (2011)
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