K-50M

Origins

When the Viet Minh won their war against France in 1954, their small arms were a mixture of captured French weapons, American arms supplied to the French, and a growing flow of Soviet-pattern weapons from China. Among the most common Chinese weapons was the Type 50, China's licensed copy of the Soviet PPSh-41, of which large numbers had also served in the Korean War. In the late 1950s the new North Vietnamese state set up arsenals to modify and rebuild these guns, and the resulting weapon was designated K-50M — "M" for modified. Production is generally dated to about 1958 through the mid-1960s, after which the supply of Chinese and Soviet assault rifles made the submachine gun less important.

Design & Construction

Mechanically the K-50M is still a PPSh: a simple blowback submachine gun firing from an open bolt, chambered for the 7.62x25mm Tokarev pistol cartridge, with a selector for single shots or automatic fire. What the North Vietnamese changed was the outside. The long perforated barrel jacket was cut back, leaving the barrel exposed at the front with the front sight mounted directly on it, which saved weight. The PPSh's wooden stock was replaced by a pistol grip and a sliding wire stock copied from the French MAT-49 submachine gun, which the Viet Minh knew well from the war with France; with the stock collapsed the gun was about 22 inches long. It fed from the curved 35-round box magazine of the Type 50 or from the 71-round drum. The finished gun weighed about 7.5 pounds empty, noticeably lighter than the PPSh.

Combat Use

The K-50M was a standard weapon of the Viet Cong and of North Vietnamese Army units through the early and middle years of the Vietnam War. Its high rate of fire and compact size suited ambushes, tunnel fighting and the close-range jungle actions in which most firefights were decided, and its Tokarev cartridge was the same one used by the Soviet-pattern pistols and by the PPS-43, which also reached Vietnam. American troops captured many and some, particularly advisers and special operations men, used them. As the AK-47 and its Chinese Type 56 copy arrived in quantity from about 1965, the K-50M was increasingly issued to local forces, militia and support troops.

Legacy

The K-50M is one of the few weapons in which North Vietnam's own arsenals left a clear mark, and it is a distinctive example of a Cold War weapon adapted to local needs by combining Soviet, Chinese and French ideas. In US collections it is well known as a Vietnam War bring-back and trophy, and as a museum piece; transferable automatic examples are rare. Compare it with the Western submachine guns it faced, such as the M3 Grease Gun and the Swedish Carl Gustaf m/45.