The Vesely Machine Carbine (aka V-41, V-42, and V-43) was a submachine gun designed in Britain by a Czech refugee named Josef Vesely. In most respects, the Vesely was a typical subgun, firing 9mm Parabellem cartridges and using a simple blowback mechanism. It offered a selector for semi and full automatic modes, a manual safety, and 900 or 1000 rpm rate of fire (depending on how the bolt was configured). The sights had three settings, for 100, 200, and 300 yards. The standout feature of Vesely’s gun is its magazine, which is a double-column 60-round affair.
This magazine appears to fit a rifle cartridge, until you look at the follower. In fact, it holds two full columns of 9mm pistol cartridges, one behind the other. The front column holds 31 rounds and the rear column holds 29, for a total of 60 rounds capacity per magazine. The magazine well contains a clever mechanism which holds the rear column of rounds depressed below the travel of the bolt until the front column is empty. At that point, the interlock lever is released, allowing the ammo in the rear column to rise into the bolt’s path and feed the gun.
You can find more drawings and a detailed description of how this system worked in the three patents awarded to Josef Vesely (all three are available for free download below).
In addition to a standard model (the V-41 and V-42), a version was also designed specifically for paratroopers. The stand V-42 disassembled by removing the buttstock only, leaving the barrel and receiver as a single unit. This was too large for convenient paratroop use, and the buttstock had a tube which the receiver nested in, and this tube was too fragile for rough handling when the gun was disassembled. That would not normally be an issue, but it wasn’t suitable for strapping into a drop bag and jumping out of an airplane with. Instead, the paratroop version (the V-43) used a set of locking tabs to allow easy removal of the buttstock without any fragile bits being exposed, and also had an interrupted thread to allow the barrel and shroud to be easily removed from the receiver. Along with the gun, a special pack was developed to house the three gun components and three magazines.
The Vesely also included a bayonet mount on the muzzle for a simple spike bayonet. When not needed, the bayonet could be mounted in reverse on top of the barrel shroud for convenient storage.
All in all, the gun seems to have been well thought out and well built. It was not adopted into British (or anyone else’s) service, though – probably because it didn’t ultimately offer very much more than the Sten, which was already in use and significantly cheaper to manufacture.
We have a bunch of documentation on the Vesely, including two technical reports, a full-on operator’s manual complete with a bunch of disassembled photos, and three patents awarded to Josef Vesely describing the gun and in particular the unique magazine and feed system. Interestingly, our two reports are identical in text, but one calls the gun the V-41 and the other calls it the V-42. Presumably this is simply a paperwork change, as there do not appear to have been any changed to the gun between the two. You can download all of these documents from the Vesely V-42 page in the Vault
Patents
(Note that these patents were applied for in 1942 and 1943, and granted on the dates listed)
US Patent 2,383,998 (Josef Vesely, “Magazine for Firearms”, September 4, 1945)
US Patent 2,399,900 (J. Vesely, “Firearm”, May 7, 1946)
US Patent 2,391,756 (Josef Vesely, “Magazine for Firearms”, December 25, 1945)
Photos
Courtesy of the UK MoD, we were able to handle a V-42 and take a handful of photos (click here to download them all in a high-res zip archive):
Manuals
Amazing. I know this weapon since 1983 and only now I can see the details. The firing pin works like Thompson, Orita and Welgun; safer than usual fixed firing pins. Why the designers were so obsessed with single feed position magazines?
The single feed position magazine allows for a simplified bolt that is cheaper to manufacture and also simplifies the design of the gun. At least, this was the rational in other sub guns like the Reising.
i would love to see a video or pictures of how that bayonet fixes back into the barrel shroud
You’ve ended a few years of agonised searching. Many thanks. I saw one on display at the Airborne Forces museum at Duxford in the UK. It was one of those, I remember seeing this in a book as a kid moments. The next day I couldn’t remember for love nor money the name of the weapon!
This submachine gun is really interesting, I enjoy learning about what weapons could’ve been issued to troops and this one really catches my eye. also the magazine is a very ingenuous design.
Take the mag concept make it double feed 4column coffin mag and capacity would skyrocket
That magazine is cool, but It can’t fit the rifle cartridge.
It doesn’t use a rifle cartridge; it’s in 9×19.
Wasn’t there a similar magazine in one of the SPIW designs?
Yep. https://www.forgottenweapons.com/1964-spiw-60-round-magazine/
Were the illustrations of the Veseley submachine gun from the MoD? I’d like to use them in a book I’m writing about a spy who was involved in its development.
Veselý paid out of his own pocket to produce a prototype in 1942. This was known as the V42. The Ordnance Board investigated this gun in November and tests were undertaken at RSAF Enfield, while the Navy also arranged tests on board HMS Excellent. At Enfield, it performed well enough and it was favored by the Chief Inspector of Small Arms. The Navy were not as impressed and considered the action to be too violent.