Dieudonné Joseph Saive (1889–1973) was a
BelgianThe Kingdom of Belgium is a country in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts its headquarters, as well as those of other major international organizations, including NATO...
small armsSmall arms is a term of art used by armed forces to denote infantry weapons an individual soldier may carry. The description is usually limited to revolvers, pistols, submachine guns, carbines, assault rifles, rifles, sniper rifles, squad automatic weapons, light machine guns, and sometimes hand...
designer who designed the
FN Model 1949The Fabrique Nationale Model 1949 is a semi-automatic rifle designed by Dieudonné Saive and manufactured by Fabrique Nationale...
and the
FN FALThe Fusil Automatique Léger or FAL is a 7.62x51mm NATO self-loading, selective fire rifle produced by the Belgian armaments manufacturer Fabrique Nationale de Herstal during the Cold War, and adopted by many North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries...
. He became the head firearms developer of
Fabrique NationaleFabrique Nationale de Herstal, more often abbreviated as Fabrique Nationale or simply FN, is a Belgian manufacturer of firearms. The official company name is FN Herstal. FN is a subsidiary of the Herstal Group. Herstal also owns the U.S. Repeating Arms Company and Browning Arms Company...
after the death of
John BrowningJohn Moses Browning , born in Ogden, Utah, was an American firearms designer who developed many varieties of firearms, cartridges, and gun mechanisms, many of which are still in use around the world...
. After John Browning's death, Saive continued with several projects for modernizing and improving firearms originally designed by Browning. Saive finished Browning's original concept for the GP-35 self-loading pistol, becoming the Browning
Grand Puissance, or
Browning Hi-PowerThe Browning Hi-Power is a single-action, 9mm semi-automatic handgun. It is based on a design by American firearms inventor John Browning, and later improved by Dieudonné Saive at Fabrique Nationale of Herstal, Belgium...
. It was the first 9 mm handgun to utilize a staggered-column magazine. The large magazine enabled the weapon to carry a total of thirteen 9 mm cartridges without an excessively oversized or protruding handgrip. The Hi-Power was a sales success, and was extensively used in World War II by German and British Commonwealth forces. After the war, the Browning Hi-Power was adopted as the standard military service sidearm of many Western countries, including the United Kingdom and Belgium.
In 1932, Saive improved the operating mechanism of the .30 M2 Browning AN aircraft machine gun, increasing its rate of fire to 1,200 rpm. In 1938, he made additional improvements to the M2 increasing the rate of fire further, to 1,500 rpm.
Saive is most famous for his series of gas-operated self-loading rifle designs, which used a tipping bolt to lock the action. His
FN-49The Fabrique Nationale Model 1949 is a semi-automatic rifle designed by Dieudonné Saive and manufactured by Fabrique Nationale...
rifle went into production, and was later developed into the widely successful
FN FALThe Fusil Automatique Léger or FAL is a 7.62x51mm NATO self-loading, selective fire rifle produced by the Belgian armaments manufacturer Fabrique Nationale de Herstal during the Cold War, and adopted by many North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries...
selective-fire
battle rifleA battle rifle is a full-size rifle designed for military use that fires a high-power rifle cartridge such as the U.S. .30-06 Springfield, the German 7.92x57mm IS, the Russian 7.62x54mmR, or the 7.62x51mm NATO cartridge...
.
Further reading
- Johnson, Wayne.The FN-49 The Last Elegant Old-World Military Rifle. Greensboro, NC: Wet Dog Publications, ?. ISBN 0970799721. The second chapter is (apparently) a biography of Dieudonne Saive.