Romanian Orita Model 1941/48
Submachine Guns
•
10m
The Orita SMG was designed by a Romanian Army Captian Marin Orita in 1941, and went into service in 1943. It was used primarily in Southern Europe in late WW2 with Romanian forces. It was a wood-stocked, simple blowback, 9x19mm weapon. As originally designed, the Model 1941 Orita was not drop-safe, and this was addressed in a 1948 upgrade program. That upgrade made a number of changes. It replaced the manual safety lever with a grip safety (which locked the bolt in place when not depressed, thus rendering the gun drop safe). It also replaced the one-piece wood stock with a strengthened metal wrist, and eliminated the semiauto selector lever.
The total known production is unknown (to me, at least), but virtually all of the 1941 patterns guns were updated to the 1948 standard. The Orita would serve in the Romanian Army until the 1950s, and in various reserve forces for several decades after.
Many thanks to the Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History in Brussels for access to this very rare piece! Check them out here:
https://www.klm-mra.be/en/
Up Next in Submachine Guns
-
Pleter M91: Croatia's High Quality STUzi
The Pleter M91 is a simple design, but a high-quality one that was manufactured by a proper factory production line. The company making it was planning on (hoping for?) large-scale production, and they invested to proper polymer molds and other tools to make the gun. A total of about 4500 were ma...
-
SIG MKPS at the Range
Today we have the SIG MKPS out at the range – and WOW! I did not anticipate just how fast-firing of a submachine gun this is. Calculating from the high speed footage, it is running at 1350 rpm – and yet it’s still very controllable. It’s a beautiful looking gun, a beautifully made gun, and a real...
-
UC-9 at the Range
Yesterday we looked at the development and mechanics of the UC-9 folding sneaky submachine gun. Today we are out at the range with it – how does this thing actually handle? Well, actually better than I expected. The laser is a pretty terrible main sighting system, but the gun itself shoots smooth...
