As a fan of old .32s, the Beretta 1935 had been on my short list for some time. After picking one up for a great price, I later discovered it wasn’t just any random Beretta 1935, but a historically significant model. Sometimes I get lucky.
Most Berettas are attractive guns, but some of these early designs didn’t quite hit the mark. They don’t have the same swoops and curves. The M1934 and M1935 were arguably the turning point where Berettas began to have a little more finesse to them.
Beretta has done a fantastic job of making very recognizable pistols. I don’t think it was intentional, but ultimately it’s brilliant branding. When you see a slide with that top cut and an exposed barrel looking like a hot dog sitting in a bun, you know it’s a Beretta. Or, well, maybe a Taurus sometimes. The guns can be radically different, but the look is almost always the same.
The M1935 has that look mixed with the industrial-looking design of 1930s pistols. It might not be an Art Deco masterpiece like the Savage M1907 or Remington Model 51, but it’s distinct and interesting in a world of black polymer.
The Beretta M1935, Inside and Out
The Beretta M1935 isn’t a fancy gun by any means. It’s a direct descendant of the Beretta M1934. The M1934 was a 9mm Corto (.380 ACP) Italian service pistol that served with the Royal Italian Army. The difference between the two is the caliber.
The M1935 is a direct-blowback .32 ACP pistol that feeds from a single-stack magazine. Like most guns of the era, it’s a hammer-fired, single-action-only pistol with a manual safety and heel-mounted magazine release.
The magazine holds eight rounds, which is one more than the M1934. The Italian Army already had the M1934, but the Navy and Air Force chose the .32 caliber M1935. The .380 had a bit more bite and nearly twice the free recoil of .32 ACP, so I imagine forces less focused on ground warfare wanted a little less oomph.
Beretta probably also had an eye on sales to police and external military forces. The .32 ACP was a popular cartridge amongst European police and military forces, and offering both made a lot of sense. Finland, Japan, and Nazi Germany all fielded the M1935. You didn’t have to redesign the gun to swap from .380 to .32.
The M1935 has the traditional, era-appropriate lanyard loop at the bottom of the gun’s grip. The grips themselves are made of Bakelite and reinforced with a steel plate. They feature a light texturing and the Pietro Beretta P.B. stamp at the bottom. The gun has a manual frame safety in front of the grips, which also doubles as a manual slide lock.
Beretta’s design is remarkably simple, but it’s robust and well-made. The slide cut allows for quite an ejection port, as always. The robust steel construction and subcalibers tend to create a long service life.
My M1935 – Luck of the Draw
I mentioned that mine was historically significant. It has the 4UT proof mark, indicating the gun was fielded by the Wehrmacht during WWII. From 1943 to 1945, the German military fielded a wide variety of pistols. They were getting guns from both Spain and Italy and using Hi-Powers from captured factories.
Germans designated the M1935 the Pistole 671(i), the ‘i’ standing for italienisch. The Germans had purchased small batches of the Beretta handguns for the Luftwaffe and police forces in southern Europe, but the majority came from Operation Achse.
The Armistice of Cassibile in 1943 marked the end of hostilities between Italy and the Allies. That same month, Germany launched Operation Achse which seized Italian military infrastructure, including arms and the factories to produce them. That led to German forces being armed with Beretta M1934 and M1935 handguns.
Some late-war models may feature simple wood grips and different markings. Another marking one might see indicating German use is the WaA162. Late war models were also devoid of the ‘P. Beretta’ markings and the slides were blank in order to speed up production.
I got mine at an auction and there wasn’t a single mention of the proofmark, so I assume the auction house simply overlooked the stamp. Not only does it have the 4UT markings, but it also lacks any import stamps and came with an ancient leather flap holster.
Shooting the M1935
Shooting small, all-metal, blowback-operated guns in .380 ACP isn’t always pleasant. The beavertail on the .380 M1934 likes to dig into the web of your hand with every shot. Luckily, the M1935 has a whole lot less recoil than the M1934. The little .32 ACP round makes the Beretta very pleasant to shoot.
It barks but doesn’t bite the hand and incredibly easy to control. In fact, it’s downright charming to shoot, and guns like this are why I love the .32 ACP oh so much. Most guns of this era feature teeny tiny little sights, and you understand why people used to say you won’t see your sights in a gunfight.
The M1935 doesn’t have big sights, but they were big for the era. The front sight is quite large and like a lot of Berettas, it’s part of the slide. The rear sight isn’t massive, but it’s still easy to see and align with the front sight. The low recoil and the sights make it easy to shoot this pistol fast and straight. The gun shoots flat, and the sights track well.
The magazine features an aggressive pinky extension. This gives a good, solid grip on the gun. Plus, when using the heel magazine release, I can pull it free fairly easily thanks to that pinky extension.
Describing the trigger is a little tough. I wouldn’t say it’s heavy, but it’s stiff…if that makes sense. It doesn’t want to move, but once it starts, it doesn’t take much to make it fire. With slow, aimed fire, I can keep the 8-rounds inside a 2-inch Dot Torture dot at seven yards. It’s a very short pull.
Reliability isn’t an issue at all. It eats S&B surplus stuff with ease, and the same with modern Remington production. Nothing seems to stop it, but you can feel a real difference between Eurospec loads and American loads.
A Fun Collector
A lot of these old Berettas are an affordable way to get into surplus guns. While Nazi-marked models generally command a premium, standard options are super-cheap. Some 1934 models are going for less than $200. If the surplus market has taught us anything, it’s that the prices only go up, so if you want one, now’s a good time to get one.
We’ll be lamenting how good we had it for these guns in about five years.