KP m/44 submachine gun

The KP m/44, short for Konepistooli malli 1944 or Submachine gun, model 1944, was a Finnish submachine gun nicknamed Peltiheikki, roughly sheet-metal Heikki. It was a 9mm copy and modification of the mass-produced Soviet 7.62 mm PPS-43 submachine gun. Finnish troops met captured PPS-42 and PPS-43 guns during the Continuation War and Finnish industry set out to copy their cheap stamped sheet-steel construction, while chambering the 9x19mm Parabellum round and using the magazine of the Suomi KP/-31. Nearly every part was stamped steel, and the weight of about 2.95 kg was almost half that of the Suomi. The Finnish Defence Forces ordered 20,000 from Tikkakoski in August 1944; the end of the war cut the order to 10,000 guns, produced in 1945. It was probably never used in action in World War II and served as a training weapon until the 1970s, while Finnish border guards and United Nations troops also used it. Its blueprints went to Spain after the war, where the gun became the DUX-53.