Description
The vz. 27 is a Czechoslovak semi-automatic pistol, based on the pistole vz. 24, and chambered for 7.65 mm Browning/.32 ACP. It is often designated the CZ 27 after the naming scheme used by the Česká zbrojovka factory for post-World War II commercial products. However, it is correctly known as vz. 27, an abbreviation of the Czech "vzor 27", or "Model 27".
After the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in mid-March 1939 the pistol was folded into the German armed and police forces as the P27. Construction of the pistol continued in Czechoslovakia until the 1950s. Allegedly, the Czechoslovak military authorities sold five and a half thousand surplus vz. 27s to the Swiss in 1973 for half a million marks. Between 620,000 and 650,000 were manufactured in total, 452,500 of those under German occupation. In December 1948, a gift of five "ČZ 247" automatic variants of the pistol (based on both the vz. 24 and vz. 27) was sent to Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie. In 1949, the pistol was exported to 28 countries, including Turkey (3,286 pistols), Great Britain, South Africa, Egypt, Kenya, and Pakistan.