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| Calibre: 9x19mm |
| Barrel: N/A |
| Length: N/A |
| Weight: N/A |
| Magazine: 60 rounds |
| Country: United Kingdom |
| Years: 1940 - 1945 |
In August 1940, the Chief Inspector of Small Arms was sent two blueprints of a new submachine gun design created by a Czech man named Joseph Veseley. Veseley had previously worked at Brno and worked on the BESA machine gun. The submachine gun was called the V40 and the Chief Inspector passed on the blueprints to the Ordnance Board, who rejected the weapon without second thought because the Lanchester had just been taken into service and the introduction of another submachine gun would cause delays.
Mr. Veseley was not deterred by this and he created a prototype. It was submitted to the Chief Inspector in October 1942. Trials were arranged on Thursday 12th of November and they took place at RSAF Enfield. The prototype became known as the V42. It was blow-back operated and had a perforated barrel casing. The most unique feature was the magazine, which was split into two sections, one in front of the other. Both sections contained 30 rounds. It worked like this: the front section's magazine follower held down the rear section and the bolt passed over the rear section and fed rounds from the front section. When the front section was depleted of ammunition, the magazine follower would release the rear section and the bolt would start to extract rounds from the rear section.
During the trials the V42 functioned well but failed a mud test. The Chief Inspector described it as a "quality weapon" on the 18th of November 1942 and doubted that it would be prone to malfunction under normal circumstances. He did, however, consider the rate of fire to be too high. The Royal Navy was interested in the weapon and arranged trials onboard the HMS Excellent. The Navy thought that the action was too violent and rejected the weapon.