The very famous submachine guns in World War II were the Bobosa, the MP-40, and a very good one was Thomson. And the Thomson submachine gun into the US army, there is also a very bumpy road, after all, this thing is too expensive, it is not cost-effective to use. Today we will talk a little bit about the Thomson submachine gun.
The design of the Thomson submachine gun was during world war I, and the original design idea was to design an automatic rifle, which eventually became a submachine gun, which was actually caused by accident. The old man named Thomson was thinking of making an automatic rifle to replace the bolted rifle with the large bolt in the soldier's hand. At this time, the Americans also saw the application of automatic weapons on the battlefield and were determined to develop an automatic weapon.
At first, the Thomson submachine gun was not adapted to a bullet of .45acp, but a .30-60 rifle bullet, which was Garland's rifle bullet, but at that time, the American soldiers used m1903. What Thomson wanted was an automatic rifle with bolt-back seats, which was simpler than the gas-conducted and tube-retraction types. At that time, Thomson also bought Brech's delayed locking bolt, in fact, there was no use, or could not hold the .30-60 chamber pressure, and finally the bullet was replaced by .45acp, coincidentally, it could be used, too good, so the Thomson submachine gun was almost born.
However, it was already 1918, and this batch of prototype guns was sent to Europe for testing on the battlefield, and it was learned on the way that the war was over, so embarrassing. And when the war is over, the problem is that the army is going to be disbanded, those soldiers are going to be restored home, the army is drastically laying off its staff, and there is no war, so why should the submachine guns be used? The army is no longer needed.
However, the gun had to be improved, improved and improved, and by 1921, the problem was solved, and the official finalization was the Thomson M1921. The design and production of this gun can be described in two words - loser. We see, the barrel of this gun has a heat sink on it, the whole body is milled, the stock is walnut, the grip is walnut, the front grip is also, it is still finely carved, and then look at the color, or baked blue, the bolt inside is still Bresh's delayed semi-free bolt, very troublesome. Later, on the m1921ac, a brake was added.
In 1926, the m1921a was $175, and the m1921ac with the retractor was $200. Does this price seem expensive to you? 200 US dollars, it is not expensive now, but it was 1926, and then 200 US dollars is now almost 3000 US dollars. Now, the US military's procurement of M4A1 is only seven or eight hundred dollars. At that time, a car was only four or five hundred dollars, and two guns were exchanged for a car.
At this time, the war is over, the army's big customer is gone, then this gun can only be supplied to the civilian field and the police, but many police departments can not afford this cost, and the people can't afford it. And the most affordable is the gangster, which happened to be the Prohibition period, the gang was selling alcohol in the dark, and then there was a very big fight, just need a fierce weapon, it just so happened that this Thomson submachine gun was the best choice.
Later, in The Life of americans, in many American movies, the Thomson submachine gun was equated with the gangster. And this also made a more interesting thing, at that time has always been a gentleman of the British people believe that submachine guns are barbarians, not suitable for themselves, then did not pay attention to submachine guns, so that after the outbreak of World War II, they did not even have experience in the development of submachine guns, hard to buy Americans very expensive m1928 Thomson.
At that time, the Thomson m1921 had a rate of fire of 900 rounds per minute, equipped with a 20-round magazine or a large drum, and if the magazine was used, the trigger was pulled twice, and the bullet was lost. The U.S. Navy later tried to purchase the Thomson submachine gun, but the U.S. military felt that the rate of fire was too high and the rate of fire had to be reduced. At that time, the Thomson submachine gun was also partially modified, the re-entry spring increased in strength, and the bolt was also weighted, in exchange for 600 rounds per minute of fire, and the rate of fire was reduced to normal levels.
The U.S. Navy selected this batch of fire rate of 600 rounds per minute named M1928, and the earliest batch of 1928 was modified from 1921, then this batch of guns is also called m1921/28, the U.S. military about this, the inscription on the receiver of the submachine gun has also been slightly changed, that is, the 1 of 1921 above is deducted, and an 8 is engraved. This was a common tactic used by the U.S. military, and later on both 1928 and M1A1. At that time, a considerable part of it was improved on the basis of m1921, after all, he produced 9,000 at one time, and did not sell much. Well, in addition to this batch of improvements, the rest of the later production is M1928.
Compared with the m1921, the biggest improvement is the reduction of the rate of fire, and the other changes are not very large, and even the details are not changed. The m1928 still has its own derivative model, that is, the m1928a1, this batch of guns was produced after the outbreak of pearl harbor, after the United States officially entered the war, not only for the US military, but also for the British, French, and Soviet militaries. These guns are very rough compared to the original M1928.
The internal structure of the M1928A1 is exactly the same as that of the M1928, and the rate of fire is the same, both are 600 rounds per minute. But the front grip was replaced by a handguard. The roast blue on the gun was also removed, there was no need to bother so much, and the ruler was changed to a very simple ruler. A small number of parts have been replaced with stamped ones, such as the magazine release falcon.
The m1928a1 also has a late model, and in the later model, the design of this gun is simpler, and even the heat sink on the barrel is removed. (In other words, the actual effect of this heat sink is actually average, but when it is really done, it is time-consuming, laborious, and wastes time)
How much is Thomson M1928 at this time, or $200. This price is very expensive, so expensive that the British developed a Stern submachine gun themselves, for only 9 US dollars, very cheap. And don't look at the British can't afford the M1928 Thomson submachine gun, and the Americans can't afford it. After all, when the war broke out, the U.S. army expanded rapidly, and in 1939 the U.S. Army was only 200,000 people, and then it quickly expanded to several million people, and the U.S. army also needed more submachine guns, which was too expensive to use. Those senior officials of the US military immediately asked people to simplify the Thomson submachine gun, how cheap and how to come.
At this time, Thomson's m1 model was born, the automatic principle of the gun was to replace the troublesome Brech's time-lapse bolt for a simple free bolt, the barrel of the heat sink is gone, those milling parts are replaced, replaced by stamped parts, welded riveting, the more troublesome muzzle brake is also directly not wanted, that walnut is too expensive, do not want, replaced by plywood. At this point, the price of this Thomson submachine gun also came down, to m1a1, a gun 45 US dollars, much cheaper, but in fact, it is still expensive, m3 as long as 15 US dollars, Stern 9 US dollars.
Compared with the M1928, this Thomson m1a1 also made a lot of simplifications, such as the stock, the original stock of the m1928 can be quickly removed, and the stock can be directly pulled out by pressing the button, but the stock of the m1a1 has become fixed, and it needs to be screwed down with a screwdriver. After all, that button is also more complicated, and it is also troublesome to produce.
Due to the change of the bolt, from the rather troublesome and useless semi-free bolt to the free bolt, the structure has changed, and the pull handle of the m1a1 has also been changed to the side, and the original pull handle of the m1921 and m1928 is at the top of the receiver, not the side.
The gun also had a more simplified detail, that is, his safety bolt and the fast and slow machine, and by the time of the m1a1, the safety bolt and the fast and slow machine were only a small iron rod, not as thick as the earlier m1921 and 1928. From this, you can see how much effort the Americans put into saving money at that time, and every detail was optimized to the greatest extent.
From the M1921 to the M1A1, we can see that the Thomson submachine gun was greatly simplified, and its main changes were in the aspect of saving money, so that the earlier M1921 was more like a work of art, while the later M1A1 was more rudimentary. But the purpose of this change is to produce in large quantities in wartime, to save more time and save more resources when mass production.