This article was written at the invitation of my buddy, who wanted me to take stock of the various models and differences of the Thomson submachine gun. Let's start without talking nonsense.
I've talked about the history of Thomson before, and this one also comes up in passing.
Designer John Tolliver Thomson graduated from The Military Academy at West Point and later joined the U.S. Army's Ordnance Division. He has participated in the testing of the Springfield M1903 rifle and the selection of the .45ACP pistol cartridge, and is considered to be the big brother in the field of U.S. military firearms. After his retirement in 1914 he was employed as Chief Engineer at Remington, where he was mainly responsible for the Enfield rifles for the British in the early days of World War I.
Thomson was a very thoughtful master, and he felt that an automatic weapon between a rifle and a pistol was needed on the battlefield to break through the stalemate of trench warfare. At that time, he first excluded the principle of gas conduction, because the structure of the gas conduction type was too complicated at that time to be used as a single-soldier weapon manufacturing equipment. The free bolt principle can not withstand high-power bullets, especially Thomson was planning to build an automatic weapon suitable for firing intermediate power bullets (such as .32 WSL bullets) in the early days, and the use of free bolts can not do it. So Thomson had no idea for a moment and a half.
In 1915, a naval officer named John Briech submitted a patent for a delayed unlocking semi-free bolt, Thomson thought that this was a good direction, he instigated Brish Technology to take a stake, and then found a capital tycoon named Ryan to invest, and opened a company in 1916, while developing a new submachine gun (in fact, there was no concept of submachine gun at that time), while generating income for the Russian OEM Mosin Nagant rifle.
(Thomson's Auto Ordnance Company, icon for a bullet + Thompson signature)
In April 1917, after the United States declared war on Germany, Thomson was recalled to the Ordnance Division. The main task was to change the rifle that was then given to the British OEM Enfield P14 to be a P17 type suitable for firing American .30-06 bullets, and at the same time, his company was continuing to develop automatic weapons, and by the end of 2017, Thomson found that the Brich delayed semi-free bolt also survived the .45ACP pistol cartridge, which made the original automatic rifle idea unable to be implemented, and the .45ACP was a pistol bullet with a very poor trajectory and a very close range, so Thomson had to design the weapon for close combat." Trench broom", in other words, the Thomson submachine gun was designed to have nothing to do with the submachine guns of other countries at that time.
Next, we are going to start talking about the model
Prototype gun:
In 1918, the name of Thomson's prototype gun is very interesting, called persuader persuader, large caliber can and people reason with the sense of déjà vu. On the lower side, you can see the grip guard, the barrel sleeve and the heat dissipation hole, the front of the receiver, the style of the joint sleeve part, the pull handle and the later Thomson.
By the late fall of 1918, Thomson's other prototype gun known as the Annihilator Destroyer had been developed, and the receiver part of this gun was somewhat similar to that of the later Thomson, but the ejection window, barrel sleeve, and grip were still different, and the following one used a 20-round magazine, but the 50-round and 100-round drum versions were also available.
The first Annihilator annihilators arrived at the Docks in New York on November 9, intending to go to Europe for battlefield testing, but on November 11, Germany announced its surrender, and then there was no more... Since Europe no longer needed to sweep trenches, trench brooms had no value, so Thomson continued to optimize the gun the following year, targeting the law enforcement market.
Below is a picture of some of Thomson's prototype guns, although the Thomsons posed here do not have stocks, but in fact Thomson's stock is a detachable accessory, and some models from 1919 were purchased by the New York Police Department, but the rate of fire of up to 1500 rounds at that time was a bit unbearable.
It is worth mentioning here that Thomson was still thinking about what to give the gun a name in 1919. He considered the "autogun" and also considered the "machine gun Machine Pistol", but finally chose the name "small machine gun Sub machinegun", and since then the English world has begun to have the official name of the submachine gun (PS: the United Kingdom used to call this kind of weapon machine carbine, Machine Carbine, in fact, I think the name of the United Kingdom is more logical But then the U.S. influence was too great, so the British also changed its name to Sub Machinegun)
Back to the point, the next step is the official model time
Thomson Model 1921
The 1921 model was rolled off the production line in March of that year, and was oem by Colt, to digress, Colt wanted to buy out Thomson's ownership for a million dollars, but was rejected by the owner Ryan. The main target customer Thomson aimed at was law enforcement agencies, which reduced the rate of fire to 900 rounds per minute through a weight-increasing bolt, and the manufacture of this batch of guns was also extremely sophisticated, walnut stock, grip, barrel with heat dissipation ribs, blue body, so the price was also extremely expensive, $225.
If the purchasing power of the dollar is not clear at that time, let me give you an example. A Ford Model T was $260 at the time...
In fact, at first Thomson was not applauded, the military and the police did like this weapon, but after the end of world war I, the U.S. economy was in trouble, and the landlords had no surplus food, so from 1921 to 1925, a total of 3,000 were sold, but the opportunity came immediately.
At that time, the Prohibition Order in the United States had been enforced for some time, and various gangs often had large-scale firefights in order to grab the private liquor market. Similarly, in order to prevent the federal police from coming to investigate the case, the gang also had to prepare more fierce firepower, at this time Thomson,Thomson, which can be disassembled and carried, and even after removing the butt of the gun, can be stuffed into the coat, and the fire is fierce, and the submachine gun that stops the effect is very strong. After all, gangsters are not bad for money~
Thomson Model 1923
In 1923, the unbeliever Thomson collaborated with Remington to develop an elongated .45 cartridge for use on the 1923 model in an attempt to sell to the U.S. military. We can see that the guns are somewhat similar to light machine guns, with a bipod, but the military did not purchase them.
Thomson 1921 AC model
Introduced in 1926, the batch was primarily the addition of a muzzle brake, at which point the price fell to $200. The old version without a muzzle retractor was reduced in price to $175 in 1921.
Thomson Model 1927
This batch is semi-automatic, very boring, I am too lazy to put the picture
Thomson Model 1928
The U.S. Marine Corps purchased a small batch of the 1921 in 1927, and after trying it out in Nicaragua, it felt that it was not bad, that is, the rate of fire was too high. So in 1928 a batch of versions with a rate of fire down to 700 rounds was ordered, also known as the Navy.
Thomson Model 1928A1
After being tried by the Marines, Thomson was noticed by the military. In 1932 they made some changes based on military opinion, such as the adjustable door was replaced by a simple fixed door, there was no wing, the butt connection method was also changed, the vertical grip was replaced by a square grip, and a suspender ring was added, which was named the 1928A1 in 1938. By about 40 years, the US military had purchased about 20,000 pieces, with a unit price of $209, and the United Kingdom was atmospheric, asking for more than 100,000 pieces in one go, with a unit price of $200. The French also ordered two batches from Thomson, totaling $2,000, for $250, but in the end the guns were delivered to the Germans.
In August 1941, the United States, which was preparing for the war, placed a one-time order for 319,000 pieces, and by February 1942, a total of 500,000 Thomson M1928A1 models were launched into World War II.
Thomson M1
Since the United States has entered the war, the demand for submachine guns is definitely soaring, but the M1928A1, a rich marshal of more than 200 US dollars, is really not suitable for a large number of equipment as a standard submachine gun, that is, local tycoons such as us imperialism can not eat. Remember that in 1941 an M1 Garand was only $85, so simplifying the process is certain. At that time, Sevic was working on the Thomson submachine gun, and they summed up the following solution.
1, cancel the useless Brish delay lock, instead of using the free bolt (in fact, the Bresh delay block this thing is really of little use, but I will not elaborate on this article, another day more public when the video explanation)
2. After changing the free bolt, the inside of the receiver can be greatly simplified, but it is still milling.
3. Triangular wings were added to the side of the door
4. The stock can no longer be disassembled, but fixed to the tail.
5. The barrel heat dissipation ribs and muzzle retractor have been cancelled
6. The pull handle is moved from above to the right.
7. The drum cannot be used, because the groove used by the magazine well to hang the drum is canceled.
In fact, the M1 did not exist for a long time, put into production in April 1942, but by October 1942 it was replaced by the M1A1 type, and I have no data on how much the specific production in the middle, but I know that in April, the purchase price of M1 has dropped to $70.
Thomson M1A1
The appearance of the M1A1 and M1 is no different, nothing more than the use of a 30-round long magazine, and the early version of the M1 does not have a triangular wing, but the M1A1 has this feature. Their main difference is the firing pin, the M1 uses a floating firing pin, while the M1A1 uses a fixed firing pin, which further reduces the cost.
By February 1944, the cost of the M1A1 was $45, much cheaper than earlier, but thanks to the fact that the total production was more than 1.5 million by this time, the cost of research and development, and the cost of machinery had been diluted. However, this product is after all a traditional first-generation submachine gun with milling + wooden parts, and it is only a matter of time before it is replaced by the M3 butter gun, a stamped + all-metal second-generation bargain.
The disk ends here, in fact, Thomson also has various variants of other ammunition to try, even using a version of a full-power rifle cartridge, which will have a chance to talk about later.
Step out of 2020, look forward to the new start of 2021, and wish everyone a good New Year.