The MP 18 Submachine Gun

We have studied the evolution of different submachine guns in the last few posts, in reverse order of appearance. Today, we will study the submachine gun that started off this whole class of weapons, the MP 18 submachine gun, otherwise called the MP 18/I or the MP 18.1 or the Bergmann MP 18.1.

During World War I, tactics that were used successfully in previous wars, such as marching lines of infantry and charging cavalry, were rendered useless by artillery and heavy machine guns. With such huge firepower available, masses of infantry soldiers attempting to charge across a battlefield were practically committing suicide. This forced a change in the infantry tactics and soldiers now dug deep trenches across the battlefield and fought from inside them. New tactics were needed to fight in the trenches. For instance, battles inside trenches were fought at very short ranges because trenches were narrow and twisted. Also, since trenches often contained more enemy soldiers defending it than the attackers, it was necessary to clear the trench before the defenders could mount a counter-attack. What was needed was a small caliber weapon with a high rate of fire, but small enough to be used in narrow trenches and light enough to be carried by a single infantry man.

Heavy machine guns had a high rate of fire, but were heavy, required multiple people to move them and needed a good amount of room to operate. Besides, the range of a heavy machine gun did not matter much inside a trench. Pistols and revolvers were small and light, but didn't have a high enough rate of fire or enough ammunition capacity. Rifles were also light compared to heavy machine guns, but were longer (and heavier) than pistols and revolvers and harder to use inside narrow trenches. They also didn't have a high rate of fire or high capacity and used larger cartridges which were unnecessary in narrow trenches.

In 1915, the German authorities attempted to modify existing semi-automatic pistols, the Luger and the Mauser C96, to use larger magazines and fire in automatic mode. However, these efforts were not successful because the pistols were so light that it was hard to aim them when firing in automatic mode. The German Rifle Commission determined that a new class of weapon was required, one that could fire pistol ammunition, but was designed to fire in fully automatic mode from the very beginning.

The design team led by Theodor Bergmann of Bergmann Waffenfabrik started working on a new design to fulfill this requirement. One of the members of the small design team was a talented designer named Hugo Schmeisser. The design they came up with was adopted in the German military in 1918 and was named the Maschinenpistole 18/I or MP 18.1. No one really seems to know what the "I" designation is, but its successor was named the MP 28/II.

The MP 18/I submachine gun. Click on the image to enlarge.

Image licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license by Edmond Huet.

The MP 18 was made using high quality components and designed to use 9x19 mm. Parabellum cartridges, the same as that used by the Luger pistol. The receiver was machined from a thick tube, unlike later submachine gun models which used much thinner tubes. The bolt was also machined from a single block of steel. It was designed as an open bolt blowback weapon, a feature that was copied by practically every submachine gun designed after it, until about 1970 or so. Schmeisser had already designed several blowback pistols for Bergmann Waffenfabrik, so he adopted the same principle for a larger weapon system. Since adding a high capacity magazine to a pistol made it cumbersome and hard to control in automatic firing modes, he designed the new weapon with a traditional-style wooden body, much like a rifle, so that it would be easier to handle. A barrel shroud was added around the barrel, to counter the overheating of the barrel when fired in full automatic mode. The magazine feed was offset to the left of the receiver and the charging handle was located on the right. The weapon was only designed to fire in automatic mode, but since it had a rate of fire of around 500 rounds per minute, it was possible to fire single shots by pulling and releasing the trigger rapidly.

Interestingly, the early design for the MP 18 used a 20-round box magazine, but the German military insisted that the new weapon use a 32-round "snail" drum magazine (the TM 08 magazine), which was originally designed for the Luger pistol.

A TM 08 snail drum magazine. Click on the image to enlarge.

Image licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license by Edmond Huet.

The snail drum magazine is not a true drum magazine, but is essentially a box magazine folded into a spiral shape. The cartridges are arranged inside it in a spiral pattern and a special loading tool is required to load it. The magazines used with the MP 18 needed to have a special sleeve to prevent the magazine from being inserted too far into the weapon. This snail drum magazine was heavy, awkward and hard to load and was one of the weaknesses of the MP 18.

Nevertheless, the MP 18 was adopted by the German army in early 1918 and about 5,000 (or 10,000) were manufactured. Even though they were not used for very long, these weapons proved to be very useful in trench warfare. In fact, when World War I ended, the treaty of Versailles explicitly forbade Germany from manufacturing any submachine guns. The 32-round snail drum magazine was also prohibited from being manufactured by the same treaty. However, Bergmann Waffenfabrik continued to manufacture this weapon in secret until about 1920 and a total of about 35,000 weapons were made. After that, Bergmann sold the design and manufacturing license to SIG of Switzerland, who started to sell it as the SIG Bergmann 1920. The Swiss produced different versions that could fire 9x19 mm. cartridges (the same as the Luger) and the 7.63x25 mm. cartridges (the same as the Mauser C96). It continued to be used by police forces in the Weimar republic, as well as China, France, Finland etc. Hugo Schmeisser modified the design to use the 20 round box magazine that he'd originally designed for it, and later, 40 and 50 round box magazines were also made for it. In 1928, he modified the design to have a selector switch and this new model was called the MP 28/II.

The MP 18 was the world's first submachine gun (technically, the Italian Villar-Perosa from 1915 was also an automatic weapon firing pistol caliber ammunition, but it was originally designed to be used as a mounted weapon in aircraft). It was influential in the designs of submachine guns that followed it. For instance, it was the MP 18 that inspired the Finns to invent their own Suomi KP/-31 submachine gun that we saw in our previous post. The British designed their Lanchester submachine gun based on the MP 28 and even made it use the same magazines as the MP 18 and MP 28. The later Sten gun could also use the MP 18 box magazines. Practically every submachine gun designed after it until about 1970, used a blowback system of operation and fired from an open bolt.

While the MP 18 was an influential design, it was also heavy and somewhat expensive to produce because key parts were machined from solid steel blocks. Later submachine guns were designed to be manufactured much more quickly and at lower costs, by using stamping and spot welding techniques.

Incidentally, it is ironic that Hugo Schmeisser's name is not associated much with the MP 18, a weapon where he made very significant contributions to the design. However, his name is popularly associated with the MP 40, a weapon that he made very little contribution to. It turned out that the German War Office mandated that the MP 40 use a magazine design that he'd actually patented for the MP 18 and MP 28 and therefore, his name somehow got associated with the MP 40 and it is referred to as the "Schmeisser submachine gun" in many countries.

The PPSh-41 Submachine Gun

In our last post, we studied the German MP40 submachine gun, an influential design. In today's post, we will study a submachine gun of Soviet origin, the PPSh-41.

The PPSh-41 derives its name from the Russian name Пистолет-пулемёт Шпагина which is pronounced as Pistolet-Pulemyot Shpagina (i.e. "Shpagin Machine Pistol"). Shpagin refers to the designer of this weapon, Georgy Semyonovich Shpagin. The number -41 refers to the year that this weapon was first produced.

A PPSh-41 with a drum magazine. Click on the image to enlarge.

Image released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license by Lposka

The gun was called the "Peh-Peh-Sha" (after the Russian pronunciation of the first letter of each word), or sometimes as "Papasha" (the Russian word for "Daddy"). During the Korean war, US and UK forces who encountered this in the hands of North Koreans and Chinese troops, nicknamed this the "burp gun" on account of the "brrrap" sound it produces when firing in automatic mode.

The origins of this weapon have to do with two reasons. First, when the Soviets fought against Finland in the Winter War of 1939-40, they found that Finnish forces armed with Suomi KP-31 submachine guns could take on superior numbers of Soviet forces fighting with bolt-action Mosin-Nagant rifles at close quarters. The Soviets already had a submachine gun of their own, the PPD-34, but it was hard to produce economically and quickly. Many of the metal parts of the PPD-34 were produced by milling and machining operations, which made it take a long time to produce.

Then, in the summer of June 1941, the Germans launched Operation Barbarossa and invaded the Soviet Union. A large number of Soviet small arms as well as a number of the factories capable of manufacturing small arms, fell into German hands. The Soviets needed a weapon that could be produced quickly and without the use of sophisticated manufacturing technologies.

Enter Georgy Shpagin, a son of a Russian peasant, who had started off life as a carpenter, before being drafted into the Russian army and becoming a gunsmith and later a weapon designer. He took the PPD-40 (an improved version of the PPD-34) as the starting point of his design. While the PPD-40 used mostly machined parts, his new PPSh-41 design largely relied on stamped steel parts. Most of these parts could be manufactured by unskilled workers using equipment that is commonly seen in small workshops and automobile repair garages. Parts were joined together by welding. The PPSh-41 design used less parts than the PPD-40 and could be manufactured in about half the time it took to make a PPD-40. Only the barrel needed a little more sophisticated factory equipment to manufacture and even this was simplified, as will be discussed shortly.

The cartridge used for his weapon design was the 7.62x25 mm. Tokarev pistol cartridge, which was already in service with Soviet forces for some years previously. To simplify the production of barrels, he often used existing barrels designed for the Mosin-Nagant M1891 rifle, which were already bored for 7.62 mm. A single long M1891 barrel would be cut into two shorter barrels for the PPSh-41 as they both use 7.62 mm. diameter cartridges, and then each shorter barrel would have a chamber machined to accept the 7.62x25 mm. Tokarev cartridge. The barrels were chrome lined for extra reliability, but most of the other parts were much more cheaply produced.

The weapon itself fires from an open bolt using the blowback action (similar to all the designs we studied in the last few posts). Earlier models had a selector lever to select the firing mode and later models were designed to fire in full automatic mode only. The firing rate of this weapon is about 1000 rounds per minute, which is the highest of all the submachine guns during World War II. The receiver is hinged to make disassembly and cleaning the weapon in the field easy to do. The chrome lining in the barrel enables it to use corrosive ammunition and not be cleaned for a while in the field.

The first prototypes went into production in November 1941 and by the spring of 1942, the factories were making them at an incredible rate of 3000 per day and by the end of 1942, over 1.5 million of these were made.

Initially, the PPSh-41 was designed to use a drum magazine of 71 round capacity, which was an exact copy of the Finnish Suomi KP-31 submachine gun that the Soviets had encountered in the Winter War. The drum had a spring loaded feed mechanism that the user would have to wind up like a watch to use. However, the drum magazine had reliability issues if it was loaded to its full capacity of 71 rounds and therefore, users would often load less than 64 or 65 rounds to avoid this problem. The drum magazine was also made of a thin sheet metal of 0.5 mm. thickness. This meant that it was pretty easy to bend, which could also cause feed failures. Also, the springs inside the drum magazines would often weaken after a while and make feeding unreliable. On top of that, it took a long time to load a drum magazine. Therefore, newer versions of the PPSh-41 were supplied with 35 round box magazine instead, after about 1942.

A PPSh-41 with a box magazine. Click on the image to enlarge.

The box magazines were easy to carry around in pouches and more reliable than the drum magazines. The thickness of the metal used to make magazines (both box and drum magazines) was later changed from 0.5 mm to 1 mm., which made them much harder to bend accidentally. Many infantrymen would carry one drum magazine in the gun and several box magazines in pouches.

The Soviets made about 6 million of these weapons by the end of World War II. Some of these were later gifted to other communist countries and some African countries. The design of the PPSh-41 was also shared with some countries, most notably, the North Koreans and the Chinese, who made their own versions of this weapon during the Korean war. The Chinese also gave their design to the Vietnamese, who made their own version during the Vietnam war. US and UN troops who faced this weapon in Korea and Vietnam nicknamed this the "burp gun" on account of the noise it made when firing. The weapon still remains in use by some irregular forces around the world.

The Sten Gun

In our last post, we saw how America adopted the M3 a.k.a the Grease Gun. In today's post, we will look at one of the guns that inspired it, the British Sten gun. This was a gun that was designed to be manufactured cheaply and easily and we will study its origins and design today.

Different Sten gun models. Click on the image to enlarge.

First, we must go back in history to Europe in the summer of 1940. German soldiers were sweeping through Belgium and France and allied troops were in a desperate situation and trapped in the tiny port of Dunkirk. The British deployed every boat and ship available to rescue the stranded Allies and in nine days (27th May - 4th June), over 300,000 soldiers (British, French, Polish, Belgian, Dutch etc.) were evacuated to England. However, this rapid evacuation also resulted in soldiers leaving their equipment behind and large amounts of firearms fell into the hands of the Germans. Shortly after that, the Battle of Britain started and many factories in England were bombed. As a result of all this, there was a shortage of small arms in Britain. The British were buying Thompson submachine guns from the United States, but the factory could not keep up with the demand (and after 1941, many of those Thompsons went to the US military, so they couldn't supply anyone else anyway). Therefore, a decision was made to design a submachine gun that could be made in England quickly and cheaply.

The task of designing this new weapon fell to Major R.V. Shepherd of the Design Department at the Royal Arsenal, Woolich and Mr. Harold J. Turpin, of the Design Department of the Royal Small Arms Factory, Enfield. The design they came up with was called the STEN. The "S" and "T" in the name came from the first letters of the designers last names (S from Shepherd and T from Turpin) and the "EN" came from the first two letters of "Enfield".

From the beginning, the aim was to design a cheap gun that could be manufactured with a minimum of machining operations. It had to be capable of being manufactured in small workshops and produced as quickly as possible. It also had to be capable of single shot and automatic fire and designed for close range fighting. It was designed to use the 9x19 mm. Parabellum Luger cartridge, which was also used by the Germans. The Sten was also deliberately designed to fit German 9 mm. magazines from the MP-38 and MP-40, so that they could use captured German ammunition and equipment if needed.

The design that they came up with was a submachine gun using a blowback mechanism and firing from an open bolt. When the weapon is cocked, the bolt remains at the rear of the weapon. When the trigger is pulled, the bolt is pushed forward by spring pressure and strips a cartridge from the magazine, chambers it and then fires it. The firing pin is fixed in front of the bolt. After the cartridge discharges, the bolt moves rearward against spring pressure and inertia of the heavy bolt and then recocks itself. The working components of this weapon are housed in a basic tubular metal receiver with a barrel on one end and a wire shoulder support welded to the other end, with a simple trigger mechanism in between

The Sten gun, Mark I

The first version of the Sten gun, the Mark I model, came with a conical flash hider and contained some wooden parts (the foregrip and part of the stock). The front pistol grip could also be rotated to make the firearm smaller and therefore, easier to pack. Production started in late 1940 and about 100,000 of this model were made.

Compared to the Mark I model, the Mark II model was much more stripped down. The flash hider was removed and the folding front pistol grip and all the wood were eliminated as well. This made the Mark II smaller and lighter than the Mark I model.

The Mark II variant was the most commonly manufactured model and about 2 million of these were produced. Some Mark II models were made with integral suppressors attached and were classified as Mark II (S)

The Mark III variant was even more stripped down than the Mark II model and was first produced in 1943. In this model, the receiver and the barrel shroud are made from a single tube, by wrapping a sheet steel plate into a cylindrical shape and welding the top. This model is also a bit lighter than the Mark II model.

The Sten Mark III model was the second most commonly produced model of the Sten gun family and was the most stripped down model of the series, and therefore the lightest version.

By 1944, the threat of a German invasion of Britain was over and the Sten gun quality improved. Models Mark IV and Mark V had better quality fit and finish and even came with wooden parts.

The Sten gun model Mark V

The Mark IV model was a paratrooper's model with a folding stock, but never got off the prototype stage. The Mark V model had better sights and finish and came with a bayonet attachment as well.

The Sten was designed to be manufactured quickly and easily. This is why most of the components could be manufactured by stamping sheet metal and doing some minor welding. From the beginning, many of the parts were subcontracted to small workshops, with final assembly being done at the Enfield factory. This was especially useful as the larger factories were being bombed from the air by the German Air Force, early on during the war. The design was made simpler with each generation and the Mark III model only had 47 parts. Interestingly, one of the largest manufacturers of the Mark III model was a toy company called Lines Brothers. The Sten was really cheap to manufacture and only cost about $10 to make, which was much cheaper than the Thompson submachine gun, which cost about $200 then.

While Sten guns were cheap to manufacture, they occasionally had jamming issues as well. The gun was designed to use the same magazine as the German MP-38/MP-40, so that people could reuse captured equipment. However, it also inherited the problems of the German magazine, in particular dirt could cause it to jam. In the absence of a pistol grip and forward grip in the Mark II and Mark III versions, some soldiers would hold the magazine with the supporting hand, causing it to wear out the magazine catch and cause failure to feed issues. The safety device was rudimentary and there was a danger of accidental discharge upon dropping the weapon, especially since many were crudely made. The Mark V model attempted to fix some of these issues.

The Sten was loved and hated by its users at the same time. Many didn't like its peculiar appearance and reliability (at least for the Mark II and Mark III models) and it was nicknamed the "Plumber's Nightmare" and the "Stench Gun". However, they liked its cheap cost and short range firepower. It was manufactured during World War II by many British companies, as well as workshops and factories in Canada, Australia, France, Poland, Denmark, Norway etc. It was responsible for the US manufacturing its own cheap submachine gun model: the M3 grease gun. Towards the end of World War II, even the Germans got in the act and made over 28,000 copies of the Sten gun. After World War II, many were made in small workshops Israel in 1948. The Sten gun is still in use in some countries around the world.