A submachine gun (SMG) or sub-gun is a magazine-fed automatic carbine designed to fire handgun cartridges. The term "submachine gun" was coined by John T. Thompson, the inventor of the Thompson submachine gun, to describe its design concept as an automatic firearm with notably less firepower than a machine gun (hence the prefix "sub-"). As a machine gun must fire rifle cartridges to be classified as such, submachine guns are not considered machine guns.
In the 20th century, the submachine gun was developed during World War I (1914–1918) as a close-quarter offensive weapon, mainly for trench raiding. At its peak during World War II (1939–1945), millions of submachine guns were made for assault troops and auxiliaries whose doctrines emphasized close-quarter suppressive fire. New submachine gun designs appeared frequently during the Cold War,Military Small Arms Of The 20th Century. Ian Hogg & John Weeks. Krause Publications. 2000. p93 especially among special forces, commandos and mechanized infantrymen. Submachine gun usage for frontline combat decreased in the 1980s and 1990s.
Name There are some inconsistencies in the classification of submachine guns.Military Small Arms of the 20th Century. 7th Edition. by Ian V. Hogg & John S. Weeks. Krause Publications. 2000. pages 93–94. British Commonwealth sources often refer to SMGs as "machine carbines".Sten Machine Carbine, by Peter Laidler & R Blake Stevens, Collector Grade Publications, Canada; 1ST edition (December 2000) Other sources refer to SMGs as "machine pistols" because they fire pistol-caliber ammunition, for example, the MP-40 and MP5, where "MP" stands for Maschinenpistole ("machine pistol" in German, but cognate with the English term "submachine gun").Military Small Arms of the 20th Century. 7th Edition. by Ian V. Hogg & John S. Weeks. Krause Publications. 2000. pages 93–94 & 116–125. However, the term "machine pistol" is also used to describe a handgun-style firearm capable of fully automatic or burst fire,James Smyth Wallace. Chemical Analysis of Firearms, Ammunition, and Gunshot Residue. CRC Press. 2008. p. xxiii such as the Stechkin, Beretta 93R, Glock 18, and the H&K VP70. Furthermore, personal defense weapons such as the FN P90 and H&K MP7 are a subset of submachine guns.
History
Between 1894 and 1895 a fully automatic Borchardt C93 was demonstrated to the Austrian and United States militaries.
In 1895, Hiram Maxim produced the 'miniature Maxim' which was a pistol-calibre Maxim machine gun weighing that was sold in small quantities to various countries and tested by the US military but not adopted.
In 1896, a select-fire pistol was patented by the British inventor Hugh Gabbett-Fairfax.
Georg Luger himself demonstrated a ''hand mitrailleuse'' converted from a regular Luger pistol at the 1901 Austrian trials.
In February 1914 Manuel and Everardo Navarro of Celaya, Mexico patented a full auto conversion of the Luger. A spring arm was attached to the sear bar, which would enable automatic fire by adjusting the thumb screw. When fired in full auto it would fire continuously until the user released the grip safety
In April 1914, Abiel Bethel Revelli, an Italian military officer, patented a twin-barreled, magazine-fed automatic gun in a pistol caliber, lighter than a machine gun and shorter than a rifle. A common myth is that this weapon was originally designed as an aircraft gun. In reality ground use was taken into consideration from the very beginning, particularly for the Bersaglieri's cyclist battalions.
20th century
World Wars
World War I Stocked pistols were common at the beginning of the 20th century, the Germans initially using heavier versions of the P08 pistol equipped with a detachable stock, larger-capacity snail-drum magazine and a longer barrel.
In 1915, the Kingdom of Italy adopted Revelli's design as the FIAT Mod. 1915. It fired pistol-caliber 9mm Glisenti ammunition, but was not a true submachine gun, as it was originally designed as a mounted weapon.In late 1915, the first submachine gun with a buttstock was built: the Austro-Hungarian Standschütze Hellriegel M1915 although the weapon was never used in combat.
In February 1916, the Austro-Hungarian first fielded the M.12/P16 machine pistol. This was the first machine pistol to be adopted by any military, being issued to Tyrolean units fighting in the Alps
In 1916, Heinrich Senn of Bern designed a modification of the Swiss Luger pistol to fire in single shots or in full-automatic. Around the same time Georg Luger demonstrated a similar Luger machine pistol which inspired the German Army to develop submachine guns.
Colonel Bethel-Abiel Revelli had already conceived the principles of the submachine gun in September 1915, when he wrote that his gun could be converted to a single-barreled version that "may be mounted in the manner of a rifle so that it may be fired from the shoulder". The FIAT Mod. 1915 would be later modified into the OVP 1918 automatic carbine. The OVP 1918 had a traditional wooden stock, a 25-round top-fed box magazine, and had a cyclic rate of fire of 900 rounds per minute.
By 1918, Bergmann Waffenfabrik had developed the 9x19mm Parabellum MP 18, the first practical submachine gun. This weapon used the same 32-round snail-drum magazine as the Luger P-08. The MP 18 was used in significant numbers by German stormtroopers employing infiltration tactics, achieving some notable successes in the final year of the war. However, these were not enough to prevent Germany's collapse in November 1918. After World War I, the MP 18 evolved into the MP28/II SMG, which incorporated a simple 32-round box magazine, selective fire, and other minor improvements.Military Small Arms of the 20th Century. 7th Edition. by Ian V. Hogg & John S. Weeks. Krause Publications. 2000. pages 116 Though the MP18 had a rather short service life, it was influential in the design of later submachine guns, such as the Lanchester, Sten and PPD-40. The .45 ACP Thompson submachine gun had been in development at approximately the same time as the Bergmann and the Beretta. However, the war ended before prototypes could be shipped to Europe.Frank Iannamico, American Thunder: The Military Thompson Submachine Gun 1928, 1928A1, M1, M1A1, Moose Lake Publishing, 2000. Although it had missed its chance to be the first purpose-designed submachine gun to enter service, it became the basis for later weapons, and was much more successful than the submachine guns produced during World War I.
Interwar period The Thompson entered production as the M1921. It was available to civilians, but, because of the weapon's high price, initially saw poor sales. The Thompson (with one Type XX 20 round "stick" magazine) had been priced at $200 in 1921 (roughly ). The Thompson was used in combat that same year:
West Virginia state police bought 37 guns and used them during the Battle of Blair Mountain. Some of the first batches of Thompsons were bought by agents of the Irish Republican Army. They purchased a total of 653 units, though U.S. customs authorities in New York seized 495 of the units in June 1921.
The Thompson, nicknamed "Tommy Gun" or "Chicago Typewriter" became notorious in the U.S. due to its employment by the Mafia: the image of pinstripe-suited James Cagney types wielding drum-magazine Thompsons caused some military planners to shun the weapon. However, the FBI and other U.S. police forces themselves showed no reluctance to use and prominently display these weapons. Eventually, the submachine gun was gradually accepted by many military organizations, especially as World War II loomed, with many countries developing their own designs. The U.S. Marine Corps adopted the Thompson during this period and used them during the Banana Wars in Central America. The gun was also used by the China Marines.
During the 1924 uprising in Estonia, the Soviets supplied four Thompsons to Estonian Communist militants; those were used against Estonian soldiers in a failed attempt to storm the Tallinn barracks. Some of the defenders were armed with the MP18s; and this was possibly the first engagement where submachine guns were used on both sides.
Germany transferred its MP 18s to the German police forces after World War I. They also saw use in the hands of various paramilitary Freikorps during the aftermath of the German Revolution. In the 1920s a new, more reliable box magazine was developed for the MP 18 to replace the older snail-drum magazines. In 1928 a new version of the MP 18, the MP 28, saw the light of day, it featured the new box magazine as standard, a bayonet lug and a single shot mode. The MP 28 was manufactured in Belgium and Spain and was widely exported from there, including to China and South America. Another variant based on the MP 18 was the MP 34 that was manufactured by the Germans through the Swiss front company Solothurn. The MP 34 was manufactured from the very best materials available and finished to the highest possible standard. Consequently, its production costs were extremely high. It was adopted by the Austrian police and army in the 1930s, and they were taken over by the Germans after German annexation of Austria in 1938. The MP35 was another interwar German submachine gun, designed by the Bergmann brothers. It was exported to Sweden and Ethiopia and also saw extensive use in the Spanish Civil War. About 40,000 of the type were manufactured until 1944, with many going into the hands of the Waffen-SS. The Erma EMP was yet another submachine gun from this period, based on a design by Heinrich Vollmer, about 10,000 were manufactured. It was exported to Spain, Mexico, China and Yugoslavia, but also used domestically by the SS, as well as being produced under license in Francoist Spain.
World War II
Changes in design accelerated during the war, with one major trend being the abandonment of complex and finely made pre-war designs like the Thompson submachine gun to weapons designed for cheap mass production and easy replacement like the M3 Grease Gun.
While the Italians were among the first to develop submachine guns during World War I, they were slow to produce them under Benito Mussolini; the 9mm Parabellum Beretta Model 38 (MAB 38) was not available in large numbers until 1943. The MAB 38 was made in a series of improved and simplified models all sharing the same basic layout. The MAB 38 has two triggers, the front for semi-auto and rear for full-auto. Most models use standard wooden stocks, although some models were fitted with an MP40-style under-folding stock and are commonly mistaken for it. The MAB 38 series was extremely robust and proved very popular with both Axis and Allied troops (who used captured MAB 38s).Dunlap, Roy F., Ordnance Went Up Front, Samworth Press, (1948), p. 58 It is considered the most successful and effective Italian small arm of World War II. During the later years of the war, the TZ-45 submachine gun was manufactured in small numbers in the Italian Social Republic. A cheaper alternative to the MAB 38, it also sported an unusual grip safety.