Machine guns of the Second World War. Machine guns Light machine guns of the Second World War

We bring to your attention an overview of machine guns of World War II

Italy

Breda machine guns

The 1930 model machine gun turned out to be one of those weapons that, to put it mildly, can be classified as unsuccessful. Externally, it consisted of corners of protrusions, and therefore it was a real torment for the machine gunner to carry it, because all these protrusions clung to clothing and equipment. In addition, the designers developed a new power system using 20 charging clips, which are fragile and brittle. These clips were inserted into a folding magazine, which had a very delicate mount, and if the magazine or mount was damaged, the machine gun could not be used.

Finally, the real problem was the extraction of spent cartridges, which necessitated the installation of an oil pump to lubricate and facilitate removal of the cartridges. Theoretically, this should have worked, but the oil, mixing with dust and dirt, especially in North African conditions, completely clogged the mechanism. Against this background, the lack of a handle for changing the barrel seems like a minor nuisance. Since no other machine guns were produced, this one had to be treated leniently, even a modification of the 1938 model chambered for a 7.5 mm caliber cartridge appeared.

Heavy machine gun

The company's heavy machine gun was designated the Breda machine gun, model 1937. In general, it was a good weapon, but its use was hampered by the use of an unusual feeding system - a flat 20-round tray that passed through the receiver and accepted spent cartridges. Today it is difficult to explain what motivated the designers when introducing such an impractical scheme: after all, spent cartridges had to be removed from the tray in order to use it again.

The cartridge cases were extracted using an oil pump from a 1930 model, which led to the inheritance of old problems. Thus, the machine gun of the 1937 model did not become a discovery, although it was adopted as a single heavy machine gun of the Italian army. A modification of the machine gun for installation on tanks was produced under the name “Breda” machine gun of the 1938 model.

Breda machine guns characteristics:

• Model 1930 machine gun
• Caliber: 6.5 mm
• Weight: 10.32 kg
• Overall length: 1232 mm
• Barrel length: 520 mm
• Initial bullet speed: 629 m/s
• Rate of fire: 450 - 500 rounds. /min
• Power: clip, 20 rounds

Model 1937 machine gun

• Caliber: 8 mm
• Weight: 19.4 kg: machine 18.7 kg
• Overall length: 1270 mm
• Barrel length: 740 mm
• Initial bullet speed: 790 m/s
• Rate of fire: 450-500 rds/min
• Food: tray, 20 rounds

Japan

The Type 11 entered service in 1922 and remained in service until 1945. The authorship officially belongs to General Kijiro Nambu, and it was under the name “Nambu” that he became famous.

This machine gun used unique system power supply, which was not used in any other model. The idea was that the receiving device on the left side of the receiver was filled with cartridges, both single and in standard five-round clips, which did not require the creation of special magazines or cartridge belts.

But in practice, this advantage was overshadowed by the fact that the internal mechanism turned out to be too fragile and complex, often unable to withstand intense shooting with a conventional rifle cartridge. In addition, the same cartridge lubrication system added problems. which, as usual, in dusty conditions significantly hampered the operation of the mechanisms.

Only automatic firing machine gun TYPE 11

The Type 11 machine gun could only fire automatically, and when firing, the cartridge funnel made the entire system unbalanced and awkward. A special modification was developed - a Type 91 tank machine gun with a funnel for 50 rounds for installation on armored vehicles. Weak spots The Type 11 machine gun appeared fairly quickly during the first battles in China in the 1930s, and in 1936 a new Type 96 light machine gun appeared.

Although the Type 96 was a significant improvement over its predecessor, it did not completely replace it, since the Japanese arms industry was unable to produce the required number of weapons of any type. The Type 96 was a combination of elements from the Hotchkiss machine gun and the Czechoslovakian ZB vz. 26.

From the latter, he took a top-mounted magazine, but the cartridge lubrication system remained, and accordingly, the problem of “clogging” the mechanisms with dirt remained. At the same time, the process of changing the barrel was noticeably simplified, and a telescopic sight was installed. However, soon such a sight began to be installed only upon request, but they left a convenient device for equipping a store. One of the features of the Type 96 machine gun was the bayonet mount.

Light machine guns"type 11" and "type 96" characteristics:

• Light machine gun "type 11"
• Caliber: 6.5 mm
• Weight: 10.2 kg
• Overall length: 1105 mm
• Barrel length: 483 mm
• Initial bullet speed: 700 m/s
• Rate of fire: 500 rounds/min
• Magazine: 30 rounds

Light machine gun "type 96"

• Caliber: 6.5 mm
• Weight: 9.07 kg
• Overall length: 1054 mm
• Barrel length: 552 mm
• Initial bullet speed: 730 m/s
• Rate of fire: 550 rounds/min
• Magazine: box, 30 rounds

USA

Browning M1919 machine gun

The M1919A4 was produced mainly for infantry and proved to be a first-class heavy machine gun, with a high rate of fire and without any particular complaints or problems. The tank version was designated M1919A5; the M2 modification was developed for the Air Force (installed on both fighters and bombers - on turrets).

The US Navy received the AN-M2 machine gun, developed on the basis of the M1919A4. Thus, for for a long time Many modifications and production changes appeared in production, but the basic design of the M1919 remained unchanged. The cartridges were fed using a cloth or metal tape. In the infantry, a machine gun was usually mounted on a simple tripod machine, but there were a great variety of machines, including quite complex ones for anti-aircraft installations and simple mounts for installation on various types of wheeled vehicles.

Light machine gun

Perhaps the strangest modification of the M1919 was the M1919A6. It was designed as a light machine gun to enhance squad firepower to replace the BAR machine gun. This model was introduced in 1943 and was an M191A4 with a strange shoulder rest, bipod, carrying handle and a lightweight barrel. The result was a machine gun that was quite heavy for a hand gun, but easy to manufacture.

The disadvantages were the general awkwardness of the weapon and the need to use gloves to change the barrel. Despite this, the M1919 was produced in large quantities (a total of 43,479 units were produced). The troops were forced to use it, realizing that it copes with its task better than BAR. The main value of all models of this machine gun was reliability: they remained operational even in the most unfavorable conditions, when almost all other samples (except, perhaps, Vickers) failed.

Browning M1919 machine gun characteristics:

• Browning M1919A4 machine gun
• Caliber - 7.62 mm
• Weight: 14.06 kg
• Overall length: 1041 mm
• Barrel length: 610 mm
• Rate of fire: 400 - 500 rounds/min

Browning M1919A6 machine gun

• Caliber: 7.62 mm
• Weight: 14.74 kg
• Overall length: 1346 mm
• Barrel length: 610 mm
• Initial bullet speed: 854 m/s
• Rate of fire: 400 - 500 rounds. /min
• Food: fabric or metal tape, 250 rounds

Great Britain

Bren light machine gun

The machine gun was created for a 7.92 mm cartridge, so the British decided to remake it for their outdated 7.7 mm cartridge with a cordite charge and an inconvenient sleeve with a rim. This is how a series of samples appeared, starting with vz. 27, then vz 30 and the transitional model vz 32. After this, vz was created. 33, and it was on its basis that the designers of the small arms factory in the city of Enfield Lock created a prototype of a machine gun, which became known as “Bren” (“Bren” is short for the cities of Brno and Enfield Lock).

As a result of improvements, the first production Bren machine gun Mk1 was introduced in 1937. By 1940, about 30,000 machine guns had been produced, and this model firmly took its place in the army, but after the events in Dunkirk, a significant number of these machine guns fell into the hands of the Germans (in the Wehrmacht they were given the designation leichte MG 138(e) and ammunition, which led to the need for the urgent release of new machine guns to compensate for their losses in the British army.

Simplified design

To simplify production, the original design was modified and new production lines were soon opened. The mechanism created by the Czechs (using the energy of powder gases) was preserved, as well as the locking system and appearance. However, the new Bren Mk 2 model lacked a complex drum sight and additional parts such as a handle under the butt.

The design of the bipod was simplified and at the same time it was decided to use a sector magazine for 7.7 mm cartridges. Over time, the design was further simplified (Bren Mk 3 with a shortened barrel and Bren Mk 4 with a modified butt). There were even machine guns chambered for the 7.92 mm cartridge, which were produced in Canada for China. The machine gun was produced in Enfield and other factories after 1945.

Light machine gun "Bren" characteristics:

• Light machine gun "Bren" Mk 1
• Caliber: 7.7 mm
• Weight: 10.03 kg
• Overall length: 1156 mm
• Barrel length: 635 mm
• Initial bullet speed: 744 m/s
• Maximum rate of fire: 500 rounds. /min
• Magazine: box-shaped sector, 20 rounds

Germany

Single machine gun MG 34

Under the terms of the Versailles Treaty, Germany was prohibited from possessing many types of weapons, including machine guns. However, this ban in the early 1920s was easily circumvented by the Rheinmetall-Borsig arms concern - it created a subsidiary in the city of Solothurn, located in Switzerland, which was not subject to restrictions.

Work on the creation of an air-cooled machine gun led to the appearance of a weapon called “Solothurn” model 1929 - a very modern design at that time. The company received a number of orders, but the Germans continued research. As a result, based on the 1929 model, the Rheinmetall MG15 aviation machine gun was created, which was produced for the Luftwaffe for a long time.

The first single machine gun

The designers of the Mauser company in Oberndorf used the Model 1929 and the Rheinmetall MG15 as the starting point for a new type of weapon - the single machine gun. The Maschinen-gewehr 34, or MG 34, created by them, is rightfully considered one of the best machine guns in the world. It could be easily carried; when fired from a bipod, it was a powerful weapon for an infantry squad, and when mounted on a heavy machine, the effectiveness of fire increased even more.

Selecting a shooting mode

The barrel and butt of the machine gun lay on the same line. The barrel was made quick-release; cartridges were fed either from a side magazine with 75 rounds, inherited from the MG 15, or from a belt. In addition to all the technical innovations, the machine gun had a high rate of fire and could be used to combat low-flying air targets. The MG 34 machine gun was one of the first weapons with the ability to select a firing mode.

When the upper part of the trigger was pressed, single shots were fired, and when the lower part was pressed, it was fired in automatic mode. The MG 34 showed excellent results in testing and was put into production for the German army and police. The Wehrmacht's need for this machine gun was never met until 1945, as too many different variants were produced, slowing down production.

Many machines and samples of paired installations were created; there was even a periscope sight for shooting from trenches. However, the main reason was that the production of the MG 34 was too labor-intensive, expensive and time-consuming. The result was a magnificent weapon with virtually no flaws, but fighting with it was like using a Rolls-Royce as a taxi - the price was too high.

Single machine gun MG 42

So, the MG 34 machine gun was too good to fight with, because it was expensive and difficult to manufacture. Even massive mass production only slightly reduced the cost, so by 1940 the designers of the Mauser company began work on a new simplified model.

Manufacturers of the 9mm MP 40 submachine gun have shown what can be done to simplify production and reduce its cost. Following this example, the Mauser designers decided to apply new production methods, using as little expensive machining as possible, and also improve the design.

Hybrid

New components and mechanisms were openly borrowed; Polish and Czech specialists were involved in the work - employees of weapons factories captured at the beginning of World War II. Thanks to the new power and locking systems they proposed, a new design appeared - MG 39/41. After a series of tests and subsequent improvements, the MG 42 was created - one of the most effective and impeccable small arms in the history of mankind.

The MG 42 made extensive use of mass production technologies. The machine gun immediately began to enjoy success among the troops. Stamped parts were used in the manufacture of the receiver and barrel casing, equipped with a quick-change device. The ability to easily and quickly change barrels proved vital for the MG 42, as its rate of fire was 1,400 rounds. /min, which was almost twice as much as any other machine gun of that time.

Rate of fire

This was the result of the use of a new locking mechanism, which was proposed by Polish and Czech designers and was distinguished by its simplicity and reliability. The result was a very effective single machine gun that could be installed on various types of machines and mounts.

The machine gun received its baptism of fire in 1942, appearing simultaneously on the Eastern Front against the USSR and in North Africa. It was mainly used in frontline units, and although intended to replace the MG 34, in fact it only complemented it. Inspired by the success, the Mauser designers continued development, and shortly before the end of the war, the MG 45 appeared with an even higher rate of fire.

Single machine gun MG 42 characteristics:

• MG 42
• Caliber: 7.92 mm
• Single machine gun MG 42
• Weight: with bipod 11.5 kg
• Overall length: 1220 mm
• Barrel length: 533 mm
• Initial bullet speed: 755 m/s
• Maximum rate of fire: up to 1550 rounds. /min
• Food: tape, 50 rounds
• Sighting range: 600 m
• Maximum firing range: 3000 m

USSR

Machine guns DShK 1938, SG-43

In many ways similar to the 12.7 mm Browning M2 machine gun, the DShK 1938/46 model is still in service with the armies of some countries. As a result, the Soviet heavy machine gun turned out to be even slightly lighter than the 12.7 mm Browning machine gun designed in the USA. It was also fired with a 12.7 mm cartridge; the machine gun turned out to be truly multi-purpose. The DShK 1938 machine gun (large-caliber Degtyarev-Shpagin machine gun model 1938) proved to be so successful that it remained in production for a long time, although after the war its modernized version DShK 1938/46 began to be produced. These weapons are still widely used in various countries around the world.

Massive machine

If the DShK 1938 itself was lighter than the Browning machine gun, the same cannot be said about its machine gun. In the basic modification, the designer retained the wheeled machine gun from the Maxim machine gun, although a special anti-aircraft machine existed and was used. The machine gun was installed on most Soviet tanks, starting with the IS-2 heavy tank. Quadruple models were produced in Czechoslovakia anti-aircraft installations. There was also a special version of the machine gun for installation on armored trains.

The smaller SG-43 heavy machine gun was adopted in 1943 to replace previously existing 7.62 mm machine guns, including the venerable Maxim machine gun. During the German offensive of the first period of the war, the USSR lost a significant part of its material resources, including machine guns. By developing new production facilities in the Urals to make up for losses, Soviet leadership at the same time set the task of developing a modern machine gun. This is how the Goryunov heavy machine gun of the 1943 model appeared.

To operate the automation, the energy of powder gases was used, the cooling was air, some previously used solutions were used in the design of the machine gun (including those developed by Browning), but overall the machine gun became very original and showed itself very well. The SG 43 was produced in large quantities, and even now its modernized version, the SGM, remains in service with the armies of a number of countries.

The automation of the SG 43 and DShK 1938 machine guns used the same operating principle. The number of moving parts was kept to a minimum; maintenance of the machine gun consisted mainly of regular cleaning. Both machine guns were capable of operating at different temperatures and were not susceptible to contamination. In other words, machine guns were ideally suited for the conditions in which they were created.

DShK 1938

• Caliber: 12.7 mm
• Weight: 33.3 kg
• Overall length: 1602 mm
• Barrel length: 1002 mm
• Initial bullet speed: 843 m/s
• Rate of fire: 550 - 600 rounds. /min
• Feed: 50 round metal link belt

Light machine guns DP, DPM, DT, DTM

In 1922, Vasily Alekseevich Degtyarev began work on creating a gun of his own design, which was destined to become the first completely Russian machine gun. Tests lasted two years before the Degtyarev infantry light machine gun, or DP, was adopted for service in 1026.

The design of the weapon was simple but reliable. Despite the fact that there were 65 parts, only 6 of them moved. The machine gun also had some disadvantages, the most noticeable of which were susceptibility to contamination and overheating (the latter the most significant).

On the first machine guns, the barrel was corrugated to cope with this problem, but it was never completely solved. The machine gun was used in civil war in Spain in 1936-1939 and then, based on the combat experience gained, underwent modifications.

The automatic machine gun operates on the principle of using the energy of powder gases. The locking system is somewhat unusual: on each side of the bolt there is a movable lug, each going into its own cutout. When the front edge of the bolt is pressed tightly against the bottom of the cartridge case in the chamber, the bolt stops. But the piston, connected to the bolt frame with the firing pin, continues to move forward.

In the final phase of the movement, the firing pin pushes the bolt lugs into the cutouts in the side walls of the receiver, the bolt is locked at the very moment of the shot.

Disk magazine

The cartridge supply system turned out to be quite good. Rim-cased cartridges often caused delays in firing guns with box magazines. A large flat single-row disk magazine with a spring feeder eliminated double feeding of the cartridge. The magazine originally had a capacity of 49 rounds, then it was reduced to 47 to reduce the likelihood of misalignment.

In 1944, a modernized version appeared - a DPM with a replaceable barrel, which could be removed using a special screwdriver. The recoil spring was placed in a tube under the barrel to reduce the chance of it overheating, which had previously caused it to weaken.

DP

• Caliber: 7.62 mm
• Weight: 11.9 kg
• Overall length: 1265 mm
• Barrel length: 605 mm
• Initial bullet speed: 845 m/s
• Rate of fire: 520 - 580 rounds/min
• Food: disk magazine, 47 rounds

Based on your few requests, I am continuing the topic. As we all already know from my previous post. The best submachine gun at that time was the PPS-43, and not the MP-40 or PPSh. In this topic we will not destroy existing myths - you already know him. However, everything is in order.

It is difficult to overestimate the role that machine guns played in history. Including in the history of our country. From the moment of their appearance in service with the Russian Army to the present day, machine guns have undergone a complex evolution. Suffice it to remember that at the beginning of the twentieth century they were still considered as a special weapon with a very narrow range of combat missions, and in the middle of it they already permeated the entire organization of troops and still remain one of the most important means of fire destruction of the enemy in close combat; they have long become an integral weapon combat vehicles, aircraft and ships.
The Red Army most often dealt with these machine guns during World War II.
I’m omitting the performance characteristics - they are of little interest to anyone.

1. 7.62 mm light machine gun DP-27

The DP light machine gun (Degtyarev, infantry) was adopted by the Red Army in 1927 and became one of the first models created from scratch in the young Soviet state. The machine gun turned out to be quite successful and reliable, and was widely used as the main weapon of fire support for infantry of a platoon-company link until the end of the Great Patriotic War. Patriotic War. At the end of the war, the DP machine gun and its modernized version DPM, created based on the experience of combat operations in 1943-44, were removed from the arsenal of the Soviet Army, and were widely supplied to countries and regimes “friendly” to the USSR, having been noted in the wars in Korea, Vietnam and others.
The DP light machine gun is an automatic weapon with automation based on the removal of powder gases and magazine feed. The gas engine has a long stroke piston and gas regulator located under the barrel. The barrel itself is quick-change, partially hidden by a protective casing and equipped with a conical removable flash suppressor. The return spring was located under the barrel and, under intense fire, overheated and lost its elasticity, which was one of the few disadvantages of the DP machine gun.
The food was supplied from flat disk magazines - “plates”, in which the cartridges were arranged in one layer, with bullets towards the center of the disk. This design ensured reliable supply of cartridges with a protruding rim, but also had significant drawbacks: large dead weight of the magazine, inconvenience in transportation and the tendency of magazines to be damaged in combat conditions. (Why wasn’t a box magazine used for the DP, similar to that used in the English Bren RP, also created for rimmed cartridges, although Degtyarev developed a similar power supply circuit for the experimental RP of 1938?) The machine gun’s trigger allowed only automatic fire. There was no conventional safety; instead, an automatic safety was located on the handle, which turned off when the hand covered the neck of the butt. The fire was fired from fixed folding bipods.

2. 7.62-mm heavy machine gun "Maxim" mod. 1941 The enlarged neck of the barrel cooling casing is clearly visible - now you can use snow.

During the Second World War, Maxim heavy machine guns were in service with machine gun companies of rifle and machine gun artillery battalions, machine gun squadrons of cavalry regiments, and were installed on armored trains and armored boats. The Maxim system machine gun is a powerful automatic weapon used to destroy open group living targets and enemy fire weapons at ranges of up to 1000 m. The best results were achieved by sudden fire at ranges of up to 600 m.

The American engineer X. Maxim created his machine gun back in 1883. The Russian and then the Red Army used a machine gun of his 1910 model, created by Tula craftsmen P.P. Tretyakov and I.A. Pastukhov. They made over 200 changes to the design of the machine gun, reducing the weight of the machine gun by 5.2 kg. In 1930 and 1941, some changes were made to the design of the machine gun that improved its operational characteristics, in particular, making it possible to fill the barrel cooling system casing not only with water, but also with ice and snow.

By its design, the Maxim system heavy machine gun is a system of automatic weapons with barrel recoil (short stroke). After the shot, the powder gases throw the barrel back, thereby turning on the reloading mechanism - it removes the cartridge from the fabric cartridge belt, sends it into the breech and at the same time cocks the bolt. After the shot, the operation is repeated. The machine gun has a high rate of fire - 600 rounds per minute, its combat rate of fire is 250-300 rounds per minute. For firing a machine gun, rifle cartridges with mod. 1908 (light bullet) and mod. 1930 (heavy bullet).

The trigger mechanism is designed for automatic fire only and has a safety lock against accidental shots.

The machine gun is fed with cartridges from a slider-type receiver with a fabric or metal belt that appeared at the end of the war with a capacity of 250 cartridges.

Sights consist of a rack-mount sight and a front sight with a rectangular top. Some machine guns also had an optical sight.

The machine gun was mounted on a wheeled machine designed by Russian Army Colonel A.A. Sokolov. This machine ensured sufficient stability of the machine gun when firing at ground targets and, thanks to the presence of wheels, made it easier to move the machine gun manually when changing the firing position.

Machine gun mod. 1910 was distinguished by its high reliability and trouble-free operation, but its weight was too high: 62-66 kg in firing position. For maneuverable actions characteristic of the Second World War, this weight was unacceptable, so for a long time, Soviet gunsmiths were developing a new heavy machine gun, which ended in 1943 with the adoption of the Goryunov system heavy machine gun for service by the Red Army. Nevertheless, Maxim heavy machine guns were used by the Soviet infantry until the end of the Second World War.

3. 7.62 mm heavy machine gun DS-39

Machine gun (DS-39) - automatic firearm of the V.A. system. Degtyarev, developed in the USSR and adopted by the Red Army in 1939.

History of creation.
The heavy weight and technological complexity of the Maxim system heavy machine gun forced work to create a new, lighter and simpler heavy machine gun. This work was carried out in the Soviet Union since the end of the 20s. Their result was the adoption in September 1939 of the Red Army of a 7.62-mm heavy machine gun of the Degtyarev system mod. 1939 Its development was started by Vasily Alekseevich Dyagtyarev at the beginning of 1930, and already at the end of 1930 he presented the first sample for field testing. After identifying a number of shortcomings, the machine gun was sent for modification, which mainly affected only the tape feed mechanism.
In 1934, the modified machine gun was presented for field tests, which lasted from November 1934 to June 1938. During the tests, several changes were made to the design of the machine gun: the pistol grip was replaced with butt plate handles, two firing modes were made, the position of the reciprocating mainspring, barrel ribbing appeared, universal machine I.N. Kolesnikov was replaced by a lighter machine, developed by Dyagtyarev. This version of the machine gun was adopted by the Red Army on September 22, 1939. The machine gun had the abbreviated designation “DS-39” (Degtyarev easel).
The production of the machine gun began at the Kovrov plant, but then moved to the Tula Arms Plant, which had previously produced heavy machine guns of the 1910 model. As development progressed, the production of DS-39 at TOZ gradually increased, and the production of Maxims decreased accordingly and by 1940 completely stopped.
In total in 1940 - 1941. 10,345 DS-39 machine guns were produced.

Device Descriptions
The automatic machine gun operates by removing part of the powder gases from the barrel. The barrel bore is locked when firing by moving the lugs apart. The trigger mechanism allows only automatic fire in two modes - 600 and 1200 rpm, and the second firing mode was intended for firing at air targets. Switching fire modes occurs by turning the handle of the buffer device, which is located below, on the back side of the receiver. The belt feeder is of a slider type, the slider moves along a curved groove, the belt with cartridges is fed from the right side (later this belt feeding mechanism was used in the DShK machine gun). The charging handle is located on the right side of the weapon's receiver. There are two triggers, they are located in front of each buttplate handle; during shooting, they were pressed simultaneously with the index fingers. The spent cartridges were thrown down. Its characteristic feature is air cooling of the barrel. The diameter of the cooling fins decreases from the gas chamber to the muzzle of the barrel along a cone. During intense shooting, the barrel was replaced with a spare one; to avoid burns to the hands when replacing it, it has a special handle. A frame-type sight with scales for shooting light and heavy bullets. The tripod machine has a mechanism for precise vertical guidance.

4. 7.62 mm heavy machine gun SG-43

The machine gun was developed by P. M. Goryunov, put into service in 1943 and began to be supplied to the troops to replace the Maxim and Degtyarev DS-39 heavy machine guns.
The Goryunov machine gun was put into service in 1943 under the name “7.62-mm heavy machine gun of the Goryunov system model 1943 (SG-43).” It appeared in the middle of World War II, at the most tragic time for the USSR, when there was a catastrophic shortage of machine guns on the fronts. Thanks to its simplicity and manufacturability, it had a significant impact on the course of military operations with the power of its fire, reliability, and maneuverability. The industry quickly mastered its production, closed the gap in the army's armament and made it possible to create a strategic reserve of machine guns.

However, one thing should be noted important detail in the fate of the SG-43 machine gun. It appeared in service with the Russian army thanks to V.A. Degtyarev and his high consciousness of civic duty.

This is how D. N. Bolotin describes this story.

“J.V. Stalin kept the development of a new heavy machine gun under his control. He personally knew Degtyarev, trusted him, believed in his talent and did not allow the thought that anyone could surpass him, and therefore gave instructions as a basis for the development of a new heavy machine gun take the Degtyarev DS-30 machine gun... Every effort was devoted to the development of such a machine gun.

Goryunov, together with master V.E. Vorotnikov and his nephew, mechanic M.M. Goryunov, developed his machine gun optionally, in semi-legal conditions. In competitive tests, in which the improved Degtyarev machine gun and a number of foreign models took part, the Goryunov machine gun turned out to be the best. This contradicted Stalin’s instructions, therefore, at the final meeting, when he asked Degtyarev which machine gun was better, Degtyarev stated that Goryunov’s machine gun was simpler and more reliable than his machine gun, industry would master it faster, and therefore Goryunov’s machine gun should be adopted for service. So the army received excellent weapons."

The machine gun was mounted on a Degtyarev wheeled machine or on a Sidorenko-Malinovsky machine. Both machines allowed firing at ground and air targets.

The SGT tank machine gun was developed on the basis of the SG-43 machine gun.

During military operations, a number of shortcomings were identified in the machine gun. And therefore the machine gun was modernized. The following changes were made: the design of the trigger mechanism was changed; removed the shield from Degtyarev’s wheeled machine; introduced the Malinovsky-Sidorenko tripod machine.

The machine gun received the SGM index.

The automatic machine gun operates using the energy of powder gases removed from the barrel through a side hole.

The barrel bore is locked by turning the bolt.

The striker-type trigger mechanism allows only continuous fire.

Open-type sighting devices consist of a frame sight and a front sight.

When turned on, the lever-type safety locks the trigger mechanism.

The machine gun is fed with cartridges from a metal belt with 250 rounds of ammunition, consisting of 5 links of 50 rounds each. It is allowed to use canvas tape from a Maxim machine gun.

5. 7.92 mm light machine gun ZB-26/30/37

In the early 20s. XX century In Czechoslovakia, after it gained independence in 1919, industrial development began at a rapid pace. In Brno, the Czechoslovenska-Zbrojovka company was created for the design and production of various types of small arms.
One of the company's first developments was a belt-fed machine gun, designated ZB mod. 24. The machine gun was designed by Vaclav Holek in accordance with the terms of the competition for the creation of a light machine gun held in 1924 by the Czechoslovak army. The tactical and technical characteristics of the weapon presented by Kholek turned out to be higher than those of machine guns of other systems that participated in the competition. The command of the Czechoslovak army decided to adopt the Holek machine gun on the condition that the belt feed (which, by the way, worked flawlessly during tests) was replaced with power supply through a box magazine installed on the receiver. According to the military, the use of food from the magazine contributed to the mobility of the machine gun on the battlefield. The new model of the machine gun received the designation “model 24”, and after launching into mass production at the Zbrojovka Brno plant, it was designated ZB mod. 26.
This light machine gun immediately gained popularity among the troops.

In addition to the army of Czechoslovakia, quite large quantities of these machine guns were received by the armies of China, Yugoslavia and Spain. In addition, deliveries were made to another 22 countries around the world. In 1930, a more advanced model appeared - ZB mod. 30. At first glance, both machine guns were completely identical. Arr. 30 was distinguished only by its production technology and some external details, in particular the presence of a gas regulator. This machine gun was adopted by the Romanian army. In 1933, testing of the ZCB-33 modification, created for the English 7.71 mm rifle cartridge, began in England. This machine gun was adopted by the British army under the name Bren.
The automatic machine gun of this modification works on the principle of removing part of the powder gases from the barrel, for which purpose a gas chamber with a regulator is located under the barrel in the front part. The barrel bore is locked by skewing the bolt in a vertical plane using corresponding inclined surfaces on the bolt frame post and on the bolt. The trigger mechanism involves firing both single shots and bursts. Switching the fire mode is carried out by a flag-type translator located on the left side of the trigger guard. The translator also functions as a safety device.
The machine gun has an air-cooled barrel, and to improve cooling conditions the barrel is equipped with ribs. There is also the possibility of quickly replacing an overheated barrel, for which a handle is attached to the barrel, which is also used when carrying the machine gun. A bipod or light machine is also provided, with which you can fire at aircraft (in this case, an anti-aircraft sight is used, the rear sight of which is installed on the left side of the receiver, and the front sight - on the tide of the guide tube). The standard sight of the machine gun provides targeted shooting at a range of up to 1600 m. It consists of a front sight and a trailer drum on which marks are applied. Each division corresponds to a change in range by 100 m. Mauser rifle cartridges are used for firing a machine gun. The cartridges are fed from a box magazine with a capacity of 20 or 30 rounds.
After the occupation of Czechoslovakia, the production of ZB-26/30 machine guns continued for the needs of the Wehrmacht. It should be noted that during the Second World War, this machine gun was widely used on both sides of the front and established itself as a reliable and unpretentious weapon.

The SA came into close contact with the ZB in 1944, during the liberation of Eastern Europe: Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Poland, etc.

6. Here he is, the leader. 7.92 mm single machine gun MG-42. The best of the best.

The MG 42 (an abbreviation of the German Maschinengewehr, which literally translates as "mechanical rifle") is a 7.92 mm Mauser general purpose machine gun developed in Nazi Germany and adopted by the Wehrmacht in 1942.

It complemented, and in some cases replaced, the MG 34 general purpose machine gun in all branches of the German armed forces, although both machine guns continued to be manufactured and used until the end of the war.

The MG 42 is known for its reliability, durability, simplicity and ease of operation, but its main feature- this is the rate of fire. The MG 42 has one of the highest rates of fire for single-barrel man-portable machine guns, ranging from 1,200 to 1,500 rounds per minute.

The new machine gun weighed only 12 kg (compare with the Maxim machine gun weighing 60 kg), allowed firing both single shots and bursts, and had many advantages in its versatility. Naturally, minimal changes in the design of the machine gun were necessary when changing fields of activity. Corresponding machines were attached to the different options. As a bipod-mounted light machine gun, the MG-42 made it possible to conduct dense barrage fire. As an easel it could be fired from prone, sitting and kneeling positions. It was even possible to mount an optical sight on it for shooting at a distance of up to 2500 m. In the absence of a machine, the MG-42 could shoot at air and ground targets, holding it on the shoulder of the second crew number, or it could be mounted on an anti-aircraft tripod for shooting at aircraft at an altitude of up to 1 km.

There were other automatic weapon designs with similar firepower. These are machine guns such as the French Darne, the Hungarian tank Gebauer, the Soviet aviation 7.62-mm ShKAS and the British Vickers K. However, the feed from the belt and the quick-change barrel system of the MG 42 allows longer firing compared to the above machine guns .

Production of the MG 42 continued after the defeat of Nazi Germany. On its basis, an almost identical MG1 (MG 42/59) was created, which was then improved into the MG1A3, and this, in turn, into the MG 3. Also, the MG 42 became the model for the Swiss machine guns MG 51, SIG MG 710-3, Austrian MG 74 and for the Spanish 5.56 mm Ameli light machine gun.

Fire from MG-42, change of barrel.

If you have any questions, I will be happy to answer.

Thanks to cinema, the Red Army and the Wehrmacht earned at least two symbolic types of weapons. For Germany, this was the MP 38/40 submachine gun, and for Soviet Union- PPSh. These two PPs are incredibly similar, but at the same time completely different. This raises a logical question: whose weapon was better?

"Schmeisser" for the elite

The history of the MP 38/40 began long before World War II. The legendary submachine gun was the fruit of a deep modernization of the VMP1925 assault rifle, created back in 1925. The weapon was developed by the German gunsmith Heinrich Volmer. When Nazi Germany began to rebuild her army for a future campaign of conquest, her command remembered the importance of submachine guns as a very promising type of weapon in the coming war. That's when the MP 38/40 appeared. The machine gun's baptism of fire took place in Spain. Subsequently, the machine gun was modified by another German gunsmith, Hugo Schmeisser, in whose honor, in fact, it earned its “affectionate” name among the Soviet troops.

Despite the fact that the MP 38/40 is firmly rooted in popular culture as perhaps the only weapon of Wehrmacht soldiers, in practice everything was completely different. Main weapon ground forces Germany had a Mauser 98k rifle. The ratio of rifles and the mentioned SMGs in the troops was approximately 1 to 10 (where 1 is MP 38/40). The submachine gun was used mostly by sabotage, airborne, assault units, as well as crews of combat vehicles and security detachments.

“I blinded you from what was”

Before World War II, the Red Army already had its own submachine gun. However, it had a number of shortcomings, which primarily prevented it from becoming truly widespread. As a result, in 1940, the party ordered the development of a submachine gun based on the existing PPD, similar in design, but at the same time adapted for mass production. The task of the gunsmiths was to “not drop” performance characteristics weapons, but at the same time make the machine gun quite cheap. The legendary PPSh was put into service on December 21, 1940.

Unlike the Wehrmacht troops, the PPSh from the very beginning laid claim to truly massive weapons for the ground forces. By the way, it was the experience of Soviet submachine gunner units during the Second World War that proved the undeniable advantage of infantry fully armed with automatic weapons. By the end of the war, about 55% of all fighters were armed with this type of weapon.

From love to hate

The main disadvantage of the MP 38/40 was the ammunition chosen for the machine gun. The 9x19 mm Parabellum cartridge had, to put it mildly, “dubious” ballistic qualities. The bullet had a low initial velocity. By virtue of large area of drag, she could not step above 400 m/s. This in turn negatively affected the effective firing range.

The second important drawback of the MP 38/40 was the ergonomics of the weapon. She was far from the best. Added a fly in the ointment and a butt. On the one hand, the folding stock made the weapon very compact, which is quite practical. However, the hinge of the Schmeisser stock quickly wore out, and this negatively affected the accuracy of shooting during aimed fire. Finally, the Wehrmacht soldiers simply hated their machine gun for the banal absence of a barrel casing. It was impossible to grasp it with your hand without a glove after shooting.

But the MP 38/40 was still a good weapon. The machine gun had a simple and reliable design (in no way inferior to the Soviet PPSh). Many shortcomings were “smoothed out” by subsequent modifications during the war. “Schmeisser” was used in different countries around the world until the 70s of the 20th century.

Weapon of Victory

In terms of a number of characteristics, the PPSh beat its competitor from Germany. The effective firing range tended to be 200 meters versus 100-120 for the MP 38/40. The machine gun had much better ergonomics, although it weighed more - 5.3 kg versus 4.8 kg in the case of loaded ammunition, and was not nearly as compact. In terms of rate of fire, the Soviet machine gun also beat its “colleague” - 1000 rounds per minute versus 600-900 rounds. The weapon should be praised for the huge capacity of the selector (drum) magazine of 71 rounds. It was also easier to clean!

Of course, the Soviet machine gun also had its drawbacks. These include difficult magazine replacement, an insufficiently reliable fuse and an increased risk of the weapon accidentally firing if it falls on a hard surface. In the dark, the PPSh was much easier to identify by its characteristic triple muzzle flash. Lastly, it was very noisy. A fighter located on the side of the machine gunner, 2-3 meters away, could have suffered a ruptured eardrum.

A submachine gun is an automatic small weapon for firing in bursts, created for a pistol cartridge. The effective fire range does not exceed 200-300 meters.

On January 23, 1935, after debugging the sample, in which, in addition to Degtyarev, designers P.E. also participated. Ivanov, G.F. Kubynov and G.G. Markov, the submachine gun was approved by the GAU for the production of a pilot batch of 30 copies. On July 9, 1935, the model was adopted by the Red Army under the name “7.62-mm submachine gun model 1934 of the Degtyarev system” or PPD-34. In the same year, production of the submachine gun was started at Kovrov Plant No. 2. Due to the low manufacturability and lack of development of the model itself in mass production and the then prevailing idea that the submachine gun was primarily a “police” weapon, production was carried out only in small batches , and the Degtyarev submachine gun itself came mainly into service with the command staff of the Red Army as a replacement for revolvers and self-loading pistols. In 1934, Kovrov Plant No. 2 produced 44 copies of PPD-34, in 1935 - 23, in 1936 - 911, in 1937 - 1291, in 1938 - 1115, in 1939 - 1700. That is, in total, a little more than 5,000 pieces.
However, during the increase in production of PPD, the excessive complexity of its design and manufacturing technology, as well as its high cost, was revealed. At the same time, it was planned to carry out: “...the development of a new type of automatic weapon chambered for a pistol cartridge should be continued for the possible replacement of the outdated PPD design.” By order of the Art Directorate dated February 10, 1939, the PPD was removed from the 1939 production program. The copies available in the Red Army were concentrated in warehouses for better preservation in the event of a military conflict, and the samples in storage were ordered to be “provided with an appropriate amount of ammunition” and “stored in order.” A certain amount of these weapons were used to arm border and escort troops. Soviet-Finnish War 1939-1940 (Winter War) became a new stage in the development of submachine guns in the USSR. The Finns were armed in relatively small quantities with the very successful Suomi M/31 submachine gun designed by A. Lahti.
The PPD automation operates according to a blowback mechanism. The trigger mechanism allows firing in bursts and single shots from an open bolt. Switching between fire modes was carried out using a rotary flag of the fire mode translator, located in the front part of the trigger guard on the right. The barrel is covered with a round steel casing, the stock is wooden. On samples of 1934 and 1934/38. The stock is solid, the 1940 model has a split stock. Cartridges are fed from box-shaped curved magazines with a double-row arrangement of cartridges or drum magazines with a capacity of 71 rounds. Drum magazines for PPD-34 and PPD-34/38 had a protruding neck with which the magazines were inserted into the receiver. Degtyarev's submachine guns had a sector sight that allowed them to fire at a distance of up to 500 meters. The cocking handle had a manual safety that locked the bolt in the forward or rear position.

Main characteristics of PPD-34/38

Caliber: 7.62×25
Weapon length: 777 mm
Barrel length: 273 mm
Weight without cartridges: 3.75 kg.

Magazine capacity: 25 or 71

After convincing evidence of the advantages of a submachine gun in military operations, obtained in the war with the Finns, the task of developing a new weapon at the beginning of 1940 was given to student V.A. Degtyareva - G.S. Shpagin.
Georgy Semenovich Shpagin (1897-1952) was born in the village of Klyushnikovo (Vladimir region). In 1916 he joined the army, where he ended up in a weapons workshop. After the First World War, he was a gunsmith in one of the rifle regiments of the Red Army, and in 1920, after demobilization, he went to work as a mechanic at the Kovrov Arms and Machine Gun Plant, where V.G. worked at that time. Fedorov and V.A. Degtyarev.
PPD-40, used at that time, was produced using “classical” technology with large volumes of mechanical processing of parts. The goal of Shpagin’s work was to simplify the Degtyarev design as much as possible and reduce the cost of production, and the main idea was to create a stamp-welding machine.
Shpagin's weapon surprised experts with its design. The oblique cut of the casing simultaneously served as a muzzle brake, reducing recoil, and as a compensator, preventing the weapon from being thrown up during shooting. This improved the stability of the weapon when firing and increased the accuracy and accuracy of fire. The weapon allowed both continuous fire and single shots. In addition, it turned out that during production the labor intensity of the Shpagin submachine gun is significantly - almost half - lower than that of the PPD. By decree of the Soviet government of December 21, 1940, the “Shpagin system submachine gun model 1941 (PPSh-41)” was adopted for service.

Already at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, it turned out that the firing range so demanded by the military did not matter given the high density of artillery and mortar fire. The perfect weapon in such a situation, the machine gun would have become just that, but at the end of 1941 there were no more than 250 of them in the Reserve of the High Command. Therefore, already in October 1941, the production of parts for PPSh was established at the State Bearing Plant, the Moscow Tool Plant, the S. Ordzhonikidze Machine Tool Plant, and at 11 other small enterprises of local industry management. The assembly was carried out at the Moscow Automobile Plant. During 1941 alone, 98,644 machine guns were produced, of which the lion's share - 92,776 pieces - were PPSh, and already in 1942, the production volume of submachine guns amounted to 1,499,269 pieces. In total, about 6 million PPSh-41 units were produced during the war.

Initially, the PPSh was developed for the disc magazine from the PPD-40, but such magazines were expensive to produce and difficult to use, so in 1942, carob (box) magazines with 35 rounds were developed.

Early versions of the PPSh allowed firing both bursts and single shots, but later the fire mode translator was removed, leaving only automatic fire.

The PPSh was an extremely reliable design. The barrel was chrome plated to protect against corrosion. Shooting from it was possible even with very low temperatures, since Soviet cartridges used a mercury primer.

Performance characteristics of PPSh-41

Cartridge 7.62×25 mm TT
Magazine capacity 71 (disc magazine) or 35 (horn magazine) rounds
Weight without cartridges 3.63 kg
Length 843 mm
Barrel length 269 mm
Rate of fire 900 rpm
Effective range 200 m

The PPS submachine gun was developed by the Soviet gunsmith designer Alexei Ivanovich Sudaev in 1942, in Leningrad besieged by German troops, and was produced at the Sestroretsk arms factory to supply the troops of the Leningrad Front. During the design of this weapon, the famous PPSh-41 was in service with the Red Army, which proved to be effective in combat and technologically advanced in production. But the PPSh had not only advantages, but also disadvantages, such as large dimensions and weight, which significantly complicated the use of this weapon in narrow trenches and cramped spaces in urban battles, as well as by reconnaissance personnel, paratroopers, and crews of tanks and combat vehicles. As a result, in 1942, a competition was announced for a submachine gun that was lighter, more compact, and cheaper to produce, but not inferior in performance to the submachine gun designed by Shpagin. Such famous designers as V.A. took part in the competition. Degtyarev, G.S. Shpagin, N.V. Rukavishnikov, S.A. Korovin. The weapon of Alexander Ivanovich Sudaev won the victory.
PPS automation operates according to a blowback design. For shooting, 7.62×25 TT cartridges are used. Shooting is carried out from an open bolt. The trigger mechanism allows firing only in automatic mode - in bursts. The safety is located in front of the trigger guard and, when turned on, blocks the trigger rod and raises a bar with cutouts that block the cocking handle, rigidly connected to the bolt, both in the lowered and cocked positions. The safety is moved to the forward firing position by pressing the index finger before placing it on the trigger. In some modifications, if it is necessary to lock the cocked bolt, the cocking handle can be inserted into an additional transverse groove on the receiver. In this position, the cocked bolt cannot break spontaneously even if the weapon falls. The receiver and barrel casing are a single part and were produced by stamping.
The PPS-43 is often called the best submachine gun of the Second World War, given the excellent ratio of its combat and service qualities with manufacturability and low cost of mass production. From the beginning to the end of the production of Sudaev PPS-42 and PPS-43 submachine guns, about 500,000 units of these weapons were produced. The PPS was removed from service by the Soviet Army after the end of the war, in the early 1950s, and was gradually replaced by the Kalashnikov assault rifle. However, the PPS remained in service with rear and auxiliary units, railway troops and units of internal troops for some time, and the PPS was in service with individual paramilitary security units until the end of the 1980s. In addition, Sudaev submachine guns were supplied after the war to states friendly to the USSR, including developing countries in Eastern Europe, Africa, China, and North Korea.

Main characteristics

Caliber: 7.62×25
Weapon length: 820/615 mm
Barrel length: 255 mm
Weight without cartridges: 3 kg.

On February 15, 1940, Degtyarev presented a modernized version of his submachine gun, designed with the participation of designers from the Kovrov plant P.E. Ivanova, S.N. Kalygina, E.K. Alexandrovich, N.N. Lopukhovsky and V.A. Vvedensky. The new weapon had a split stock made of two parts, located before and after the store. These parts were equipped with metal guide stops intended for mounting the magazine, which made it possible to use a drum magazine without a protruding neck. The capacity of such a magazine was reduced to 71 rounds. However, the reliability of cartridge supply has increased significantly. The use of sector box magazines, also called “horns”, in the new submachine gun became impossible in the 1934 model submachine gun. They returned to box-shaped “horns” only during the Second World War, thanks to the combat experience of using the PPSh-41 among the troops, which showed the excessive capacity of the drum magazine and its too large mass. A new version of the Degtyarev submachine gun was approved by the Defense Committee under the Council of People's Commissars for production on February 21, 1940 and put into service as the “submachine gun of the 1940 model of the Degtyarev system” - PPD-40. Production of PPD-40 began in March of the same year.
A total of 81,118 PPD-40 submachine guns were produced throughout 1940. As a result, the 1940 model is the most widespread in terms of the number of copies produced. In addition, the armed forces received a fairly significant amount of countermeasures. The PPD-40 submachine gun was used at the very beginning of the war, but this type of weapon was still greatly lacking in the troops, and compared to the enemy, the Red Army was significantly inferior to the Wehrmacht in the number of available submachine guns. Already at the end of 1941, the PPD-40 was replaced by the much more technologically advanced and cheaper to produce, more reliable Shpagin PPSh-41 submachine gun, designed in 1940. A huge advantage of the PPSh-41 was that this weapon was originally developed taking into account mass production at any industrial enterprise with low-power pressing equipment. This circumstance turned out to be extremely important during the war.
But at first, while the production of PPSh-41 had not yet reached the required scale, in the initial period of the war the production of PPD-40 was temporarily restored at the Sestroretsk Tool Plant named after S.P. Voskov in Leningrad. Since December 1941, PPD-40 began to be manufactured at the plant named after. A.A. Kulakova. At the Kovrov plant, about 5,000 PPD-40 submachine guns were assembled from available parts. In total, for 1941-1942. In Leningrad, 42,870 PPD-40s were produced, which entered service with the troops of the Leningrad and Karelian fronts. Many Leningrad-made PPD-40s, instead of a sector sight, were equipped with a simplified folding sight, as well as a simplified fuse configuration. Later, using the same production facilities, the production of a much more technologically advanced Sudaev submachine gun was carried out. The PPD-40 fire was considered effective up to 300 m when firing single shots, up to 200 m when firing in short bursts, and up to 100 m in a continuous burst. The destructive power of the bullet was maintained at distances of up to 800 m. The main type of fire was short burst fire. At distances less than 100 m, continuous fire was allowed at a critical moment, but in order to avoid overheating of no more than 4 magazines in a row.

Main characteristics

Caliber: 7.62×25
Weapon length: 788 mm
Barrel length: 267 mm
Weight without cartridges: 3.6 kg.
Rate of fire: 800 rounds/min
Magazine capacity: 71 rounds

The Korovin submachine gun was developed by 1941 by the Soviet small arms designer Sergei Aleksandrovich Korovin at the Tula Arms Factory. This weapon, created by the designer based on his earlier designs from the 1930s, was produced at TOZ in limited editions during 1941. The main advantage of the Korovin submachine gun of the 1941 model is its exceptional technological simplicity of production. With the exception of the barrel and bolt, almost all the main parts of the weapon were made by stamping and welding. In wartime conditions, this made it possible to produce Korovin submachine guns at any machine-building enterprise that had press and stamping equipment.
The first submachine gun in the USSR was created by F.V. Tokarev in 1927 with a 7.62 mm cartridge for the Nagant revolver. Two years later, V.A. proposed his design. Degtyarev. In 1930, S.A. created his prototype submachine gun. Korovin in Tula. Korovin's first submachine gun had an automatic mechanism with a blowback bolt and a hammer-operated firing mechanism, which allowed it to fire single shots and bursts. For firing, 7.62×25 TT pistol cartridges were used, loaded into a box magazine with a capacity of 30 rounds, which also served as a holding handle. During tests in 1930, in which the Degtyarev and Korovin systems took part, the Tokarev model turned out to be the best of the domestic submachine guns created at that time, but it was not adopted for service due to delays in firing.
These delays were caused by the front part of the cartridge sticking into the breech section of the barrel, as well as jamming of the edges of the cartridges in the magazine, but after modification, in 1934, Degtyarev’s sample was adopted for service under the designation PPD-34, although it had a number of shortcomings. The design of submachine guns continued, including by Korovin, in the 1930s. It was thanks to these works that at the beginning of the war Korovin created such a successful submachine gun, characterized by manufacturability, simplicity, low weight and the presence of the main advantages of such a model as the famous PPS-43, which became more successful due to its adoption by the Red Army.
The automatic operation of the Korovin submachine gun, model 1941, operates on the basis of a circuit using recoil energy with a blowback bolt. The trigger mechanism allows firing only in automatic mode - in bursts, from an open bolt. The firing pin is placed motionless in the shutter mirror. The safety feature is a cutout in the rear of the receiver groove, into which the bolt cocking handle is placed. The trigger stroke length is 4 mm, and the trigger pull is 2.9 kg. Most parts of the weapon, including the receiver, are made from sheet steel. Extraction and reflection of the spent cartridge case is carried out by a spring-loaded ejector located in the bolt and a reflector located at the bottom of the mounting box.
The cartridges are fed from a double-row box magazine with a capacity of 30 rounds. The weapon has simple sighting devices, consisting of a reversible rear sight designed for 100 and 200 m, and a horizontally adjustable front sight protected by a closed front sight. The Korovin submachine gun has a low rate of fire, due to which it has low ammo consumption and good accuracy of fire. The stock is folding, made of stamped steel, folding down. The metal pistol grip fire control has wooden cheeks. The magazine serves as an additional handle for holding the weapon.
The Korovin system submachine gun was supplied to militia units formed in Tula in the same year in order to fill the shortage of Red Army personnel and protect the city from advancing German troops. In October 1941, in Tula, in addition to the 156th NKVD regiment guarding defense factories, fighter battalions of workers and employees, most of whom were evacuated with the enterprises, the 732nd anti-aircraft artillery regiment, which covered the city from enemy air raids, as well as between There were practically no military units in Orel and Tula at that time. Since the beginning of the war, the formation of fighter battalions, militia detachments and combat workers' squads took place in the Tula region. On October 23, 1941, the city defense committee decided to form the Tula Workers' Regiment consisting of 1,500 people.
The Tula Workers' Regiment was the only unit that received submachine guns designed by S.A. Korovina. The Tula Workers' Regiment took its first battle at 7:30 a.m. on October 30, 1941, defending the Rogozhinsky village. At the same time, the first combat use of Korovin submachine guns took place. On the same day, the last, fourth enemy attack, supported by almost 90 tanks, began at 16:00, but met with powerful fire from anti-aircraft artillery, armored train No. 16 and all fire weapons, the tanks turned back. Defensive battles on October 30 played an important role in the defense of Tula, 31 were destroyed german tank and an enemy infantry battalion. The most valuable thing was won - the time required for the approach and deployment of regular units of the 50th Army. Korovin submachine guns were successfully used by Tula militia soldiers until their units were included in the regular Red Army. After this, Korovin’s submachine guns were replaced with small arms standard for the Red Army. Only a few copies of Korovin's submachine guns have survived.

Main characteristics

Caliber: 7.62×25 TT
Weapon length: 913/682 mm
Barrel length: 270 mm
Weapon height: 160 mm
Weapon width: 60 mm
Weight without cartridges: 3.5 kg.

Initial bullet speed: 480 m/s
Magazine capacity: 35 rounds

MP-18 - German submachine gun, late World War I. The MP-18/1 submachine gun (Maschinenpistole18/1) was originally intended to arm special assault troops and police. Patented in December 1917 by designer Hugo Schmeisser, who was financially supported by Theodor Bergmann during the development of his new submachine gun.
Story
After the submachine gun was adopted by Germany in 1918, mass production of the MP-18/1 was launched at the Waffenfabrik Theodor Bergmann plant. MP-18/1 were armed with special assault squads, each squad consisting of two people. One of them was armed with an MP-18/1, the second was armed with a Mauser 98 rifle and carried a supply of ammunition. The total ammunition of this compartment was 2,500 rounds of 9x19 mm Parabellum ammunition.
After Germany's defeat in World War I, under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles of November 11, 1918, the production of certain types of weapons in Germany was prohibited. The MP-18/1 was also included in this list, but it was produced until 1920 as a weapon for the police, the production of which was not subject to such significant restrictions.
After 1920, production of the MP-18/1 under license continued in Switzerland, at the Swiss Industrial Company (SIG) plant in Newhausen.

Design

The MP-18/1's automatic system operates using a free shutter. When fired, the bore is locked with a spring-loaded bolt. The barrel is completely enclosed by a round steel casing with ventilation holes. The striker-type trigger mechanism allows only automatic fire. There is no safety lock as a separate Soldier part with the MP-18, but the bolt cocking handle is inserted into a slot in the receiver, where it is fixed, leaving the bolt in the open position. The magazine receiver is located on the left side.
The cartridges were fed either from direct box magazines with 20 rounds of ammunition, or from a disk magazine of the Leer system with 32 rounds of ammunition from the artillery model of the Luger-Parabellum P08 pistol. A drum-type magazine of the TM-08 model of the Blum system with 32 rounds was used, which is attached to the left in the long neck. The idea of ​​this magazine in an improved form was used in magazines for Thompson submachine guns, PPD-34/40, PPSh-41 and Suomi M/31. The sight is open and adjustable. Adjustment of the sighting range is carried out by reversing the rear sight at 100 or 200 meters. The stock and butt of the MP-18/1 submachine gun are wooden, rifle type.

Developed, year: 1917
Weight, kg: 4.18 (without magazine); 5.26 (curb)
Length, mm: 815
Barrel length, mm: 200
Operating principles: blowback
Initial bullet speed, m/s: 380
Caliber, mm: 9
Cartridge: 9×19 mm Parabellum
Sighting range, m: 200
Type of ammunition: disc magazine "snail" for 32
or straight box magazine for 20 rounds
Rate of fire, rounds/min: 450-500

Schmeisser MP.28 submachine gun

The Schmeisser MP.28 submachine gun, manufactured by C.G. Haenel, is an improved version of the MP.18 designed by Louis Schmeisser. Automation operates according to a blowback mechanism. The trigger mechanism allows firing in bursts and single shots from an open bolt. A cylindrical receiver with a perforated barrel casing is attached to a wooden stock using a hinge joint. The cocking handle is located on the right side of the weapon. The safety is the same handle, which can be placed in the L-shaped cutout of the receiver when the bolt is in the rear position. The fire mode selector, which is a horizontally moving button, is located above the trigger. The cartridges are fed from box magazines with a double-row arrangement of cartridges. The magazine is attached to the weapon on the left, horizontally. A rifle-type sector sight allows for targeted shooting at distances from 100 to 1000 meters. Unlike the prototype, the MP.28 did not become a standard weapon German army, and was manufactured mainly for export. For example, the Schmeisser MP.28 was adopted by the Belgian army under the name Mitrailette Modele 1934, and was also exported to Spain, China, South America and some African countries.

Main characteristics

Caliber: 9mm Parabellum, 9mm Bergmann-Bayard, 9mm Mauser Export, .45 ACP, 7.65mm Parabellum, 7.6325 Mauser
Weapon length: 810 mm
Barrel length: 200 mm
Weight without cartridges: 4.1 kg.

The Bergmann MP-35 submachine gun, also abbreviated B.M.P. (from Bergmann Maschinen Pistole), designed by Emil Bergman, the first working example of which was manufactured in 1932. The first sample was designated B.M.P. 32. Its production was established by the Danish company Shulz & Larsen under an acquired license under the designation MP-32. The MP-32 submachine gun used the 9mm Bergmann-Bayard cartridge, and the weapon itself was supplied to the Danish armed forces. The improvement of Bergmann's design did not stop there; a new model was soon ready, designated Bergmann MP-34 (B.M.P. 34), which appeared in 1934. The MP-34 was manufactured in several versions, with a barrel length of 200 and 308 mm. However, Bergmann did not have a production base sufficient for large-scale production, as a result of which production was commissioned by the famous German arms company Walther. In 1935, the next version was ready, more suitable for mass production in large volumes due to simplified design, designated MP-35.
Automation operates according to a blowback mechanism. The trigger mechanism allows firing in bursts and single shots from an open bolt. The fire mode is changed by the length of the trigger stroke. If the shooter presses the trigger fully, the weapon fires in bursts; if the shooter presses it incompletely, the weapon fires a single shot. The receiver and the perforated barrel casing with a compensator in the front part are made cylindrical. The cocking handle, which remains motionless when firing, is located in the rear of the receiver. This part is significantly different in design and operation from other examples of this type of weapon. To cock the bolt, the handle is rotated upward at an angle of 90°, then pulled back, and then returned to its original position. That is, the cocking handle here works like a rifle with a rotating bolt. The fuse is located on the left side of the receiver, under the rear sight; it is made in the form of a slider moving along the axis of the weapon. The cartridges are fed from box magazines with a double-row arrangement of cartridges. The magazine is attached to the weapon on the right, horizontally. The sector sight of this submachine gun allows for targeted shooting at distances from 100 to 500 meters.
This weapon, like the previous model, was produced by Walther. There from 1935 to 1940. About 5,000 copies of this weapon were produced. Most of the Bergmann MP-35s were exported. So in Switzerland it was adopted under the designation Ksp m/39, which used the standard Swiss army cartridge - 9mm Parabellum. With the outbreak of World War II, Walther's production facilities were occupied with more important orders, resulting in the production of the MP-35 being contracted to Junker & Ruh, where about 40,000 were produced before the end of the war. Most of the Junker & Ruh Bergmann MP-35s were supplied to the SS and police forces.

Main characteristics

9x23 (9mm Bergmann-Bayard), 7.63x25 Mauser, 9x25 (9mm Mauser Export), .45 ACP
Weapon length: 810 mm
Barrel length: 200 mm
Weight without cartridges: 4.1 kg.
Rate of fire: 600 rounds/min
Magazine capacity: 20 or 32 rounds

The Erma EMP 35 submachine gun was developed by the German gunsmith designer Heinrich Vollmer, who had been designing submachine guns since 1925. In 1930, Volmer developed an improved version of his system, which he continuously refined, making various changes. The 1930 model featured a patented return mechanism system in which the return spring was housed in a telescopic housing. Automation operates according to a blowback mechanism. The trigger mechanism allows firing in bursts and single shots from an open bolt. The cocking handle is located on the right side of the weapon, and it also serves as a safety lock when placed in the groove of the receiver when the bolt is in the rear position. Various options were also equipped with a separate manual safety, located on the right side of the receiver, in front of the rear sight. The fire mode translator is located on the right side, above the trigger. The receiver and the perforated barrel casing were made cylindrical, the stock was made of wood in two versions - with a front handle, or without a handle with a rifle-type stock. The return spring is housed in its own telescopic housing. The cartridges are fed from box magazines with a double-row arrangement of cartridges. The magazine is attached to the weapon on the left, horizontally. Sights consist of a front sight and either a sector or reversible rear sight. However, Vollmer himself did not have sufficient financial resources for large-scale production of his weapons, as a result of which he sold the rights to produce a submachine gun of his design to Erfurter Maschinenfabrik, marketed under the Erma brand. After this, serial production of Volmer's weapons began in various versions, with different barrel lengths, different designs of fuses and sighting devices, as well as in different calibers. This weapon was designated EMP (Erma Maschinen Pistole). Its main consumers were the SS troops and the German police, in addition, EMP submachine guns were exported to France, Spain and South American countries.

Main characteristics

Caliber: 9×19 (9mm Parabellum), 9×23 (9mm Bergmann-Bayard), 7.63×25 Mauser, 7.65×22 (7.65mm Parabellum)
Weapon length: 900 or 550 mm
Barrel length: 250 or 310 mm
Weight without cartridges: 4.4 kg.
Rate of fire: 520 rounds/min
Magazine capacity: 32 rounds

The MP.38 submachine gun was designed by the German gunsmith designer Vollmer, who worked for the Erma company, for the German armed forces. The MP.38 was adopted by the Wehrmacht in 1938. Often this weapon is called "Schmeisser", which is absolutely not true. Volmer created his submachine gun based on the design of the prototype MP-36, which, in turn, used many components and mechanisms borrowed from Heinrich Vollmer's Erma EMP 35. Initially, the main purpose of the MP.38 was to arm crews of combat vehicles and paratroopers with a compact and lightweight submachine gun. But subsequently, Volmer’s weapons began to be supplied to infantry units of the Wehrmacht and Waffen SS. For shooting, 9mm Parabellum cartridges were used, both standard pistol cartridges and those with an increased powder charge.
Automation operates according to a blowback mechanism. The trigger mechanism allows firing only in bursts, from an open bolt. However, single shots could be fired by more or less experienced shooters by briefly pressing and quickly releasing the trigger. To reduce the rate of fire, a pneumatic recoil buffer was introduced into the design. A special feature of the design is a cylindrical return spring located in a telescopic casing. The cocking handle is located on the left side of the weapon. The weapon is protected from accidental shots by inserting the charging handle into the cutout of the receiver when the bolt is in the retracted position. Late-release MP.38 submachine guns and most MP.40s were equipped with a retractable cocking handle, with which the bolt could be locked in the forward position. The receiver is cylindrical in shape, the barrel has a lower protrusion in the muzzle for fixing the weapon in the embrasures of combat vehicles. The cartridges are fed from double-row straight box magazines with cartridges exiting in one row. The metal stock is foldable and folds down when in the stowed position. Sighting devices consist of a front sight protected by a front sight and a reversible rear sight, allowing for targeted shooting at 100 and 200 meters. Although in practice, shooting was carried out, as a rule, at no more than 50 - 70 meters. To reduce production costs, plastic was first used for the fore-end and aluminum for the pistol grip body.
In practice, the MP.38 submachine gun, although it demonstrated high combat qualities combined with ease of transportation and small size, was too expensive for mass production in wartime conditions, since during production many parts were made using milling equipment. As a result, in 1940, the MP.38 was modernized to reduce production costs, which was achieved by replacing milling with stamping from sheet steel. In April 1940, Erma began production of a new weapon under the designation MP.40 and by order of the General Staff of the Armed Forces it was adopted as a personal weapon for drivers Vehicle, infantry, cavalry, staff officers, tank crews, signalmen and some other categories.
The advantages are a low rate of fire, due to which good controllability of the submachine gun was achieved during firing with both single shots and bursts, the weapon was quite light, had small dimensions, as a result of which it was convenient to manipulate it during combat indoors, which was very important for urban battles of World War II. But there were also significant shortcomings, such as the unsuccessful placement of the cocking handle on the left side of the weapon, which, when worn on a belt on the chest, tangibly hit the owner in the ribs; there was no barrel casing, which led to burns on the hands during intense shooting. One of the main disadvantages of the MP.38 and MP.40 was the double-row magazine with the cartridges being rearranged into one row at the exit. To equip them with cartridges, it was necessary to use a special device, since the effort when manually sending cartridges into the magazine was excessive. In conditions of prolonged lack of weapon care and dirt or sand getting into the body, the magazines did not work extremely reliably, causing frequent delays in shooting. Instead of 32 rounds, the magazine was equipped with 27 rounds to prevent the feeder spring from settling, which was discovered during the operation of the weapon.

Main characteristics

Caliber: 9×19 (9mm Parabellum)
Weapon length: 833/630 mm
Barrel length: 251 mm
Weight without cartridges: 4.2 kg.
Rate of fire: 500 rounds/min
Magazine capacity: 32 rounds

The MP.38 submachine gun, although it demonstrated high combat qualities combined with ease of transportation and small size, was too expensive for mass production in wartime conditions, since during production many parts were made using milling equipment. As a result, in 1940, the MP.38 was modernized to reduce production costs, which was achieved by replacing milling with stamping from sheet steel. In April 1940, Erma began producing a new weapon under the designation MP.40 and by order of the General Staff of the Armed Forces it was adopted as a personal weapon for vehicle drivers, infantry, cavalry, staff officers, tank crews, signalmen and some other categories. In the production of MP.40, stamping and welding, spot welding, and drawing were widely used, and in addition they switched to lower quality steel. In 1940, the Austrian company Steyr-Daimler-Puch, with excellent technological equipment and well-trained workers, was involved in the production of MP.40, and in 1941 production was launched at C.G. Haenel.
Automation operates according to a blowback mechanism. The trigger mechanism allows firing only in bursts, from an open bolt. However, single shots could be fired by more or less experienced shooters by briefly pressing and quickly releasing the trigger. To reduce the rate of fire, a pneumatic recoil buffer was introduced into the design. A special feature of the design is a cylindrical return spring located in a telescopic casing. The cocking handle is located on the left side of the weapon. The weapon is protected from accidental shots by inserting the charging handle into the cutout of the receiver when the bolt is in the retracted position. Late-release MP.38 submachine guns and most MP.40s were equipped with a retractable cocking handle, with which the bolt could be locked in the forward position. The receiver is cylindrical in shape, the barrel has a lower protrusion in the muzzle for fixing the weapon in the embrasures of combat vehicles.
The cartridges are fed from double-row straight box magazines with cartridges exiting in one row. However, during the war, in order to speed up reloading and increase firepower, two variants of the standard MP.40, equipped with a dual magazine receiver with the possibility of lateral displacement, were designed and produced in small volumes. A two-magazine shifting receiver made it possible to quickly replace a loaded magazine in place of an empty one. These variants, designated MP.40-I and MP.40-II, were produced by the Austrian company Steyr; due to identified design flaws, which caused frequent delays in difficult operating conditions, they did not receive further distribution. The metal stock is foldable and folds down when in the stowed position. Sighting devices consist of a front sight protected by a front sight and a reversible rear sight, allowing for targeted shooting at 100 and 200 meters. Although in practice, shooting was carried out, as a rule, at no more than 50 - 70 meters. To reduce production costs, plastic was first used for the fore-end and aluminum for the pistol grip body.
Each MP.40 included six magazines and a lever device for loading them. The large losses of the armed forces in submachine guns during the fighting forced the transition to even more simplified production technologies and even cheaper materials. So, in the autumn of 1943, Steyr began production of a simplified version of the MP.40 with a slightly modified design, which subsequently began to receive many complaints due to low reliability. The reasons for the complaints were corrected, and the production cost of submachine guns decreased significantly, although the service life of the weapon also decreased. From the start of production until the end of World War II, about 1,200,000 copies of the MP.40 were manufactured. After the war, these submachine guns were no longer in service in Germany, but were used for a long time in the armed forces of Norway and Austria. The design and production technology of the MP.38 and MP.40 influenced the design of Soviet, American, Italian and Spanish designs such as the PPS-43, M3, Beretta Modello 1938/49 and Star Z-45.
The advantages are a low rate of fire, due to which good controllability of the submachine gun was achieved during firing with both single shots and bursts, the weapon was quite light, had small dimensions, as a result of which it was convenient to manipulate it during combat indoors, which was very important for urban battles of World War II. But there were also significant shortcomings, such as the unsuccessful placement of the cocking handle on the left side of the weapon, which, when worn on a belt on the chest, tangibly hit the owner in the ribs; there was no barrel casing, which led to burns on the hands during intense shooting. One of the main disadvantages of the MP.40 was its double-row magazine with cartridges rearranged into one row at the exit. To equip them with cartridges, it was necessary to use a special device, since the effort when manually sending cartridges into the magazine was excessive. In conditions of prolonged lack of weapon care and dirt or sand getting into the body, the magazines did not work extremely reliably, causing frequent delays in shooting. Instead of 32 rounds, the magazine was equipped with 27 rounds to prevent the feeder spring from settling, which was discovered during the operation of the weapon.

Main characteristics

Caliber: 9×19 (9mm Parabellum)
Weapon length: 833/630 mm
Barrel length: 251 mm
Weight without cartridges: 4 kg.
Rate of fire: 500 rounds/min
Magazine capacity: 32 rounds

The Schmeisser MP.41 submachine gun, as the name of the weapon suggests, was designed by Louis Schmeisser, the author of the MP.18 and MP.28 submachine guns, with the goal of creating the most suitable model for infantry based on the generally well-proven MP.40. Schmeiser did not make any significant changes, but simply equipped the MP.40 with a trigger mechanism and a wooden stock of his own design. Unlike the MP.40, the MP.41 submachine gun can be fired in single shots, and not just in bursts. Automation operates according to a blowback mechanism. The cylindrical return spring is housed in its own casing. The trigger mechanism allows firing in bursts and single shots from an open bolt. The fire mode selector is a transversely moving button located above the trigger. The cocking handle is located on the left side of the weapon. Protection against an accidental shot is carried out by inserting the bolt cocking handle into a special shaped groove in the receiver when the bolt is in the rear position. The barrel is not equipped with a stop for firing from the embrasures of combat vehicles. The cartridges are fed from box magazines with a double-row arrangement of cartridges with their rearrangement at the exit into one row. The weapon has a wooden stock instead of a metal folding stock. The reversible rear sight allows for targeted shooting at 100 and 200 meters. Serial production of MP.41 was established by C.G. Haenel. However, soon the Erma company, which produced the MP.40, through a patent infringement lawsuit, succeeded in stopping production of the MP.41. In total, about 26,000 copies of these weapons were produced, which went mainly to the Waffen SS and the police.

Main characteristics

Caliber: 9×19 (9mm Parabellum)
Weapon length: 860 mm
Barrel length: 251 mm
Weight without cartridges: 3.9 kg.
Rate of fire: 500 rounds/min
Magazine capacity: 32 rounds

John Thompson with a submachine gun of his design

John Toliver Thompson acquired a patent from the American John Blish for a design for slowing the recoil of the bolt by friction, which he then used in his weapon. In 1916, John Thompson, together with Thomas Ryan, who provided financing for the project, founded the Auto-Ordnance company, the purpose of which was to develop an automatic rifle based on the patent they acquired, issued to John Blish in 1915 for a semi-free bolt of an original design. To directly design the new weapon, Thompson and Ryan hired engineer Theodore H. Eickhoff, Oscar V. Payne and George E. Goll.
During the design work of 1917, it became clear that the Blish bolt, acting due to the frictional force of the bronze liner moving inside its frame, did not provide complete locking of the barrel during the shot, as provided for by the patent. The insert only slowed down the movement of the bolt to the extreme rear position, which significantly limited the power range of the cartridges that could be used in the weapon. This meant abandoning the original project of an automatic rifle, since the only cartridge accepted for service in the United States that worked normally with the Blish bolt was the pistol cartridge .45 ACP for the Colt M1911 pistol, which was unsuitable for this type of weapon in terms of ballistic qualities.
As a result, it was decided to design a small-sized light machine gun chambered for a pistol cartridge for close-range combat, as well as storming trenches and other fortifications, which was very important in the First World War. John Thompson gave this weapon the name "submachine-gun", which literally means "submachine gun" or "lighter version of the machine gun." This term has taken root in American English and is still used today to refer to a hand-held automatic weapon chambered for a pistol cartridge, which in Russian terminology is called a submachine gun. The current prototype was manufactured in 1918. The weapon was given the commercial designation "Annihilator I" (English: "Destructor").
Technically, the Thompson submachine gun operates using a semi-blowback action. To slow the rearward movement when firing, friction is used between the H-shaped bolt liner and the bevel on the inner walls of the receiver. This system was developed in 1915 by American Navy officer John B. Blish. According to the manufacturer, this liner held the bolt in the forward position at the initial moment of the shot, with high pressure of the powder gases in the barrel, and after the pressure in the channel dropped, it rose upward, due to which the bolt was unlocked. However, a number of experts claim that this retarder insert in this system either did not perform its function at all, or had only a slight effect on the operation of the automation.
In later models of the Thompson submachine gun, created already during the Second World War and adopted for service under the designations M1 and M1A1, this insert is missing and this did not in any way affect the performance of the weapon’s automation. In addition, if the insert was installed incorrectly when assembling the weapon, the submachine gun would not work at all. The trigger mechanism is assembled in the trigger frame, allowing you to fire both single shots and bursts. Early Thompson models had a trigger mechanism that was quite complex in design and manufacture, in which there was a small trigger in the form of a triangular lever inside the bolt, striking the firing pin with the striker when the bolt group came to the extreme forward position when interacting with a special protrusion of the receiver. In this case, the fire was fired from an open bolt. The Thompson M1A1 submachine gun, instead of a complex mechanism, received a simple fixed firing pin in the bolt mirror. The M1A1 is also fired from an open bolt.
The cocking handle is located on the top cover of the receiver. For models M1 and M1A1, the cocking handle is located on the right side of the receiver. The fire mode selector and manual safety are made in the form of separate levers and are located on the left side of the receiver. Sights consist of a non-adjustable front sight and an adjustable rear sight, which includes a fixed rear sight with a V-shaped slot and a flip-up adjustable diopter rear sight. The M1A1 model received a simple and cheap to manufacture non-adjustable diopter rear sight. Thompson submachine guns could be used with magazines of different capacities. These were both box and drum magazines. Box-shaped double-row magazines had a capacity of 20 or 30 rounds and were attached to the weapon using a kind of rail-shaped protrusion on the back of the magazine, with which they were inserted inside a T-shaped cutout in the trigger guard. Drum magazines held 50 or 100 rounds of ammunition and were attached to the submachine gun in the cutout of the receiver using transverse grooves. Only box magazines could be attached to the M1 and M1A1 models.
In 1940-1944. 1,387,134 Thompson submachine guns of all models were produced: 562,511 pcs. - M1928A1; 285480 pcs. - M1; 539143 pcs. - M1A1. Of these, the company Auto-Ordnance Sogr. produced 847,991 Thompsons, and Savage Arms Corp. - 539143. But the simplified models M1 and M1A1, despite all the simplifications of design and production, remained too expensive and low-tech for military weapons, especially in wartime conditions. In addition, the M1 and M1A1 had the same main disadvantages as the previous models - excessive total mass, as well as a short effective firing range along with a significantly flat bullet trajectory. As a result, Thompson submachine guns never became the main type of automatic weapon in the US Army, where such submachine guns as the M3, M3A1, Reising M50 and Reising M55 were used along with them.
During the Second World War, Thompsons were used not only by the Americans and their ally, Great Britain, a certain number of these submachine guns were supplied to the USSR under the Lend-Lease program, including as additional equipment to a variety of military equipment, for example tanks and airplanes. But, despite all its advantages, this weapon did not become very popular in the Red Army, the reason for which was its excessive weight, especially with an equipped drum magazine, as well as the use of an American cartridge that was not in service. There simply wasn’t enough ammunition sent from overseas. It is worth noting that the .45 ACP cartridge is significantly superior to the domestic 7.62x25 TT in terms of the stopping effect of the bullet, which is extremely important when conducting close combat.
In terms of penetration, the American cartridge is of course inferior to the domestic one, but not by as much as some myths describe. After the end of World War II, Thompson submachine guns remained in the US armed forces for a long time. Thompsons were used during both the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Some South Vietnamese army units and military police were armed with Thompson submachine guns. Thompsons were used by both US army units and reconnaissance and sabotage groups. The FBI used Thompsons until 1976, when this weapon was considered obsolete and removed from service. Tommy guns remained in individual police departments until the 1980s. However, despite its very advanced age and all its shortcomings, Thompson submachine guns continue to be used sporadically in various hot spots.
Main characteristics of the Thompson M1921:

Caliber: 11.43×23 (.45 ACP)
Weapon length: 830 mm
Barrel length: 267 mm
Weight without cartridges: 4.7 kg.

Main characteristics of the Thompson M1928A1:

Caliber: 11.43×23 (.45 ACP)
Weapon length: 852 mm
Barrel length: 267 mm
Weight without cartridges: 4.9 kg.
Rate of fire: 700 rounds/min
Magazine capacity: 20, 30, 50 or 100 rounds

Main characteristics of Thompson M1 and M1A1:

Caliber: 11.43×23 (.45 ACP)
Weapon length: 811 mm
Barrel length: 267 mm
Weight without cartridges: 4.8 kg.
Rate of fire: 700 rounds/min
Magazine capacity: 20 or 30 rounds

The M3 submachine gun (“Grease gun”) was designed by the design team of General Motors Corp, which included R. Stadler, F. Simson and D. Heide, to replace the difficult-to-manufacture and expensive Thompsons, having a much more technologically advanced and simpler design . On December 12, 1942, the M3 submachine gun in .45 ACP caliber was adopted under the name “United States Submachine Gun, Cal. .45, M3." Its modernized version, designated M3A1, began production in December 1944. The M3 submachine gun in the army received the nickname “Grease gun” - grease gun, due to its significant external resemblance to a car grease gun, as well as due to the constant need for lubrication to ensure reliable operation of its components and mechanisms. The handle of the M3 submachine gun had a small built-in oiler, which was closed with a screw cap at the bottom of the handle.
About 1,000 M3 submachine guns were produced in 9mm Parabellum caliber. The 9mm version of the M3 is designated "U.S. 9 mm S.M.G." equipped with a suppressor developed by Bell Laboratories and supplied to the Office of Strategic Services in 1944. Conversion kits were produced to change the caliber from .45 ACP to 9mm Parabellum, they included a 9mm barrel, bolt, recoil spring and magazine receiver adapter. The magazines were used from British STEN submachine guns. The M3 submachine gun was used in infantry, tank units and intelligence units US Army. 15,469 M3A1 assault rifles were produced before the end of World War II.
The automatic operation of the M3 submachine gun operates using a blowback recoil system. The firing pin is placed motionless in the shutter mirror. Shooting is carried out from an open bolt. The body of the M3 submachine gun was made by stamping. The barrel was installed in a special coupling, which also served as the front cover of the receiver. The trigger mechanism is located at the bottom of the bolt box and allows only automatic fire. It consists of a trigger with a spring, a trigger rod and a trigger lever. The trigger is connected to the trigger lever by a rod.
The loading mechanism is located in a special box, which is connected from below to the bolt box using a trigger safety guard. It consists of a charging handle with a spring, a lever and a pusher. One of the most distinctive features of the M3 is the cocking handle, which is cocked by rotating backwards, similar to the bolt handle of a Maxim machine gun. When the charging handle is pulled back, the lever rotates, and a pusher connected to the lever pulls the bolt back. This shutter cocking system turned out to be not reliable enough. It was abandoned in the M3A1 model, replacing the rotary cocking handle with a hole in the bolt. To cock the bolt, the shooter hooked his finger on this hole and pulled the bolt back. They also increased the size of the window for ejecting cartridges.
The spring-loaded shell ejection cover was used as a safety device, locking the bolt in the rear or forward position when it was closed. A reflector is welded to the front of the loading mechanism box. Sights consist of simple non-adjustable front sights and a diopter rear sight. The weapon is equipped with a retractable shoulder rest made of steel wire. This shoulder rest served several functions. The right rod of the rest, separated from the weapon, could be used as a cleaning rod, and at the rear of the M3A1 shoulder rest there was a bracket to facilitate loading the magazine with cartridges. Later M3A1 submachine guns were equipped with a conical flash suppressor.
Initially, it was planned that the M3 could be produced in sufficient quantities to replace the Thompson submachine gun and displace this weapon from front-line units. However, due to unforeseen production delays and the need to correct identified deficiencies, the M3 was never replaced by the Thompson submachine gun during World War II and Thompsons continued to be purchased until February 1944. A total of 622,163 M3/M3A1 submachine guns were assembled by the end of the war. By this time, more than 1.5 million Thompsons had been produced, outnumbering the M3 and M3A1 by a factor of about three to one. After the end of World War II, these weapons remained in the armed forces for quite a long time. They fought with M3 submachine guns in Korea and Vietnam. IN tank forces The US M3 submachine gun remained until the early 1980s, and in the infantry until the 1960s. These weapons were also exported. In addition to the United States, the M3 submachine gun was produced unlicensed in China under the designation Type 36. It also served as the basis for the Argentine P.A.M submachine guns. 1 and P.A.M. 2.

M3 Key Features

Caliber: 11.43×23 (.45 ACP)
Weapon length: 757/579 mm
Barrel length: 203 mm
Weight without cartridges: 4.1 kg.

M3A1 Key Features

Caliber: 11.43×23 (.45 ACP), 9×19 (9mm Parabellum)
Weapon length: 757/579 mm
Barrel length: 203 mm
Weight without cartridges: 3.9 kg.
Rate of fire: 450 rounds/min
Magazine capacity: 30 rounds

U.S. Marine Corps code talkers who participated in combat operations in the Pacific theater during World War II were armed with Reising M50 submachine guns, in addition to other small arms.

The Reising M50 submachine gun was designed and patented in 1940 by American designer Eugene Reising. Harrington & Richardson (H&R) began serial production of these weapons in 1941. In 1942, the US Marine Corps entered into a contract with H&R for their new submachine guns. During World War II, the M50 submachine gun was used by the US Navy, Coast Guard and Marine Corps. The M50 rating was supplied under Lend-Lease to Canada, the USSR, and other countries. Reising submachine guns were produced until 1945. After the end of the war, the Reising M60 self-loading carbine was developed and produced on its basis for the police and civilian arms market. A small-caliber version of this carbine was also produced under the designation M65, which used a 5.6-mm 22LR cartridge. Both had an extended barrel. The Reising M55 submachine gun differed from the Model 50 by the presence of a side-folding metal stock and the absence of a muzzle brake. The main purpose of the Reising M55 was to arm paratroopers and crews of combat vehicles. The Reising M55, in addition to its main drawbacks, had another one - weak fixation of the buttstock in the unfolded position, which is why this weapon did not enjoy a good reputation among paratroopers.
The Reising M50 submachine gun operates on the basis of automation using a semi-blowback. Shooting is carried out from a closed bolt. In the extreme forward position, the bolt protrusion enters with its protrusion, located in its upper rear part, into the groove of the receiver and warps upward. During a shot, the bolt begins to move back under the influence of the pressure of the powder gases at the bottom of the cartridge case. Slowing down its withdrawal is carried out by friction between the protrusion and the surface of the groove of the receiver. When the rear of the bolt exits the groove, the bolt moves freely to its rearmost position, removing the spent cartridge using the ejector and deflector. After which, under the influence of the spring, the bolt sends the next cartridge from the magazine into the chamber and again locks the barrel.
The bolt cocking handle is located at the bottom of the submachine gun fore-end, in front of the magazine receiver. When firing, this handle, which is not rigidly connected to the bolt, remains motionless. The trigger mechanism of the Reising M50 submachine gun is hammer-type, allowing firing in single shots and in bursts. The safety switch is made in the form of a slider and is located on the right side of the receiver. It has the following provisions: extreme forward “FA” - fire in bursts; medium “SA” - single shooting; extreme rear “SAFE” - fuse. The Reising M50 has a muzzle compensator that reduces the weapon's toss when firing. The weapon is fed with cartridges from box magazines with a capacity of 20 or 12 rounds. Each submachine gun was supplied with six magazines. The sights of the Reising M50 submachine gun consist of a front sight and an adjustable diopter rear sight, allowing for accurate fire at distances of 50, 100, 200 and 300 yards.
For cleaning and inspection, the Reising submachine gun is disassembled in the following order: separate the magazine by pulling the latch back; separate the stock by unscrewing the connecting screw on the underside of the forend with a screwdriver; unscrew the butt plate from the receiver; pull back the bolt frame so that the transverse hole at the front end of the recoil spring guide rod becomes visible, and insert the end of the mainspring into this hole; separate the magazine receiver from the receiver by pushing out the two wedge-shaped pins holding it with a punch; separate the bolt frame with the return spring and its guide rod from the receiver; remove the trigger and bolt, for which, holding the weapon up with the barrel above the soft mat, press the trigger, after which these parts will fall down themselves. The instructions strongly discouraged disassembling the weapon too often, as this accelerated the wear of its parts, as well as using excessive force during disassembly and confusing parts of different weapons with each other, since they were not interchangeable.
The adoption of the Reising M50 submachine gun was a consequence of the high cost and complexity of producing Thompson submachine guns. The Reising M50 was more technologically advanced to manufacture and cost $50 apiece, while the Thompson submachine gun cost $225. In addition, the Reising M50 was much lighter and more maneuverable than the Thompson. In order to find a more technologically advanced submachine gun that was simpler in design and manufacture, a competition was organized in the USA, in which the Reising M50 demonstrated a number of advantages and was declared the winner. The Reising's high shooting accuracy was due to the fact that it fired from a closed bolt, while most submachine guns of that time did not use a hammer trigger and fired from an open bolt. In systems where shooting is carried out from an open bolt, in comparison with those firing from a closed one, additional impulses arise when the bolt moves forward, which leads to some displacement of the weapon from the aiming line.
But the M50 submachine gun also had its drawbacks, which in particular included low firepower due to the use of magazines with a capacity of only 20 rounds. The Thompson M1 and M1A1 used not only compact 20-round magazines, but also larger ones with a capacity of 30 rounds, not to mention the M1928 and M1928A1, which could be used with 50- and 100-round magazines. The small capacity of the M50 magazine limited the ability to conduct effective automatic fire, which was necessary in close combat, especially during clashes in urban environments. It is worth noting that this weapon was originally developed for the police; it was intended to be used primarily as a light self-loading carbine with the ability to fire in bursts. The Reising M50 submachine gun was used in the Pacific Theater during the war.

Main characteristics of Reising M50:

Caliber: 11.43×23 (.45 ACP)
Weapon length: 880 mm
Barrel length: 275 mm
Weight without cartridges: 3 kg.

Main characteristics of Reising M55:

Caliber: 11.43×23 (.45 ACP)
Weapon length: 780/555 mm
Barrel length: 265 mm
Weight without cartridges: 2.8 kg.
Rate of fire: 500-550 rds/min
Magazine capacity: 20 rounds

The UD M42 submachine gun was designed by Carl Swebilius in 1941-1942. and was presented by the American arms company High Standard Manufacturing Company to the US government as a replacement for the expensive and difficult to manufacture Thompson submachine guns. The United Defense M42 submachine gun was produced from 1942 to 1945. at the production facilities of High Standard Firearms and Marlin Firearms. The M42 was originally designed in two calibers - 9mm Parabellum and .45 ACP, but only the 9mm version was mass-produced, the 11.43mm version was produced in only three copies. In total, about 15,000 UD M42 submachine guns were produced. One of the features of the M42 is the magazines connected in pairs, which was done to speed up reloading.
The automatic operation of the United Defense M42 submachine gun operates according to a blowback mechanism. Shooting is carried out from an open bolt. The firing pin is made as a separate part, driven by a trigger. The bolt cocking handle, located on the right side of the receiver, is a separate part that does not move with the bolt when firing. On the right side of the weapon, behind the magazine, there is a receiver locking lever. There is also a safety lever on the right. The submachine gun is fed with cartridges from detachable box magazines with a capacity of 25 rounds. To reduce the time required to reload a weapon, the magazines were fastened together in twos, with their necks in opposite directions, with bullets facing each other. Sights consist of a non-adjustable front sight with the ability to make lateral adjustments and an adjustable diopter rear sight using an adjustment screw on the left side of the weapon.
The United Defense M42 submachine guns were generally a good weapon for their time, lighter, more maneuverable, convenient and cheaper than Thompsons, but at the same time not without their own shortcomings. Magazines made of thin sheet steel tended to deform when hit and dropped, which led to delays in feeding cartridges. When dirt and sand got into the mechanism, delays also occurred. The UD M42 was still an expensive weapon compared to such models as the British STEN or the Soviet PPS-43, due to the still widely used turning and milling of parts in production, instead of stamping. In addition, the M42 was introduced almost simultaneously with the much more technologically advanced and cheaper to produce M3 submachine gun.
The bulk of these weapons went into service with operatives of the US Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the first joint US intelligence service, on the basis of which the CIA was subsequently created. About 2,500 of these weapons were supplied to resistance movements operating in occupied territories in Europe and China. The UD M42 was used by partisans in France, Italy and the island of Crete. This use of the M42 was justified by the fact that resistance fighters could use captured 9mm Parabellum cartridges in their weapons. The UD M42 submachine gun, due to its high cost and poor reliability, never became a replacement for the Thompson, but it performed well when used by fighters with a high level of training and resistance forces.

Main characteristics

Caliber: 9×19 (9mm Parabellum)
Weapon length: 820 mm
Barrel length: 279 mm
Weight without cartridges: 4.1 kg.
Rate of fire: 900 rounds/min

The Steyr-Solothurn S1-100 is one of the best submachine guns created in the period between the two world wars, characterized by excellent workmanship and surface treatment, and the quality of materials used in production, high reliability, very solid service life, ease of use and care, excellent shooting accuracy, both single shots and bursts. The creator of this wonderful weapon is the famous German designer Louis Stange, who is the author of the very extraordinary FG42 automatic rifle. In 1919, a design team led by Stange at Rheinmetall designed a submachine gun under the designation MP.19. However, due to the restrictions of the Versailles Treaty, this weapon was not put into mass production and remained unclaimed until 1929, when Rheinmetall bought the small Swiss Wafenfabrik Solothurn. It was there that documentation on small arms was sent in order to circumvent the Versailles restrictions. Other developments transferred to the Wafenfabrik Solothurn factory included the MP.19, which was subject to minor changes. Further, as a result of the merger of Wafenfabrik Solothurn with the famous Austrian company Steyr, a new joint venture Steyr-Solothurn Waffen AG emerged. After which the weapon, designed in Germany and produced in Austria, entered the market.
Automation operates according to a blowback mechanism. The trigger mechanism allows firing in bursts and single shots from an open bolt. The cocking handle is located on the right side of the weapon. The fire mode switch, located on the left side of the weapon, on the forend, is a horizontally moving lever on a steel plate. The receiver was made by milling from solid steel blanks. The receiver cover is hinged up and forward, like the Russian AKS-74U. The barrel is covered by a round perforated casing that protects the shooter’s hands from burns when touching a hot barrel in the event of prolonged firing. On the left side of the front of the casing there is a bayonet mount. The stock with a butt and a semi-pistol grip was made of walnut wood. The butt contains a return spring connected to the bolt using a long rod, which is a very non-standard solution in this class of weapon. The cartridges are fed from box magazines with a double-row arrangement of cartridges. The magazine is attached to the weapon on the left, horizontally. In the neck of the magazine there is a special device for equipping the magazine with cartridges from their clips. To equip a magazine in this way, it was necessary to attach it to the groove of the neck from below, and a clip of cartridges was placed in the corresponding upper groove, after which the cartridges were manually pushed from top to bottom into the store. A total of four clips were needed to fully load the magazine. The sector sight of this submachine gun allows for targeted shooting at distances from 100 to 500 meters.
In 1930, a modified MP.19 submachine gun designed by Louis Stange, called the Steyr-Solothurn S1-100 and using 9mm Steyr cartridges, entered service with the Austrian police under the designation Steyr MP.30. In 1935, the S1-100, under the designation MP.35, was adopted by the Austrian army. The MP.35 used powerful 9mm Mauser Export cartridges. In addition, Steyr-Solothurn has been exported to various countries around the world, including Europe, Asia and South America. These weapons were produced in various calibers for different countries and customers, for example, chambered for 9mm Parabellum and 7.65mm Parabellum - for Portugal, chambered for 7.63x25 Mauser - for China and Japan, and chambered for the famous American cartridge.45 ACP - for South American countries. Before the outbreak of World War II, after the Anschluss of Austria, the S1-100 submachine gun began to be produced by Steyr, where its production continued until 1942. The German Armaments Directorate did not miss the chance to take advantage of such a successful trophy as the Steyr-Solothurn S1-100, which was converted to use standard German 9mm Parabellum cartridges. Such submachine guns were used in the Wehrmacht as weapons of a limited standard, along with other captured models firearms and weapons produced in the occupied territories. The S1-100 chambered for 9mm Parabellum was designated MP.34(ö) in Germany.

Main characteristics

Caliber: 9×19 (9mm Parabellum), 9×23 (9mm Steyr), 7.63×25 Mauser, 9×25 (9mm Mauser Export), 7.65×22 (7.65mm Parabellum)
Weapon length: 820 mm
Barrel length: 208 mm
Weight without cartridges: 4 kg.
Rate of fire: 450-500 rds/min
Magazine capacity: 32 rounds

The Austen submachine gun was designed based on the British STEN design during World War II and was in service from 1942 to 1944. The name Austen comes from the words Australia and STEN, respectively. Work to modernize the English STEN was carried out by engineer W. Riddell, who made several significant changes to the design. The Austen submachine gun combined best qualities STEN, such as the simplicity and low cost of mass production, which requires enterprises to have the simplest stamping equipment, without the need for highly qualified labor, as well as the compactness, lightness and convenience of the weapon itself, which is comparable in combat qualities to much more expensive models of that time. Plus, elements borrowed from the German MP.38 were added to the Austen design, such as a recoil spring in a telescopic casing, a hammer as a separate part, and a simple steel stock folding down. For better control of the weapon during firing, a front handle was added. Automation operates according to a blowback mechanism. The trigger mechanism allows firing in bursts and single shots from an open bolt. The return spring is housed in its own telescopic casing, similar to the German MP.40 submachine gun. The cocking handle is located on the right side of the receiver. Protection against accidental shooting is carried out by placing the cocking handle in a special cutout when the bolt is in the rear position. The fire mode selector is made in the form of a horizontally moving button, just like STEN. The Austen is equipped with a folding wire stock. Under the window for ejecting spent cartridges there is a front handle for holding the weapon. Sights consist of an open non-adjustable front sight and a simple diopter non-adjustable rear sight. In addition to the standard one, a version of this submachine gun with an integrated silencer was produced, used by the Australian special forces "Z Special Force". A total of about 19,900 Austen examples were produced by Diecasters Ltd and W.J. Carmichael & Co. However, this submachine gun was not very popular due to the lower reliability of the automation in dirty conditions and lack of long-term care than the Owen submachine gun, also created and produced in Australia. In addition, the quantity of Austen supplied to the troops was clearly insufficient, which was compensated for by large quantities of English STEN and American Thompson towards the end of the war.

Main characteristics

Caliber: 9×19 (9mm Parabellum)
Weapon length: 732/552 mm
Barrel length: 200 mm
Weight without cartridges: 4 kg.
Rate of fire: 500 rounds/min
Magazine capacity: 30 rounds

The armed forces of the dominions of the British Empire and in particular Australia, in the initial period of hostilities faced a serious shortage of modern small arms, since after the outbreak of the war with Japan in the Pacific and the capture of many islands by Japanese troops, Australia was deprived of arms supplies from the mother country. It was urgently necessary to establish our own production of modern models, and in particular submachine guns. The solution to this situation was the submachine gun of Australian Army Lieutenant Evelyn Owen. The first example of this weapon was presented in November 1941. The Owen submachine gun was adopted in 1942 under the designation Owen Machine Carbine Mk 1. In 1943, production of a variant with a wooden stock instead of a metal frame was launched, which received the designation Mk 2. Owen submachine guns were widely used by the Australian armed forces in World War II, Korean and Vietnam War. They have proven themselves to be reliably functioning in any operating conditions and easy to maintain and handle. However, there were also a number of disadvantages. The weapon turned out to be bulky and not comfortable to carry due to the upper location of the magazine; in addition, for the same reason, the visibility of the line of fire was reduced, and the weapon was heavy. At the same time, the weight of the submachine gun and the low rate of fire made it well controllable when firing in bursts, and the compensator reduced the weapon's deflection. In general, this submachine gun, despite its shortcomings, was in service with the Australian army after the war. The automatic operation of the Owen submachine gun operates according to a blowback mechanism. The barrel is made quick-release, fixed with a latch located in the upper front part of the cylindrical receiver. To minimize the movement of the weapon due to recoil when firing, the barrel is equipped with a compensator. The trigger mechanism allows firing in bursts and single shots from an open bolt. The cocking handle is located at the rear of the receiver and is separate from the bolt, which prevents dirt from getting into the receiver through the slot for the cocking handle. The cartridges are fed from box magazines attached to the weapon from above. The window for ejecting spent cartridges is located at the bottom of the receiver, in front of the trigger guard. The Qwen Mk 2 submachine gun is equipped with a wooden stock, all variants have wooden pistol grips. The sights, due to the upper location of the magazine, are shifted to the left and consist of an open non-adjustable front sight and a simple diopter non-adjustable rear sight. In total, from 1941 to 1945. John Lysaght Pty Ltd produced approximately 50,000 Owens. The production of these weapons continued until the fall of 1945. Since 1955, Owen submachine guns, after factory repairs, were again supplied to the troops, where they were used until the mid-1960s.

Main characteristics

Caliber: 9×19 (9mm Parabellum)
Weapon length: 813 mm
Barrel length: 245 mm
Weight without cartridges: 4.2 kg.
Rate of fire: 700 rounds/min
Magazine capacity: 32 rounds

The F1 submachine gun was created based on the design of the English Sterling L2A3 with the aim of replacing the obsolete Owen submachine gun in the Australian Armed Forces. The F1 was adopted and produced by Lithgow Small Arms Factory from 1962 until the late 1980s. The weapon is made according to a linear design - the place where the butt rests on the shooter’s shoulder is in line with the central axis of the barrel bore. Automation operates according to a blowback mechanism. The receiver with a perforated barrel casing has a cylindrical shape. The bolt cocking handle, located on the left side of the weapon, is connected to a cover that covers the groove in the bolt box. During firing, the handle remains motionless. The cartridges are fed from box magazines attached to the weapon through a neck located on top. The window for ejecting spent cartridges is located at the bottom of the receiver, in front of the trigger guard. The submachine gun is equipped with a wooden butt, and the pistol grip fire control is the same as that of the Belgian FN FAL assault rifle. The safety switch is located above the trigger guard, on the left side of the weapon. Due to the upper location of the magazine, the sights are shifted to the left and consist of an open front sight and a folding diopter rear sight. On the right side of the barrel casing there are protrusions for attaching a bayonet.

Main characteristics

Caliber: 9×19 (9mm Parabellum)
Weapon length: 714 mm
Barrel length: 200 mm
Weight without cartridges: 3.2 kg.
Rate of fire: 600 rounds/min
Magazine capacity: 34 rounds

The Lanchester Mk.1 submachine gun is based on the design of the German Schmeisser MP.28 submachine gun with only minor differences. The author of the Mk.1 is George H. Lanchester, in as soon as possible who developed these weapons for the British armed forces, who needed as many modern small arms as possible to confront the Wehrmacht and repel a possible German invasion of England. The production of this submachine gun was carried out by Sterling Engineering Co until 1945.
Automation operates according to a blowback mechanism. The trigger mechanism allows firing in bursts and single shots from an open bolt. The cocking handle is located on the right side of the weapon. The fire mode translator is located in front of the trigger. Protection against an accidental shot was carried out by inserting the bolt cocking handle into the L-shaped groove of the receiver cutout when the bolt was in the rearmost position. The receiver and perforated barrel casing are tubular and connected to the stock using a hinge assembly. The stock is modeled after the English SMLE rifle, with a characteristic neck. The bayonet mount in the lower front part of the barrel casing is also borrowed from these rifles. The cartridges are fed from box magazines with a double-row arrangement of cartridges. The magazine is attached to the weapon on the left, horizontally. The neck of the magazine was made of bronze. Sights allow targeted shooting at a distance from 100 to 600 meters.
The Lanchester did not become a mass-produced submachine gun in the British army, the reason for which was the appearance of the STEN submachine gun, which was much cheaper and easier to manufacture. As a result, the STEN submachine gun was destined to become one of the most recognizable small arms of the Second World War, and the Lanchester Mk.1 was adopted by the Royal Navy of Great Britain. In addition to the standard Mk.1, a simplified version was also produced under the designation Mk.1*, without a fire mode translator and equipped with a simple reversible rear sight, allowing targeted shooting at 100 and 200 yards. In total, about 100,000 Lanchester submachine guns were produced.

Main characteristics

Caliber: 9×19 (9mm Parabellum)
Weapon length: 851 mm
Barrel length: 201 mm
Weight without cartridges: 4.4 kg.
Rate of fire: 600 rounds/min
Magazine capacity: 50 rounds

The STEN submachine gun was designed in 1941 in response to the huge need that arose among British troops after the evacuation from Dunkirk, small arms in general and in submachine guns in particular. The name STEN consists of the first letters of the last names of the designers of R.V. Shepard and H.J. Turpin, and the manufacturing company – Enfield arsenal. In England, this weapon was also designated 9mm STEN machine carbine. The STEN submachine gun gradually entered the armed forces of the British Empire, increasingly displacing traditional bolt-action rifles and submachine guns of foreign systems. The leadership of the armed forces of the empire was never able to appreciate the promise of submachine guns, preferring traditional SMLE rifles, which were certainly excellent in their class of weapons, surpassing many analogues, but were hopelessly outdated during the First World War. Of course, progressive-minded officers tried to change the state of affairs, but they were unable to cope with the conservative majority. So War Department in 1938, just on the eve of the war, rejected the idea of ​​the BSA company to produce the American Thompson submachine gun in the United Kingdom.
Conservatives in the department considered these weapons to be gangster weapons and not needed by the armed forces of the empire... Quote from the refusal: “The British Army is not interested in gangster weapons.” Such naive jingoism and the imperial greatness of officials led to the fact that at the beginning of World War II, British soldiers were faced with the firepower of the German Wehrmacht, which was armed with an insufficiently large, but nevertheless respectable number of submachine guns. No rifles or heavy machine guns could compare with the firepower of this type of weapon in close combat, especially in urban battles. As a result, the War Department began to take action to correct the situation that was not in Britain's favor by purchasing American Thompsons. However, the purchased submachine guns were, to put it mildly, not enough. So in 1940, about 107,500 copies were delivered to the army... After the defeat in Europe and the hasty evacuation from Dunkirk with the loss of a huge amount of weapons and equipment, the British were forced to organize their own production of submachine guns on their territory, since sea convoys at that time were constantly were subjected to successful attacks by Kriegsmarine submariners.
However, a suitable pistol cartridge was not produced in England and the choice fell on the German 9mm Parabellum. This cartridge was chosen because it was already produced in the UK as a commercial cartridge, and also because of its optimal characteristics, and in view of the possibility of using captured ammunition. The Lanchester Mk.1 submachine gun was complex and expensive to manufacture, requiring a lot of time and skilled workers. The problem was solved by employees of the RSAF arsenal in the city of Enfield - R. Sheppard and G. Tarpin proposed a submachine gun of their own design, extremely unusual, looking like a pair of welded scraps from water pipes with a bolt and magazine. The weapon's layout was reminiscent of the same Lanchester Mk.1, but was radically different from it in everything else. Sheppard and Tarpin's designs made very extensive use of stamping, essentially producing most of the weapon's parts. Which ultimately made it possible to organize production not only in weapons factories, but also wherever there was primitive equipment for stamping production. In January 1941, mass production of STEN submachine guns was launched.
Automation operates according to a blowback mechanism. The trigger mechanism allows firing in bursts and single shots from an open bolt. The cylindrical receiver and barrel casing were made of steel sheet. The cocking handle is located on the right side of the weapon. When the bolt is in the rear position, the weapon can be put on safety by inserting the handle into a special cutout in the receiver. The fire mode translator is designed as a horizontally moving button. The cartridges are fed from box magazines with a double-row arrangement of cartridges. The magazine is attached to the weapon on the left, horizontally. STEN submachine guns were usually equipped with metal welded tubular butts or skeletal-type wire butts, although there were also options with wooden butts. The simplest sighting devices consist of a non-adjustable front sight and a diopter rear sight, aimed at a distance of 100 yards.
The STEN Mark 1 submachine gun was produced since 1941 and was distinguished by the presence of a folding front handle, wooden parts and a compensator. The Mark II, or Mk.II, was produced from 1942 to 1944. no longer has a front handle and compensator. The most obvious difference between this modification is the steel wire stock, curved in the shape of a rifle stock, but the Mark II was also equipped with tubular stocks. The magazine neck is made to rotate around the central axis of the weapon, turning 90°, which was done to protect against dirt getting into the receiver in the stowed position, with the magazine removed. The barrels, which had from 6 to 4 grooves, were connected to the receiver with threads. The first combat use of this weapon took place during the famous disastrous amphibious landing of British commandos with the support of Churchill tanks near the city of Dieppe in August 1942. The Mark II was used by the British armed forces until the end of the war, as well as by partisans and the French underground. In total, approximately 3,500,000 Mark II submachine guns were produced.
At first, the WALL troops did not take it seriously; it received the nickname “a plumber’s dream.” So the commandos, who had previously used Thompson submachine guns, with their formidable reputation as gangster weapons, seeing the new English submachine gun spoke about it in something like this: “It must have been made by a drunk plumber’s apprentice in his free time from his main job using that whatever was at hand." However, it was simple and cheap to produce, and equally easy to handle, light, convenient and compact, which was especially noticeable on the march. The STEN was no less effective on the battlefield than the much more expensive submachine guns of the time. Of course, STEN also had a number of disadvantages. So, when shooting from new models, with parts that had not yet been worn in, there were cases of the weapon jamming during firing in automatic mode in such a way that the shooter had to wait until the cartridges in the magazine ran out, since releasing the trigger did not lead to the cocking of the bolt whispered. But after shooting a couple of magazines, this drawback no longer appeared. This was typical for WALLS of early release.
Of course, this submachine gun did not have very high firing accuracy, especially in automatic mode, unlike the Thompsons supplied to Britain. But the biggest problem with the WALLS was its double-row magazines, with the cartridges being rearranged into one row, which was the reason for most of the delays when firing. The soldiers quickly found a solution to the problem with magazines, equipping them not with 32 rounds, but with 28 - 29. The enterprises that produced most of these submachine guns were the RSAF, BSA, ROF in England, and the Long Branch Arsenal in Canada, as well as the CAA in New Zealand. The production of these weapons grew steadily. Total from 1941 to 1945 About 3,750,000 copies of all WALL variants were produced in the UK, Canada and New Zealand.

Main characteristics of STEN Mark 1 (STEN Mk.I)

Caliber: 9×19 (9mm Parabellum)
Weapon length: 845 mm
Barrel length: 198 mm
Weight without cartridges: 3.3 kg.

Magazine capacity: 32 rounds

Main characteristics of STEN Mark 2 (STEN Mk.II)

Caliber: 9×19 (9mm Parabellum)
Weapon length: 762 mm
Barrel length: 197 mm
Weight without cartridges: 2.8 kg.
Rate of fire: 540 rounds/min
Magazine capacity: 32 rounds

The STEN Mk.IIS submachine gun was created to arm British commandos and carry out sabotage operations behind enemy lines. This weapon is based on the STEN Mk.II. The Mk.IIS submachine gun has a short barrel, which is covered by an integrated silencer (silent-flameless firing device). The shooting was carried out with special cartridges loaded with a heavy bullet with a subsonic initial speed that did not create a shock wave. Other differences from the prototype are a lighter bolt and a shortened recoil spring. Firing from this submachine gun was carried out mainly with single shots, and the use of automatic mode and burst fire according to instructions was allowed only in extreme cases, since this would disable the silencer. The maximum sighting range is 150 yards, but this weapon was, of course, used at much closer distances. In total, about several thousand Mk.IIS were produced, supplied to units special purpose England and Canada, and in addition a certain amount was transferred to France local movement resistance.

Main characteristics

Caliber: 9×19 (9mm Parabellum)
Weapon length: 900 mm
Barrel length: 90 mm
Weight without cartridges: 3.5 kg.
Rate of fire: 540 rounds/min
Magazine capacity: 32 rounds

The STEN Mark 3 (Mk.III) submachine gun was produced from 1943 to 1944. Distinctive features of this option are very high manufacturability, a non-perforated barrel casing that hid almost its entire length, the receiver was made as a single part with the barrel casing, a safety stop in front of the window for ejecting spent cartridges, a fixed magazine neck welded to the receiver, and so on. same tubular steel stock. Most of these weapons were supplied to British paratroopers, and there were also supplies partisan movements many occupied countries of Europe.

Main characteristics

Caliber: 9×19 (9mm Parabellum)
Weapon length: 762 mm
Barrel length: 197 mm
Weight without cartridges: 3.2 kg.
Rate of fire: 540 rounds/min
Magazine capacity: 32 rounds

The STEN Mark 4 submachine gun was developed for British commandos, who required a compact and lightweight weapon that would be discreet and easy to carry concealedly in enemy territory. In 1943, based on the STEN Mk.II design, the compact STEN Mark 4 (Mk.IV) submachine gun was created and produced in limited quantities of approximately 2000 copies in two versions - Mk.IVA and Mk.IVB. The Mk.IVA submachine gun was equipped with a wooden pistol grip, a folding metal stock and had a short barrel with a flash suppressor. The Mk.IVA model was equipped with a silencer in 1944 and supplied to units military intelligence MI5, as well as SAS soldiers. The Mk.IVB submachine gun received a folding shoulder rest and a pistol grip in a different configuration, a shorter barrel and a trigger mechanism with several design changes.

Main characteristics

Caliber: 9×19 (9mm Parabellum)
Weapon length: 622/445 mm
Barrel length: 98 mm
Weight without cartridges: 3.5 kg.

Magazine capacity: 32 rounds

The turning point in the course of hostilities in favor of the Allies made it possible for England to move from quantity to quality in the production of small arms. In 1944, a new version of the STEN submachine gun was created - Mark 5 (Mk.V). This modification differed from earlier ones in the presence of a wooden butt with a metal butt plate and a pistol grip for fire control, a wooden front handle, a mount on the barrel for attaching a bayonet No. 7 Mk.I or No. 4 Mk.II, as well as a muzzle like on the SMLE rifle No. 4 Mk 1. Later, in June 1945, the Mk.V began to be produced in a simplified version without a front handle. STEN Mark 5 submachine guns were primarily supplied elite troops, such as commandos and paratroopers. This weapon was first used in battle during the disastrous Arnhem War. airborne operation 1944, when for 8 days the paratroopers fought fierce battles with German tank and infantry units, suffering heavy losses, eventually retreating across the Rhine River without achieving their goals. During combat use There were complaints from fighters about the front handle; in the field they simply removed it. As mentioned above, the Mark 5 was subsequently produced without this handle. But if such problems could be solved in the field and in production in the shortest possible time, then the main problem of all STEN submachine guns remained unresolved. Delays continued to occur due to the fault of the magazines - the weakest link of this, undoubtedly, overall very successful weapon for its time.

Main characteristics

Caliber: 9×19 (9mm Parabellum)
Weapon length: 762 mm
Barrel length: 198 mm
Weight without cartridges: 3.9 kg.
Rate of fire: 575 rounds/min
Magazine capacity: 32 rounds

The Star SI-35, RU-35 and TN-35 submachine guns were developed by the Spanish company Bonifacio Echeverria S.A., known under the Star brand, and introduced in 1935. The weapon had complex design automation, and most of their steel parts were manufactured using turning and milling operations, which resulted in the high cost of these samples. The only difference between the above submachine guns was the rate of fire: 300/700 (SI-35), 300 (RU-35), 700 (TN-35) rounds/min. The automation operates according to a semi-blowback design. The shutter itself consists of two parts. At the early stage of the bolt's rollback, its speed is reduced by a special cylinder, which connects the bolt's combat cylinder to the receiver for a short period of time. The trigger mechanism allows firing in bursts and single shots from an open bolt. The weapon is equipped with a fire rate retarder, the control lever of which is located on the left side of the receiver. The firing mode translator is located on the left side of the weapon, behind it there is a control lever for the rate of fire retarder. The cocking handle is located on the right side of the receiver. The receiver and the perforated cylindrical barrel casing were made by milling from solid steel blanks. The barrel casing has a muzzle brake-compensator with a bayonet mount. The stock is made of wood. The cartridges were fed from straight box-shaped double-row magazines. On the left side, the stores have longitudinal holes to control the consumption of ammunition when firing. This solution has a significant drawback - in combat conditions, dirt quickly fills into the magazine body through these holes, which immediately causes delays in shooting. The sector sight allows for targeted shooting at distances from 50 to 1000 meters.

Main characteristics

Caliber: 9×23 (9mm Largo)
Weapon length: 900 mm
Barrel length: 270 mm
Weight without cartridges: 3.7 kg.
Rate of fire: 300/700 (SI-35), 300 (RU-35), 700 (TN-35) rds/min
Magazine capacity: 10, 30 or 40 rounds

The Star Z-45 submachine gun was designed by the Spanish gunsmiths of the Bonifacio Echeverria S.A. company, presented on the arms market under the Star brand, based on the famous German MP.40 towards the end of World War II and was adopted by the Spanish Army. The Z-45 was used in the Spanish armed forces almost until the end of the 20th century, and was also sold for export to Asia and South America. The Star Z-45 uses the powerful 9mm Largo pistol cartridge. Automation operates according to a blowback mechanism. The trigger mechanism allows firing in bursts and single shots from an open bolt. The translator of fire modes is the degree of pressure on the trigger: fully squeeze the trigger - burst fire, short squeeze not at full speed - single shot. The return spring, like the MP.40, is equipped with its own telescopic casing that protects it from dirt. The cocking handle is located on the right side of the weapon. The safety is an L-shaped cutout in the bolt box into which the cocking handle is inserted when the bolt is in the rear position. In addition, the cocking handle is movable in the transverse plane and when it is retracted, the bolt is locked. Unlike the MP.40, the Star Z-45 submachine gun has a perforated barrel casing, which prevents burns to the shooter’s hands during prolonged shooting. The receiver and barrel casing are made cylindrical. The handguard and pistol grip fire control were made of wood. The weapon has a folding steel stock, also similar in design to the MP.40. The cartridges are fed from straight box magazines with a double-row arrangement of cartridges with their output also in two rows. A different design of the magazine with a double-row exit eliminated delays in firing when the magazine was dirty, which was one of the main problems of the MP.40. Sighting devices consist of a front sight protected by a front sight and a reversible rear sight, allowing for targeted shooting at 100 and 200 meters. In the manufacture of steel weapon parts, except for the bolt, stamping was widely used. In general, the Z-45 was manufactured with high quality and has a fairly high reliability of operation, without some of the shortcomings of its prototype.

Main characteristics

Caliber: 9×23 (9mm Largo)
Weapon length: 840/580 mm
Barrel length: 190 mm
Weight without cartridges: 3.9 kg.
Rate of fire: 450 rounds/min
Magazine capacity: 10 or 30 rounds

The Beretta M1918 submachine gun is based on the Villar-Perosa M1915 and was adopted by the Italian army at the end of the First World War. Unlike the Villar-Perosa, which is actually a unit support weapon, the Beretta M1918 submachine gun is already an individual weapon for the infantryman, like the Bergmann-Schmeisser MP.18. After the end of the war, the Beretta M1918 was exported, mainly to South America, and continued to be used by the Italian armed forces. The automation operates according to a semi-blowback design. The reduction in the recoil speed of the bolt at the beginning of its stroke when firing occurred by sliding the cocking handle along the slope of the front part of the groove in the receiver. The trigger mechanism allows firing only in bursts, from an open bolt. The cocking handle is located on the right side of the weapon. The rifle-type stock was made of walnut wood. To feed the weapon with cartridges, box magazines attached to the top were used. The spent cartridges were extracted downwards through the corresponding window in the receiver. The window itself had a protective casing to prevent contact of the extracted cartridges with the shooter's hand supporting the weapon. For hand-to-hand combat, the weapon is equipped with an integral folding needle bayonet attached to the muzzle of the barrel.

Main characteristics

Caliber: 9×19 (9mm Glisenti)
Weapon length: 850 mm
Barrel length: 318 mm
Weight without cartridges: 3.3 kg.
Rate of fire: 900 rounds/min
Magazine capacity: 25 rounds

In 1935, the Italian gunsmith Tulio Marengoni, who worked as the chief designer of Pietro Beretta, took the design of the German Bergmann submachine gun as a basis and worked for three years to improve it, creating his Beretta Modello 1938A submachine gun, which is one of the best examples of Italian small arms from the Second World War. world war. This submachine gun used 9mm Parabellum cartridges, as well as reinforced, specially designed M38 cartridges with a muzzle velocity of 450 m/s. The automatic operation of this weapon operates according to a blowback mechanism. A special feature of the Modello 1938A was the firing mechanism with two triggers. The front one was used for firing single shots, the rear one for firing in bursts. Striker-type USM. The cocking handle is equipped with a dust shield. The barrel is covered with a perforated cylindrical casing with a muzzle brake-compensator in the front part, which reduces the weapon's deflection and recoil force during firing. The safety lever is located on the receiver, on the left side of the weapon. Cartridges are fed from box-shaped double-row magazines with a capacity of 10 to 40 rounds. The rifle-type stock was made of wood. The sector sight allows for targeted shooting up to 500 meters. Beretta produced the 1938A submachine guns from 1938-1950. in three versions. The first of them was produced in small batches from January 1938. It is distinguished by oval holes in the barrel casing, which had a large diameter. The muzzle brake-compensator is made with two symmetrical windows in its upper part. In the front lower part of the barrel casing there is a bayonet mount. The second option is different a large number holes of smaller diameter in the barrel casing. The third option was developed in accordance with the specifications of the Ministry of Italian Africa, taking into account the peculiarities of combat in the desert. This weapon received a fixed firing pin, a muzzle brake-compensator of a new design, and a window for extracting spent cartridges of a different configuration. This option was most widely used in German airborne troops in World War II. In Italy itself, the Beretta Modello 1938A submachine gun was in service with the front-line units of the army, while the rear units had mostly outdated models. The 1938A submachine gun was purchased in significant quantities for the Wehrmacht in Italy from 1940 to 1942, and was in service with the Wehrmacht and the Romanian armed forces. In the Wehrmacht, the 1938A was designated MP.739(i).

Main characteristics

Caliber: 9×19 (9mm Parabellum)
Weapon length: 946 mm
Barrel length: 315 mm
Weight without cartridges: 4.2 kg.
Rate of fire: 600 rounds/min
Magazine capacity: 10, 20, 30 or 40 rounds

The Beretta Modello 1938/42 submachine gun combines the best qualities of the Modello 1938A and the experimental Beretta mod.1, also designed by Tulio Marengoni, which was the first in Italian small arms to use stamping in the manufacture of the main parts of the weapon. Externally, the main difference between the 1938/42 model and the 1938A is the absence of a barrel casing. The barrel itself was shortened from 315 to 231 mm and has deep longitudinal cooling fins, as well as a slot-shaped compensator with two holes. The Modello 1938/42 automatic operates according to a blowback design. The striker-type trigger mechanism allows firing single shots and bursts. The trigger is equipped with two triggers. The front one was used for firing single shots, the rear one for firing in bursts. The drummer is motionless. The safety lever is located on the receiver, on the left side of the weapon. The dust cover for the cocking handle was made by stamping instead of milling. Cartridges are fed from box-shaped double-row magazines with a capacity of 20 or 40 rounds. The magazine neck on the 1938/42 is not covered by the front of the wooden stock as on the 1938A. Sights with a reversible rear sight allow for targeted shooting at distances of 100 and 200 meters. The Beretta Modello 1938/42 submachine gun was used by the Italian armed forces during the final stage of hostilities in North Africa, as well as in Sicily, in battles with American troops. After the occupation of the northern regions of Italy by German troops in 1943, production of the Modello 1938/42 was carried out for the German armed forces, mainly the troops of Field Marshal Kesselring, and also the 1st and 2nd Luftwaffe parachute divisions. For the German troops, the Bereta company produced about 20,000 submachine guns of the 1938/42 model every month. Further improvements were made in terms of simplifying and reducing the cost of production, carried out in 1943-1944. under the control of the occupiers. So in 1943 it was created new modification M38/43, the barrel of which no longer had cooling fins. The following year, 1944, two more modifications appeared: M38/44, characterized by the absence of a recoil spring guide tube and a shortened bolt; M38/44 mod.2 with folding metal stock.

Main characteristics

Caliber: 9×19 (9mm Parabellum)
Weapon length: 800 mm
Barrel length: 231 mm
Weight without cartridges: 3.2 kg.
Rate of fire: 550 rounds/min
Magazine capacity: 20 or 40 rounds

The FNAB 43 submachine gun was developed by the Italian company Fabbrica Nazionale d'Armi di Brescia (National Arms Factory in Brescia). The first prototype was assembled in 1942, and mass production was carried out in 1943-1944. The design of this submachine gun and the technology for its production was too expensive, especially in wartime, as a result of which about 7,000 copies of the FNAB 43 submachine guns were produced. The automation operates according to a semi-blowback design. The shutter is braked during a shot using a lever, similar to the design used in the Hungarian Kiraly 39M submachine gun. The trigger mechanism allows firing in bursts and single shots from an open bolt. The cylindrical barrel casing is made as a single piece with a slotted compensator having a sloped front wall, similar to the Soviet PPSh-41, which effectively reduces throwing up the weapon when firing.The manual safety and fire mode selector levers are located on the receiver, on the left side. The magazine receiver in this submachine gun is made to fold forward, which is made for ease of carrying the weapon in the stowed position. The weapon is fed with cartridges from double-row box magazines from the Beretta Modello 1938/42 submachine gun from Beretta. The FNAB 43 is equipped with a downward folding metal stock, similar in design to the stock of the German MP.38 and MP.40. Sights are not adjustable. These weapons were used by the armed forces of the Italian Social Republic (Republic of Salo) and German troops in the fight against partisans in Northern Italy during the occupation of this part of the country in 1943-1944.

Main characteristics

Caliber: 9×19 (9mm Parabellum)
Weapon length: 790/525 mm
Barrel length: 200 mm
Weight without cartridges: 3.7 kg.
Rate of fire: 400 rounds/min
Magazine capacity: 10, 20, 32 or 40 rounds

The Type 100 submachine gun, designed by Kijiro Nambu, referred to by many as the Japanese John Browning, was adopted by the Imperial Japanese Army in 1940, following Army field trials in 1939. The Type 100 was developed in accordance with the tactical and technical specifications of the Army Weapons Directorate of 1935. Automation operates according to a blowback mechanism. The trigger mechanism allows firing only in bursts. The fire is fired from an open bolt. The weapon is fed with cartridges from box-shaped double-row magazines attached to the weapon on the left. The receiver and the perforated barrel casing are made tubular. The wooden stock has a butt with a semi-pistol grip. During the Second World War, two modifications of the Type 100 were created. For the Airborne Forces, a variant was designed with a butt folding to the right on a hinge. For infantry, they produced a version with a wire bipod. Based on the study of combat experience gained during the use of the Type 100, a number of changes were made to the design of the submachine gun in 1944. The rate of fire was increased from 450 to 800 rounds per minute, the open sector sight was replaced with a diopter, a compensator and a lug for attaching a bayonet from an infantry rifle were added to the barrel casing. Type100 has proven to be an effective weapon in the hands of fighters Marine Corps The Imperial Navy during battles in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. However, he did not mass weapons In the armed forces of the Great Japanese Empire, only a few tens of thousands of these submachine guns were produced, including those released at the Kakuro and Nagoya arsenals, which was extremely insufficient to significantly increase the firepower of infantry units on the battlefield.

Main characteristics

Caliber: 8×22 (8mm Nambu)
Weapon length: 900 mm
Barrel length: 228 mm
Weight without cartridges: 3.4 kg.
Rate of fire: 800 rounds/min
Magazine capacity: 30 rounds

By the end of 1941, the role of automatic weapons in both Wehrmacht and Red Army units increased significantly. In close combat, especially in populated areas and trenches, a submachine gun was more convenient than a rifle and carbine. The high density of fire of this weapon provided it with a clear advantage over repeating and self-loading rifles.

At the beginning of 1942, MP-38 and MP-40 submachine guns began to be supplied en masse to the infantry in the German army. If at the beginning of the war the German infantry was armed mainly with Mauser rifles and carbines, and only tank crews, airborne units and commanders of rifle platoons were armed with submachine guns (in total at the beginning of the war the Germans had only 8772 MP-38), then a year later their number increased to The German army increased fivefold. During the course of the war, submachine guns began to be used to solve various problems.

Simplicity and reliability, high mobility, and a large portable supply of ammunition finally cemented the superiority of the MP-38 over other types of melee weapons. The high demand of troops for automatic weapons, as well as the developed tactics for using this type of weapon in close combat conditions, led to the appearance of a more modernized MP-38, designated MP-40.

Already in the spring of 1940, the German company Erfurter Maschinenfabrik (ERMA) began production of the MP-40. German designers managed to develop a submachine gun that was distinguished by its simplicity of design, high strength and high survivability of the automation system, as well as ease of maintenance in the field. At the beginning of the 40th year, by order of the General Staff of the Ground Forces of Nazi Germany, new models were adopted for arming the Wehrmacht infantry (from fourteen to sixteen MP-40 in an infantry company), horse, automobile, tank units and reconnaissance and sabotage units, as well as headquarters officers. The MP-40 became one of the most common types of German small arms.

By the beginning of the war, the Soviet units were armed with the PPD-40 and PPSh-41 submachine guns. However, their number was extremely limited. When entering the troops, they fell first of all into the hands of company foremen and adjutants of the senior command staff. The PPD-40 was difficult to manufacture and had low combat qualities. The PPSh, in turn, had fairly good tactical and technical data. It was manufactured using the most advanced technology of stamping and welding structures at that time and could be produced by any enterprise.

However, the large mass (PPD - 5.4 kg, PPSh - more than 5.3 kg, and with full ammunition the weight of these submachine guns could be 9 kg) and significant length due to the wooden stock (PPD - 788 mm, PPSh - 842 mm ) made it difficult to use in airborne, tank, sapper and reconnaissance units.

The test results and combat use of captured MP-38 and MP-40 assault rifles by reconnaissance and sabotage groups prompted the Main Artillery Directorate of the Red Army at the beginning of 1942 to announce a competition for the development of a more modern submachine gun chambered for the standard 7.62x25 mm pistol cartridge.

The main requirements for the new product were compactness, improved tactical and technical characteristics compared to PPD and PPSh, ease of production, reduction of labor costs in the manufacture of components and parts, and reduction of their cost.

The main requirements of the competition were the mass of the future submachine gun (without a magazine it should not exceed 3 kg). The length with the butt was set to no more than 750 mm, and with the butt folded - 600 mm. The cartridges were supposed to be fed from a box-type magazine.

By mid-February 1942, several dozen experimental barrels were already ready for field testing. These were designs by both well-known designers and novice gunsmiths, including front-line soldiers - students and workers of the Artillery Academy, as well as employees of the Small Arms Research Site (NIP SVO).

Despite the originality of individual systems, in all projects there was a tendency to be “linked” to the design of the German MP-38/40. All samples submitted for testing in one way or another repeated the principle of operation, the general layout, the supply of cartridges from a box magazine, and the folding metal stock of submachine guns made by German designers.

From the end of February to the beginning of March 1942, competitive tests were carried out at the NIP SVO. Of all the samples presented, only seven submachine guns were selected for further testing. These were two samples of famous designers Degtyarev (PPD-42) and Shpagin (PPSh-2), four samples of young developers Bezruchko-Vysotsky, Menshikov, Zaitsev (two models differed mainly only in the design of the butt) and one sample of the collective creativity of army craftsmen.

The PPD-42 and the Bezruchko-Vysotsky submachine gun were recognized as the best of those tested. Moreover, the development of the latter had the best manufacturability. Spot and seam welding and cold stamping were used in its assembly. However, despite the originality, the design of Bezruchko-Vysotsky showed the features of the MP-40: the barrel did not have a continuous safety casing, a support bracket for firing from the side or through the loopholes of armored vehicles, a butt that folded down, safety cutouts for the receiver, a flip-up rear sight at a distance 100 meters and 200 meters, a cylindrical bolt, the cocking handle of which was located on the left, a pistol grip for fire control, a method of locking the barrel bore with a “roll-out” bolt, a method of connecting the receiver and trigger boxes, a box magazine. True, the latter, thanks to the bottle-shaped cartridge case of the 7.62×25 cartridge, had a curved “sector” shape, like the PPD and PPSh-41.

The control samples during testing were the German MP-40 and the Soviet PPSh-41. The PPD-42 and the Bezruchko-Vysotsky submachine gun were equivalent in accuracy and shooting accuracy to the MP-40, but inferior to the PPSh-41. In terms of reliability, the Bezruchko-Vysotsky submachine gun was inferior to the PPD-42 and control samples.

In addition, during intense shooting, the short protective barrel guard did not completely protect the shooter’s hands from burns. During the tests, Bezruchko-Vysotsky was unable to completely eliminate the causes of delays when firing.

At the direction of the head of the Research and Development Institute of the Northern Military District, military engineer A.I. was involved in the work on finalizing the Bezruchko-Vysotsky submachine gun. Sudaev. However, instead of providing assistance to Bezruchko-Vysotsky, a month later he submitted his sample for testing. While the layout of his submachine gun was similar to that of Bezruchko-Vysotsky’s submachine gun, there were also differences: Sudaev simplified the design of the receiver, improved the manufacturability of its manufacture, and the barrel was completely covered with a casing to protect the shooter’s hands from burns. The bolt also underwent changes, in which the hole for the guide rod of the recoil spring was made offset to the left, and the guide rod itself simultaneously served as a reflector for the spent cartridge case. The safety box, which locks the bolt in the forward and cocked position, was located next to the trigger guard. A frame-type muzzle brake-compensator was installed on the front part of the barrel casing, as a result of which the accuracy of fire increased. The metal butt was folded over the receiver. The shutter handle was located on the right side. Thanks to the extended receiver, the rate of fire of the submachine gun was 700–600 rounds/min. (for PPD and PPSh the rate of fire was about 1000 rounds per minute), which allowed the shooter to save ammunition and fire single shots by briefly pressing the trigger.

A prototype of Sudaev's design was tested on April 4, 1942. After two weeks of factory testing, he positive feedback was transferred to field tests, which took place from April 26 to May 12, 1942. Samples of V.A. were tested. Degtyareva, S.A. Korovin, N.G. Rukavishnikova, I.K. Bezruchko-Vysotsky, A.S. Ogorodnikova, A.A. Zaitseva, A.I. Sudaeva. The most compact and easy-to-handle models were those of Sudaev, as well as those of Bezruchko-Vysotsky, who presented a modernized model of a submachine gun for competitive testing. On which a muzzle brake-compensator was installed, like that of the PPS, which increased the accuracy of fire. To reduce weight, the support bracket was removed from the barrel. At the bottom of the bolt, to the left of the cartridge rammer, a longitudinal groove was made in which an elongated guide rod of the recoil spring was placed, which served as a reflector of the spent cartridge case. The cocking handle was located on the right. Along it, in a milled groove, a fuse was placed in the form of a bar moving perpendicular to the receiver (similar in design to the fuse of the PPSh submachine gun).

According to their results, Bezruchko-Vysotsky’s sample did not pass the tests due to the low reliability of the automation and delays during firing. Based on the test results, the commission concluded that the prototype of the Sudayev submachine gun passed the special competition program completely and has no other competitors.

According to combat and tactical-technical data, the PPS surpassed the PPSh-41, so it was decided to urgently send the PPS into mass production. In addition, Sudaev was recommended to reduce the dimensions of the barrel casing for more convenient use of the PPS in combat vehicles. To increase the strength of the receiver and improve the stability of the gun when firing, increase the weight of the weapon by using steel sheets of greater thickness for the manufacture of the receiver (2 mm instead of 1.5 mm). To reduce the rate of fire, increase the length of the bolt stroke; to prevent spent cartridges from touching the wall of the receiver window during extraction, increase its length, and provide for the placement of a cleaning rod. Towards the end of testing submachine guns of Sudaev and Bezruchko-Vysotsky G.S. Shpagin completed the modification of his PPSh-2, which did not withstand the first tests of submachine guns. In connection with this, the leadership of the State Agrarian University decided to conduct comparative tests of PPS and PPSh-2. These tests took place from July 17 to July 21, 1942. Based on the results of the tests, the commission determined that the PPS is superior to the PPSh-2 in terms of reliability of shooting in conditions of heavy pollution, accuracy of fire, ease of shooting, wearing, operation in trenches, dugouts, when moving on the battlefield and other combat characteristics. Since the PPS turned out to be the best of all the samples developed by the summer of 1942, a week after the completion of competitive tests it was recommended by the USSR State Defense Committee for mass production.

The Moscow Machine-Building Plant named after V.D. Kalmykov, which was producing PPSh at that time, immediately began production of PPS, and by November 1, 1942, the first batch of 30 Sudaev submachine guns was produced.

It was equipped with 6 magazines, which were placed in two pouches. There were also supplies for cleaning and lubricating weapons. In terms of simplicity of design, compactness, convenience and high reliability when operating in difficult conditions, the PPS was significantly superior to the standard PPD and PPSh.

total weight PPP with full ammunition (210 rounds in six magazines) was 6.82 kg. The fairly small mass of the weapon provided the machine gunners with good maneuverability in battle. At the same time, the initial speed and lethal range of the bullet, as well as the practical rate of fire, were the same as the PPSh.

PPP was also distinguished by high production and economic characteristics. The design of the submachine gun allowed the production of 50% of the parts by cold stamping, as well as the use of spot and electric arc welding. Compared to PPSh-41, the production of PPS required only 6.2 kg of metal and 2.7 machine hours, which is 2 and 3 times less than for the Shpagin submachine gun (13.9 kg and 8.1, respectively machine-hour).

The Soviet state needed large quantities similar weapons, and therefore, by the decision of the State Defense Committee, already in December 1942, defense enterprises of besieged Leningrad, including the Sestroretsk Tool Plant named after S.P. Voskov, the plant named after A.A., also joined the program for the production of fairly simple and relatively cheap Sudaev submachine guns . Kulakov and the Primus plant (artel). At the end of December 1942, Sudaev was sent to the plant named after A. A. Kulakov to organize the production of his teaching staff. Despite the difficulties of organizing production, bombing and shelling of the city, and the lack of the required number of machines, tools and equipment, from February 1943 to December 1944, 187,912 teaching staff were produced.

In January 1943, the artillery department finally approved the technical documentation for the production of PPS-42. The Moscow plant named after V.D. Kalmykov became the main enterprise for developing technical documentation and the submachine gun itself. The plant's engineers and technologists constantly made improvements to its design, working on both individual components and entire assemblies, and clarifying technical documentation. In less than two years, they made “918 various changes and additions, 413 of which were put into production as of March 15, 1944. There were 21 main design changes made to the drawings.” During the production of PPS and its operation in parts, some design flaws were revealed. The result was further changes made to PPS-42 both by the author and by the engineers and technologists of the manufacturing plants. They were aimed at improving the functioning of weapons in any, including the most difficult conditions, ensuring trouble-free operation and improving manufacturing technology.

Thus, during combat operations using PPS, such a drawback appeared as delays in firing caused by incomplete loading of the next cartridge into the chamber due to contamination of the latter with powder soot. The reason for this was the relatively light bolt for this type of weapon (with inertial locking of the barrel). Thus, the PPSh bolt weighed more than that of the PPS, by about 200 g, and sent a cartridge without any problems even into a smoke-filled barrel chamber. Sudaev solved this problem in his own way. Together with technologists from the Leningrad plant named after A. A. Kulakov, he decided to increase the diameter of the chamber by 0.01 mm. It would seem an insignificant change in the size of the chamber, but it had a great effect, reducing the number of delays to 0.03%, which was 20 times less than the norm allowed according to the specifications. In addition, on the bolt, instead of a hole for the guide rod of the recoil spring, Sudaev made a longitudinal milled groove, like the second model of the Bezruchko-Vysotsky submachine gun, which simplified the manufacture of the bolt. Also in the modernized version, the bolt box was strengthened by using a 2-mm steel sheet for its manufacture instead of 1.5 mm, the weight of the bolt was reduced to 550 g, the shape of the fuse was changed, a stop was introduced into the design of the guide rod of the recoil spring, which simplified the assembly and disassembly of the weapon, the length of the weapon was slightly reduced.

By decree of the State Defense Committee of May 20, 1943, the modernized model was given the name “7.62-mm submachine gun designed by Sudaev mod. 1943 (PPS-43)." From the same year, this weapon began to be called a machine gun. This submachine gun has truly become the most best weapon this class. Already in mid-1943 at the Moscow Machine-Building Plant named after V.D. Kalmykov produced up to 1000 units of PPS-43 daily. In total, from October 1942 to July 1, 1945, the plant produced 531,359 copies of PPS. In total, in 1942–1945, 765,373 PPS-42 and PPS-43 were sent to the army.

The PPS-43 automation operated using the recoil energy of a free shutter. The barrel bore was locked by the mass of the bolt, pressed by a return spring.

Shooting was carried out “from the rear sear” - this was the most common design of automatic submachine guns. The bolt had a firing pin fixedly fixed in the bolt cup.

A feature of the PPS device in comparison with the PPD and PPSh was the eccentric placement of the recoil spring with a guide rod, the front part of which simultaneously served as a reflector for the spent cartridge case, as well as a pistol fire control handle. The fire mode was only automatic, but by smoothly pressing the trigger it was also possible to fire a single shot. PPS-43 was equipped with a non-automatic fuse. The fuse ensured that the bolt was locked in the forward and cocked position. The exceptional simplicity of the design ensured the high reliability of the submachine gun. The PPS was equipped with a folding metal stock, which folded over the receiver for ease of transportation. In the combat position the butt leaned back. The front part of the receiver was a casing that served to protect the barrel from damage and the shooter’s hands from burns when shooting. To cool the barrel, holes were made on the casing. A muzzle brake-compensator was welded to the front part of the casing, due to which the accuracy of fire was increased

Fire from the PPS was conducted in short bursts of 3–6 shots, long bursts of 15–20 shots, and continuous fire. An open type sight with a rotating rear sight was designed for shooting at 100 m and 200 m. The best results in short bursts were possible at a distance of up to 200 m, in long bursts - up to 100 m. The PPS had fairly high indicators of penetrating ability and lethal effect of the bullet. The destructive power of the bullet was maintained up to 800 meters. The high initial speed ensured a good flat trajectory. The long sighting line and acceptable stability of the PPS ensured good accuracy and shooting accuracy.

The stability of the PPS during firing was ensured by the recoil force compensator, the folding stock, as well as the small weight of the bolt. Reduce the bolt weight to 550 g. allowed the use of its “roll-out”: the shot occurred when the bolt had not yet reached its final forward position. The neck of the trigger box with an inserted magazine was used as an additional handle and provided ease of holding the weapon. In terms of effectiveness of combat use, it was 1.5 times superior to the MP-38/40 and 1.3 times higher than the PPSh.

In addition to its undeniable advantages, the teaching staff also had some disadvantages. For example, the fuse is not reliable enough. Even slight wear of the cutout for the bolt handle or the figured cutout of the fuse led to its spontaneous shutdown. The short butt enhanced the effect of accommodation, which made it difficult to aim at maximum range and at dusk. Sudaev's submachine gun was capricious when dirt got inside the receiver and the lubricant thickened, which resulted in delays when firing. It was convenient to cock the shutter only with the right hand. It was also not suitable for hand-to-hand combat. In the Soviet army, the Sudayev submachine gun was in service until the mid-50s. During World War II, the design of the PPS was repeated by gunsmiths from other countries.

In 1944, the Finns adopted an almost exact copy of the PPS-43 under the name “9-mm Suomi M.1944 submachine gun” - chambered for the 9x19 “Parabellum” pistol cartridge, with magazines from “Suomi ML 931” submachine guns ( box-shaped with a capacity of 20 and 40 rounds and disk-shaped with a capacity of 71 rounds). It differs from the PPS only in the magazine receiver, which allowed the installation of a disk magazine. At the end of the 40s, the PPS was produced under license in Poland in two modifications: with a folding metal stock wz.43 - for the airborne forces, tank crews, signalmen and others - and a wooden stock wz.43/52. In the 50s, PPS began to be produced in China under the name “type 43”. It was used extensively by North Korean troops and Chinese volunteers in the Korean War (1950–1953). In 1953, the FRG adopted the DUX-53 submachine gun, which was an exact copy of the Finnish Suomi M.1944, into service with the gendarmerie and border guards. After minor modernization in 1959 under the designation DUX-59 submachine gun before the adoption of the MP-5 submachine gun was in service law enforcement and border guards.