fire worldb most comprehe*sive encyclopedia of the militalry,

AnningtWFrench

A firlly fKaxmegM ffi

Volume I

CONTENTS

Sub-machine guns of World WarOwenGwr

2K383

Suomin/1931

Sten sub-machine guns

Arming the French Resistance

lanchester sub-machine gms

IvlASModeil93S

Steyr-Solothurn S I- I00

I\rpe 100

UDM'42

M3andM3AlThompson sub-machine guns

TheBattle forOkinawa

Reising Model 50 and Model 55

MPISandMP2S

MP34andMP35

MP38,MP38i40andMP40

PPD.r934/38

PPSh.4I

TheSiegeof L,eningrad

PPS-42andPPS43

Beretta sub-machine guns

Armed Forces of the WorldUS Rapid Deployment Force (Part 2)

Issue 6

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1 983

Picture acknowledgementsCoverphoiognph: RobertHut Library. Page l0l; T. Gude!. 103: T. Geder. 104: T. GuderAmperial WaMEeutr/Orbis Publishinq Ltd. l05r Roben Hut Library,4.obert Hut Library. 1061T. Gader. 107: T. Gader.I l0: T. Gader. I I l: Imperial Wil Msem. I l2r US Mdine Corps/lvlilitary Archive ud Reseuch Servie,Lincs,4\4ilitary Archive ild Resedch Seryice, Lincs. 113: Impedal Wd MGem. II5: Robert HEt Library.116: Impedal Wd MEem. llz: Robed Hmt Library,{mpeda.l Wd Musem. ll8: T. Gader. ll9; Rob€rtHut Library,/Robert Hut Library. 120; Roben Hut Library/ Robert Hut Libray. (iii): US Armed Fo!G.(iv); US Armed forces.

We de most gtrateful to the Weapons Mueum. School of Infiltry, Wdminster, for their kind pemision tophotogEaph weapoN lrom their collection.

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Sub{ttcrcffinegunsof WWllThe sub-machine gtn was born out of the trenches of WotldWar L In the confined, close'quatter fighting tuoops begantofeel the need for some form of compact automatic weaponthat woutd be less awlarirard to handle than a bayonetted rtfle.Faced with this demand, manufactuterc tuned thefu hands toprodacing such a weapon.

The ltalians were the first to introduce what might be termed asub-machine gnrn, This was the Villar-Perosa which, while ofterr quoted

as being the first sub-machine qun, was ln many ways a blind alley, forthe villar-Perosa was used only as a light machrne-gn:n The flrst trueexample of what was to be termed the machine-pistol or sub-machinegun was thus the German MPI8 This appeared in front{ine sewiceduring l9l8 and to this day the MP18 remarns the best example of all the

attributes of the sub-machine gnrn.

The MPIS used a pistol cartridge (a small, relatively low-poweredcharge firing a small but heavy bullet). If a hand-held weapon was to beused to fire fully automatically the round fired had to be light and thepistol cartridge was the obvrous choice, The MPiS fired the 9-mm

Parabellum cartridge and in the years that followed this became an

almost universal chorce for most designs, Ustng a pistol cartridge also

allowed the employment of an operatlng principle that had long beenr.rsed on automattc plstols, the blow-back principle

The blow-back pnnclple is very simple. On the MPl8 the magazinewas fitted and the gn-rn cocked by using a side-mounted lever in a slot.

When the trigger was pulled it released the breech block to moveforward under the energy from a large spring, As it moved forward thebreech block picked up a cartrrdge from the feed, pushed it into the

barrel chamber and once the round and breech block were in posrtion

the firing pln fired the cartridge, The recoil forces produced by thecartridgre were initrally overcome by the forward energry produced bythe mass of the breech block and the sprtng, but the block remained inplace long enough to 'lock' the system until the recoil forces were able topush back the breech block and its spring to their orrginai condltion lfthe trigger was still pulled, the cycle began again and went on until thetrigger was released,

Armed with the MP40 sub-machinegun, members of theWaffenSS Posefor a propagand a pho togr ap h. T hes eare French volunteers , as indicatedby the tricolour arm patch.

If thls simple operating principle was ever abandoned, the result wasusually less than satisfactory, for the mechanism would be over-complexand would have more pieces to break or jam. But if the operating systemcould be kept basic and light, and the MPl.8 was light enough to becarried and used by one man, the overall concept could be kept simple,At first this was not always realized as gunsrniths lavished their consider-abie skiils on many of the early sub-machine gun types, When the needsof World War II arrived it did not take long for the irills to be ditched inthe rush to produce serviceable weapons rapidly, Things reached thepornt where the resultant sub-machine gnrns were horrible to look at, theobvious examples being the Brltlsh Sten and the American M3. But thesetypes lent themselves to rapid and simple mass production. Weldingtook the place of machining from soiid metal, pins took the place oftime-consuming jolnting methods, rivets took the place of screws and so

on. At first the iront-line soldiers looked askance at such products butthey soon learned that they worked. Those crude weapons could pro-duce as lethal a stream of lead as many of the more refined designs fromthe arsenals, they were easy to learn how to use, they were easy tomaintain and their ammunition was usually easy to procure, often fromthe enemy.

The sub-machine gnrn is stl1l with us, now in many refined forms; butclose examinatlon will usually reveal the shadow of the baslc MPl8lurking in its interior, From the MP1S came all the others that followed,even inciuding the famous Thompson Gun. Designs such as the Sten, the

M3, the German MP38 and the Soviet PPSh-41 all had their part to playdurlng World War II, and their impact will be with us for years to come.

AThompsongunner in actionduring thebattle for Cassino' Firepower andease of handling made the sub-machine gan ideal in the confinement of streetfighting.

ffi ti#'J' GunIt took some time and some farly des-perate measures before LieutenantEvelyn Owen was able to persuadethe Australian milrtary authorities toadopt his design of sub-machine gnrn in1940, At the time the Australian armyhad little or no interest in the weaponand by the time they realized the im-portance ofthe weapon they expectedto receive all the Sten gn-rns.they re-qurred from the United Kingdom, Ittook some time before they apprecl-ated the fact that they were groing toreceive no Sten guns as the Britisharmy wanted all that could be pro-duced, So they decided after muchprocrastination to adopt the OwenGun, but even then they were not surern what calibre. Consequently the firsttrials batches were produced in fourcalibres before the universal 9-mmwas adopted,

The Owen Gun can be easily recogt-mzed by the magazine, which pointsvertically upwards over the tubularQn:n body, This odd-seeming arrange-ment was apparently chosen for noother reason than that it worked, and itmust be said that it worked very well tothe extent that once the Australian sol-diers got their hands on the type theypreferred it to all others, and the OwenGun was kept in service until well intothe 1960s and its successor, the X-3,still retains the overhead magazine.The rest of the gun was fairly conven-tional and very robust to the pointwhere it seemed to be able to take allmanner of pumshment and withstoodbeing dropped in mud, dust, water andjust about anything else. As productionincreased vanous changes were intro-duced to the design. The early finsaround the barrel were removed andsome changes were made to the butt,which could be found rn versions withjust a wrre skeleton, an all-wood de-sign, and one version that was half-outline and half wood. One feature ofthe Owen that was unique to rt, apartfrom the overhead magazine, was thatthe barrel could be quickly removedfor changing, Exactly why this featurewas incorporated is uncertain, for rtwould have taken a long period offiring for the barrel to become unus-ably hot, but the featrrre was retainedthrough the desrgn life of the weapon.Another odd point regarding theOwen was that once in sewice theywere often painted in camouflagre

Above: The Owen sub-machine grunwas astutdy and reliableweaponthat soon gained itself a highreputation. The example hasa c amoufl age paint s cheme.

Right: The Australian Owen sub-machine gun's most prominentrecogmition feature was thevertically-mounted box m agazine.The exampleshown here is one ofthe early production models.

schemes to suit the local terrain, Forthe Austrahan army (and the Owenwas used by no other forces) thatmeant the hot and sweaty jungles olNew Guinea, where the Australian sol-diers found the Owen ideal for theclose-quarter combat that the junglesenforced,'lt was true that the Owenwas rather heavier than most compa-rable models but'the forward-mountedgrip and the pistol gnip made it easy tohandle,

The top-mounted magazine had oneslight disadvantage for the firer as themagazine position meant that thesights had to be off-set to the right sideof the body, an awkward arrangementbut one that mattered little once theweapon was used in action for, likemost sub-machine guns the Owen w-asalmost always flred from the hip

Production of the Owen ceased rn1945 but in 1952 many were virtuallyrebuilt and provision was made for aiclg bayonet to be fltted to the muzzle;some versions made in 1943 used amuch shorter bayonet that fitted overtne mizzle with an almost unique tubu-lar mount but they were not widelyssued.

Specification:Calibre: 9 mmLengrth: 813 mm (32 in)Length of barrel: 250 mm (9.84 in)Weight loaded: 4,815 kg (10,6Ib)Magazine: 33-round vertical boxRate of fire, ryclic: 700 rpmMuzzle velocity'. 420 m (1,380 ft) persecond

CZECHOSLOVAK A

zK 383The Czech ZK 383 is one of those sub-machine guns that is now little knownrnthe West for the srmple reason that itwas little used outslde Eastem Europeand its combat use was mainly Imitedto the war against the Soviet Union,However. the ZK 383 was a very impor-tant weapon type for its time and tt wasconsidered good enough to stay inproduction from the late 1930s until1948,

First designed during the early1930s, the ZK 383 went into production

The C zech ZK 383 was very wellmade from machined parts and hadsuch luxuries as a bipod and avariable rate offire. There was evena quick-change barrel. The bulk ofthese weapons was later producedfor the G erman W affen SS, who foundit a heavy but reliable weapon.

IA2

2K383 (continued)

at the famous Czech Brno arms plant,loown for the later introduction of whatwas to be the Bren gn:n, The ZK 383 wasa relatively large and heavy weaponfor the sub-machine gmn class, a fea-ture emphasized by uncommon ap-plication ofa bipod under the barrel onsome models. This bipod was the re-sult of the Czech army's tactical phi-losophy, for it regarded the weapon asa form of light machine-gmn, in directcontradictlon of the usually acceptedrole of a close-quarter ccimbatweapon, This odd approach was furth-er emphasued by the use ofwhat wasone of the ZK 383's oddest leatures inthe form of a capability for two rates offire, The ZK 383 could flre at the rate of500 or 700 rpm, the fire rate beingaltered by the addition or subtractronof a small 0.17-kq (0.37tb) weight tothe breech block - with the weightremoved the breech block could

Sub-machine guns of World War II

move faster and thus the rate of firecould be increased. The slower rate offire was used when the ZK 383 wasused with lts bipod as a light machine-gn-rn, and the faster fire rate when theZK was carried as an assault weapon.

But that was only the Czech army'spoint of vrew, and the feature does notappear to have been used much by theother customers for the weapon, TheBulgarian army adopted the type astheir standard sub-machrne gun (itused the ZK 383 until at least the early1960s), but by far the largest number ofZK 3B3s were produced after 1939 forthe German army. When they tookover Czechoslovakia rn 1939 the Ger-mans found the ZK 383 production linestill rntact, and it was a sensible moveas far as they were concerned to keepit intact for theu own uses, The Brnofactory was taken over for SS weaponproduction and thus the ZK 383 output

was diverted to the Waffen SS, whoused the weapon only on the EastemFront, The Waffen SS examples wereall known as the vz g (vz for vzor, theCzech for model) and the Waffen SSfomd rt efective enough for it to be-come one of their standard weapons.Numbers were kept in Czechoslovakiafor use by the Czech civil police whohad their own version, the ZK 383Pwhich was produced without thebipod.

The only nations other thanCzechoslovakia, Bulgarla and Ger-many that purchased the ZK 383 wereBrazil and Venezuela, and even thenthe numbers involved were not large,Apart from the use in Eastern Europethe ZK 383 had few points to attractattention and rn many ways it was toocomplicated for the role it was calledupon to play, The Czech army's pre-dilection for the design as a lght

machine-gnrn led to all manner of detarlextras that the weapon did not needThe dual rate of fire feature hasalready been mentioned, as has thebipod, but the sub-machrne gnrn doesnot really need a complex barrel-change mechanism, an all-machinedmechamsm made from the flnest steelsavailable or an angled breech blockretwn spring angled into the butt. TheZK 383 had all these, making it a veryreliable sound weapon but one thatwas really too complex for its role,

Specification:Calibre: 9 mmLength: 875 mm (34,45 in)Length of barrel: 325 mm (12,8 in)Weight loaded: 4,83 kg (10.65 lb)Magazine: 3O-round boxRate of fire, cyclic: 500 or 700 rpmMrzzle velocity: 365m (1,200ft) persecond

FINLAND

Suomi m/193IThe Suomi m/I931 is now little knownbut in its day it was one of the mosts.ouqht-after and admired sub-machine guns produced an]'where.The desigrn of thrs weapon went backto the early 1920s and was almost cer-tarnly influenced by some Germanweapon desigmers who used Frnlandas a means of escaping the turmoil anduproar of post-war Germany, Usingtheinfluence and advice of such Germansthe Finns gradually produced a seriesof very sound and effectrve sub-machine gruns that resulted in them/1931,

As sub-machine gun desrgns gothere is little remarkable with them/1931, for it used a conventionalbiow-back action and an orthodox lay-out, Where it did score over many ex-istinq desiqns was that 1t was extreme-ly well made, almost to the point oflavishness in the quality of materialused and the excellence of themachimng, and the other potnt was thefeed systems employed, These feedsystems used a number of magazinesthat were so effective that they wereextensively copied later, even by theSoviets who normally preferred theirhome-produced designs, There weretwo main versions, one a 5O-round ver-tical box magazine and the other a 7l-round drum magazine. In the boxmagazine the normal lengthy bulk of 50rounds of ammunition was overcomeby having the magazine split into twovertical columns, Rounds were fedfrom one column and then the other, Inaction this feed system was muchfavoured as rt enabled a soldier to car-ry into action far more ready roundsthan would be possrble with a conven-tional magazine (despite thrs there wasa normal 3O-round box magazrne forthe Suomi),

The m/1931 was produced for theFinnish army in some numbers and itproved itself in action during the 1940Russian invasion of Finland. Therewere several export models of them/1931, some of them with smallbipods under the barrel or body, andthese were purchased by Sweden andSwitzerland, who both set up therr ownproductron Lnes, as did a company lnDenmark, The type was adopted bythe Polish police before i939, and ex-amples popped up during the SpamshCivil War on both srdes, Since then the

Above: The Suomi m/ I 93 I was one ofthe most well-manufactured sub-machine guns ever made, forpractically every partwas machinedfromsolidmetal.

Right: The Suomi ml I 93 I in action,fittedwith the 7l-round magazine.Unlike many other sub-machineguns the m/ 1 93 I had a long barrelthat was accurate enough for aimedfire at most combat ranges.

m/I93I has kept appeanng up all overthe place whenever conflicts arise. It Isstiil in limited sewice in Scandinavia tothis day and this longevity can be ex-plained by two simple factors, One rsthat the m/1931 is so well made that itjust will not wear out. The same soundmanu.facture also explain the reliabil-ity, for the m/i931 is one of thoseweapons that will work under any con-ditions without ever seeming to gouronq, and as mentioned above thefeed system for the ammunitton isalmost legendary in its reliability,These two factors alone explain thehigh regard shown to the m/]931 in thepast, but there was another factor,When the m/1931 was produced nopains were spared on detail machiningand such care was taken on this thatthe whole of the gun, the body and boltrncluded, were machined from thesolid metal, Consequently the gnrn was,

and still is, very accurate for rts type.Most sub-machine gmn types are accu-rate only to a few yards and most arealmost useless at range over 50 m (55yards). The m/1931 can be used accur-ately at ranges up to 300 m (330 yards),ln relative numbers few were usedduring World War II but the influenceof the design can be detected in manywar-time models, The desrgn was li-cence-produced in Switzerland for theSwiss army during 1943.

Specification:Calibre:9 mmLenqth (butt extended): 870 mm(34.25 in)Lengthofbarret 314 mm (i2,36 in)Weight loaded (drum magazine):7,04 ks(l5,s2lb)Magazine: 30- or SO-round box, or 7l-round drumRate offire, cyclic: 900 rpmMuzzle velocity: 400 m (1 310 ft) persecond

103

>K $t"r, sub-machine gunsAfter the Dunkirk evacuatton of mid-1940 the British army had few weaponsleft, In an attempt to re-arm quickly themilitary authorittes put out an urgentrequest for simple sub-machine qnrns

that could be produced in quantity,and using the concept of the MP3B asan example the desiqners went towork, Withrn weeks the results wereadopted, It was the product of two de-siqners, Major R.V, Shepherd and H.J.

Turpin who worked at the Enfield LockSmall Arms Factory, and from thesethree names came the universally-accepted name Sten for the newweapon.

The first result was the Sten Mk I,which must be regarded as one of theunloveliest weapon designs of all time.It was designed for production asquickly and cheaply as possible usingsimple tools and a mrnimum of time-consuming machining, so the Sten wasmade up from steel tubes, sheetstamping and easily produced parts allheld together with welds, pins andbolts, The marn body was a steel tubeand the butt a steel framework. Thebarrel was a steel drawn tube witheither two or sx riflrnq Errooves rough-ly carved. The magazine was againsheet steel and on the Sten Mk I thetrigigTer mechanism was shrouded in awooden stock There was a smallwooden foregnip and a rudimentaryflash hider. It looked horribie andcaused some very caustic commentswhen it was first issued, but it workedand the troops soon learned to acceptit for what rt was, a basic killing deviceproduced in extreme circumstances.

The Sten Mk I was produced to thetune of aboul 100,000 examples all deii-vered within months. By 1941 the StenMk II was on the scene and thts waseven simpler than the Mk L In time theSten Mk I1 became regarded as the'classic' Sten gnrn and it was an all-metai version, Gone was the woodenstock over the trigger mechantsm, re-placed by a simple sheet-metal box.The butt became a single tube with aflatt buttplate at its end, The barrei wasredesigned to be unscrewed forchanging and the maetaztne houstng,with the box magazine protruding tothe left, was designed to be a stmpleunit that could be rotated downwardsonce the magazine was removed tokeep out dust and dirt. The butt couldbe easily removed fcr removing thebreech block and springr for cleamng,By the time all these parts (barrei,magazine and butt) had been re-moved, the whole weapon occupiedvery little space and this tumed out tobe one of the Sten's qreat advantages,When the initial needs of the armedforces had been met, from several pro-duction lines, includinq those set up tnCanada anC New Zealand, the Stenwas still produced in tens ofthousandsfor paradrop into occupied Europe foruse by resistance forces and partisans.There it found its own particular placein combat history, for the very simplic-ity of the Sten and the ease with whichrt could be broken down for hidinqiproved to be a major asset and theGermans came to fear the Sten andwhat it couid do. The Germanslearned, as did many others, that thebullet from a Sten was jrut as lethal as abullet from something more fancy.

A silenced versron of the Sten Mk IIwas produced in small numbers lorCommando and raiding forces as theSten Mk IIS, and then came the Sten

104

Above:TheStenMkll was one otthemost widely-used of all the Alliedsub-machine gu ns. I t looked crudebut itworked, itcould be strippeddown for easy concealment, and itwas available in quantity.

Right: The Stenwas one of the firstweaponsrssued to the newly'formedairborne troops of the British army,and this example is unusual in beingfittedwith a small spike baYonet.

Mk IIL This was basicalJy an even srm-pler version of the original Mk I as itsbarrel could not be removed and itwas encased in a simple steel-tubebarrel jacket, Again, tens of thousandswere produced and were wtdelyused.

The Sten Mk IV was a developmentmodel intended for parachute troopsbut it was not placed into productionBy the time the Sten Mk V was on thescene things were gotng better for theAl[es and the Mk V couid be pro-duced with rather more flnesse. TheMk V was easily the best of the Stensfor it was produced to much higherstandards and even had such extras asa wooden butt forestock and a fltiingfor a small bayonet, It had the foresightof the Lee-Enfield No. 4 rifle and themetal was even finished to a high de-Enee, whereas the earlier marks hadthek metal left in a bare state with aminimum of fine finish. The Mk V wasissued to the Airborne Forces in 1944,and after World War II it became thestandard British army sub-machinegun,

The Slen was a crude weapon tnnearly every way, but it worked and it

Right: Streetfighting in theMediterranean. This example hashad a non-standard foregrip addedto enhance handling.

Below:By the time theStenMkVwasproduced therewas time for somefnesse fo be added to the basicdesign.While the original outlinewas retained awooden butt andpistol grip and a No. 4 rifle foresighthadbeenadded.

could be produced in larqe numbersat a time when it was desperatelyneeded, In occupied Europe it was re-vealed as an ideal resistance weaponand all over the world undergroundforces have been busy copying the de-sign almost dLrecr The Germans evenproduced their own copies in i944 and1945, It was one of the more remark-able weapons of World War IL

Specification:Sten Mk IICalibre: 9 mmLength: 762 mm (30,00 in)Length of barrel: 197 mm (7.75 in)Weight loaded: 3,7 kg (8, 16 ]b)Magazine: 32-round boxRate of fire, cyclic: 550 rpmMuzzle velocity: 365 m (1,200ft) persecond

Arming the French ResistanceIt took a few years to organize the French Re-slstance movements after the fall of France in1940. For about 18 months very little could beachieved, mainiy as a result of the moraleshock that followed the German occupation,but gradualiy a few bold souls started to formthe core of a number of small groups deter-mined to carry on the war in some way. Thrsunderground movement towards resistancehad been presupposed in London and else-where by the establishment of some low-priorrty cadres of unconventronal warfare spe-cialists who gradually started to land agentsand subversrves in occupied France to discov-er how people were thlnkinq and to determlnewhat armed support there might be for theestablishment of a guerrilla warfare move-ment,

The London-based organlzations (therewere lnltlally several) were grouped under anorganlzation known as the Special OperationsExecutive, or SOE. Headquartered in BakerStreet, thrs organization was able to function asit had a virtual direct access to the Prime Minis-ter, who was very keen to stir up any under-ground warfare movements to harry the Ger-man occupatron lbrces, Using this access tohrgh places, SOE was able to corner a far grea-ter share of weapons and other facilitles thanmight otherwise have been the case in a moreorthodox administration, and the organizationtook full advantage of thrs.

Infiltrators from SOEThe general plan was for the higher eche-

lons of SOE to infiltrate agents into occupiedFrance over a number of routes from directcoastal landings to open crossings of the bor-der with unoccupied Vichy France, Once in-side the occupied zone these agents estab-lished the lie of the land and generallytravelled about making contacts, assessingpotential sabotage targets and establishingsmall ceils of potential resisters. Once thesehad been established lrondon then trained andsent in permanent agents to organize and trainthe cells. These agents were often Free Frenchor other locals who had escaped in 1940 or whocame from some of the French colonies, butonce established in the occupied zone theycalled on London to send in equipment.

The equipment sent into France ranged fromradios to explosives and weapons, Smallamounts of material were landed on secludedstretches of coastiine, but the bulk of the mate-rial was paradropped from Royal Air Forcebomber aircraft; sometimes small transport air-craft landed to deiiver specral loads. The usualmethod was to use aircraft such as the Arm-strong Whitworth Whltley or the Vickers Wel-Iington to drop special containers. These wereof two types, the Tlpe 'C' and the Type 'H', thelatter being the more important as there wereseveral standard loads-atready laid out forthem: the Hl, for instance, was always used todrop explosives and their accessories such asdetonators and exploders, while the H2 alwayscarried a load of Sten gmns; and the H3 could beused to drop rifles or Bren gnrns, the H4 to droprncendiary materials and the HS to deliver awide range of sabotage equipment, The Tlpe'C' container was used for just about everythingelse,

Supply drops were arranged by radio and ateam was always on the ground to pick up thecontainers and then immedrately to distributeand hide their contents, Contents were sup-posed to be packed to facilitate this distribution

and it was here that easrly hidden weaponssuch as the Sten gnm came into their own, ASten gnrn could be easily broken down into itscomponent parts and concealed in all mannerof small piaces, from where it could be re-trleved for use, Operations could be eithercontrolled from London or organized locally. Inboth cases preparation was the keyword, withcareful pre-placing of arms and equipmentwell before the operation, Most Resistance op-erations involved the use of smali amounts ofexplosives, wrth weapons used only for self-protectron.

It was not until 1944 that widespread andlarge-scale Resistance operations weremounted in support of the Normandy landings,Again, well planned in advance and co-ordinated from London, such operations wereaimedat cutting communications wrth the coas-tal areas, especially around Normandy and thePas de Calais, and involved the destruction ofrailways, telephone lines and bridges,Ambushes were made on German patrols withthe Stens and the Brens; in overall terms the

Photographs of tfieFrencft Resrtance in action arefew and far between, so it seem^ssafe tosugg/esfthat this is a posed picture taken during 1944. Itshows two Stens and a shotgun in use, a fairlytypical Resistance weapon combination.

pian to disrupt the German forces, rsolate themby removing their communications and gener-ally put them off balance, succeeded.

But it was done at a considerable cost, Apartfrom the resrsters who were lost on the actualoperations, the Germans almost always retali-ated by the taking and execution oihostagesand the destruction ol property. Many Frenchmen and women thus lost therr lives in theResistance cause, but iheir loss only streng-thened French resolve and gave back to thenation a measure ol self-respect that had beenlost in 1940,

Thus the e{lorts of SOE in London had aneffect far out of proportion to its numbers, TheResistance was able to make a definite con-tributron to the overall war effort and the Stengn:n became a virtual symbol of resistance.

Left:The Sten was well suited toResislance-sty/e am bushe s an dnuisance raids. While giving morefirepower to the Maquis, it could bebroken down into components toreasy concealment,

Above: Maquis in the HauteLoire conducting aweapon training session using the Sten Mk II as thesu bj e ct. ?ftis Sten ft as fft e s teel' ou tline' bu tt inplace o{the more usual'T-shape'. Both types couldbe easily removed.

105

ffi iranchester sub-machine grunIn 1940, wrth the Dunkirk evacuationcompleted, the Royal Air Force de-cided to adopt some form of sub-machine gnrn for airfield defence. Withno time to spare for the development ofa new weapon it decided to adopt adirect copy of the German MP2B, ex-amples of which were to hand for thenecessary copyrng. The period was sodesperate that the Admiralty decidedto join the RAF in adoptinq the newweapon; by a series ofconvoluted hap-peninqs the Admiralty alone actuallytook the resultant design into servrce.

The British MP2B copy was giventhe general designation lanchester af-ter one Georgre ]:anchester, who wascharged with producinq the weapon atthe Sterling Armament Company atDagrenham, the same company that la-ter went on to produce the Sterlingsub-machine gun that ts now thegeneral standard weapon for so manyarmed forces, The LanchesteremergTed as a sound, sturdy weaponthat in many ways was ideal for thetype of operations required of it byboarding and raiding parties, It was avery solid weapon, in many ways thecomplete opposite of its direct con-temporary the Sten, for the Lanchesterwas a soundly engineered piece ofweaponry with all the trimmings of aformer era, Nothinq was left off fromthe gunsmsith's art, The Lanchesterhad a well-machined wooden butt andstock, the blow-back mechanism wasvery well made of the finest materials,the breech block well machined, and,to cap it all, the magaztne houstng wasmade from solid brass. A few typicalBritish desiqn detarls were added,such as a mounting on the muzzle for along-bladed British bayonet (very use-ful in boarding party situations) and therifling differed from the German ori-ginal in details to accommodate thedrfferent types of ammunitlon the Lan-chester had to use,

The magazine for the Lanchesterwas straiqht and carried a useful Ioadof 5O rounds, Stripping was aided by acatch on top of the receiver and thevery first models could fire either sing-Ie-shot or automatlc, That model wasthe Lanchester Mk I but on the Lan-

Above: Obviously based on theGermanMP 28, the Lanchesterwasideally suited to the rough-and-tumble of shipboard life. I t had aone-piece wooden stock based onthe outline of the Lee-Enfield No. IMk3 rifleand therewas a bayonetlug under the muzzle. The brassmagazine housingcan be seen.

Right: Lanchesters in a typical navalenvironment as captured U-boatpersonne,l are escotted ashore in aCanadian port - the blindfolds werea normal procedure. TheLanchesters are carried using Lee-Enfieldrifle slings.

chester Mk I* this was chanqed to fullautomatic flre only, and many Mk Iswere converted to Mk I* standard atRN workshops.

The Lanchester was an unashamedcopy of a German design but it Qtavegood service to the Royal NavYthroughout the war and for many yearsafter, Many old sailors still speak of theLanchester with respect; not withaffection, for it was a healry weaponand it had one rather off-putting fea-ture: if the butt was qiven a hard knockor jar while the gmn was cocked andloaded it would flre, The last exampleleft Royal Narry use during the 1960sand the type is now a collector's ttem.

Specification:Calibre: 9 mmLengrth: 851 mm (33.50 in)Length of barrel: 203 mm (8,00 in)Weight empty: 4,34 kg (9.57 lb)

Magazine: SO-round boxRate of fire, cyclic: 600 rpmMuzzle velocity: about 380 m (1,245 ft)per second

MAS Model 1938Often quoted as the MAS 38, thisFrench sub-machine gn:n was first pro-duced at St Etienne in 1938, hence themodel number. The MAS 38 was theoutcome of a long period of develop-ment, and was the follow-on from amodel produced in 1935, But it must bestated that the development periodwas well spent, for the MAS 38 provedto be a sound enough weapon well inadvance of its period, There weresome rather odd features about theMAS 38, however, One was that it wasrather complicated and another ttrat itfired a cartridge produced only inFrance, Both these features can be ex-plained by the period when it was de-signed. At that time there appeared tobe no reason to make the weapon assimple as possible for existing produc-tion methods seemed adequate tochurn out the numbers requtred, andat the time such numbers were notvery high, The calibre can be ex-plained by the fact that it was availableat the time and so the MAS 38 had acalibre of 7,65mm and used a car-

106

tridge available only in France, the?,65-mm Long. While this cartridgewas accurate it was not very powerful,and had the disadvantaqe that no-oneelse was likely to adopt it once the9-mm calibre had been universallY

adopted.The MAS 38 has a complex mechan-

ism wrth a lonq bolt travel that waspartially off-set by having the gmn bodyslopirig down into the solid woodenbutt, The cockinghandle was separate

The MAS Model I 938 was a sound,advanced weapon. Unfortunately forits future prospects, itfired anu n d e r p ow er e d c ar tri dge av ail ab leonly inFrance, andwas complicatedtomanufacture,

MAS Model 1938 (continued)

from the bolt once firing started, agood featue but one which introducedcomplexity into the desigm and manu-fachne. Another good point was a flapover the magazine housing that closedas the magazine was withdravm. Whilethis kept out dust and dirt very fewother desigms had thjs feahre and mostof them managed to work perfectlywell without it,

In fact the MAS 38 tumed out to berather too good for the customer, whoat first decided that it did not want asub-machile gun after all. The Frencharmy firrned down the weapon when itwas first offered, and the first produc-tion examples went to some of themore para-military members of one ofthe French police icrces. V/hen hostlli-ties did start in 1939, the French armysoon changed its mind and orderedlarge quantities, but the complexmachining that went into the MAS 38resulted in a slow rate of introductioninto service, and the French army wasdriven to ordering numbers of Thomp-son sub-machine gr:as tom the USA.These arrived too late to make anydifference to the events of 1940 and the

French army capihrlated. When theFrench forces rearmed under theVichy regime the MAS 38 was kept inproduction, and in fact the weapon waskept in production until 1949, and itwas used in the Indo-China War,

The MAS 38 never got the recogrni-tion it deserved, It was rather too com-plicated, fired an odd cartridge and itwas never possible to produce it in

quantity when it was required. Conse-guently it is now little lsrown outsideFrance and few, if any, modernweapon desigms owe anything to itsinfluence, The only armies to use theMAS 38, other than some of the ex-French colonies, were the Germanswho caphrred enough in 1940 to jssuethem to their garrison force stationedin France.

When seen in cataway form the latgebreech block return spring of theMASModel 1938 canbeseen fooccupy almostall the interior of thebutt. While this design made for acompact weapon the manufacturingdittical{ies were compounded, andas can be seen tft e spring had to be'angled' to enahle the user to aim theweapon.

Specification:Calibre: 7.65 mmLength: 623 mm (24.53 ur)lengtlr of barrel:224mm (8.82 in)Weight loaded: 3,356 kg (7.40 Ib)Magazine: 3Z-round boxRate of fire, cyclic: 600 rpmMuzzle velocity: 350m (1,150ft) persecond

Sub-machine guns of World War II

H ti:1"-Solothurn SI- looAlthough the Steyr-Solothurn is de-scribed as a Swiss weapon, for it wasmainly produced in Switzerland, it wasoriginally an Austrian design pro-duced by Steyr who took over theSwiss Solothurn concern to produceweapon desigms at a time when theywere forbidden to do so by the terms ofthe 1919 Versailles Tteaty. Even thenthe design was origdnally German(achra-lly a Rheinmetall product) buthad been switched to Austria for firlldevelopment dwing the I920s,

In its fuIl production icrm this sub-machine gun was loown as the Steyr-Solothurn Sl-100 and by 1930 the de-sigrn was being produced mainly forexport purposes. As with so manyother designs of the period, it wasbased on the generai outlines andprinciples of the German MPIB but bythe time the Sw:ss manufachrrers hadfinished with ther development thedesigm had reached a high point ofrefinement and detail manufacture.The 51-100 was an excellent productthat was robust, reliable and adapt-able, for the export market meant thatthe model had to be produced in awhole host of calibres and with aseemingly endless string of accessor-res and extras.

The Si-100 was produced in no lessthan three separate variations of the9-mm calibre. Apart from the usua.l 9-mm Parabellum, the weapon was pro-duced in 9-mm Mauser and 9-mmSteyr, the latter specially produced forthe 51-100. Exports to China, Japan andSouth America were produced in 7.63-mm Mauser calibre, and the Por'tu-gmese pwchased a iarge batch cham-bered for the 7.65-mm Parabellum car-tridge. The extras were many andvaried, with perhaps the most outland-ish being a tripod to convert theweapon ilto what must have been arather ineffective light machine-gnrn,though some of these were sold to Chi-na during the mid-I930s. There werealso various forms of bayonelsecuringdevices and several barrel lengrthswere produced, some of them veryIong ildeed for what were only pistol

cartridges. Another Steyr-Solothwnselling ploy was to present the SI-100to a customer packed in individually-fitted chests containingr not only theweapon but all manner of specialmagazines, special cleaning tools,spare parts, etc.

By the mid-1930s the 51-100 was thestandard sub-machine gr:n of the Au-strian army and police force, and whenthe Germans took over the state in l93Bthey also took over the Austrian armyarmoury. Thus the Sl-100 became theGerman MP34(o), which must havecaused some confision with the pre-viously mentioned Bergrmann MP 34,After a short period offront-line Ger-man service the confi:sion of no lessthan three types of 9-mm ammunitionto be supplied for the type was toomuch even for the adaptable Germanarmy supply netvvork and the MP34(o)was relegrated to German militarypoiice use; it was also retained by whatwas left of the Austrian police icrces.

Today the Sl-100 is still used in oddcomers of the world, but only in verysmall numbers. Perhaps the most com-bat seen by the type was in Chinawhere at one point the SI-I00 was inuse by both the ClLinese and Japanesearmies, The latter even produced thelr

Above : The S teyr-Solothurn S 1 - I 00was an Austrian version of theG erm an M P I 8 produced du ring the1 920s and I 930s mainly forcommercial sale on theexportmarket. The type was well made andcould be supplied with a range ofacces s ories inclu ding tripods,bayonets and oversize magazines.

Right: The Steyr-Solothurn S I - I 00 isseen here in a drill-bookposition,mainly because the picture has beentaken from a German manualproducedfor the type aftertheGermans had taken over Austria andits arsenal during I 9 38.

own copy at one point and used someof the design's feahres as the basis fortheir own B-mm Tlpe 100.

Specification:St-100 (9-mm Parabellum version)Galibre: I mmLengrth: 850 mm (33.46 in)Length of barrel: 200 mm (7.87 rn)Weight loaded: 4.48 kg (9 BB kq)Magazine: 32-round boxRate of fire, ryclic: 500 rpmMuzzle velocity: 4lBm (1,370ft) persecond

9l Type t00

ThkJapanese private first class isarmed with the TYpe I 00 sub-machine gun. He is equipped for

j ungle fighting, typical of I 942.

The Japanese were surpnsinqly lateon the sub-machine gnrn desigm scene,a fact made all the more remarkableconsiderinq ther experience gainedin the protracted campaigns in Chinabefore l94l and the number of diffe-rent overseas desigms imported forsewice use or examination. It was notuntil 1942 that the first example of whathad been several years oflow-prioritydevelopment left the Nambu produc-tion hnes rn the form of the Tlpe I00, asound but unremarkable desrgm thatwas to be the only sub-machtne gnrn

the Japanese produced and used tnany numbers,

The Type 100 was moderately wellmade but had several rather odd fea-tures. One was the use of a complexammumtron feed device that ensuredthat a round was fully'chambered be-fore the firrng pin would operate. Theexact pupose of thts feature is ratheruncertain (other than the safety aspectfor the firer) for the cartridge used byall the Type 100 variants was theunderpowered B-mm Japanese pistoiround, a rather weak and ineffectivechoice that was not aided by its being abottle-shaped round that must haveadded its ovm feed complexities. TheType 100's barrel was chrome-platedto aid cleaning and reduce weat, andto add to such niceties the design had

complex sights and a curved maga-zine. Other oddities were the use of acomplicated muzzle brake on somemodels and the use of a iargre bayonet-mounting luq under the barrel. Someversions also had a bipod,

There were three drfferent versionsof the TYpe 100. The first is describedabove. The second had a folding buttstock for use by paratroops: the stockwas hinged just behind the Qnrn body tofold along the side of the weapon,\Vlrile this no doubt made the weaponhandy for carrying and paradropping,ir alss v,'sakg.gd the weapon in com-bat situations and relatively few weremade. The thud version of the Type100 appeared in 1944 at a ttme whendemands for sub-machine guns werecomingr from all fronts. In order tospeed up manufacture, the basic Type100 was grreatly srmplified and in theresult the design was lengthenedsliqhtly. The wooden stock was oftenleft roughly finished and the rate offirewas increased from the early 450 rpmto 800 rpm. The sigihts were reduced tohttle more than aiming posts and thelarqe muzzie lug for a bayonet wasreplaced by a simpler fitting, At themuzzle, the barrel protruded morefoom the perforated jacket and had asimple muzzle brake formed by twoports drilled in the barrel. Weldtng,

The T?pe 1 00 was not designed forease of production and despite someproduction 'short cuts' such as spotwelding and stampings there werenever enough to meet demands.

often rough, was used wherever possi-ble. The result was a much cruderweapon compared with the earherversion, bul one that was souncenough for its purpose.

The main problem for the Japaneseby 1944 lay not so much in the fact tha:the Type 100 was not good enougth, bu:that the Japanese lacked the industria-lcapaclty to turn out the huge numbersdemanded. Consequently theJapanese troops had to fight their las-dltch defensive campaigms at a perma-nent dsadvantaqte against the better-armed Ailied troops.

Specification:Type 100 (1944 version)Calibre: 8 mmLengrth: 900 mm (35.43 in)Lengrth of barrel: 230 mm (9.06 in)Weight loaded: 4,4 kq (9.70 lb)Magazine: 3O-round cuwed boxRate of fire, cyclic: 800 rpmMuzzle velocity: 335m (],100ft) persecond

IJSAry= uD M'42In accounts of the American sub-machine enrn scene between 1939 and1945 one weapon is often not men-tioned at all, and that rs the sub-machine gnrn known under a numberof names but usually called the IIDM'42. Thisweapon was designed in thedays just pdor to World War II as acommercial venfirre in 9-mm calibre. Itwas ordered under rather odd cir-cumstances by an organuation knownas the United Defense Supply Cor-poration, a US government body thatordered all manner of items for useoverseas, but the main point of its extst-ence was that it was an American sec-ret service 'front' for all forms of under-grromd activities.

Exactly why the Unrted Defense(hence UD) concern ordered the de-

TheUD M'42was notaccepted as anofficial U S service weapon, bu tnumberswere purchased for issueto some odd undercover and sPecialmjssrbn units. I t was a very well fiiadeand finished weapon and waspopular with its users.

108

sism that was produced by the MarlinFirearms Company ts now not k)own,but the name 'Marlin'was subsequent-

ly often given to the weapon that be-came the UD M'42. The general im-pression griven at the time was that the

weapons were to be shipped toEurope for use by some undergrroundorganizations working for the US in-

IID M42 (continued)

terest, but events il Europe overtookthe scheme. Some UD M'42s were cer-tainly sent to the Dutch East Indies be-fore the Japanese invasion of the area,but they vanished without trace.

Most of the UD M42s did find theirway to Ewope but in some very oddhands. Most were handed out to someof the numerous resistance and partisan groups that sprang up around andin the German- and Italian-occupiedareas ofthe Mediterralean Sea. There

Sub-machine guns of World War II

they took part in some very odd ac-tions, the most famous of which waswhen British agents kidnapped a Ger-man general on Crete. Other actronswere just as dramatic but often tookplace so far from the public gaze thattoday these actions and the part the UDM'42 took rn them are vutually forgotten,

Thrs is perhaps a pity for manyweapon authoritres now regard the UDM'42 as one of the finest sub-machine

gun types used ut World War il. Beingmade on a commercial and not a milit-ary basis it was well machined andvery strongt. The action was smoothand the gLln very accurate, and by al1accounts it was a joy to handle. it cor:_ldwithstand all manner of ill-treatrnent(including immersion rn mud and wa-ter) and strll work.

After ali these years it now seemsvery unlikely that the fi:ll servrce re-cord of the UD M42 will ever be told.

but at least the very exrstence of theweapon should be better lqrown,'

Specification:Calibre: 9 mmLenjth: 807 mm (3I.75 n)lengrth of barrel: 279 mm (l1.00 in)Weight loaded: 4.54 ks (10 00 lb)Magazine: 20-round boxRate offire:700rpmMuzzle velocity: 400m (1,310ft) persecond

ffiEt usA

: M3 and M3AlBy the begfuming of 1941, although theUnited States was not yet directly in-volved in World War II, the Amencanmilitary authorities had acknowledgedthat the sub-machine grun had a de-finite roie to perform on the modernbattlefield. They already had to handnumbers of Thompson gn:rs and morewere on their way, but the appearanceof the German MP38 and the BritishSten indicated the production methodsthat could be employed in futr:re mass-produced desigms. Using an importedSten, the US Army Ordnance Boardinitiated a desigm shldy to produce anAmerican Sten-type weapon. Theshrdy was handed over to a team ofspecialists who included the sameGeorge Hyde who had developed theHyde M2 and to executives fromGeneral Motors, to whom the mass-production aspects were entrusted. Ina very short time they had desigined aweapon and development modelswere produced for trials.

The first of these models was hand-ed over for trials just before Pearl Har-bor brought the United States intoWorld War II. As a result the projectqot a higher priority and it was not longbefore the design was issued with thedesrgmation M3. The M3 was just asunpleasant-looking as the Sten, Con-struction was all-metal with most partssrmple steel stampings welded intoplace, Only the barrel, breech blockand parts of the kigger mechanism re-quired any machining, A telescopicwire butt was fitted and the desigrnwassimple to the point that there was nosafety system fitted and the gn:n couldfire ftrlly-automatic oniy, The maur gnmbody was hrbular and below it hung along 30-round box magazine. Anawkwardly placed and flimsy cockinghandle was placed just forward of thefrigrgrer on the right-hand side, and thecartridge ejection pod was under ahinged cover. The barrel screwed lntothe tubular body. Siqhts were veryrudimentary and there were no lux-uries such as sling swivels.

The M3 was rushed into productionand once issued to the troops it soonran into acceptance troubles. The veryappearance of the weapon soon pro-vided it with the nickrame of 'GreaseGun'and it was reqarded withabout asmuch afection. But once ur action itsoon showed itself to be effective, butthe rush iato production on lines thatwere more used to producing motorcar and lorry components led to allmanner of in-servrce problems. Thecocking handles broke off, the wire

Unpopular with its users in Europe,the 'Grease Gun' gained acceptancein the Pacific, where there was noalternative weapon.

stocks bent in use, some importantparts of the mechanismbroke becausethey were made of too soft a metal, andso on. Consequently the M3 receivedmore thar rts farr share of in-servrcedevelopment and modification, butwhat was more lrnportant at the time, itrolied off the production lines in hugenumbers for issue to the troops at thefront,

The M3 never overcame the initiaireception its appearance enQlen-dered. Whenever possible the troopsin the front line opted for the Thomp-son Ml or used captured GermanMP38s and MP40s, but in the Pacificthere was often no choice other than touse the M3 and when this happenedthe design often gained grudgflngacceptance. For some arms ofthe USforces the M3 became a virhral blanketissue. These arms rrcluded the driversil the many transport units and tankcrews. For both the M3 was easy tostow and easy to handle in close con-fines.

From the outset the M3 had beendesigned to have the capability ofbeing rapidly converted to 9-mmcalibre by simply changring the barrel,magazine and breech block. This facil-ity was sometimes employed inEurope when the M3 was dropped toresistalce forces. A silenced variant ofthe M3 was produced in smail num-bers,

Simpie as the M3 was to produce itwas decided in 1944 to make rt evensimpler. The result of combat experi-ence allied wrth production know-howresulted in the MSAI, which followedthe same qenerai lines as the M3 butwith some quite substantlal changes.For the soldier the most rmportant itemwas that the ejection cover was en-larged to the point where the full

The Arnerican M3 'Grease Gun' wasthe equivalentof the British Sten andthe German MP40, for it wasdesigmed for mass production. I t wasasound enoughweapon but theAtnerican troops never really took tothe type, prelerring theThompson.

breech block travel was exposed. Thrsenabled the firer to place his fingerinto a recess in the block to pull thebiock to the rear for cocking, thusdoing away with the awkward andflunsy coclcng handle. A flash hiderwas added to the muzzle and someother minor changes were incorpo-rated. The M3AI was strll in productionwhen the war ended, by which time ithad been decided to phase out theThompson gn:ns in favour of the M3 andM3AI.

Apart foom the appearance prob-lem, the M3 gnms were not perfectweapons. They were rather prone tobreakages, the ammurution feed wasoften far from perfect and the lack of asafety often gave rise to alarm. But itworked and it was available, and inwar those ftuo factors are more impor-tant than hankerinq after the some-thinq that might be better. Thus the M3and M3AI were used wherever the USMilitary went, and that was all over theworld.

Specification: M3Calibre: 0.45 in (l1.43 mm) or 9 mmLengrth, butt extended: 745 mm(29.33 in)IJendh, butt retracted: 570 mm(22.44 in)weight loaded: 4.65 kg ( 10. 25 ]b)Magazine:30-round boxRate of fire: 350-450 rpmMr.rzzle velocity: 280 m (920 ft) persecond

109

The Cutt's Compensator was intended to divert some muzzlegases upwards to keep the muzzle down when firing, butwas of limited value and complex to manulacture and so wasleft off on later models.

Thompson sub-machine guns

In close-range fighting such as streetand house-to-house combat the sub'machine gun was the ideal weaPon,and the robustness of the M I andM I A 1 variants of the Thompsonadded to the type's considerablepopularity with the GIs.

TheMl92Scouldtakemanytypesof magazine.This is the Z0-round boxmagazinebutalsoproduced were I 8- and 30-roundbox magazines and50- or 100-round drummagazines. The drummagazinesprovedtrouhlesome in seruice sothe box typeswereottenpreferred.

There can be very few who have notheard of or seen some pictures of theThompson sub-machine gun at sometime or another, Known universally asthe 'Tommy Gun' the Thompson haseven provided the sub-machine gnrn

wrth a nickname, for to the lay publicali sub-machine guns are TommyGuns, Hollywood has done much toadminrsterthis fame but the story of theThompson gruns goes back to 1918.

In that year the US Army wasembroiled in the trench warfare of theWestern Front, a need becomingapparent for some form of 'trenchbroom' to sweep the trenches clear ofan enemy, Since thrs 'sweeping' had tobe carried out at short ranqtes a power-fui cartridge was not necessary and apistol cartridge was all that wasdeemed necessary. The Germanarmyhad drawn the same conciusions andproduced the MP18, but on the Amer-ican side one General John Thompsoninitiated the development of an auto-matic weapon using the standard 0,45-in plstoi cartridge, The first examplesused a belt feed but this was laterchanged to a two-hand weapon of the

type soon lmown as a sub-machinegn:n, and wrth a box magazine,

By the time the first examPles wereproduced World War I was over andal1 development for the next two de-cades was carried out on a commercialbas:s, The Thompson Gun, as it wassoon labelled, went through a longchain of different models, Militarysales were few, other than small batch-es to the US Army and US NavY, but itwas wrth the coming of Prohibition inthe USA that the weapon gained itspublic notoriety, The gang warfarethat mushroomed throughout theAmerican underworld soon found theThompson a most useful weapon, andwhen Hollywood started to makegangster f,lrns the gnrn became famousovernight. Gradually police forcesstarted to purchase Thompson guns,and the type became more generallYaccepted, Even then, mtlitarY saleswere few unttl 1928 when the US forcesstarted to purchase some large batch-

The Thompson MI928 was a com-plex piece of gnrnsmrthing with a com-plicated blow-back mechansm and a

choice ofa large SO-round drum magra-zine and 20- or 3O-round vertrcal boxmagazrnes. Just marntaimng the M1928was qulte a task. There were manyvariations between drfferent models,which didnothinqto endear the type tothe military supply systems, and it wasnot until 1940 that sales really started to

build up,in 1940 several European nations

were clamourinq for Thompson gmns.

The unexpected employment by theGermans of sub-machine guns on aIarge scale produced requests forsrmilar weapons from all the Europear:combatants, and the Thompson was

Ahove:In 1939 and l940theUKhadto purchase large numbers ofThompson sub-machine gans. Thissoldier k holding an M 1928 completewiththeS0-round drum magazine, adevicethat soon proved tobetoocomplex for seruice use and toonol,sy due to the 0.45 calibre roundsmoving about inside. Consequentlylfiese were issued to either the HomeGuard or secondJine units.

Left: The Thompson M 1928 was the'classic' model oI the famousThompson sub-machine gun, theweapon that was used by gangstersand American soldiers alike. For allits notoriety it was not a greatcommercial succes s u n til I 940.

It0

The original Thompson Wns used aseparate firing pin struck by ahanmer, but this was reaW toocomplex for the task and latermodels used a tked firing pin.

!@[Filt-ff

fb

J.frc

scttutfu.saiyfuF"i'T.,iit

TheM1928 could takemany types of magazine.This is the 20-round boxmagazinebutalsoproduced were I 8- and 30-round box magazines and5G or L00-rounddrummagazines. The drummagazinesprovedtrouhlesome in seruice sothebox typeswereoftenpreferred.

The firb selector was onthe left of the trigger groupand could be set for semi-automatic single shot orfull automatic (600 or 725rpm).

build up,In 1940 several European nattons

were clamouring for Thompson gnrns,

The unexpected employment by theGermans of sub-machine guns on aIarqe scale produced requests forsrmilar weapons from all the Europeancombatants, and the Thompson was

the oniy example on offer. Large-scaleproduction of the Thompson com-menced for France, the UK and Yugos-lavia, but these orders were overtakenby events as the Thompson was anawkward weapon to mass-producebecarise of the largre number of com-plex macllningr processes involved.

In the event the French and othe:orders were diveded to the UnitecKingdom, where the Ml92B was Lrsecuntil the Sten became aranlable, anceven then many were issed for Com-mando raids and the later junqlefighting in Burma. When the USA en-tered the war the US Army also de-

trrafir-:r

t:i*]r=:--

Above:ln 1939 and 1940 theUKhadto purchase large numbers otThompson sub-machine gans. Thissoldier is holding anM1928 completewith the Sl-round drum magazine, adevice that soon proved to be toocomplex tor selice use and foonoisy dueto the0.45 calihreroundsmoving about inside. C onsequenUylft ese rrere rssu ed to either the HomeG u ar d or second- line units.

Lett : The Thompson M I 928 was the' clas s iC model oI the tamousThompson suh-machine gun, theweapon thatwas used bY gangstersand Atnerican soldiers aflike. For allits notoriety itwas not a gEeatcommercial success until 1940.

Above: A New Zealander armed withan M 1 928 during the Cassinocampaigm. This particalar modelisthe M 1 928A I , a military version fittedwith a horizontaltoregrip in place ofthe original forward pistol grip. TheM 1 928A1 also had some of thecommercial refinements removed asweII, and the20- or 30-roundboxmagazine was used instead of thelarger drum magazine.

Right: The M I A I was essentially thesirme weapon as the M I but had afixed firing pin and hammer, makingthe type a virtual blow-back design.I t was the last production version ofthe famous Thompson family ofweapons and retalned the overallappeannce and au r a of the original.

The original Thompson gruns used a. separate firingpin struck by a

/ hanmer, but this was really tooamplex for the taskand latermodels used a fixed firing pin.

Horwasonbtiggergroupbsetforsemi-tagle shot orti600or725

Thompson t'11928The M I 928 originally had a 50-m(165-ft) open sight and afurther long-r ange s ig h t op tim is ti c a I ly c ali br a te dup to 550 m (1800 ft). The latter sightwasof doubtfulvalue.

If required, the butt could be easilyremoved by unscrewing the twoscrews shown, but this was rarelyutilized in action as the buttstabilized the aim and reduced firingvibrations. The butt contained anoiling bottle behind a butt trap.

ire only example on offer, Large-scaleproduction of the Thompson com-menced for France, the UK and Yugos-lavra, but these orders were overtakenby events as the Thompson was anawkward weapon to mass-producebecause of the larqe number of com-plex machining processes tnvolved,

In the event the French and otherorders were diverted to the UnitedKingdom, where the Ml92B was riseduntil the Sten became available, andeven then many were rssed for Com-mando raids and the later junglefighting in Burma. When the USA en-tered the war the US Army also de-

cided that it wanted sub-machlne Qrunsbut the Thompson had to be rede-srgmed to meet US Army requirementsfor mass production. After redesigrnthe Thompson became a lar simplerweapon with a straightforward blow-back action vnth no frills and the oldlargte, noisy and awkward drum maga-zine so beloved by Hollywood was re-placed by the simple vertical box. Thenew desigm became the M I and a laterversion with some exrra simplificatronsadded became the MlAl.

The MI stili used a wooden stock,pistol SEip and foregrrip (this was laterreplaced by a straight foresrip), butthe body was machined as were manyother parts. In service the Ml provedto be a weii-hked weapon that wasusually preferred to the udovely M3.Agarn, exactiy how much of this prefer-ence was due to the Hollpvood imagteis now almost impossible to determine,for compared with many of its contem-poraries the Ml was heavy and not soeasy to stnp and maintah, This did notdeter the M1928 and the M1 fromberng wrdely copied il many back-yard workshops in the Far East where

the Thompson was regarded withgreat favour.

Over the years the Thompsonunderwent many changes and mod-ificatiors. With time most of the morecomplex extras were removed. Outwent the complex breech-Iockingmechanism, out went the Cutt's Com-pensator on the muzzle that was sup-posed to restrict the barrei 'climb'when flring, and out went the bulkydrum magazine. The end result in theM1 form was a good sould weaponand one that is stili as famous as it wasrn the days when the Tommy Gun wasthe symbol of the IRA and the Holly-wood gangster era,

Specification:Thompson MlCalibre: 0.45 in (1i.43 mm)Lenqth: 813 mm (32.00 in)'Lengrth of barrel: 267 mm (]0.50 in)Weisht loaded: 4.74k9 (10.45 ]b)Magazine: 20- or 30-round boxRate of frre:700 rpmMuzzle velocity: 280 m (920 ft) persecond

Above : A N ew Z ealander armed withan M I 9 28 during the C assinocarnpaigm. This particular model isthe M 1 9 28A l, a military version tittedwith a horizontal foregrip in place ofthe original forward pistol grip. TheM 1 9 28A I also had some of thecom m e r ci al r e f ine m e nt s remov e d a sweLl, and the 20- or 31-round boxmagazine was used instead of theIatger drum magazine.

Right : The M I A I was essentially thesame weapon as the M I but had afrxed firing pin and hammer, makingthe type a virtual blow-back design.It was the last productionversion ofthe {amousThompson family ofweapons and retalned the overallappearance and aura ofthe original.

TheBattle ftor OkinawaBy the time the US Navy and US Marine Corpsreached the group of islands centred aroundOkinawa they were well versed in the art ofsland-clearlng against the Japanese and Isrewwhat to expect. They aiready knew that theJapanese forces on every island wor:ld defendevery inch to their last breath, but what wasawaiting them on Okinawa took them by sur-prise, for Okinawa was deemed to be part ofthe Japanese home island chain.

The approaches to Okinawa were cleared inthe usuai amphibious landing after initial bom-bardment manner in the months to I Apfil 1945.Outlying islands were gnadually reduced untilthe main assault landing was made on theHaqushi Bay beaches on Okinawa ltseU. Thef,rst surprise came when no opposition was metright on the beaches. The US Marines landedvirhrally unopposed, but as they moved iniandthe fighting commenced. Every foot of the way,once inland, was defended. TheJapanese hadconstructed log and bamboo bunkers, cun-mngly placed slit trenches and converted natu-ral caves and blasted new ones into the walls ofevery grully and valley on the lsland. In everydefended point there were Japanese troopswilling to die rather than surrender and thismeant that the infantry tactics of the attackershad to adjust to suit the sltuation.

Thompson- and Ilamethrower-armed men fromthe I st Marine Division landing from their LVT 4Atntrac on Okinawa.

Almost as soon as the defence sihration wasassessed American military mtght could beused to blast the delenders oui of their positions. Naval gnrnfire was brought to bear; USNavy and US Marure strike aircraft from a fleetof carriers were called upon to drop napalmand HE onto carefi:lly indtcaied posltions but itwas always the man on the gnound who hadsubsequently to move rr and make sure thatevery last defender was ehmtnated, For thispurpose set procedures and drills wereformed and pressed dtrectly tnto use, Thesedrills became even more tmportant once the

Tanks and men of the I st Marine Divkion fightingdug-in J apanese defenders towards the end of abitter three-month c ampaign.

beaches were left behind and the hilly terrainof the interior was encountered. Naval gnrnfirecou1d not always reach the specified targetsand in some hilly regions aircraft could do little,so small teams of infantry had to assume theclearing task.

Faced with an enemy who had dug into thehills of Okinawa to the extent thatconventional naval and air bombardmentwas inadequate, and for whom death waspreferable to surrender, the US Marineshad to develop specialized bunker-clearingteams. Each consisted otaflamethrower toforce entry and two riflemen whosegrenades preceded theentry of twosub-machine gunners. The team had to ensurethat every defender was killed, as even ffiemor tally w ounded fought on.

The teams usually operated in small four-man grroups in support of flamethrowers. Whenpossible these flamethrowers were mountedon converted M4 Sherman tanks but the usualtype was a back-pack model. The infantryapproached the defended location using sup-porting fire from a machine-giun or rifle teams.Sometimes a bazooka was added to the supportto blast a way through bunkers or obstacles,but once within range the flamethrower wasused to burn the position or entrances. Subse-quent 'burns' were made as the teamapproached. The final entry was preceded bygrenades and hvo men carrying sub-machineguns to spray the interior, with a finalflamethrower burn'if necessary. Every defen-der had to be killed as even the woundedattempted to fight on.

The.kamrJcazehorcorThe Okinawa battle lasted until 21June 1945

when the last outposts were eliminated. By thattime the battle had been joined by a new iactorin warfare, the kamikaze pilot, The first large-scale use of this desperate measure was madeagainst the American supply vessels off Okina-wa and continued throughout the battle, sink-urg 36 ships and damaging a turther 368. Buteven this horror could not overshadowthe grimrepetitive slog through the inland terrain ofOkinawa. Constant close combat meant that toprog[ess as litt]e as 100 m took over a week oicontinuous fighting, most of it infantry sloggingwith high casualties. The whole campaign costthe Americans 12,520 dead, 36,631 woundedand a firrther 16,2 I I bther' casualties. It cost theJapanese defenders well over 100,000 deadalone and the fi:]I extent of their casualties willnow never be known.

Apart from the 'butcher's bill' the Okinawacampaigm cost the Americans a great deal inmaterial and eficrt. The amount of shipping

involved and the hierh stockpiles of ammunitionand equipment that had to be expended onwhat was only the first of the Japanese 'main-iand' islands surprised even them, althoughtheir resources would have enabled them toreplace virhrally everything tn a short time,What they did not relish was the full assar:lt onthe mainland and here the Okinawa campaigmhad its greatest impact onworld history. h theshort term Okinawa provided the US Air Forcewrth bomber bases close to Japan itseJf but theOkinawa casualties showed the Amencans thatthe war had to be ended guickly with everyresource to hand. Thtis they dropped the flrst

combat atomic bomb on Huoshima and fol-Iowed it with a second bomb on Naqasaki,Hundreds of thousands died but the expectedmillions of casualties that an assault on theJapanese mainland wor:ld have entailed werethris avoided. In this way the Battle of Okinawacasts its shadow sti.[.

Such was the ferocity of the frghting on Okinawathat only one in I 2 of the defending troops wascaptured alive. Many of the civilian inhabitantshad died in the battle.

1t3

= iLirir,g Model 50 and Model SS

The Reising Model 50 and the laterModel 55 are two more examples ofhow things can go wrong when thebasic blow-back action used on thesub-machine gmn is ignored and re-placed with somethrng that seems tooffer a better action. On the ReisingModel 50, which was first produced in1940, the basic action was altered sothat instead of the breech block mov-rng forward to the chamber when thetrigger was pulled, the action oper-ated when the bolt was forward with around in the chamber. This action canwork quite well but it needs a system oflevers to operate the iring pin in thebreech block and these levers have todisconnect once the breech blockmoves. This all adds complexity andcost and adds something to the systemwhich can break,

Thus it was with the Reising Model50. The desigm was the result of a com-mercral venture and was thus not soinlluenced by military considerationsas would have been the case a fewyears later, but the Model 50 was awell-made design with an unusual sys-tem of cocking the weapon by meansof a small catch sliding in a slot underthe fore-stock, This left the top of theqnrn body free of many of the usualhazards such as the cocking slot thatusually provides an ingness for dirt toclog the system, But on the Model 50 al1that happenedwas that the dirt got into

the slot underneath and was difficult toclean out, thus provrding one soulce ofpotential bother. From the outside theModel 50 looked a fairiy simpleweapon but the intemal arangementswere compiexto the pointwhere therewas too much to go wrong, hence therewere more stoppages and general un-reliabrlrty.

When the Reising Model 50 was firstofered to the US forces the US MarineCorps was some way down the list ofpriorities, a position it was later drama-tically to reverse, so in the absence ofany other source of sub-machine gn-:rsit obtained numbers of the Model 50,Once the USMC had the Model 50 itsoon found the weapon wanting and

obtained other weapon types. SomeModei 50s were obtained by a BritishPurchasing Commission but few wereinvolved and some others went toCanada, Yet more were sent to theSoviet Union and by 1945 the Model50was still in production and over 1 00, 000had been made, a modest enough totalbut weil worthwhile as far as the manu-factwers were concerned.

Some of thrs total was made up bythe Model 55 which was the same asthe Model 50 other than that the all-wood stock of the Model 50 was re-placed by a folding wue butt for use byairborne and other such units. TheModel 55 was no more successful thanthe Model 50,

The Reising Model 50 was one of the,leasf successful of all American sub-machine gans to see service, for itemployed a complex mechanismthat allowed ingress of dirt and otherdebris to j am the weapon to anunacceptable extent.

Specification:Model 50Calibre: 0.45 in (II.43 mm)Lengrth: 857 mm (33,75 in)Lengilh of barret 279 mm (1 1,00 rn)Weight loaded:3.7kq (8.16 ]b)Magnzine: 12- or 2O-round boxRate of frre, cyclic: 550 rpmMuzzle velocity: 280 m (920 ft) persecond

ffi i#ie and MPzsAlthough it was preceded in the timescale by the Italian Villar Perosa, theMPl8 caa be considered as the fatherof the modern sub-machine gun. Inboth the general concept, operatilgprinciple and all-round appearancethe MPIS embodied ail the featuresthat have become commonplace, andeven today many sub-machine gun de-sigms are no more than gradual im-provement results of the basic MPI8.

The desigm of the MPIB began on alow priority in 1916 to provrde front-line troops with some form of rapid-f,relow-range weapon. The desigmer wasthe man whose name later came to besynonymous with the sub-machinegn:n, namely Hugo Schmeisser. it wasnot until l9I8 that large numbers of thenewweapoq knownto the Gennansasa Maschinen-Pistole (hence MP) ormachine pistol were issued to thetroops on the Western Front to be wedin the gigantic offensives that were in-tended to win the war for the Germans.The ofensives were ursuccessfi.:1, andthe MPIB had little more than localimpact, the lessons to be leamed fromthe desigm being largely igmored out-side Germany and the few troops whohad come into contact with theweapons.

The MPIB was a simple blow-backweapon firing the ciassic 9-mm Para-bellum round that was to become theprototype for nearly a1l weapons tocome. Corsidering later desigms theMPI8 was very well made, with a solidwooden stock and a 32-round'snail'magazine (intended originally for thefamous Luger pistol) mounted in ahousing on the left of the gun body. Thbbarrel was covered by a prominentperforated jacket to aid barrel coolingafter firing, and the weapon fired onfull automatic only. In its intended roleof trench fighting it was a great suc-

114

cess, but too many front-iine comman-ders attempted to use it as a form oflight machine-gnrn and were thus drs-appointed with the MPiB's perform-ance. Consequently the MP18 had amixed reception other than with thestorm-troopers in the front assaultwaves, who found it invaiuable at closeguarters.

When Germany was disarmed after1919 the MPIB was passed to the Ger-man police in an attempt to keep theconcept alive, Numbers were alsohanded over to the French army whoused them (but so littie) that they werestili bn the stocks' in 1939. In Germanpolice service they were modifiedduring the I920s to replace the Luger'snail' magazine with a simple inlinebox magazine that again became thevirtual prototype of what was to follow.In I92B the MPIB was placed back intolimited production in Germany, thistime as the MP28, with new sights, a

single-shot fire feature, some small in-temal changes on the breech blockand all manner of extras such as themounting for a bayonet, The MP2B hadthe new box maqazine as standard andthe type was produced in Belgium,Spain and elsewhere for export allover the world, with China being oneof the iargest markets, Others went toSouth America and one batch, pro-duced u the 7.65-mm calibre, was soldto Porhrgai.

By 1939 there were stiil appreciablenumbers of MPIBs and MP28s around,and the deslgm went to war in Europeonce again. By 1945 the weapons werestill being encountered not only in thehands of the Germars but also in thehands of resistance forces and themany partisan forces.

Perhaps the gtreatest importance ofthe MP]B and the MP28 was not in theuuse as weapons, although they weresuccessfirl enough in that, but in their

The German MP28 was a revisedmodel of the original MP I 8. I tretained the general outline oftheMPIS butwas able tofire eithersingle shot or full automatic.

example for other desigmers to follow.With the MPi8 the sub-machine gnrndesigm was virhrally 'frozen' and thebasic concept remarns unchanged tothis day.

Specification:MPISCalibre: 9 mmLength: BI5 mm (32.09 in)Lendh of barrel: 200 mm (7.87 in)Weisht loaded: 5,245 kg (11,56 lb)Magazine: 32-round 'snail', later 20- or32-round boxRate of fire, ryclic: 350-450 rpmMuzzle velocity: 365m (I,200ft) persecond

GEBMANY

MP34 and MP35 Sub-machine $ms of Worl,C War II

-:- rrst sight the MP34 and MP35:ppeared to be direct copies of thel.?18 and MP2B, bul rhere were in:ealty many drfferences, Easily mis-33d at f,rst glance was that on the i\4P34

=:d MP35 the magazine protrudes:cm the rrqht hand side of the gmn:ody instead of on the left as with thel,,IPlB and MP2B. Another detail diifer-3nce was the trlqger mechanism,,';:r-rch on the MP34 and MP35 relied ona double-pressure system for control:f rate of flre, A simple light pressure:n the trigger produced single shots,.'.'de a full pressure on the tngger pro-'rded automatic fire,

The MP34 was desiqned by thetsergmann brothers, who almost un-ioubtedly used the MPIB as a basis on;';hich to improve, As they had few:acilities rn Germany the brothers pro-

duced their first example in Denmarkand only later was production switch-ed to Germany The f,rst models werethe MP34 but later improvements ledto the MP35, which was produced inconsiderably greater numbers, At firstproduction was slow, with sales beingmade to such nations as Ethiopia andSweden, but with the Spanish CivilWar sales really picked up to boost thecompany to a major position in the sub-machine gun market. The MP35 wasproduced in both long- and short-barrelled versions, and niceties suchas bayonet attachments and even lightbipods were rntroduced, One very no-ticeable point on the MP35 was the useof a rear-mounted bolt for cocking theweapon instead of the usual side-mounted cocking lever. This meantthat the rnterior of the weapon body

along which the breech had to traveiwas kept clear of the dLrst and drt thatusually finds its way into open side-lever actions and the MP34 and MP35were certatnly reliable weapons, evenif they were a little heavier than someol their nvals.

It was thrs reliability that brought theMP35 to the attention of what was to bethe biggest customer for the weapon,namely the Waffen SS which was look-ing for its own weapons procurementseparate from that of the Germanarmy, and after late 1940 all MP35 pro-duction went to the Waffen SS, con-tinuing until the war ended in 1945. ButMP34s and MP35s still cropped upelsewhere, and many can still be foundin use with South Amencan pollceforces, while srnall numbers can stillbe encountered in the Far East. The

-raai --:-: l.?:{ =-:: l*F:: r=:= ,:=:;rVe., :-:-'---=:.-i:l ------ t-:i. :Par'6 r.1::-:.:- l-l-- --= -i--t t-:--Bul rn n:s ::'-:L= .: - , -.= l.l- _-: -

a much pr,zei c:-=::::: ;-::: = -::

bulk of the pr3 :l:::- ::l--::: -:=stamp of the Wane:- SS

Specification:MP35Calibre:9 mm (plus many c--:.=:s -.-.export models)Length (standard modei): 840 n-r-(33,07 in)lengthofbarrel 200 mm (7,87 rn)Weight loaded: 4.73 kq (10,43 lb)Magazine: 24- or 32-round boxRate offire, cyclic: 650 rpmMrzzlevelocity:365 m (1,200 ft) persecond

El ffia, MP38/40 and MP4o-,\iiren the MP38 was f,rst produced in-938 it revolutionued weapon designrot by any particular feature ofthe de-sigm but by the method of manufactureemployed. Gone was the accuratemachine tooling of yesteryear, alongr.arith the finely-produced woodenflttings, and the standard offinish uponwhrch gunsmrths so prided them-selves, With the introduction of theMP38 came rough and simple metalstamprngs, die-cast parts, plastic in-stead ofwood, and a finish that lackedany finesse or even plating ofany kind,The MP3B looked what it was, aweapon mass-produced to meet a pre-crse military need, namely a simpleand cheap weapon that would workwhen called upon to fire, and nothrngmore, On the MP3B there was nowooden butt, just a bare foldingr healrywire framework that folded under thebody for use in close conflnes such asthe back of a vehicle. The body wasproduced from srmple sheet metalstampings that could be churned out in

TwoGermanarmyPanzergrenadiers armed with MP40soccupying a shell hole on theouts kirts of S talingr ad. As will beunderstood, theMP40was at a s@htdisadvantage in such positions, forthe long downw ar d- p ointingmagazine was no assistancewhentiring over the lip of such a shell hole.

any metal workshop anywhere and thebreech block was provided n'1th only aminimum of machining. Most of the out-er surfaces were left in their bare-metal state and at the best they werepainted, Despite all these apparentlycheap and coslcutting measures theMP3B had an immediate impact out ofall proportion to its design attnbutes,for in the years after 1938 more andmore weapons adopted similar mass-production techniques flrst rntroducedon the MP3B.

The MP3B was qurte orthodox so faras operation went, It had a conven-tionally-functroninqr blow-back boltand the vertical magazine under the

Above:This MP3B was theoriginalproduction version. Although thedesignwas intended for massproduction the receiver and manyparts were machined- these werelater replaced by the pressings andwelds of the MP40.

Right:The MP40, as used by thiscorpolal during the invasion of theUSSR,was almostidentical to theMP38 except that it was muchsimpler to manufacture.

body fed 9-mm Parabellum rounds intoa conventional feed system. A cockingthandle along the left-hand side of thebody operated in an open slot butalthough dust and dft couid enter theinternal workings the weapon couldabsorb an appreciable amount of for-ergn bodres before it jammed. Underthe barrel muzzle there was an oddprojection that was designed to catchon the edge ofvehicles to act as a firingrest but the same item also acted as amuzzle cover to keep out dirt.

Once in actron in 1939 one rathernasty habit of the MP3B came to lisht,The gun operated from the open-breech position (the bolt was cockedto the rear before the trigtger couldrelease it to fire) but if the gmn wasjarred or knocked the bolt jumped for-ward and started the flring cycle byitself, This nasty fault caused manycasualties before it was modlfled outby the machimng of a slot over the

MP38, MP38/40 and MP40 (continued)

breech block'home' position, throughwhich a prn could engage and lockafter beingr pushed through a hole onthe other side ofthe body; it could bereleased when required for firing,With th:s modrfication fltted the MP3Bbecame the MP38/40,

During 1940 the srmple manuf,actureof the MP3B was taken one stage furth-er with the introductron of even moremetal stamprngs and even simplermanufactwinet methods. The new ver-sion was called the MP40: to the soldierin the fie1d it was little different fromthe MP3B/40, but for the Getman eco-nomy it meant that the MP40 could beeasrly manufactured anywhere withsub-assemblies being produced insrmple workshops and assembled onlyat central workshops, It was churnedout in tens ofthousands and in the fieldrt proved a most popular and handyweapon with Allied troops using anyexamples they cor:1d find or captwe.The MP3B/40 was often used by resist-ance forces and partisans as well

The only major change to the MP40after 1940 was the introduction of atwin-magazine feature with the MP40/2. This was not a success and was littleused. But the MP40 is still used today inodd corners of the world, especiallyby guerrilla forces.

One odd word about this weapon: Itis often known as the'Schmeisser', Ex-

Above: This cutaway drawing showsthe simple'in-line' layout of theM P 38, The comp act de sigm employsthe blow- back principle, but themainreturn springis housedin atelescopic tube that kept out dirt andforeign obj ects to ensure reliability.Note also lie sim ple triggermechanism.

Left: An MP40 in action during theStalingirad fighting. Although manyG erm an propaganda photographstend togive the impression thattheM P3 8 and M P40 were in widespre aduse, fier'rr'ssue was largely restrictedto front-line divisions only and theP anzergren adier s in particular.

actly where this name came from is notknown, but it rs rncorrect; HugoSchmeisser had nothing to do with thedesign, which orietinated with theErma concern.

Specification:MP4OCalibre:9 mmLengrth, stock extended: 833 mm(32 80 in)Length, stock folded: 630 mm (24,80 in)Lengrthof barrel25l mm (9,88 in)Weight loaded: 4,7 kg ( 10.36 lb)Magazine:32-round boxRate offire, cyclic: 500 rpmMuzzle velocity: 365 m (1,200 ft) persecond

ffi F'po-1e34/38The Soviet Union had enough troublesduring the 1920s and 1930s withoutworrying too much about weapon de-sign, but when things settled downenough for the re-equipment of theRed Army to be contemplated, sub-machine gun desrgn was not very highon the list of prioritres, Rather thanmake any rnnovations tn sub-machinegrun desigrn the first Soviet sub-machine gmn was a combination of ex-isting desrgns, This was the PPD-1934/38.

When it was first produced in 1934;the weapon was a combination of fea-tures from the Finnish Suomi m/1931and the German MPIB and MPZB, Itremained in productron until 1940 bywhich time some modifications hadbeen introduced to justify the use ofthefull designation of PPD- 1934i38. Therewas nothing very remarkable aboutthe PPD- I934i38. The mechanisms wasalmost the same as that used on theGerman sub-machine gun origtnalsand, after a short attempt to produce aSoviet-designed component, themagazrne was a direct take-off fromthe Suomi magazine, This was theSuomi 7l-round drum magazlne thatwas to become the virtual norm forlater Soviet sub-machine guns, butthere was also a curved 2S-round boxmagazine rssued on occasion. This boxmaqazine had to be curved as the car-tridge used for all the Soviet sub-machine guns was the 7.62-mmTokarev (Type P) cartridge which hada bottie-necked shape and would not:herefore 1ie completely flat for feed-:nq foom the magazine lips into the gmnbody

There was one variant of the PPD--.3-44/38 that was placed in production:- i940. This was the PPD-1940, which:r- a general ail-round improvement::- -re earlier design. It did have one;::,,- noiiceable recognition feature in

__a

that the drum magazine fitted up intothe gnrn througth a large slot in thestock, Very few other sub-machinegnrn destgns used this magazine fixrngsystem,

When the Germans and their alliesinvaded the USSR in 1941 the PPD-1934/38 and PPD-1940 were inrelative-ly short supply among Red Army unitsand they had little impact on thecowse of events, Any the Germanscaptured they tssued to their ownsecond-hne units, but the numbers in-volved were never very large, BY the

end of 1941 even the PPD-1940 hadpassed out of production for the simplereason that the Germans had ovemrnthe arsenals concerned and there wasno time to set up the extensivemachine-shops and production lineselsewhere, The Red Army had to re-sort to newer and more easily pro-duced sub-machine gnrn models,

Specification:PPD-1934/38Calibre: 7,62 mmLengrth: 780 mm (30.7I rn)

The S ovie t P PD- I 9 34 introduced onefeature later used on all Soviet sub-machine gun designs : the chromedbarrel to reduce wear and easecleaning.

Lengrth of barrel 269 mm (10,60 in)Weight loaded: 5.69 ks (12,54 lb)Magazine: 7l-round drum or 2S-roundboxRate of fire, ryclic: 800 rpmMuzzle velocity: 4B8m (I,600ft) persecond

]i

I

PPSh.4IIn many ways the PPSh-4I was to theRed Army what the Sten was to theBritish and the MP40 to the Germans. Itwas the Soviet equivalent of the mass-produced sub-machine gun, usingsimple methods and a minimum ofcomplicated machining operations,But unhke the Sten and the MP40 thePPSh-41 was the result of a more mea-sured and rnvolved development pro-cess than was possible with, say theBritish Sten and thus the end result wasa much better all-round weapon,

The PPSh-41 was designed and de-veloped starting in 1940 but tt was notuntil early 1942, in the wake of the up-heavals of the German invasion, thatthe first examples were issued to theRed Army on a large scale. As it hadbeen designed ftom the outset for easeof production the PPSh-41 waschurned out in the tens of thor..rsands inall manner ofworkshops ranging fromproperly-equipped arsenals to shedworkshops in rural areas, By 1945 it hasbeen estimated that over five millionshad been produced.

Considering that it was a mass-produced weapon, the PPSh-4I was awell-made design wrth a heav-y so[dwooden butt, It used the conventionalblow-back system but it had a highrate of fire and to absorb the shock ofthe recoiling breech block a buffer oflamrnated leather or felt blocks wasprovided at the rear of the breechblock travel, The gmn body and thebarrel jacket were simple shapedsteel stampings and the muzzle had adownward sloprng shape that doubledas a rudimentary mtnzle brake and adevice termed a compensator that wasintended to reduce the amoult of muz-zle climb produced by the recoilforces when the gun yras fired, Thebarrel was chrome-plated, a standardSoviet practice to ease cleaning andreduce barrel wear, but at one timethe need for weapons was so great thatthe barrels were simply old Mosrn-Nagant rifle barrels cut to slze, The

The German army was muchimpressed with the Soviet PPSh-4I ,and when supplies of their ownMP40swere lacking they taoktousing large numbers of capturedPPSh-4 1 s. If Soviet 7.62-mmammunition was in short supply thereapon could fire the German 7.6 3-

=n Mauserpistol round, and byI 345 numbers of PPSb-4 I s werereng adapted to fire German 9-mm.:ilnunition.

Above: The PPSfu-4 I was one of the' cl as sic' Red Army weapons of Wor ldWarll, and itwas produced inmillions. I t was an emergency designborn out of the disruption o{ theGerman invasion of 194 1.

Right: Involvement in the fightingextended throughout the population,for during some of the many sieges,sucft as ffiose a t Leningrad,Sevastopol and Stalingrad, even thewomen and children took upweapons,

drum magazine used was the same asthat used on the ear[er Soviet sub-machine gmns, Frre selection (single-shot or full automatic) was made by asimple lever just forward of the trigger.Construction of the PPSh-41 was weld-tng, pins and seam stampings, Theoverall resuit was a tougrh, rehableweapon,

The PPSh-4} had to be tough, foronce the Red Army started To receivethe tlpe in appreciable numbers rtadopted the v/eapon ln a way that noother army even attempted to consid-er. Quite simply the PPSh-41 wasdoled out to entire bailahcns ald regr-iments to the virhra.l exclusron of aryother type of weapon other than handqrrenades. These units formed the van-gmard of the shock assault udts thatwere carried into the attack on thebacks of T-34176 tanks, from whrchthey only descended for the attack orfor food and rest, They carried onlyenough ammunition for thetr immedi-ate needs, their general life standardswere 1ow, and their combat lives werevery short. But tn their thousands thesehordes armed with the PPSh-41 sweptacross eastern Russia and acrossEurope, carryinQr all before them,They were a fearful force and theirPPSh-4]s became a virtual combatsymbol of the Red Army,

Under such circumstances thePPSh-41 (known to their users as thePah-Pah-Shah) receled vrrtually nomaintenance, or even cleaninq. UnderEastern Front conditions it soon be-came apparent that the best way tokeep the weapon going under dust orrce conditrons was to keep it complete-ly dry and free from any sort of oil,otherwise it clogged ar froze.

So many PPSh-4ls were producedthat the type became a virtual standardweapon for the Germany Army as wellas the Red Army, the Germans even

gomg to the extent of recalibring someof their captured hoard to therr own9mm, Partisans found the PPSh-4] anideal weapon for their purposes, andafter the war the type was used byvirtually every nation that came withinthe Soviet sphere of influence. It strllturns up in the hands of 'freedomfighters' all over the world and it will nodoubr be around lor a long trme yet.

Specification:Calibre: 7,62mmLensth: B2B mm (32.60 in)Lengrth of barrel: 265 mm (10.4: :.Weight loaded: 5.4 kg (it.9C li.Magazine: 7l-round drum ol 3l-::--:--boxRate of fire, cyclic: 900 1or:tMuzzle velocity: 48Bm ,-:-.. -. :=:mlnute

Sub-machine guns of World War II

A

The Siege of leningradLeningrad was one of the primary objectives ofthe opening phase of Operation 'Barbarossa' inJune 1941. The German invasion of the USSRwas planned to take piace along three matnaxes, the most northerly of which was the re-sponsibility of Army Group 'North' under thecommand of Generalfeldmarschall von Leeband, paradoxically, such was the success of theopenrng phase of the campaign that was to costGermany the war, that in five days Army Group'North' had covered half the distance to Lenin-grad.

But at that point a series of massive battles onthe central front started to divert the impetusaway from the north. The reduced Army Group'North' forces still moved towards the 'Cradle ofthe Revolution' but at a reduced speed, so thatit was not until September that the approachesto the city were in sight. By that time the defen-ders had sensed their danqer and the popu-lace was put to work to construct defences andanti{ank ditches on the approaches, The Ger-mans themselves assisted this defence by con-stantiy diverting their efforts southwards awayfrom their objectrve as the approaches to Mos-cow beckoned, but eventually a definite oper-ational plan to take the city was made, TheFinns, the reluctant allies of Germany, werecoerced into joining the campargn but did littlemore than cross the Svir rlver and establlshthemselves around Lake Iradoga,

By the time the Germans were ready overone milhon civillans inside Leninqrad had ren-dered their perimeter into a state fit to defend.When the full German attack took place italmost immediately became bogtged down in amyriad of defensrve positions, antrtank obsta-

cles and dltches. The LuJtwaffe carried outconstant bombing raids, but the German forceswere held. Throughout the attack the Germanlocal commander, Generaloberst H. Hoth, wasrestricted by the fact that the bulk of his offen-sive forces were requtred to take part in opera-tions to the south, against Moscow, bgt he usedthese forces at the very time they were re-quested to move south, Thus Leningrad madeits first major contribution by absorbing forcesthat miqht have made all the difference in thebattle for Moscow,

l8-monthsiegeThe attack on the Leningrad perrmeter died

out by the middle ol September and there be-gan the siege that was to last until the latespring oi 1943 It was a rather loose form ofsrege as the German forces involved couldnever irlly control the whole clty boundary andLake Ladoga could r:sually be kept open, TheFinns did little to assrst the Germans, but a citythe sue of Lenrrgrrad requires a great deal offood and other supplies just to exist and thesesupplies were never forthcoming through theGerman hnes, The civilian populatron ofLeningrad su-ffered dreadi:lly, Throughout thewinters of 1941-2 a-nd 1942-3 thousands died ofcold and hunger io jre extent that bodies lay inthe streets ior ciays because no-one had thestrength or time to bury them.

The Soviet PPSb s/as so strnp]e f o manufacture thatwhole units such as this ski unit were often armedwilhnothing more than the PPSh-4l.ln tleRussianwinter the P P S h-4 I w o u Id s till wor k, bu t only if itwas leftfreefrom oil once cleened;if oilwasusedthe weapon would {ree z e soild.

Attheendof 1941,theBaltictleetbecamepailof thedefencesofLeningrad.Manysailors, stillproudlywearingtheirstriped vests underarmyuniforms,fought as infantryinthedefenceof theGangat Peninsula..

The front-line soldiers received the bulk ofwhat food and suppiies were available, butthere was little enough of that and food cottldonly be obtained by small-scale forays throughthe loosely-held German lines. Weapons andammunition supply were a constant headachefor the Soviet commanders, who had beenallowed to form their ovrn independent Sovietto conduct their own defence, and they usedthe slender supply lines that came across theLake Ladoga ice during the winters for themovement of ammunition and other such mate-nal only,

Continuinqindustry-eningrad could supply some of its own de-

:e:rce materials, for it had long been one of the::iajor lndustrral centres of the USSR, The KV:ank factory inside the perimeter continued toburld tanks throughout the siege, As they werecompleted they ran off the tines straight inlobattle, while machine tools from other factories;;ere used to produce smali arms and spares,among them the remarkable 7.62-mm PPS-42Jie design of which was made more with con-sideration to what machine tools were avail-able rather than any destgn refinements,

Despite constant artillery bombardment by']re Germans and constant small-scaie raids,' eningrad held on. By early i943 the worst wascver: the Germans had lost the vitai strategicnitiative and they fell back to the west leaving'Jre approaches to Leningrad open, Battles still:ook place along the coastiines to the west of-J:e city, but Leningrad had held and the worstsiege of the war was over. Leningrad had wonJrrough, although at fearful cost,

The Red Army made great use of posedpropaganda photographs both for home andoverseas consumption, and thrs examp/erstypical.lt shows twoRed Army soldierswith PPSh-4I s and another soldier with a DPM light machine-gun in the foreground.

Sulc-machine guns of World War II

The PPSh-41 was widely issued to the numerouspartisan units thatwere part and parcel of the RedArmy's operations behind the German lines. Itcould absorb a surprising amount of hard use andcould go without maintenance for long periods ,which was just as well, for partisan trainingwasusual Iy v ery r u dimentary.

X iips-+z and PPS-43Few weapons can have been de-sigmed and produced under such de-sperate conditions as those that su-r-round the advent of the Soviet PPS-42sub-machine enrn, In 1942 the city ofLenrngrad was surrounded by theGerman army and the besieged RedArmy units were short of everythinqtrncludrng weapons, Leningnad con-tained a large number of manufactur-ing facilitres and machine shops, sowhen rt came to producing their ownweapons the soldiers were relativelywell ofl but they needed weaponsquickly. Under such conditions thesub-machine gmn provides a basis onwhich to work and so an engdneer, A.l,Sudarev, set to work,

Sudarev was limited in his choice ofdesign by the materials to hand andthe type of machines wrth which hecould work, By sheer pragmatic trialand error he developed a sub-machine gunthat embodied allthe fea-tures to be found in other emerqencydesigns such as the British Sten andAmerican M3. The result was a simple,robust sub-machine gmn manufacturedfuom sheet metal stampings, most ofthem heavy for that was the only mate-rial to hand, The gmn was held togetherby welds, rivets and pins, and a srmplefoldlng butt was provided, The 35-round magazine used on earlier Sovietsub-machrne gnrns was adopted almost'.mchangTed as production of a drummagazine would have proved too drf-:cult,

The firing trials of the new desrgnrere carried out quite simply by hand-rg out examples straight from the pro-

duction shops to soldiers in the frontline. Their comments and results werefed straight back to the assemblyshops where any changes were madeon the spot. One of these changes in-volved the use of a cuwed steel plateover the muzzle to act as a partial com-pensator and muzzle brake, and thiscrude and simple device was re-tained, In time the new weapon wasprovided with an officral designation,becoming the PPS-42, In action aroundLeningnad it proved to be a thoroughlysound design and one that could beproduced quickly and cheaply, so itwas not long after the srege of Lemng-rad was lifted that the desrgn becameolficial and adopted for greneral RedArmy serirrce, When thrs took placethere was opporh-rnity to remove someof the more rushed and crude featuresof the weapon, The folding butt was

revlsed so that 1t could be folded up-wards to clear the ejectron port, andthe original rough wooden pistol gnipwas replaced by a hard rubber type,The general standard of finish wasgenerally rmproved, and in this formthe weapon became the PPS-43, Intrme the PPS-43 took its place with theRed Army alongside the PPSh-41, butnever in quite the same numbers. Con-sidenng the inauspicious beginningsof the desigrn it proved to be an excel-lent weapon in service wherever itwas taken, and in 1944 it was adoptedby the Frnns as their standard sub-machine gnrn once they came into theSoviet sphere of rnlluence. To this dayit remains in servrce wrrh many armresand lke the Britrsh Sten, it has beenaccorded the distrnctron o: c:::;copred in many backyard ,*orks::psfor numerous subverst're reasa-

The Soviet PPS-43 was the fuL|production version of theeme rge ncy - pro du ce d P P S - 4 2designed during the siege ofLeningrad. The PPS-43 introducedsome finesse, b ut it was essentia I ly asimpleweapon.

freretta sub-machine erunsThe first of the Beretta series was theBeretta Model 1938A, which was pro-duced in Brescia, The first examPleswere produced in 1935 but it was notu:rtil I93B that the flrst mass-producedexamples appeared for issue to theItalian armed forces. The term 'massproduction' is perhaps rather mislead-Lng for the Berettas, as although theywere produced on normal productionlines, the care and attention that wentinto each example was such that theycan almost be regarded as hand-made. In fact the Berettas are still re-garded as some ofthe flnest examplesof the sub-machine gun that it rs possi-ble to obtain, and the earlY ModelI93BAs were destrned to becomeamong the most prized of all,

In design terms the Berettas had lit-tle enough of note, They had a well-finished wooden stock, a tubular body,a downwards-polnting box magazineand a pedorated barrel jacket, some ofthem with provision for a foldingbayonet at the muzzle, There was no-thing really remarkable in thesepoints, but what was very noticeablewas the way in which the weapon wasbalanced and the way it handled inaction. It turned out to be a truly re-markable sub-machine gnrn, The su-perb finish endeared it to all who usedthe type, and one result ofthe painstak-ing assembly and flnishinq was aweapon that proved reliable and accu-rate under all conditrons, The ammuni-tion feed proved to be exceptional, butonly when the proper magazines wereused, There were several srzes ofmagazines (holding 10, 20, 30 or 40rounds) and these were issuedtogether with a loading device. Therounds used on the early Berettas wasa special hrgh-velocity 9-mm cartridgebut this was later chaneted to the un1-versal 9-mm Parabellum.

There were several variations onthe Model 1938A theme, one of whichlacked the bayonet and some of therefinements as it was intended to be aspecial lightened model for use tn de-sert regions, When ltaly entered thewar in 1941 some small revtsion ofmanufacturing methods was made, butthe soldier at the front would be hard

The nature of the ltalian Fasckt statewas such thatby the time anyyouthentered the Army he was alreadywell trained in the use of most of theweapons they would be issued with.This included the BerettaModel1938, seenhere carriedby aYoungFascist being decorated by GeneralBastico.

Above: TheModel 1938 was a soundand well-balanced weapon that wasa j oy to handle and use. jVo expensewas spared in its manufacture, andconsequently itwas very reliable andaccurate. Thk example is fitted witha [O-round magazine. Note thedouhle- trigger arrangement and thewell- fi nis hed wooden stock.

Right: Italian troops in Tunisia, theirBeretta Model I 9 38s readY to hand.The weapon on the left is equiPPedwith a I l-round magazine which wasotten employed when single-shot firewas required. The Model I 938 wasvery accurate and could be usedinthe manner of a rifle at combatranges up to 300 m (985 ft).

put to recognize them, for the overallfinish remained beautiful. Close ex-amination revealed that the barreljacket was altered to become astamped and welded part but that wasabout the only concession to mass-production technoloqy, and the Model1938A retarned its hrgh reputation,

By I944 the war situation hadchanged to the extent that Berettaswere beinq produced for the Germanarmy, the Italians having surrenderedin 1943. By then the basic design of theModel L93BA had been revised bY the

The demands of war Productionmeant thatBerettawere unable tomaintain their pre-war standards ofexcellence. Even so, the Model 38/ 42was a much better weaPon desigmthan many of its contemporaries andretained many of the features of thepre-warmodel.

addition of simpler assembly andmanufacturinq methods to the pointthat it had become the Model 38/42,while an even later version was theModel L Relatively few of these twoversrons were produced and the bulkof them were produced after 1945,Both models were stilJ eastly recogniz-able as Berettas, and while they bothretained the overall excellence theywere generally simpler and lackedsome of the flnesse of the Model 19384.

As mentioned above, by 1944 Beret-tas were being produced for the Ger-mans. Earlier in the war the Germanshad been happy to use numbers oftheModel 1938A and the Romanians hadpurchased a number (they later purch-ased the Model 38/42 as well), Afterthe Italian capitulation the Berettas be-came standard German weapons butwere little used outside ltaly. TheAllies grreatly prized the Berettas andused them in place of their own

weapons whenever they could caP-ture sufficient numbers, but their useby the Allies was restncted to a grreatextent by a shortage of Beretta maga-zines, Apparently the sub-machinegnrns were often captured without theirvital magazines, which was perhapsjust as well for the ltalians,

Specification:Model 19384Calibre: 9 mmLengrth: 946 mm (37,24 in)tengrth of barrel: 315 mm (12.40 in)Weisht loaded: 4,97 kg (10,96 ]b)Magazine: 1O-, 20-, 30- or 40-round boxRate of fire, cyclic: 600 rpmMuzzle velocity: 420m (1,3BOft) Petsecond

"24

ArmedForcesoftheworld ffiffi

US Rapid Deplogmenl ForcePart2Deployment and supplyThe heart of the RDF concept is that the bulkof the forces involved will be able to move tothe SWA (South West Asia) region of actionand, when there, continue to be supplied. Thisis the RDF's weakest point, for to deployforces on the scale that the RDF mobilizationwill entail is currently beyond the scope of theUS Air Force Military Air Command (MAC),even if the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) be-comes involved. Also involved in this massivemove would be the finding in the region ofsufficient reliable bases from which tooperate.

The latter point can be considered first asAmerican policy planners are currently in-volved in the preparation of several ports andairfields in the SWA theatre. These facilitieshave been obtained by local discussions lead-ing to the active updating of existing sites tomake them usable on the scale that anv moveby the RDF will involve. There are several ofthese locations scattered around the lndianOcean and others en route to SWA. At all ofthem the US Army Corps of Engineers hasoverseen the construction and modification ofall manner of airfield and port facilities at RasBanas in Egypt, Masirah lsland off Oman,Mombasa in Kenya, Berbera in Somalia, theisland of Diego Garcia and facilities in theAzores. Kenyan airfields involved are Embaka-si and Nanyuki, and in Oman more facilitieswill be provided at Seeb airf ield, thumrayt, andthe ports of Mutrah and Salalah.

Most of these locations will be used as stag-ing bases and staging posts. Many of themalready have oil storage facilities or will beprovided with them. Payment for these facili-ties is made in a variety of ways from directcash to economic and military aid.

To move a force the size of the RDF involvesmore than air transport, as the bulk of theRDF's equipment is such that sea transport isinvolved. For this purpose no less than 17heavy cargo carriers are scheduled to bebased in the SWA region, most of them atDiego Garcia, already loaded with the heavysupplies needed by RDF units. More shippingis earmarked in the continental United Statesfor the task, and the experience gained duringthe recent Falkland lslands campaign is being

An M 1 09 1 55-mm self-propelled howitzer beingdisembarked at Alexandria during Exercise'BrightStar'82'.

examined for any possible lessons. The Milit-ary Sealife Command has no fewerthan 37 drycargo vessels in service with a f urther 29 in theReady Reserve Fleet. To these can be added'l 67 other reserye vessels, but not all of thesewill be available all the time.

The airlift potential of the US forces,although considerable, is now insufficient forthe RDF reguirement and is currently beingreinforced by the purchase of a further 50Lockheed C-5B Galaxy heavy-lift transportsand some other aircraft, including a substantialquantlty of McDonnell Douglas KC-10A Exten-ders. ln the Fiscal Year 1983 the strength ofwhat are termed US Military Mobility Assetswere as follows:

USS Tarawa capable of landing and supporting a1900-strong reintorced marine battalion, is thelargest amphibious warlare vessel yet built.

Boeing Vertol CH47 Chinook/Sikorsky CH-54 Tarhe

Sikorsky CH-53 Stallion

Reserve Forces aircraftLockheed C-130 HerculesMcDonnell Douglas C-9/

Fairchild C-]23Boeing Verrol CH47l

Sikorsky CH-54Sikorsky CH-53

ae.)

161

inventory294

19

16918

Active Forces aircraftLockheed C-5 GalaxyLockheed C-l41 StarlifterMcDonnell Douglas KC-'10

ExtenderLockheed C-1 30 Hercules

Lockheed C-5 Galaxy aircraft provide the RDF withcapacity to move loads up to Main BattleTank sizebyair.

It should be stressed that these are inven-tory totals only, and that operational strengthswould thus be much smaller. To these can beadded 21 5 passenger aircraft and 1 09 cargoaircraft from the Civil Reserve Air Fleet(CRAF), and this total is to be increased iffunds become available.

Commercial shipping can be used to provide asealift capacity, and the campaiga in the Falklandsr's berng studr'ed forpossibJe Jessons.

inventory70234

12218

Armed Forces of the World

Equipment--e iDE 'will be equipped with the same\Aeapons as all other branches of the USarnred forces, but already moves are beingn-ade to introduce newer equipment that willproduce greater mobility without any sacrificeof firepower. Much of this newequipmentwilltake the form not of weapons but rather ofsupport equipment such as bridging, fuelsupply systems, and water supply andpurification systems. Already much traininghas been carried out in the SWA area, includ-ing such relatively large-scale exercises as'Brioht Star' (three of which have been carriedoutjn Egypt) and 'Jade Tiger' (carried out inconjuncik5h with Somalia, Sudan and Oman).Some of these exercises have been carriedout on a relatively small scale but have stillinvolved some large airlifts and taught someinvaluable lessons. One was learnt during thefirst 'Bright Star' when over one quarter ofMAC's Strength was involved in moving a

single battalion plus its support from the Un-ited States to Cairo. Such lavish deploymentswill be 'out' in future.

ln general, US Army divisions will be light onarmour and those involved will be basedaround the M60 main battle tank. The USMarines will gradually introduce their new LAV(Light Armoured Vehicle) based on the Cougarwheeled vehicle. Support artillery will betowed instead of self-propelled (althoughsome M109A2s will be involved for the timebeing), the weapon mainly involved being theM198 towed 155-mm howitzer. Numerousproposals for other support weapons for theRDF have been mooted, including such thingsas 'miniature' MLRS long-range rocket-launchers, towed DIVADS 40-mm anti-aircraftguns and special Chaparral SAM carriers, butthese all depend on funding, and extra fundingover and above the huge sums already in-volved is unlikely.

The US Air Force, other than the MAC in-volvement, is likely to be based on a mix ofMcDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagles and F6irchildRepublic A-10 Thunderbolt lls for direct sup-port, and on General Dynamics F-1 1 1s andBoeing B-52s (probably operatlng from thecontinental USA) for bomber support.

The US Navy is already operating in theincilan Ocean, with at least one carrier-basedbattle group on station at any one time. The USNavy is already deeply involved in a majorre-equipment programme and is unlikely tomake any major RDF changes, but alreadyunder way are a new class of amphiblousassault ship (the first of which is the LSD-41

For the moment,whatarmour theRDF can deploywill consist of M60A3 Main Battle Tanks.

US Rapid Deployment Force

Above : M em ber s of the I 2 nd Air borne D ivis ion setup a perimeter round the drop zone. The divisionusually flies direct to the drop from its base inNorthCarolina.

WhidbeV lslandl and a new multi-purposeamphibious assault ship known as the LHD.lnvolved with these will be new special craneships and iighters, including hovercraft for theassault and supply role.

The US Marine Corps is currentlyreorganiz-inq itself around a new Light Armoured Vehi-ct6 (mV) battalion, and th"e air component oftheir amphibious force is now the BAe AV-8AHarrier of the Vought A-7 Corsair. ln futurethese will be supplemented (or replaced) bythe McDonnell Douglas AV-88 Harrier ll.

To control all these various formations theAmerican forces are also deeply involved in apr^ogramme to provide a flexible and capableC3 lcommand, control, communications)series of systems, but nothing def inite has yetbeen agreed. lt is known, however, that con-siderable use of Boeing E-3A Sentry AWACSaircraft will be involved. Some of these aircrafthave already been based in Egypt and Sudanon occasron.

The 30-mm cannon of the Fairchild Republic A- 10can be deptoyed in support of forces faced byhostile armour.

Below: The Sikorsky UH-60A Black Hawk is airtransportable, carries a wide variety of weaponryand can carry up to I I fully-equipped troops at thesame lime.

Further extension of capabilitywill comewith therncreasing use of amphibious air cushionvehicles(LCAC).