The Thompson Submachine Gun Read online

  THE THOMPSON SUBMACHINE GUN

  MARTIN PEGLER

  Contents

  INTRODUCTION

  DEVELOPMENT

  ‘A one-man, hand-held machine gun’

  USE

  The weapon of choice for criminals and Commandos

  IMPACT

  A celebrity submachine gun

  GLOSSARY

  SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

  INTRODUCTION

  ‘The deadliest weapon, pound for pound, ever devised by man.’ Time magazine, December 1939

  There are certain firearms that developed an iconic status during the last century. Partly this is due to the war and gangster films that became popular during the 1900s, many of which gave prominence to particular guns. The guns were not necessarily chosen because they were the best weapons in use at the time, but more often because of their form rather than their function; in short, some guns simply looked better than others, regardless of their mechanical properties or historical accuracy. As a result, collectors and shooters wanted the guns they saw on screen. A fairly modern example of this effect can be found in the use of the Smith & Wesson (S&W) .44 Magnum in the ‘Dirty Harry’ series of films in the 1970s and 1980s. The films sparked a colossal demand for the revolvers, a demand that S&W was initially unable to meet, and which arguably saved the company from looming financial disaster. Another example comes from the increased screening of live TV combat footage pioneered during the Vietnam War. Ordinary citizens could actually see soldiers holding and using various modern assault rifles and machine guns, and this sparked a renewed interest in weapons technology. Whereas older military firearms had always been in demand by collectors, there soon arose a parallel interest in the weapons currently in use, so commercial variants of the M-16, AK-47 and others became much in demand. The Thompson submachine gun is one of these iconic weapons. It had an unusual beginning, for it was developed after World War I as a trench weapon, but the war ended before it could see service. It was taken up with some enthusiasm, however, by the criminal fraternity working in Chicago and New York during the Prohibition years of the 1920s. The police and Bureau of Investigation, finding themselves out-gunned, were forced to purchase the Thompson for law-enforcement use. The huge publicity it gained in pitched battles between gangsters and police, and through its use in the notorious St Valentine’s Day massacre (14 February 1929), quickly came to the attention of Hollywood producers, who began to feature it in a large number of films. In fact, the Thompson’s film appearances were out of all proportion to its actual street use, and under normal circumstances it would probably have faded from view during the late 1930s, as increasingly efficient policing signalled the demise of the gangs.

  The two stars of the 1932 gangster film Scarface, Paul Muni and the Thompson M1921. It was Hollywood that gave the Thompson its fame, but it would be nearly another decade before World War II gave it its place in military history. (Photo by John Kobal Foundation/Getty Images)

  Yet history has a way of coming full circle. In the wake of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, America had to arm itself quickly to fight a totally unexpected war. There was little in the US arsenal at that time that had not been in use during or immediately after World War I, but fortuitously the brilliant John Garand had been working on a new design of semi-automatic rifle, the M1 Garand, since the early 1930s, and it had been accepted for service in 1936. Despite the fact that the concept of submachine guns had never been particularly attractive to the US Army, and the Thompson had not been widely adopted for military service, it was at least commercially available. It thus became an obvious choice for the army and Marine Corps to help arm its troops alongside the M1 Garand, and eventually the Thompson, or ‘Tommy gun’ as it was universally known, became the most famous Allied submachine gun of the war. Indeed, Auto-Ordnance, the Thompson’s manufacturer, was quick to see the importance of this nickname, and they patented it.

  A soldier from No. 1 Commando, armed with a Model 1928A1 Thompson, climbs up a steep rock face during training at Glencoe in Scotland. Although the receiver of the Thompson looks polished, it is merely catching the light, one reason for the later adoption of non-reflective Parkerising. (IWM H 15667)

  The Thompson was carried by American, British, French, Indian, Australian, Canadian, South African, New Zealand, Soviet and Chinese troops throughout World War II. It saw combat in every possible type of terrain – desert, mountain, jungle and forest, field and street – and it proved utterly competent in them all. The men who carried the Thompson swore by it and occasionally at it, as it was by no means perfect, but those who were issued with the gun seldom gave it up willingly. The firepower generated by its heavy .45-calibre bullets was second to none, and in closecombat situations a burst from a Thompson would usually resolve the situation immediately and very satisfactorily. Few on the receiving end of a burst from a Thompson ever lived to tell the tale. The story of how it achieved this status is both convoluted and fascinating, and begins in the trenches of France and Flanders in late 1917.

  DEVELOPMENT

  ‘A one-man, hand-held machine gun’

  THE ORIGINS OF THE THOMPSON

  The trench combat of the Great War spawned a number of weapons that were unique to the conflict and have since become commonplace on the battlefield: hand grenades, sniping rifles, flamethrowers, light mortars and submachine guns. But it was Germany who pioneered the first practical design of what was originally called the Maschienpistolen, or ‘machinepistol’, but is now referred to as the submachine gun, and this was the 9mm Bergmann MP18/1. The Germans quickly realized during the grim fighting for Verdun in 1916, that bolt-action rifles suffered from severe limitations in trench warfare. They were too long, cumbersome to carry, slow to shoot and reload, and actually too powerful: in trench warfare, where combat ranges seldom exceeded 200 yards (183m) and were frequently almost point-blank, a rifle with a theoretical range in excess of 2,000 yards (1,828m) was quite unnecessary. A short-range, rapid-firing weapon with a large magazine capacity was what was needed, so the development of the Bergmann became a landmark in firearms design. Some 30,000 were issued between late 1916 and 1918, and it was subsequently copied by dozens of other countries. The MP18/1 suffered from a few shortcomings, the main problem being the use of the unreliable Luger ‘snail-drum’ magazine, soon replaced by a simple ‘box’ magazine, but in general it performed superbly. The term ‘submachine gun’ arose from the weapon’s use of a sub-rifle calibre cartridge, generally a pistol calibre round, and the fact that it was capable of fully automatic fire.

  The Allies were aware of the need to improve infantry weapons for trench combat, but British soldiers were not thought trustworthy enough to be issued with a personal automatic weapon. It was commonly assumed by the British military hierarchy that Tommies would fire off every cartridge within seconds, leaving themselves helpless. In addition, in wartime few governments were willing to introduce any large-scale form of new technology, as industrial production was invariably straining to supply sufficient weapons and equipment to keep the war machine going. Ironically, it was the French, who had a tradition of producing outdated, poorly performing small arms, who introduced the concept of increased personal firepower with the introduction during World War I of the truly awful Chauchat light machine gun, and the slightly more efficient Fusil Mitrailleur Modèle 1917, a gas-operated five-shot semi-automatic rifle. Neither were exactly compact or light, but the basic concept behind them, of providing troops with additional firepower, was a sound one.

  Auto-Ordnance’s Chief Engineer, Theodore H. Eickhoff was hired by Thompson in 1916 to assist in the development of what would become the Thompson submachine gun.

  Amer
ica, which entered the European war in 1917, was also reluctant to adopt new technology. Its M1903 Springfield rifles were considered, with some justification, to be one of the finest military rifles then in use, and many soldiers were also equipped with the ubiquitous M1911 .45 Colt semiautomatic pistol, one of the best side-arms ever issued. Yet reports reaching US Army command began to indicate that while the Colt was proving excellent as a trench-fighting weapon, the Springfield was less so. This was bad news for Brigadier General John T. Thompson, who until 1914 had been the Chief of Small Arms for the Army Ordnance Department, and in this role he had strongly backed the development and adoption of the Springfield rifle. He had resigned from the army on the outbreak of war to become chief design engineer for the Remington Arms Company for whom he designed a huge new factory at Eddystone, Pennsylvania. Perhaps more significantly for the story of the Thompson, in 1916 he had also formed a firearms company with his son, Lieutenant Colonel Mercellus H. Thompson, which they named the Auto- Ordnance Corporation. He did so with financial backing from the very aptly named Thomas Fortune Ryan. Ryan was a financier of Irish origin, who had made a fortune from having the franchise to supply and run trams for the New York Metropolitan Traction Company, as well as from setting up the vast American Tobacco Company. Ryan had long been interested in firearms development and was intrigued by Thompson’s early idea for an automatic rifle, and he invested heavily in the formation of the new company.

  John Thompson rejoined the army in his previous capacity in 1917, and was given the unenviable position of being in charge of all small-arms production. The apparent shortcomings of the standard military rifle were of particular concern to him, as he was dedicated to ensuring American soldiers had the best possible small arms to wage the war. His response to the problem was typically forthright:

  Our boys in the infantry, now in the trenches need a small machine gun, a gun that will fire 50 to 100 rounds, so light that he can drag it with him as he crawls on his belly from trench to trench, and wipe out a whole company single-handed. A one-man hand held machine gun. A trench broom. The nearest to what I have in mind is the French Chauchat 8mm machine rifle [but] it is too heavy [18lb] not enough ammunition [20 rounds] it is a poor design and of wretched construction… I want a little machine gun you can hold in your hands, fire from the hip and reload in the dark. You must use an ammunition now available … and I want it right away. Now get to it. Expense is no object!

  General John T. Thompson demonstrating to an interested crowd of officials his new invention, the M1921, in a photograph from May 1922. The butt has been removed and the compact nature of the gun is self-evident. (© Bettmann/Corbis)

  BLISH, EICKHOFF AND THE .45

  Thompson was capably aided in the development of the new weapon by the combined efforts of several talented individuals. Primary among them was Captain John N. Blish, a naval mathematician and physicist who had discovered important new properties of certain metals relating to adhesion; when machined at very specific angles, these metals became alternately adhesive or repellent dependant on the pressures exerted on them. When applied to the breech mechanisms of firearms, these principles translated into systems of mechanical operation that eliminated the need for lubrication, linkages and similar mechanical complexities. For the development of a lightweight automatic gun, these discoveries had very great potential indeed. Thompson was fortunate too, in hiring a very able designer, Theodore H. Eickhoff, who was to become senior engineer for the new Auto-Ordnance factory. Eickhoff had long experience of firearms design, having worked in the office of the Chief of Ordnance before the war, and he had at one time been assigned to examine the existing automatic rifles then being developed around the world. He was certain that the best calibres available for such designs were not the rifle-sized bullets then in common use (normally of around .30 calibre), but larger, heavier bullets that were of lower power. Such cartridges exerted less pressure on the mechanisms of firearms, were easier to handle when firing in full- or semi-automatic mode and their compact dimensions allowed the firearms to be smaller and lighter. The cartridges also possessed spectacularly efficient man-stopping effect at close range, causing wounds that were, if not fatal, then extremely debilitating.

  John N. Blish points to the lock that bears his name. The brochures for the M1919 featured tipped-in copies of this photo.

  Replacing the old .45in Long Colt revolver cartridge with the new .38 revolver cartridge had originally been the choice of the US Army, but experience during the Philippine Insurrection (1899–1902) fighting Moro tribesmen, who were often physically assisted by recreational drugs, proved that the .38 cartridge did not have adequate stopping power. One Marine officer, an excellent pistol shot, emptied his revolver into the chest of a charging tribesman to little decisive effect, and was only saved from disembowelling by the Marine behind him, who brought the man down with a rifle bullet. Eickhoff was convinced the best cartridge for the purpose then in production was a development of the Long Colt cartridge, the .45in Automatic Colt Pistol (ACP) round. The ‘.45 Auto’, as it was known, had been developed as a commercial cartridge by John Browning in 1905 and officially adopted by the US Ordnance Department six years later, when it was used in the M1911 Colt semi-automatic pistol. It used a 234-grain, jacketed round-nosed bullet that had a relatively low velocity of 820ft/sec (250m/sec). In practical terms, however, the weight and velocity meant that the bullet expended virtually all of its energy on the target, rather than going through it. Tests carried out on live animals destined for slaughter showed the tissue damage inflicted was at least as great as that of a rifle bullet at ranges of up to 55 yards (50m) and one soldier, accidentally hit by a .45 bullet, described it as ‘feeling as though a dozen men had rammed him in the shoulder with a telegraph pole’. Clearly, utilizing an existing cartridge as potent as the .45 ACP made sense, but the big question was, what type of firearm could be designed that would use it to its best advantage?

  The answer to that particular question lay in the minds of John Blish and a young man named Oscar V. Payne, although neither realized it at the time. In March 1915, Blish had patented a pistol using the ‘Breech Closure for Firearms’ system.1 The pistol was loaded, and using his own unique locking wedge system (or sliding breech-block to be more accurate), the breech-block was pulled upwards on a rail to close the breech, and the pistol fired. The breech-block remained solidly locked in place until the chamber pressure dropped to a safe level, allowing it to slide down the rail. It was simple, clever and relatively easy to manufacture, but no-one was quite sure of its application.

  Meanwhile Oscar Payne, a 23-year-old engineer and draughtsman, had arrived at the offices of Auto-Ordnance asking for a job. He had already forged something of a reputation by disassembling a very complex rifle in front of a board of army officers, even though he had never seen the weapon before, and so impressed were they that one had mentioned his name to General Thompson. When Payne arrived in front of Thompson’s desk in spring 1917, he was immediately offered a position with the wonderfully vague title of ‘inventor and designer’. It was to be a prophetic move. In an attempt to utilize the Blish lock in an automatic role, General Thompson had, through Auto-Ordnance and the designs of Theo Eickhoff, produced a prototype light rifle that was chambered for the .30.06in Springfield cartridge, the Thompson Auto Rifle. It was beset with problems, and Payne was immediately assigned to look at and modify the design.

  1 US Patent No. 1,131,319; 9 March 1915

  THE ‘AUTO-RIFLE’

  In 1917, Auto-Ordnance produced its first prototype automatic rifle, using the Blish lock principle. It was a full-size weapon, looking not dissimilar to the Pattern 1917 rifle, and it chambered the .30-06 US cartridge. While the basic idea was sound, the mechanism was not, for the gun had a tendency to fire before the breech-block was actually in its locked position. As a result, it failed spectacularly, exploding while on the test bench, and Oscar Payne was asked to come up with suggestions for improvements. He and Theodo
re Eickhoff became convinced that the problem lay in the use of the .30-calibre cartridge, which was unsuitable for a weapon that used a friction lock, so they modified the breech-closing mechanism and Blish lock. All of the design team agreed with Eickhoff that to ensure reliable functioning, the .30 cartridge really needed to be replaced by something less powerful. All ammunition has what is known as a ‘coefficient of ejection’, which simply means that the bigger the body of the cartridge, the more likely it is to stick in the chamber after firing. This effect causes delayed ejection, as well as problems with high chamber pressures, and both Payne and Eickhoff realized that aside from its excellent ballistic performance, the short .45 ACP cartridge possessed the best coefficient of its type for use in an automatic weapon. At their suggestion, Thompson agreed to change the design of the rifle, and in September 1917 the ‘Persuader’ was built. This weapon bore a slight resemblance to the now familiar Thompson, but at the time it was an experimental one-off, and ultimately proved unsatisfactory, jamming after every two or three shots. There were several reasons for this problem, the main being that it used an unreliable belt-fed mechanism. Payne recounted that: