Another sneak peek at a future article. Comments welcome.
John
One of the most iconic and recognizable weapons of the World War II period was the German Maschinenpistole 40 (MP 40) submachine gun and its look-alike predecessor, the MP 38. These were commonly called “Schmeissers” by Allied troops, but in fact most of the development work for these guns can be attributed to someone other than Hugo Schmeisser. His main contribution was the design of the magazine for this series. In Hollywood movies, one could get the impression that almost every German soldier was armed with an MP 40, but although this arm was indeed widely issued, the Germans’ main battlefield individual weapon during WWII was the bolt action K98k 7.9mm Mauser rifle. The features of the MP 40, while not revolutionary, were effective enough that they were copied to some degree in the design of the British Sten and American M3/M3A1 submachine guns. The story of this highly regarded weapon is an interesting one.
In 1936, anticipating the need for a more advanced submachine gun than the WWI-era wooden-stocked MP18, the German Army tasked and funded the manufacturing firm Erma Werke to develop one. What resulted was a machined steel prototype called the MP 36. It was developed by Berthold Geipel. Geipel based his design on certain features originated by Heinrich Vollmer in his earlier VPM 1930 and EMP submachine guns. The MP36 was not really suited for economical manufacture, so the German waffenamt, or weapons authority, put out a request for a better version. Vollmer then undertook to do that, simplifying Geipel’s design and submitted a prototype. This was a blowback folding-stock 9mm Parabellum design with a 32-round magazine. It was accepted as the MP 38, and was quickly put into production. It was produced from 1938 to 1940 at Erma Werke.
The full-automatic-only design had a recoil spring that was fully enclosed by three telescoping tubes that served as a sort of pneumatic buffer and helped to keep dirt away from the spring. The ribbed upper receiver had a slot for the operating handle, and had a “safety slot” for the handle to enter, holding the bolt more securely to the rear. The gun had a forward-folding metal stock, and the magazine well also served as a front grip. A reinforced plastic lower section joined the upper with the aluminum lower receiver. Usually colored dark reddish brown or black, it served as a heat shield to protect the user from burns on the hands when carrying the piece. There was a long firing pin at the front of the recoil spring that protruded constantly from the face of the bolt. This was in effect a replaceable substitute for a fixed firing pin. Pulling the trigger released the bolt to go forward under the pressure of the recoil spring, chamber a round, slam fire it, and continue to do so until the trigger was released or the magazine emptied. A plastic or metal “resting bar” with a forward projection ran the lower length of the barrel. Its purpose was to keep the muzzle from pulling back from armored vehicle ports or edges, thus helping to prevent inadvertent firing while inside the vehicle. The grip panels were plastic. A two-leaf notched rear sight worked with a hooded front sight. The muzzle was threaded for accessories and had a screw-on protector.
The MP 38 was not without its problems, and some needed improvements were made. For one thing, if the bolt was forward on an empty chamber and a loaded magazine was inserted, dropping the gun could cause the heavy bolt to drop back behind the magazine under inertia and against spring pressure. It would then go forward, stripping a round from the magazine into the chamber and firing it. This was not conducive to the health of the user. A field expedient was the issuance of a leather harness with a small loop that could be wrapped around the bolt handle to keep the bolt in the forward position. Later MP 38s had the bolt handle as a separate part, which could be pushed into one of two notches in the raceway to lock the bolt either forward or back.
Soon, the product-improved MP 40 was adopted. It dispensed with the machined grooved upper receiver, substituting a simpler stamped and formed part. A large hole in the magazine housing was eliminated. This space was replaced by stamped ribs. The formerly aluminum rear grip frame was now stamped from steel and formed. The steel middle section of the telescoping spring tube was drawn and pinched. A new extractor and magazine release assembly was fitted. There were other minor improvements. These things saved some weight and reduced production time and cost. A common problem with both the MP 38 and the MP 40 was that soldiers often grabbed the magazine itself as a forward grip, pulling it out of correct alignment and causing misfeeds. The Germans quickly instructed their troops to grasp only the magazine well, not the magazine itself. A problem that was never solved was that although the magazine was a double-stack type, it had a single point feed arrangement. The traffic jam of rounds meeting there and the additional friction that system caused did not make for reliability. Users often loaded the magazine with 30 or 28 rounds rather than 32 to lessen the increased friction inherent in a fully-loaded mag. Unfortunately, the British Sten and the U.S. M3/M3A1 subguns copied this arrangement instead of using the well-thought-out Thompson SMG-type magazine which reliably fed its double-stack rounds alternately from one side and then the other.
The MP 40 weighed about 8.8 pounds empty, had a barrel length of 9.9 inches, and measured 32.8 inches with the folding stock extended. Folded, it taped out at a compact 24.8 inches. Its rate of fire was from 500 to 550 rounds per minute. Muzzle velocity varied with the 9mm ammunition, but was in the 1250 to 1300 fps range. I have had the opportunity to fire the one illustrated a few years ago, made by Haenel (located in Suhl) in 1942. It had little recoil, and was as easy to fire as spraying a garden hose. I was quite impressed with it. Although the arm is full automatic only, with practice, one can tap off single shots. The effective range was about 80 yards.
40,576 MP 38s were produced during the war, and 869,792 MP 40s. The prime manufacturers were Erma Werke, Steyr, Haenel, and Erfurter Maschinenfabrick B. Geipel GmbH. Although the arm was ideally suited for the fallschirmjaegers (paratroopers) of the Luftwaffe, it was also initially issued to squad and platoon leaders in the Wehrmacht and the Waffen SS. By the war’s end it was widely distributed through all the services and issued to nearly all ranks.
Noticing that the Russians on Germany’s eastern front were using PPSh 41 submachine guns with 71-round drum magazines, a variation of the MP 40 was made that could use 64 rounds contained in two side-by-side 32-round magazines. These could be individually selected in a sideways-sliding mount. This was the MP 40/I, and its weight was thereby increased by a little over a pound. A wood-stocked selective-fire version was designed by Hugo Schmeisser for Haenel, and was designated as the MP 41. In 1944, efforts began to replace both the MP 40 and K98k rifle with the selective-fire MP44 / StG 44 Sturmgewehr assault rifle, which used an intermediate-power rifle cartridge. Unfortunately for the Germans, this revolutionary and effective arm never achieved full production before the war was over.
After the war, captured MP 40s were often distributed by the Allies to developing countries, and were used in Greece, Israel, Korea, and Vietnam. The Norwegian Army used them from 1945 to about 1970, and their Home Guard issued them until the early 1990s. Some are still encountered around the world in various conflicts.
The MP 40, while imperfect, was still a formidable submachine gun, and was highly respected during WWII. It was, and is, a classic weapon of that war.
(c) 2015 JLM
John
One of the most iconic and recognizable weapons of the World War II period was the German Maschinenpistole 40 (MP 40) submachine gun and its look-alike predecessor, the MP 38. These were commonly called “Schmeissers” by Allied troops, but in fact most of the development work for these guns can be attributed to someone other than Hugo Schmeisser. His main contribution was the design of the magazine for this series. In Hollywood movies, one could get the impression that almost every German soldier was armed with an MP 40, but although this arm was indeed widely issued, the Germans’ main battlefield individual weapon during WWII was the bolt action K98k 7.9mm Mauser rifle. The features of the MP 40, while not revolutionary, were effective enough that they were copied to some degree in the design of the British Sten and American M3/M3A1 submachine guns. The story of this highly regarded weapon is an interesting one.
In 1936, anticipating the need for a more advanced submachine gun than the WWI-era wooden-stocked MP18, the German Army tasked and funded the manufacturing firm Erma Werke to develop one. What resulted was a machined steel prototype called the MP 36. It was developed by Berthold Geipel. Geipel based his design on certain features originated by Heinrich Vollmer in his earlier VPM 1930 and EMP submachine guns. The MP36 was not really suited for economical manufacture, so the German waffenamt, or weapons authority, put out a request for a better version. Vollmer then undertook to do that, simplifying Geipel’s design and submitted a prototype. This was a blowback folding-stock 9mm Parabellum design with a 32-round magazine. It was accepted as the MP 38, and was quickly put into production. It was produced from 1938 to 1940 at Erma Werke.
The full-automatic-only design had a recoil spring that was fully enclosed by three telescoping tubes that served as a sort of pneumatic buffer and helped to keep dirt away from the spring. The ribbed upper receiver had a slot for the operating handle, and had a “safety slot” for the handle to enter, holding the bolt more securely to the rear. The gun had a forward-folding metal stock, and the magazine well also served as a front grip. A reinforced plastic lower section joined the upper with the aluminum lower receiver. Usually colored dark reddish brown or black, it served as a heat shield to protect the user from burns on the hands when carrying the piece. There was a long firing pin at the front of the recoil spring that protruded constantly from the face of the bolt. This was in effect a replaceable substitute for a fixed firing pin. Pulling the trigger released the bolt to go forward under the pressure of the recoil spring, chamber a round, slam fire it, and continue to do so until the trigger was released or the magazine emptied. A plastic or metal “resting bar” with a forward projection ran the lower length of the barrel. Its purpose was to keep the muzzle from pulling back from armored vehicle ports or edges, thus helping to prevent inadvertent firing while inside the vehicle. The grip panels were plastic. A two-leaf notched rear sight worked with a hooded front sight. The muzzle was threaded for accessories and had a screw-on protector.
The MP 38 was not without its problems, and some needed improvements were made. For one thing, if the bolt was forward on an empty chamber and a loaded magazine was inserted, dropping the gun could cause the heavy bolt to drop back behind the magazine under inertia and against spring pressure. It would then go forward, stripping a round from the magazine into the chamber and firing it. This was not conducive to the health of the user. A field expedient was the issuance of a leather harness with a small loop that could be wrapped around the bolt handle to keep the bolt in the forward position. Later MP 38s had the bolt handle as a separate part, which could be pushed into one of two notches in the raceway to lock the bolt either forward or back.
Soon, the product-improved MP 40 was adopted. It dispensed with the machined grooved upper receiver, substituting a simpler stamped and formed part. A large hole in the magazine housing was eliminated. This space was replaced by stamped ribs. The formerly aluminum rear grip frame was now stamped from steel and formed. The steel middle section of the telescoping spring tube was drawn and pinched. A new extractor and magazine release assembly was fitted. There were other minor improvements. These things saved some weight and reduced production time and cost. A common problem with both the MP 38 and the MP 40 was that soldiers often grabbed the magazine itself as a forward grip, pulling it out of correct alignment and causing misfeeds. The Germans quickly instructed their troops to grasp only the magazine well, not the magazine itself. A problem that was never solved was that although the magazine was a double-stack type, it had a single point feed arrangement. The traffic jam of rounds meeting there and the additional friction that system caused did not make for reliability. Users often loaded the magazine with 30 or 28 rounds rather than 32 to lessen the increased friction inherent in a fully-loaded mag. Unfortunately, the British Sten and the U.S. M3/M3A1 subguns copied this arrangement instead of using the well-thought-out Thompson SMG-type magazine which reliably fed its double-stack rounds alternately from one side and then the other.
The MP 40 weighed about 8.8 pounds empty, had a barrel length of 9.9 inches, and measured 32.8 inches with the folding stock extended. Folded, it taped out at a compact 24.8 inches. Its rate of fire was from 500 to 550 rounds per minute. Muzzle velocity varied with the 9mm ammunition, but was in the 1250 to 1300 fps range. I have had the opportunity to fire the one illustrated a few years ago, made by Haenel (located in Suhl) in 1942. It had little recoil, and was as easy to fire as spraying a garden hose. I was quite impressed with it. Although the arm is full automatic only, with practice, one can tap off single shots. The effective range was about 80 yards.
40,576 MP 38s were produced during the war, and 869,792 MP 40s. The prime manufacturers were Erma Werke, Steyr, Haenel, and Erfurter Maschinenfabrick B. Geipel GmbH. Although the arm was ideally suited for the fallschirmjaegers (paratroopers) of the Luftwaffe, it was also initially issued to squad and platoon leaders in the Wehrmacht and the Waffen SS. By the war’s end it was widely distributed through all the services and issued to nearly all ranks.
Noticing that the Russians on Germany’s eastern front were using PPSh 41 submachine guns with 71-round drum magazines, a variation of the MP 40 was made that could use 64 rounds contained in two side-by-side 32-round magazines. These could be individually selected in a sideways-sliding mount. This was the MP 40/I, and its weight was thereby increased by a little over a pound. A wood-stocked selective-fire version was designed by Hugo Schmeisser for Haenel, and was designated as the MP 41. In 1944, efforts began to replace both the MP 40 and K98k rifle with the selective-fire MP44 / StG 44 Sturmgewehr assault rifle, which used an intermediate-power rifle cartridge. Unfortunately for the Germans, this revolutionary and effective arm never achieved full production before the war was over.
After the war, captured MP 40s were often distributed by the Allies to developing countries, and were used in Greece, Israel, Korea, and Vietnam. The Norwegian Army used them from 1945 to about 1970, and their Home Guard issued them until the early 1990s. Some are still encountered around the world in various conflicts.
The MP 40, while imperfect, was still a formidable submachine gun, and was highly respected during WWII. It was, and is, a classic weapon of that war.
(c) 2015 JLM
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