The American designed and manufactured Thompson 0.45 inch (11 mm) calibre sub-machine gun made famous by the Chicago gangsters like Al 'Scarface' Capone and others. It went to war in WW2 and did good work. The troops called it the Tommy Gun.
Yes the Thompson equipped many allied units although the round drum type magazine was repleced by a straight 30 round clip by the time it was in use generally during WW2.
The Thompson, especially the early Model 1921, has a fairly high rate of fire at 900+ rounds per minute (rpm), higher than many other submachine guns of smaller caliber. This rate of fire, combined with a rather heavy trigger pull and a stock with excessive drop, increases the tendency of the gun to climb off target in automatic fire. Approximately 1,700,000 of these weapons were produced.
Although the Thompson sub-machine gun was not an ideal military weapon, its American symbolism, arising from pre-war gangster films, made it another propaganda coup. The British soon replaced it by the cheaper and lighter Sten, though it remained in limited service.
As ever the great man is willing to respond to an SOS.. Hi James, Thompson’s were few and far between in those days. You would be privileged to get hold of one. The Sten? The worst bit of kit that was ever invented. I nearly killed my mate just by putting it on the ground. It cost about 7/- seven shillings to make, and was of welded construction. taking the 2 Dollars to the pound (as at present) the cost of a Sten would be about the equivalent of 35cents !! It was cheap and very nasty...And if you could get your fingers chopped if you were not careful. The German equivalent was the Schmeiser (Spelling?) That was a beautiful weapon, highly accurate, high rate of fire, and the balance was superb......Our men could not use them if they captured one. The sound would draw a burst from your own men..... It was reputed that some men died! We seldom used captured weapons. Though we did on the Goodwood operation, and fired a Moaning Minnie (Nebelwerfer) back at the Germans, the reaction was violent in the extreme. So violent that a message went out..... Please stop! Best wishes James. Brian.
Hi! Fascinating indeed. Cańt get enough of ww2 stories ever since my grand uncs told me theirs when I was a kid. I was like the last honorable war. And we do pray it is the last one.
