The Thompson submachine gun struggled to find a market when it was originally produced, with the first batch of 15,000 Colt-made guns not finally all selling until the late 1930s. By that time, the clouds of war were gathering, and demand for submachine guns finally began to really grow. The US military had some Thompsons, and the British began buying as many as they could. The US wanted to increase production, and that meant simplifying the gun, both to reduce cost and to increase manufacturing efficiency. Talks to this end began in late 1941, and by February 1942 the engineers at Savage had a prototype of what would become the M1 Thompson.
This new version simplified almost every element of the gun, but most significantly it replaced the 3-piece Blish lock bolt with a solid one-piece affair that just worked as a normal blowback action. Unnecessary elements like the vertical front grip, Cutt’s compensator, quick-detach stock, and fancy contoured selector levers were discarded. The adjustable Lyman rear sight was replaced by a single metal tab with an aperture (quickly given a set of protective wings though, as the tab alone proved too fragile). The recoil guide rod was simplified, the oiling pads inside the receiver removed, and a simpler recoil buffer designed. The capability to use drum magazines was also discarded, and a new 30-round box magazine took their place.
The M1 was adopted in the spring of 1942, and July saw the first major delivery, of 48,000 guns. Simplifiecation work continued, however, and by the end of October a yet-simpler M1A1 pattern was adopted. This model replaced the hammer mechanism with a fixed firing pin. As a result, M1 production lasted only about 5 months. A total of 285,480 M1 Thompsons were made, but most of these were retrofitted to M1A1 configuration by simply swapping in the simpler new bolt. Finding intact M1 configuration guns is rather unusual today as a result.
An interesting read
ReplyDeleteI got to fire a WW-II M1A1 Thompson 30 round mag back in the mid-1960s. If ya wanted to "stich" someone you had to aim about 2 feet left of their right foot and let the weapon walk up and to the right.
ReplyDelete"Spray and pray"
DeleteIn the movie "Public Enemy" the 'special effects' were in their infancy. For the scene where Jimmy Cagney's character is fired at by a gangland hitman with a Thompson the director hired a WWI vetern gunnery Sgt. Who fired live ammo at Jimmy, those bullet impacts on the wall... were real.
ReplyDeleteJimmy Cagney absolutely refused to be in the window when the gunner shot the gun at the window. Afterwards it was quite evident that Cagney would have been perforated. And it started to move for prop guns and not firing real bullets.
DeleteGreat weapon. Heavy. We still had M-3A1 Grease Guns into the 80's and I always loved firing them. Way cheaper, but I never had one fail. If you had any SF friends, you could shoot some MP-5's. 9mm is way more controllable than the old .45's, but if you had enough ammo to practice with, you could be damned effective with them. Eod1sg Ret
ReplyDeleteI went to the range once with some 5th Group guys when I was at Ft Campbell. I got to shoot an MP5, an AK47 AND an AK74 and, to top it off, a BAR. What a great day.
DeleteThe son of a friend was a tanker Plt Ldr. He screwed up and his grease gun was turned to scrap by the treads. Had to pay for it. Something like $17.40 as I recall.
DeleteWould love to have one.
The thing I didn't like about the Thompson, at least the postwar version I shot, was the back of the stock was angled so it kept slipping down off my shoulder.
ReplyDeleteIf I had kept it, I would have "straightened" the contour.
I used a strip of adhesive-backed sandpaper to add grip.
Fun carbine, though.
fell in love with it after firing it. the M1a1 version. got to fire a 1928 model later and it was okay. yes, it was heavy, magazines where either 20 rounders or 30's saw more 20 round ones than 30 anyway. a nice simple weapon for close in work. seem to me if you got off 3 to 4 rounds at a time, it was very easy to keep on target. the M3A1 was junk, never could hit anything with that thing. if I ever win the lottery, I am getting one for sure ! dave in pa.
ReplyDeleteFavorite full auto, gangster grips and all. The American 180 is a close second, like a .22 lr mini Thompson with a big pancake mag on top.
ReplyDelete"They were expensive."
ReplyDeleteHow expensive? If a guy wanted to buy a Thompson in 1935, what would it set him back?
I'm guessing about $10, the same amount would probably buy you a house and 10 acres of land back then as well. With change left over.
DeleteLooks like in the 1920’s a Thompson would set you back about $200. A new Ford at the time cost about $400. By WWII the M3/M3A1 Grease Gun could be made for about $15.
ReplyDeleteSaw a number of them and the grease gun in Vietnam. Being as I was on Huey gunships as a backseater I had a belt fed M-60 and it was great. Hung it from the door roof rail with a M-14 shoulder strap in the event you dropped it. Seems the nature of little boys and machine guns is they all want something the ground troops have and trades do take place. Also my unit issue weapon at that time was the M-14 and mine had the famous fast fire selector but it was a real handful out a helicopter door. Hated it when we had to turn them in for the M-16. I never carried it as a backup weapon as I had a spare M-60 as did my crew chief. Had a number of different weapons and jst carried them because! I'm sure a few folding stock AKs were shipped to the states in hold baggage crates. Always wonder what became of those as I did speak to the receiver some years later prior to the FTA allowing any unregister automatic weapons to be grandfathered. Only lasted for a year or so as I recall but if you registered it you can still have it. Should have rolled the dice and took a chance. oh Well!
ReplyDelete