WWII Tech Pubs Briefing

Written by
Justin Riggir

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Overview

During the later stages of WWI, Germany began to evolve new mobile warfare techniques that would later become known as Blitzkrieg. One of the new types of weapon used by the highly mobile shock troops was Hugo Schmeisser’s 1917 Maschinenpistole (machine pistol, MP) 18. It would become the prototype for almost every subsequent submachine gun in the world. 

In 1927, Heinrich Vollmer and Bert­hold Giepel, manager of Erfurt Maschinenwerk (Erma), patented the design of a selective-fire submachine gun similar in layout to the MP 18 with the bolt, firing pin, and return spring as a self-contained unit enclosed within a single telescoping tubular casing.  During disassembly, the bolt and spring could be lifted out as a unit, reducing the danger of the action 'flying' apart, and the arrangement also proofed most of the working parts against dust and dirt.  Erma’s 1935 model took advantage of a perforated barrel jacket and some safety modifications. The 1935 model was bought by Yugoslavia and France, which issued it as the Pistolet mitrailleur (submachine gun) Vollmer Erma.

Germany had begun to develop tactics that called for mobile infantry with plenty of automatic firepower - and the submachine gun was easy for untrained men to learn to use.  In 1938, the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (Wehrmacht High Command, OKW) issued a specification for a submachine gun suited to mobile warfare.  The Germans chose Erma’s automatic-fire-only design which, upon entering service August 1938 as the MP 38, became the first submachine gun to play a major role in a first-grade army.

In a nod to the future, the MP 38 eschewed wood in favor of plastic and employed a folding metal butt.  It retained the blow-back mechanism and telescopic bolt assembly.  Below the barrel, a lug prevented the weapon from inadvertently moving inboard while firing from the gun port of an armored vehicle.  A 32-round box magazine inserted below the receiver fed the ammunition.

MP 38 production used traditional gunsmithing methods and took an unacceptable length of time to make.  The MP 40 was essentially the same gun as the MP 38, although stamped rather than tooled and with design changes that rendered the gun less likely to fire when jolted.  Visually, the only difference was that the MP  40 had four horizontal ridges on the magazine receptacle, and the lightening cuts milled into the receiver body were eliminated.  Distribution of the MP 40 began in mid 1940.  All MP 38s were eventually converted to the MP 40 standard in time. 

The MP 38/40s offered the operator accurate and stable fire, even when loosing prolonged bursts.  The weapons’ biggest weakness was the magazine/receiver interface which would occasionally jam on dirt or the cylindrical Parabellum cartridges.

Allied troops called these guns “Schmeissers”, presumably after World War I’s MP 18s.  That nickname is totally incorrect.

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Specifications

Figures are for the Maschinenpistole 38.