"Own and others." Submachine gun "Suomi" M26
Submachine gun "Suomi" M26. Royal Arsenal, Leeds. Source: royalarmouries.org
God gives to each his own.
First Corinthians 7:17-24
First Corinthians 7:17-24
stories about weapons. It all started with the fact that even during the First World War, the German gunsmith Hugo Schmeisser designed the MP / 18-I submachine gun, the production of which at the German arms factory Theodor Bergman began in 1918. This weapon was the first practical submachine gun. And although less than 10 of them were released before the end of the war, he gained such a high reputation that the Treaty of Versailles banned submachine guns among the weapons of the new German army.
It is clear that from the very beginning it is very difficult to create something absolutely perfect. The MP / 18-I submachine gun also had a serious drawback, the magazine of which was far from ideal, because it used a complex and unreliable “snail magazine”, originally developed for the artillery version of the Parabellum pistol.
Corporal of the Finnish Civil Guard with a Bergman submachine gun. Taken in 1920
Shortly after the end of World War I, Schmeisser developed an improved submachine gun design directly based on the MP/18-I for production at the Bergman factories. The main improvement was that it used conventional box magazines. Since it was not possible to produce it in Germany, Bergmann licensed the production of this improved MP / 18-I to the Swiss arms factory SIG (Schweitzerische Industrie-Gesellschaft).
Following the deal, SIG began manufacturing submachine guns in several calibers. And then, between 1920 and 1927, they began to be exported to various countries, including Japan, China and Finland. Japanese and Chinese submachine guns were chambered in 7,63x25 Mauser. The Estonian submachine gun "Tallinn" of the 1923 model, produced in small quantities, was also designed on the basis of the MP / 18-I. The production of submachine guns by SIG ceased in 1927. True, in 1930 the company introduced its improved version, but it did not have much commercial success. In parallel, in Germany, further improvement of the MP / 18-I led to the appearance of the MP / 28-II submachine gun.
And then it turned out that the Finnish machine-building plant of Leonard Lindelöf received a license to manufacture the Bergman submachine gun in 1922. As the name implies, the factory was owned by Leonhard Lindelöf, and the submachine guns that the factory was supposed to produce under license were replicas of the Swiss M/20. Lindelöf had grandiose plans for the large-scale mass production of submachine guns, and he invested in it accordingly. At first, the prospects of this plant looked optimistic, since the first order came very quickly: already in December 1922, the Finnish Civil Guard (Suojeluskunta) ordered 200 submachine guns, identical to the 7,65 mm M / 20 model.
However, the order was executed for eight whole months, so there were even accusations of sabotage. And the whole point was that from the point of view of production, the Bergman submachine gun was a typical submachine gun of the 1st generation - that is, a complex weapon, the details of which were machined from steel on lathes. Therefore, their manufacture was slow and required a large number of tools and equipment. Let's face it, Leonard Lindelöf underestimated the time required to set up production, and delivery delays became a direct violation of the contract, which is why Suojeluskunta canceled her order.
This was a heavy blow to the company's reputation, especially since the cunning Swiss immediately offered Suojeluskunta their submachine guns, and at a better price. Lindelöf lost his most important customer, and when the first submachine guns produced at his factory were finally finished in 1925, the factory had to literally force them on the police, customs officers, and coast guards. But they sold only 40 pieces, and 160 pieces were gathering dust in the warehouse.
In 1930, Lindelöf contacted Suojeluskunta again, trying to sell her his remaining submachine guns. However, the Civil Guard lost all interest in them, since the new Suomi submachine gun made the Bergman design obsolete. Shortly thereafter, Lindelöf's factory ran into financial difficulties.
In 1932, he again contacted the Civil Guard, who decided to help the plant by ordering ... ten submachine guns, which the plant was supposed to make from unfinished parts. The plant gave her a dozen ready-made submachine guns as a pledge. But once again, the fulfillment of the contract turned out to be impossible for the plant - as before, the delivery of even these 10 submachine guns was repeatedly delayed. In the end, the Civil Guard was left with no choice but to terminate the contract and take back the 12 submachine guns previously given as collateral.
Lindelöf was finished off by her decision in the same year to purchase only Suomi M / 31 submachine guns instead of his Bergmans. Lindelöf was forced to sell all the equipment and tools for their production at the price of scrap metal. Nevertheless, a small number of Bergman submachine guns manufactured by Lindelöf in Finland were used both during the Second World War and after it. The estimated production of these submachine guns was only about 60 or 70 units. Although the Lindelöf factory never produced firearms again, it did produce some types of small arms during World War II.
Top view of the Bergman and MP/28-II submachine guns. The two pistols look almost the same, so it's often difficult to tell them apart. In this photo, the Bergman submachine gun is at the top, and below it is an MP / 28-II. In this photo, the magazines accidentally ended up next to a submachine gun with which they were not used - a longer magazine for 50 rounds fits the Bergman
Interestingly, the Finnish army in the early 1920s, like most armies of that time, was not interested in submachine guns. Then they generally doubted that this type of weapon would be useful to the military. However, when it came to acquiring new types of weapons, the Finnish Civil Guard (Suojeluskunta) purchased the first batch of 1 Bergman submachine guns as early as 000. By July 1922, she had purchased a total of 1932 submachine guns, of which 1 were 415x1mm and five 410x7,65mm pistols.
But as soon as the Finnish army was convinced of the excellent qualities of the Suomi M / 31, the Finnish Civil Guard decided to follow its example and from that moment began to acquire M / 31 submachine guns instead of the previous Bergmans.
Comparative size of the Suomi M26 and the American Thompson
On September 30, 1939, just two months before the Winter War, the Civil Guard was armed with 25 Suomi M / 26 and only 20 Suomi M / 31, as well as 1 Bergman submachine guns. It is noteworthy that especially in the 415s, the Civil Guard often handed over their Bergman submachine guns to the Border Guard Service, which at that time had practically no automatic weapons of its own.
Finnish soldier with a submachine gun "Bergman"
But ... the Finns would not have "Bergman", they would not have had "Suomi", because, according to Aimo Lahti himself, he had an interest in developing his own submachine gun after he held a pistol in his hands - Bergman machine gun, and was convinced that it could be significantly improved. Lahti thought that he could improve it and ... turned out to be right.
On June 1, 1921, he was accepted as a gunsmith in the Keski-Suomi regiment, and soon after that he began to develop his idea for a submachine gun. The first prototype he ordered was a miniature example in 7,65x17 mm (Browning, also known as .32 ACP), only about 30 cm long, made for him by a Viale blacksmith. This prototype was not a piece of weapon art, but it proved that the design proposed by Lahti is workable.
In 1922, he ordered a full-size submachine gun chambered for 7,65x21 mm Parabellum, in addition to enlisting the support of the commanders of the Keski-Suomi regiment, lieutenant colonels V. Hagglund and E. Heinrichs. Nevertheless, to receive state funding for this development work they failed. In the spring of 1923, this sample was sent to the Ministry of Defense, but did not arouse interest. Apparently, M / 22 was still not very well made, but it had great hidden potential.
In October 1923, Aimo Lahti and Lieutenant Yrjö Koskinen, an officer of the Keski-Suomi regiment, received a patent for the Suomi submachine gun. In June 1924, the submachine gun LLC (Konepistooliosakeyhtiö) joint-stock company was established with two more shareholder officers who served in the same regiment. The other shareholders of this new commercial venture were Captain V. Korpela and Lieutenant L. Boyer-Schuff (who later changed his surname to Poijärvi). In total, the company issued 150 shares. Of these, Lahti received 45, Korpela 45, Koskinen 30 and Boyer-Schuf 30 shares. Since the cost of one share was 500 Finnish marks, then, at least on paper, the total capital of the company was quite large at that time and amounted to 75 Finnish marks.
In 1930, the company sold its Suomi submachine gun patent to Tikkakosken Rauta ja Puuteollisuusyhtiö (Tikkakoski Iron and Wood Industry Ltd) for FIM 65 and a 000% royalty on all Suomi submachine guns produced by the company.
Submachine gun "Suomi" M / 26 with a rather eccentric magazine for 36 rounds. Note the three position fire selector on the side of the weapon and the barrel shroud latch handle in front of the magazine. The store itself could be removed by pressing the lever located at the back against it. The bolt box ends in a screw-on sleeve with four air valve holes behind the bolt handle. To slow down the rate of fire, it used a system with the original vacuum braking of the bolt: both the receiver, and its cover and bolt were so tightly fitted to each other, so that the bolt moved inside, like a piston in a cylinder, and a breakthrough of air between the walls of the receiver and the shutter was practically absent. There was a valve in the receiver that allowed air to pass only out, but not in. When the bolt moved back (after firing), the air from the back of the receiver exited through the valve (in this case, excess pressure slowed down the rollback of the bolt). When the shutter moved forward, the valve closed, a vacuum appeared behind the shutter, and it slowed down the shutter. Due to this, it was possible to somewhat reduce the mass of the shutter, and improve the accuracy of shooting, especially when firing single shots! Royal Arsenal, Leeds
Now Lahti ordered a whole hundred samples of his submachine gun, and in August 1924, the Ministry of Defense of Finland finally became interested in them. In February 1925, the first batch of 13 submachine guns was inspected by the Artillery Directorate of the Finnish Armed Forces. The weapon worked well, but the magazines required custom fitting, and the barrels of some submachine guns had time to rust slightly. However, they passed the test, and the army ordered ten more submachine guns in October 1925, 39 in March 1926, and even more - bought all the previously made prototypes. This turned out to be very useful, because by this time Konepistouliosakeyhtiö and its shareholders were almost completely ruined, and any money was very useful to them. Of this series of about 100 units, most (more than 60) fell into the Finnish army, but the civil guards and the border guards also got some of them, and five submachine guns were sold to Estonia.
The submachine guns of this production series were later designated M/26 to distinguish them from the M/31. Interestingly, "his" M / 26 cost only about 2 Finnish marks for a submachine gun, while the "Bergman" at that time cost twice as much: 200 Finnish marks. The 4-round sector magazine used in the M/500 was unique in that it was not used in any other weapon. The weight of a full magazine was about 36 grams. Like the later M/26, the M/800 had a quick-change barrel that allowed it to be changed in seconds. Usually a submachine gun was issued along with a spare barrel and a tool bag.
A sentry from the Mänttä supply training center with a Suomi M/26 submachine gun. The ETP road sign next to it is a food supply point. Taken in January 1942
TTX "Suomi" M / 26
Caliber: 7,65x21mm Parabellum (.30 Luger)
Length: 930 mm
Barrel length: 350 mm
Weight: 4,18 kg
Rate of fire: 600/min or 750/min
Shop: 36 cartridges
Production: about 100 produced between 1925 and 1926.
The M/26 never saw real combat use during World War II, but they were used by troops on guard duty behind the lines. During the war, they were apparently issued, but with only two magazines for one submachine gun. They survived until the post-war period, but in 1959 the remaining 57 M/26s were sold to Interarmco and sent abroad in 1960. It was one of the darkest moments in stories Finnish weapons, since along with the usual M / 26, all its one-of-a-kind prototypes were sold. People simply did not understand their historical value. Fortunately, at least they were not scrapped, and they ended up in foreign museums and weapons collectors.
Original sector store
Aimo Lahti himself was not completely satisfied with the M / 26 submachine gun, believing that the supply of cartridges in it was not as reliable as it should have been, and the stock was strong enough for a first-class military weapon. But already during the development of the M / 31 submachine gun, he removed the extra space in front of the bolt (which allowed the cartridge to move to the sides, which jammed the weapon), and the feeding problems disappeared. He also received a slanted cut on the casing, which somewhat reduced the tendency to lift the weapon when firing.
The barrel casing has become simpler and more durable. The example is also larger. But the most important change that happened to the M / 31 submachine gun was the change in its caliber to 9x19 mm "Parabellum", so that the "narrow neck" for 7,65x21 cartridges on the old model had to be somewhat widened. Lahti developed all these improvements, as well as a new 20-round box magazine and a 40-round drum magazine between 1930 and 1931, only there was no factory for the production of this new submachine gun in Finland yet ...
"Suomi" M26 at the National Museum of the Frontier Forces (formerly the British Border Agency), Liverpool, UK
However, there were already materials about M / 31 here at VO, and in this case we are interested in M / 26 - which became its prototype. Despite the fact that it had to be made on metal-cutting machines in the same way, this submachine gun had an original pneumatic shock absorber and a well-thought-out design, which was an undoubted success for a novice designer, which was Aimo Lahti!
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