"Specially for gangsters" - Thompson submachine gun
"White Leg Warmers Columbo shoots Charlie Toothpick on Valentine's Day." A still from the cult film Some Like It Hot. I saw it in 1966, and that's when I first saw the Annihilator submachine gun (that's the name they came up with before it went on sale!), and it certainly made an impression!
"Our infantry guys in the trenches right now need a small machine gun that will fire 50 to 100 rounds a minute, light enough to drag along while crawling on its belly from trench to trench, and capable of single-handedly destroying an entire company. I need a small machine gun that can be held in the hands, fired from the hip, and reloaded in the dark."
D.T. Thompson, 1918. Memorandum for Rifle Designers weapons.
D.T. Thompson, 1918. Memorandum for Rifle Designers weapons.
And, of course, that “cool mug” was also memorable... A typical gangster, right?
Weapon stories. What submachine gun is a must-have in any 1930s gangster movie? It's a no-brainer—everyone will answer correctly—of course, it's the Thompson submachine gun, which, like our Soviet PPSh, is undoubtedly one of the most famous and recognizable firearms. Although this weapon was originally intended for military use, it gained a rather infamous reputation during Prohibition in the United States due to its use by criminals. Gangsters themselves rarely used it in the 1920s and 30s, but every newspaper of the time reported on it, creating a reputation for it as a strictly "gangster weapon."
The popularity of this weapon was also fueled by television programs in the 1950s and 1960s. After all, it's fair to say that an entire generation of Americans grew up watching FBI agents (and "bad guys" with Thompson submachine guns) on TV every Saturday afternoon and thoroughly enjoying their spectacular shootouts. And today, we'll tell you about this weapon, in great detail.
With the stock removed, the Thompson, along with the shooter, could even fit into a cake! Still from the film "Some Like It Hot"
And here's a still from the equally memorable film "Bluff," starring the inimitable Adriano Celentano. The bandit Beldyuk threatens her friends who swindled her with a Thompson submachine gun, and with a 100-round magazine!
Auto-Ordnance Corporation
Well, ours will begin story The Auto-Ordnance Corporation, founded in 1916 by John Thompson to develop a new rifle for the military, began work on the new semiautomatic weapon, which Thompson called the "Auto-Rifle," in Cleveland, Ohio, with a small staff. War was raging in Europe, and the United States would soon enter the war. Thompson, naturally, was eager to develop his weapon, establish its production, and, he hoped, achieve its adoption as quickly as possible.
The scene is quite typical for US cities during the bootlegging era...
And this is a still from some Italian film. Here, the gangsters use not only the Chicago Piano, but also an MP18.
When Thompson began developing his rifle design, he began by searching for a suitable bolt. He then stumbled upon a principle discovered by John Blish, a US Navy officer who proposed that certain metals, when placed at a certain angle to each other, would alternately attract and repel each other under alternating high and low pressure. Thompson was intrigued by the idea and proposed using it in his rifle.
A still from a film from the final years of the USSR, "Déjà Vu," a 1989 Soviet-Polish co-production starring Jerzy Stuhr. He's holding a Thompson submachine gun, clearly of military design, with a barrel without fins...
Theodore Eickoff, Auto-Ordnance's chief engineer, immediately began experimenting and discovered that the Blish principle didn't work with .30-06 caliber cartridges, but that the .45 ACP pistol cartridge did work with the Blish action. After Eickoff reported this, Thompson proposed creating a .45-caliber light machine gun with a Blish action. Soon, the company began working on a new weapon, which Thompson himself called a "trench broom"—a weapon for sweeping the enemy out of trenches. Ironically, this is precisely what the Germans had in mind when they developed their MP-18 submachine gun.
And this is Tommy Farichetti (Armen Dzhigarkhanyan). He's about to finish off union boss Jack Rafferty (Oleg Borisov) with a Thompson submachine gun. A still from the Soviet three-part television film "Rafferty," produced at Lenfilm in 1980 by director Semyon Aranovich, based on the novel of the same name by American writer Lionel White (1905-1985).
Thus, the Auto-Ordnance Corporation shifted its focus from developing automatic rifles to creating .45-caliber automatic weapons. The result was the Thompson submachine gun, named after its creator, John Thompson. Several prototypes and experimental models were initially created, and then a production model was developed—the Model 1921 submachine gun. Thompson's initial order for 15,000 pistols, placed with Colt's Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company, was fulfilled in just 16 months.
Irish soldier Daniel Hogan, circa 1921, with a Thompson submachine gun with a 100-round magazine.
The arrest of George Kelly Barnes, better known as "Machine Gun Kelly," in 1933. Police agents surround him with Thompson submachine guns.
John T. Thompson
John Taliaferro Thompson was born in Newport, Kentucky, on December 31, 1860. He spent most of his military career in the U.S. Ordnance Department, working at the Springfield and Rock Island Arsenals. Thompson played a key role in the adoption of the .45 ACP cartridge by the U.S. Army and made significant contributions to the modernization of U.S. Army weapons. In 1914, he retired with the rank of colonel. He then took a position as a consulting engineer at Remington Arms. During his time there, John Thompson gained valuable experience in small arms manufacturing.
A well-known photo: Annihilator creator John Taliaferro Thompson
John Thompson was recalled to active military service in 1917, when the United States entered World War I. This time, he was appointed director of arsenals and rose to the rank of brigadier general. He was discharged from active military service in 1918, after the end of World War I. After his discharge from the army, he devoted himself entirely to working for the Auto-Ordnance Corporation. Although John Thompson was not the sole inventor of the famous submachine gun named after him, the weapon would not have come into being without him and his ideas.
The right side of Colt's Thompson pistols bears the name of the Auto-Ordnance Corporation, the New York address, and the dates of the patents.
Theodore H. Eickoff
After graduating from Purdue University in 1908, Theodore Eickoff took a job as an electrical and mechanical draftsman with the U.S. Ordnance Department. While in the Ordnance Department's Small Arms Division, Eickoff met John Thompson and worked with him studying the characteristics of foreign rifles. Shortly after leaving the Ordnance Department, John Thompson invited him to become chief engineer at the newly formed Auto Ordnance Corporation. During World War II, Mr. Eickoff served as an ordnance officer with the Cleveland Army. artillery district.
Model 1921 with 100-round magazine
The same model without a magazine from the Army Museum, Stockholm.
Model 1928 with 50-round magazine, Army Museum, Stockholm
Oscar Payne
Oscar W. Payne was a talented young man. Before joining Auto-Ordnance, he worked for a patent drafting and patent research firm. The firm represented many firearms companies. John Thompson, always on the lookout for talented individuals, recognized Oscar Payne's abilities. When Payne left the patent firm, Thompson hired him as an assistant to Theodore Eickoff, who in turn tasked Payne with developing a .45-caliber submachine gun. Payne is also credited with developing the box magazine, as well as the "L" and "C" drum magazines. Payne's design talent must be recognized: the final version of the Thompson pistol and its magazines was virtually flawless. These designs lasted for many years without significant changes. From 1917 to 1921, he worked at a factory in Cleveland, Ohio.
Advertisement for Thompson as a weapon against bandits!
George E. Goll
George E. Goll was a machinist and helped develop the .45-caliber submachine gun. When the Thompson submachine gun went on sale, Goll traveled the world, demonstrating it to kings, presidents, and army generals. After Eickoff left Auto-Ordnance, Goll became its chief engineer. Goll later became a civilian quality control inspector at Auto-Ordnance Corporation and the Savage Arms factory. His initials, GEG, can be seen on virtually every Savage Thompson submachine gun produced for military use.
Marcellus Thompson
Marcellus Thompson was John Thompson's only son. Like his father and grandfather, Marcellus graduated from West Point. From 1906 to 1919, Marcellus served as an officer in the U.S. Army, after which he left to work for the Auto-Ordnance Corporation. He became vice president and general manager. After his father's retirement in 1928, Marcellus took over the company. Marcellus died shortly before his father, in October 1939, at the age of 56.
"Alive, smoker!" A U.S. Army Special Operations Center/John F. Kennedy School soldier, attending the Special Forces Weapons Sergeant Course, fires an M1A1 Thompson submachine gun during marksmanship training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, May 12, 2020.
Colt's Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company
An agreement between Auto-Ordnance and Colt's Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company, concluded in 1921, also played a significant role in the fate of this submachine gun. This company was subcontracted to produce 15000 submachine guns, as Auto-Ordnance did not have its own production facilities.
All 15,000 Thompson submachine guns originally produced by Colt were branded Model 1921. Auto-Ordnance developed several models based on these pistols, which were sold under various names.
The first batch of Thompson pistols was manufactured to the extremely high quality standards of the time. The Model 1921 featured a high-quality, high-gloss blue finish, complemented by exquisite walnut trim on the stock and pistol grips. Remington Arms was tasked with manufacturing the stocks and some other components. The Lyman Gun Sight Company of Connecticut produced the sights. The rear sight was stepped, and many considered it too complex for such a weapon. The barrel had radial cooling fins and a milled ring front sight. Initially, there was no compensator on the barrel. The action, fire mode selector, and safety levers were finely knurled. Colt-manufactured Thompson submachine guns were inspected by Chief Inspector of Auto-Ordnance John H. Barrett, and many have his initials JHB engraved on the right side of the receiver.
The Model 1921 cost $200 with a single 20-round Type XX box magazine. The first production Thompson, serial number 41, rolled off the assembly line in March 1921. By then, World War I had already ended, and demand for weapons had plummeted. The price was also high, more expensive than many cars, so sales were extremely slow. It took almost twenty years to sell all 15,000 units produced at the start of production.
In 1923, a "new" military model—the Model 1923—was introduced. Its development undoubtedly stemmed from the success of the Browning Automatic Rifle, better known as the BAR, during World War I. The Model 1923 was a standard 1921 Thompson with a longer barrel and a bipod. To increase the effective range, a new, specialized .45-caliber cartridge, known as the Remington-Thompson, was developed. It chambered a 250-grain bullet in a longer, 0,998-inch case. The muzzle velocity of the bullet was 1450 feet per second. The concept of the Thompson military models proved unsuccessful, and after only a few Model 1923s were produced, it was abandoned.
The Model 1921AC, introduced in 1926, was a standard Model 1921 with a Katz compensator on the muzzle. Developed by Colonel Richard Cutts and manufactured by the Lyman Gun Sight Company, the compensator was claimed to significantly reduce muzzle rise and was available for $25. The Thompson submachine gun without the additional compensator was designated the 1921A. The receiver markings remained unchanged. The designations 1921A and 1921AC were used only in Auto-Ordnance promotional literature. In 1932, a new compensator was introduced, which was longer and larger in diameter. The diamond-shaped Cutts logo and the patent date were imprinted on the upper front edge of the new compensator.
The Model 1927 semiautomatic carbine is one of the rarest variants of the early Thompson submachine guns. The Model 1927 was based on the existing Model 1921 models. The unique feature of the Model 1927 was its semiautomatic action. This was done to offer a Thompson submachine gun model to law enforcement agencies and correctional facilities that simply did not want to arm their officers with a submachine gun.
The conversion involved redesigning several internal components. The markings indicating automatic fire were carefully milled out of the receiver and replaced with a different one. The Model 1927 is still considered a firearm registrable in the National Firearms Registry due to its short barrel and submachine gun-like receiver. Model 1927 Thompsons are rarely found in their original semiautomatic configuration. Many were converted at some point to fire in automatic mode. The Model 1927 was produced both with and without the Katz compensator.
The most common Thompson model produced by Colt was the 1928 Navy Model. fleet, also known by collectors as the "Thompson with Additional Markings," the "28 Navy," or the "28N." The Navy Model 1928, like others, was based on the Model 1921A. It was developed at the request of the Marine Corps, which wanted to reduce the rate of fire from 800 to approximately 600 rounds per minute. This was accomplished by redesigning the bolt, adding a steel block. This increased the weight by 110 grams, and, together with a modified recoil spring and buffer mechanism, reduced the rate of fire to an acceptable level. The firing pin spring was also changed and became slightly shorter than in the Model 1921.
All 1928 models produced for the Navy had an 8 superseded by the 1 (in the 1921 designation) to change the designation to 1928. The Navy's endorsement proved a highly effective marketing ploy, and the "1928 Navy" ultimately became the most popular modification of the early Thompson. In correspondence and documents, the military often referred to the 1928 model as the "slowed-down" model. The first "slowed-down" Thompson was successfully tested in January 1927.
Marine Model
"Marine Model" of 1928
The U.S. Marine Corps also showed interest in the Thompson submachine gun, purchasing a total of 671 units between 1926 and 1928. Some of the first submachine guns issued to the Marines were the rapid-fire Model 1921 configuration. Many were later converted to the slower Model 1928 configuration at a cost of $8,50 each.
A disassembled Thompson. In the center is the H-shaped bolt block, which ensures the bolt opens slowly when firing. The bolt clearly shows the inclined grooves along which it moved up and down.
J. Russell Maguire
Russell Maguire, a shrewd businessman, believed that after Japan's invasion of China in 1937 and the events unfolding in Germany, global demand for small arms would soar. Through some financial maneuvering, Maguire was able to acquire a controlling interest in the Auto-Ordnance Corporation. In 1939, he entered into an agreement with Savage Arms to resume production of the Thompson submachine gun, and later opened a factory in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to meet wartime demand.
Although the Thompson submachine gun's design was developed 20 years earlier, Russell Maguire ultimately earned millions of dollars from military contracts and the production of the Thompson submachine gun during World War II. Neither John Thompson nor his son Marcellus, who so believed in their invention, lived to see it widely adopted by the British and American armies.
Kinematic diagram of the Thompson submachine gun's automatic operation
Mechanism operation
After the trigger was pulled, the spring pushed the bolt handle forward, which, through a kinematic linkage provided by an H-shaped bronze insert, pushed the bolt forward. The cylindrical portion of the bolt picked up the top cartridge from the magazine and fed it into the chamber, while the bolt handle pushed the insert and moved it down the inclined grooves of the receiver. As soon as the bolt reached its forwardmost position, the hammer struck the receiver and pushed the firing pin forward, causing the primer to strike.
When a shot is fired, gases press on the bullet and the base of the cartridge case, transmitting momentum to the bolt through its cylindrical section. The bolt, moving rearward, pressed on the insert, causing its lugs to slide along the inclined grooves of the receiver and up the side grooves of the bolt. As the moving parts moved rearward, the insert gained additional acceleration relative to the bolt, and the bolt stem accelerated relative to the bolt, slowing its full opening until the pressure in the barrel dropped to a safe level. When the insert's side lugs reached the horizontal section of the receiver grooves, the bolt moved rearward, ejecting the spent cartridge from the receiver, and then struck a rubber buffer located inside the recoil spring guide rod.
Models produced during the war years used a simple blowback action. The submachine gun with this type of action was designated the M1A1. Magazines for the Thompson submachine gun were fed with .45 ACP rounds. A 20-round box magazine weighed 177 g, a 50-round drum magazine weighed 1180 g, and a 100-round magazine weighed 1715 g. A 30-round magazine was also used. The cartridge weighed 21 g (including the bullet, which weighed 19,96 g), and the muzzle velocity was 280 m/s. Cartridges with a 14,92 g bullet and a muzzle velocity of 390 m/s were also offered. However, the cartridge weight and the steep trajectory of the bullet were serious drawbacks of this type of weapon.
Thompson in the USSR
A Red Army soldier with a Thompson submachine gun
Red Navy sailors…
Interestingly, the USSR became familiar with this submachine gun very early, long before the Great Patriotic War. The first examples were purchased between 1924 and 1927 and were used in Adjara, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, as can be found in the memoirs of L. P. Vasilevsky ("Chekist Tales," 1978) and R. E. Lastochkin ("Footprints in the Hot Sand," 1967). Moreover, the first batch of M1921 Thompson submachine guns arrived in the USSR via Mexico in 1924 and were adopted by the OGPU and border guards as "Thompson light machine guns," and were used against Basmachi gangs.
During the Great Patriotic War, the Thompson submachine gun became a well-known weapon in our country. The fact is, all American equipment sent to us under Lend-Lease was equipped with them. The Willys trucks, which were shipped to us in huge numbers, the Dodge and Studebaker trucks, and even motorcycles all carried one or two of these submachine guns. But there were also deliveries of submachine guns and ammunition for them, totaling 137,000 Thompson submachine guns and 306 million rounds of ammunition (figures cited by Yu. Veremeyev in his work "Lend-Lease"), which goes somewhat beyond the scope of equipment.
"Barbudos" Fidel Castro and Camilo Cienfuegos in Havana
And here's another thing: just visit any "diggers" website and find the section dedicated to the Thompson submachine gun, and the entire geography of that war's battles is revealed. It turns out that Thompson submachine guns and spent cartridges from them have been found everywhere: in the Murmansk, Leningrad, Pskov, and Voronezh regions, Crimea, and Kuban. They're especially numerous in places where the heaviest fighting took place in 1941-1942: Tikhvin, Luga, Rzhev, and Korotoyak. Here, cartridges and even ammunition are found everywhere.
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