DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
---------------------------------------------------------
Firearms and Ammunition
HTML https://firearmsandammunition.createaforum.com
---------------------------------------------------------
*****************************************************
DIR Return to: Historic events and people
*****************************************************
#Post#: 135--------------------------------------------------
Thompson Machine gun
DIR By: allmanav
Date: April 7, 2020, 8:28 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Much of human history is tied to the firearms man has invented
to wage war and defend himself from others. For me, one of the
most fascinating periods is the waning years of the 19th century
and the first half of the 20th. It is during this period that
the Industrial Revolution came into full bloom, yet carried with
it the notions of craftsmanship and beauty from a time when such
things as assembly lines and interchangeable parts were in their
infancy.
The Thompson submachine gun is a perfect example. If you ever
have the opportunity to examine one, you’ll see the straight
lines and perfect bevels and radii of components made by hand,
one at a time, combined with the latest technology of the age to
produce a tool that could lay down fierce fire in the close
quarters of hand-dug trenches. Even better, if you are blessed
with the opportunity to send a magazine or two downrange, you
will marvel at the common strengths of men of the day to haul
around and be able to control a 13-lb. firearm that threatens to
leave your hands at any instant.
To truly appreciate all that is the Thompson, let’s step back
and take a look at what and who brought it about. Then it will
be easier to accept why it remained in service for a half
century. It takes something special to last that long when so
many seek to improve or supersede a design.
John Taliaferro Thompson was born on Dec. 31, 1860, in Newport,
Ky., to a military family. His youth was much like that of a
military brat, living from post to post, yet by the age of 16 he
had decided to make the military his career, just as his father
had. Thompson chose artillery and engineering as his chosen
specialties, and by 1890 he was assigned to the U.S. Army’s
Ordnance Department, where he specialized in small arms and
spent the remainder of his service.
During the Spanish-American War, Thompson—after being promoted
to lieutenant colonel—served as Chief Ordnance Officer for the
commander of the Cuban campaign, General William R. Shafter. It
was here that Thompson had his first taste of automatic weapons,
and he quickly realized the effectiveness of these guns.
Thompson retired from the army in November 1914, just as World
War I was ginning up in Europe. He took a position with
Remington Arms of Ilion, N.Y., as Chief Engineer, ensuring that
plenty of Pattern 14 Enfield rifles reached British forces as
well as Mosin-Nagant rifles made their way to Russian troops
from the Eddystone Arsenal in Chester, PA.
Trench warfare became an accepted and primary tactic during
World War I. The trench tended to nullify the accuracy, range
and effectiveness of bolt-action rifles with high-intensity
cartridges—provided the soldier kept his head down. Rushing a
trench was largely ineffective because the relatively slow
operating bolt actions were too slow to be of much good. Within
a couple of years Thompson started experimenting with automatic
weapons—so-called trench brooms—that would be more effective in
clearing trenches.
Early on, Thompson imagined a semi-automatic rifle to serve as a
trench broom. For cartridges with major power—the .30-06
Springfield, for example—automatic or semi-automatic arms need a
locked breech and a gas system for reliable and controllable
operation. Thompson realized that a gas-operated arm would
likely be too cumbersome and heavy as a trench broom, where the
physical conditions were tight, ranges tended to be very short,
and the power of a major-caliber rifle was not needed, but
handiness and quick handling were. In short, what was needed was
an arm capable of withering fire, chambered in a cartridge that
was effective at short range in a package easily manipulated by
a single man.
Thompson was struck with an idea one of his contemporaries,
naval officer John Bell Blish, came up with. Blish observed that
when a naval gun utilizing an interrupted-thread breech was
fired with a full load, the breech remained pretty much
completely closed. However, when fired with lighter loads, the
breech tended to unscrew a bit. He concluded that dissimilar
metals meeting on an incline from one another, and under heavy
pressure, would adhere to each another, while lower pressures
did not expose this phenomenon. Blish patented his observed
principal (U.S. Patent 1,131,319) in 1915.
After acquiring venture capital from self-made millionaire and
financier Thomas F. Ryan of New York, Thompson founded the Auto
Ordnance Company in 1916. His first attempt was an “Auto Rifle”
utilizing Blish’s principle as a delayed-blowback operation.
After a number of trials, however, it was determined that the
.30-06 cartridge was too powerful for the Blish concept of
operation. Still later, in 1929, the idea was resubmitted in the
form of .276 Pederson chambered rifle, but again it was
dismissed because of the necessity of pre-lubricated ammunition
in order for the rifle to function, and the danger to bystanders
during ejection. But long before Pederson’s attempt, Thompson
took another tack and applied the Blish patent to a fully
automatic carbine that fired from an open bolt, chambered in .45
ACP.
Thompson’s design crew—Theodore H. Eickhoff, Oscar V. Payne, and
George E. Goll—quickly began working on a project called
“Annihilator I,” and by 1918 had a testable prototype available.
Unfortunately for Auto Ordnance at the time, World War I was
over, and the military market for what was called the Thompson
Submachine Gun dried up rather quickly. An aside: Some think
that the Thompson was the first submachine gun, but that is not
true. Theodor P. Bergman—a German industrialist—is credited with
the first submachine gun, the 9 mm MP 18, introduced in 1918,
which saw limited use in the Great War. The Thompson, however,
is the first to use the term “submachine gun” in its name.
Auto Ordnance began producing and selling its Thompson
Submachine Gun in 1921, often referred to as the Model 1919. At
the time, virtually anyone with the cash could buy one across
the counter. The price, however, was a bit steep at $200,
including one 20-round stick magazine—the equivalent of nearly
$3,000 today. There are some early advertising posters of a
cowboy protecting his herd with a Thompson. Sales trickled in,
not enough to turn everyone associated with Auto Ordnance rich,
but enough to keep the lights on. The Marine Corps purchased a
few, as did the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. A handful of
police departments added a Thompson or two to their stores, and
a limited number of copies were sold internationally. The Model
1928 reduced the firing rate from an uncontrollable 1,500 rpm to
an easier to handle and more effective rate of 830 rpm. These
slower rate-of-fire Thompsons ditched the Bish-type dissimilar
metal, delayed-blowback operation in favor of a straight
blowback.
The company began offering a Cutts Compensator—the forerunner of
today’s muzzle brake—in 1926. A couple of years later Federal
Laboratories assumed the distributing of the Thompson. By that
time the basic Model 21 was offered at $175, the Model 21C (with
the Cutts Compensator) was $200 and a 50-round drum magazine
would lighten the wallet a staggering five bucks.
One little problem developed, however, that would prove nearly
fatal to the Thompson. On Jan. 17, 1920 the Volstead Act became
the law of the land, and the country officially went dry—no
booze. Prohibition—as it became known—had the unintended
consequence of giving birth to widespread criminal production
and distribution of alcoholic beverages. Since the activity
itself was illegal, vicious and uncontrollable criminal gangs
sprouted all over the country like weeds after a spring rain.
The guns of choice for most of these gangs was the Thompson
Submachine Gun, along with the Browning and Colt Automatic
Rifles. Compounding this overabundance of criminals was The
Depression in October 1929. A country where there was no work
and nothing to drink became unruly, and many of the criminals
from Al Capone to Bonnie and Clyde were adored by much of the
public—that is until these criminals began killing innocent
citizens during their nefarious deeds.
It was during this time period when the Thompson garnered some
of its most infamous nicknames—Chicago Typewriter, Chicago
Piano, Drum Gun, Chicago Organ Grinder and The Chopper, to name
a few. If the city of Chicago seems overly prevalent it was
because of it being central to the bootleg liquor trade and the
gangs that ran those operations. On Feb. 14, 1929, five members
of the North Side Gang and two other affiliates were mowed down
gangland style in a warehouse at Dickens and Clark in Lincoln
Park, Chicago. Gangsters believed to be from Al Capone’s
gang—though this was never officially proven, likely due to the
prolific corruption in Chicago’s Police Department and City
Government—posing as police officers, were the executioners. Two
Thompsons, along with a pair of shotguns were used to carry out
what became known as the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.
Prohibition was repealed on Dec. 5, 1933, but the carryover of
gangland murders and the hue and cry from the public, along with
an attempted assassination of Franklin D. Roosevelt, continued
to pressure the government to act. Since the government was
having only limited and sporadic success in dealing with
gangland criminals, it turned to the only thing that was
incapable of fighting back—the guns and otherwise law abiding
citizens.
The government first attempted to outlaw the possession of all
machine guns by the citizenry, but those in opposition were
successful in preventing the draconian measures. However,
members of the 73rd Congress led by Robert L. Doughton (D–NC),
were successful in arguing that such firearms could be subjected
to a tax. Leaving conventional handguns aside, the Congress
passed the National Firearms Act of 1934, and President
Roosevelt signed it into law on June 26, 1934. To possess such a
firearm required the payment of a one-time $200 tax, proof of
which was a stamp on the application. The law largely had its
desired effect; private ownership of guns like the Thompson
Submachine Gun was effectively eliminated by making it too
costly to abide by the law.
Law enforcement and foreign sales kept Auto Ordnance afloat for
a few years until 1938, when the U.S. military adopted two
versions of the Thompson Submachine Gun, the M1 and M1A1.
Changes from the 1928 include barrels without cooling fins, a
simpler rear sight, moving the charging handle from the top of
the receiver to the side and the elimination of the drum
magazine. More than 1.5 million of the robust Thompsons were
made, and they served throughout World War II, Korea and the
Vietnam wars. The Thompson enjoyed—and still does—a reputation
for reliability. The .45 ACP cartridge gave up a bit of stopping
power and accuracy past 150 meters, but for short-range
engagements the gun really lived up to its original nickname,
Annihilator. After World War II, the Thompson saw service in no
less than a dozen other conflicts, even as recently as the Iraq
war.
With its sleek lines and powerful staccato sound signature, the
Thompson Submachine Gun has starred in dozens of motion pictures
worldwide for the better part of a century. Most recently it
added a starring role in the made-for-television movie “The
Highwaymen,” starring Kevin Costner as Frank Hamer, and Woody
Harrelson as Manny Gault, as the two aging Texas Rangers who
took down Bonnie and Clyde.
There is only a limited supply of Thompsons left, and fewer yet
that can be fired. Most are too valuable to be shot since the
possession of any full-auto firearms manufactured after 1986 is
now prohibited by citizens. But if you are fortunate enough to
find an owner who will let you shoot his, make sure you take him
up on it. To actually shoot this iconic firearm is quite a
thrill.
*****************************************************
Page 1 of 1