ww2 feb2010 infograph lrg

WEAPONS MANUAŁ by Max Gadney

The Makeshift MP3008

Germany abandoned craft to create a bare-bones submachine gun

The homcly MP3008, a German

submachine gun (SMG) produccd in 1945, was a Iow point in the German tradition of innov«ition in closc-range automatic wcapon dcvcIopmcnt that began during the First World War.

German Evolution innovation and improvement

me tuger A/tiifcry Model whfch adced a drum magasne and stoc* to the ette pistol, ma-/ nave inspired the creation of the mpt8. the frst true subma^ime gin. The MP28 refined the battle-tested MPia design its box magazwe. for exampie. was tess pcone to jammng than the dr urn maga?ine.

British Imitation

The British copied thcGcrmans to create their most famous submachine

Steel-age materiał s

The MP38 departed krom previous desipts as the frst submachine gun with no w cod in it me meta and płastic MP38 acnie#ed aoather miestone wtien rt became the hrst smg to be dćstributed in mass quamitte$ to a modern army.

Compromise creeps in

Buiłt wńh stampod rnctai perts rather than the MP38's machmed ones.

1941

:_t

Necessity breeds lnvention

At the begmnng ot World War i the nile was the standard infantry arm But in the trenchcs. Ahere attatters were mere yards away and victocy was won through attrition of enemy troop* a close-range. rapłd-fire weapon was needed.

weapon. ideał for paratroops* ard assaut platoons

gun, the Sten. With U-boat operations joopardizing their rcsourccs, the Brits’ pragmatic approach to weapons design allowed no room for the mastery that had charactcrizcd the arms of their enemy.

Complete knockoff

with no time to devełop their own design, and unabłe to pay the United States top doilar for the Thompson gun, British arms dewjicpers copied the design of a captured MP78 to create the lanchester

Cheap. but not cheerful

The crudety machined Sten was aeated with an e>e toward cutting costs. Simple to assemwe and easy to use, the Sten was an expediem >f not popular arm, and was produced in the millkm

o

WORLD WAR I

1945 MP3008

Artisuy went out tne wlndow at wars end. v*ticn Gcrmcny adapccd tte s>\&\ design to protuce a dtt-cheep submachnc gun that regiired litttc skill to make or coetate. Uke German/s carlicr SMG5. the MP3O03 rckxxted usrtg the blouftack system, which uses the focce from a fired roLnd to puli the next cartridge mto the chamber.

Return

Spring

Housing

Bott

Cockmg

iever

Trlggcr Spring

Trigger

Ejectlon Port

Chamber

Barrel

Magazine

How a Blowback System Works

3.

Release

The sokJicr pu«5 back the cocking lever. fot dog the bott back agairst the return spnng. tttien he pults the trlgger. the scar 15 reteosed; then the return spring powers the bołt torward.

Fire

The bolt hibs the edge of tte top round in the magazwc and forccs it into the chamber. An eoctractor on the bolt flips over the rrn of tne cartrdge. The flnng pin mts the bultet and fres it

Recoil

The same explosive fotce pults the bolt back against the return spring. The ejoractor pushes the cartrkfge out of the ejection port.

Autofire

if the sokJicf continuw to hoW the trigger. the return spring wi push the bolt forwjrd unw there are no mere rounds m the magazinc

Arms for the End Gamę

Easy to tire, strip, and clcan, the MP30O8 was intended for distribution to members. of the Yolkssturm, Germany*s civilian arrny—the only pcoplc Icft to defend Germany in its last desperate days. The last-ditch wcapon was also simple to build, and at the end of the war, when matcnals wcrc scarce, machinę shops

often impro\iscd with whatcvcr was availablc. In the end, only 10,000 wcrc madę and fcw cvcr saw action. By the end of World War II, short-range submachine guns had been pushed aside for morc ycrsatilc arms ILkc the Stg 44 assault riflc, which could scrvc as cithcr a fully auto-matic or a semiautomatie wcapon.

JANUARY/FEBflUARY 2010