So, we saw that third-generation machine guns began to be developed at the end of World War II, and somewhere in the early 60s they were put into service. True, the old approaches were still making themselves felt. The military believed that they needed (if they still needed it at all!) One single sample of a submachine gun. Yes, this was the case in the 30s, but the war has already shown that two different submachine guns can perfectly coexist in the same army under the same cartridge - these are PPSh-41 and PPS-43. But in the German army, "Sturmgever-44" did not completely supplant the MP-40. Almost all the submachine guns of the post-war years of production, including the famous Uzi, were "united", so to speak. However, new technical solutions (the oncoming bolt, the placement of the magazine in the handle and the folding butt) untied the hands of the designers, and they created many truly remarkable samples, which, one might say, simply glorified this third generation of submachine guns. Much has been written about the Uzi, but there were other, almost equally technically interesting samples of this weapon.
And they began to create new samples everywhere. So already in the early 60s there were not just a lot of them, but a lot. For every taste and price. Although the choice of cartridges, as before, was small. Basically, all new PPs were created for the 9-mm "Parabellum" cartridge. And it is understandable: they do not seek from goodness, as they say.
Danish "Madsen"
Madsen M45. An example of an original, but not very successful design. The fact is that he did not have the usual cocking handle. Her role in the M45 submachine gun was played … by a corrugated barrel casing, similar to a pistol one. Under it was a return spring wrapped around the barrel. It is clear that the movement of massive parts, including the bolt and barrel casing, could not but affect the rate of fire. But cocking such a "huge automatic pistol" could not but cause certain difficulties, and besides, the spring overheated from the heated barrel!
Already in 1945, the Danish Madsen M45 appeared, then it was replaced by the M46, M50 and M53 models. Moreover, the 1950 model was quite similar to our PPS, except that it did not have a casing on the barrel. But on the other hand, she did not have a direct, but a carob shop. The 1950 model turned out to be so good that it was tested in England for adoption, but the military still liked the Sterling more.
Madsen M50 - 9x19 mm
"Wrongly made, but tightly sewn" - French MAT 49
The French immediately after the war announced a competition for a new SM, it was required that the new weapon was completely French! No sooner said than done! Thus was born MAT 49, about which everyone said that it was "wrongly made, but tightly sewn." No innovations, except perhaps the forward-leaning handle, which played the role of a receiver for the store. That is, he was not held by the magazine, but by this handle, so loosening and distortion of the magazines were excluded. The PP itself was entirely metal. Not an ounce of plastic or wood. Heavy: weight with a magazine 4, 17 kg. But your own! And very durable. And all the "slots are closed", even the shop window, when it is thrown back, is closed by a special bar. So it can be sprinkled with both sand and earth. Nothing will get inside anyway. It is not surprising that in the former French colonies it is still used today!
MAT 49
FMK-3. Argentina
Since 1943, new PP began to develop … Argentina. A number of samples were created there, the result of work on which was FMK-3 (1974) (article on VO July 23, 2018) and in which the magazine was in the handle, and there was a "oncoming bolt", and a folding front handle was provided …
FMK-3
"Carl Gustaf" M / 45. Sweden
In the same 1945, Sweden offered its submachine gun "Karl Gustav" m / 45. And everything in it was traditional, except for one - a newly developed magazine for 36 rounds (at first, a 50-round magazine from "Suomi" was used) with a two-row placement of cartridges. The Swedes made it extremely reliable. So reliable that the CIA even supplied them to its special forces in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. They were sold to Denmark, Ireland and Egypt (!), Where their licensed production was established. It is in service today, and the Swedes are not going to replace it with anything else. The limit of perfection, in their opinion, has been reached.
Submachine gun m / 45
About the Israeli "Uzi" and the Czech CZ 23
We talked a little about Uzi in the last article. Here we can only add what the historian of weapons Chris Shant writes about him: “Gala was impressed by the Czech submachine gun CZ 23, which used a bolt running on the barrel …” He further writes: “This prompted Gala to create more a long breechblock, two thirds of which is a hollow cylinder. " Since the length of the bolt should be 10-12 cm, and the recoil stroke should be 15 cm, it turns out that with the traditional scheme, the length of the receiver would be at least 27 cm. The German MZ-40 had, for example, a total length of 68 cm, and the barrel length 25 cm. The "Uzi" has a total length of 47 cm, and the length of the barrel is 26!
All this is so, the only question is, where did he get the data that everything was exactly the way he described it? Standing behind your back and watching? In general, even if everything was exactly like that, then there is nothing shameful in this. Just a smart designer must "steal" all the best from everyone, and without reinventing the wheel, in a clever way combine all this in his design. However, in books on the history of weapons, fiction such as “he thought, he was impressed, he copied …” should be less, and more accurate, document-based facts. Rather, it is they who should dominate. For example, there is an archive of the Russian Military-Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineering Troops and Signal Troops of the RF Ministry of Defense. There are all the documents regarding the development and adoption of Captain Mosin's rifle. On their basis, there was a whole series of articles on VO, but there are still people who, with persistence worthy of a better application, continue to write about the "Nagant barrel", and many other absurdities. We see the same in relation to the Kalashnikov assault rifle, although all the "dots over i" in its history have been placed long ago. But this is so … it was necessary by the way.
Returning to "our" topic of post-war submachine guns, it should be noted that one of the important requirements for them was compactness. This trend was caught by Yaroslav Holechek and Uziel Gal. And this was also understood by the Italian designer Domenico Salza, who in 1959 offered his Beretta PM-12 submachine gun. There were fewer new products in it than in CZ 23 and Uzi, but more than in m / 45.
PM-12 "Beretta". Italy
RM-12. Left view.
In it, the bolt is located on the barrel at ¾ of its length. The receiver, although cylindrical in shape, has wavy recesses on its inner surface - dirt traps, thanks to which the PM12 dirt and sand are not terrible. The reload handle is on the left. It is larger than that of other samples and is carried far ahead, to the front sight itself. The submachine gun, like the Thompson of 1928, has two pistol grips, so there is no need to hold the weapon by the magazine. The stock is foldable, which is also very convenient. Convenient and safe in the handle, below the trigger guard. When the handle is wrapped around the hand, it is squeezed and only after that you can shoot. True, the Italian army and police purchased this submachine gun only in limited quantities and only for their special forces. But the commercial success of the new "Beretta" surpassed all expectations: it was sold to the countries of the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia. In Brazil and Indonesia, they mastered its licensed release from right-hand sales in local markets, and the Belgian company FN and the Brazilian Taurus began to produce the PM12S modification.
RM-12. Right view with the butt folded from the side.
Copies of the Soviet PPS-43
It should be noted that after the war, many foreign firms were so inspired by the success of the Soviet PPS-43 that they began to copy it in the most shameless way. For example, the Finns released the M / 44 - a submachine gun, which was a copy of the Soviet PPS adapted for the 9 × 19 mm cartridge, and set up its production at the Tikkakoski enterprise. By the way, their production was also organized in Poland from 1944 to 1955 under the name "PPS wz.1943 / 1952". But instead of a metal folding butt, it was equipped with a wooden one, tightly attached to the receiver.
Submachine gun m / 44
After the war, its creator Willie Daus moved to Spain, and with the support of German designers from the Mauser company, who also ended up there after the war, began production of the same submachine gun called Dux M53 at Oviedo's arsenal. In 1953, the DUX M53 submachine gun was adopted by the FRG border guards, and this weapon was supplied to the country from Spain. Its weight was 2.8 kg, length 0.83 m, rate of fire 600 rds / min. He fired cartridges of 9 mm caliber, fed from a 36-round magazine. The store was therefore straightforward, and that was where the differences ended. The difference between the Finnish and Spanish samples was also in the number of holes on the barrel casing: the Spaniards had 7 of them, the Finns - 6. The most "modern" model was the Dux M59, which again received a carob magazine. Fire could only be fired from them in bursts. It was planned to take it into service with the Bundeswehr, but this was never achieved, so it was released in small quantities.
