Why do the stars burn
Why do the stars burn
Why do the stars burn.
It is not clear.
Get me a machine gun
Find me a machine gun
Buy me a machine.
And that's it.
Chorus:
Trust me, the remedy is known
So that finally everything immediately fell into place.
No one will say bad, but who decides to say
It will immediately lie down.
("Dear Boy", 1974 music by D. Tukhmanov, lyrics by L. Derbenev)
In the remarkable Soviet film "Dear Boy" we are certainly not talking about a machine gun as such, but about a submachine gun. Moreover, one of the gangsters, kidnappers of both "dear boys", is just armed with a submachine gun - something similar to the American M3, and periodically shoots from it. Fortunately, not people!
So we are really talking about the submachine gun and … about its place in the past, present and prospects for the future. And if so, then you need to start from the very beginning. But not from that double-barreled Italian freak, who for some reason is considered the father of all PPs (rather, this is not his own grandfather), but from real, "human appearance" samples with a butt and a magazine, adapted for "manual use" and appeared at the very end First World War. Well, our "guide" in this diverse world of PP will be such a well-known author as Christopher Shant, and even if this is an "enemy voice", it is believed that he is well versed in the topic of weapons. So…
MR-18 with a snail magazine for 32 rounds from the Parabellum pistol.
In his opinion, even today, 100 after its birth, the first and truly successful PP is the MR-18, and it could well have fought today because it is a classic! Well, the first article about this submachine gun on VO appeared on March 13, 2013, so this is really a classic. But what is important to note and what should be emphasized? Firstly, despite the short barrel (only 200 mm), effective fire could be fired from it at a distance of up to 150 meters, and that was enough then. Secondly, the rate of fire of 450 rounds per minute also suited everyone. In the next article on VO about the MR-18 of August 31, 2013, it was about the mistrust of the top military leadership of Germany to this type of weapon, as a result of which each branch of the armed forces chose a submachine gun for themselves, which is why it appeared in the army in several samples at once.
But, the MP-18 was not at all the only contender for the role of the "ancestor" of all modern submachine guns. Let us recall, for example, the Adolf Furrer M1919 submachine gun (BO September 24, 2014), which was late for distribution, albeit only a year, with the mechanism from the Parabellum pistol, laid on its side.
Submachine gun "Standschütze Hellriegel".
Standschütze Hellriegel device.
They tried to make a submachine gun in Austria-Hungary. Moreover, even earlier than in Germany. Work on the Standschütze Hellriegel submachine gun began here in 1915. Moreover, the cartridges were fed from the German drum store "Trommel" ("Drum") with a capacity of 160 rounds. But the supply of cartridges from it to the chamber of the submachine gun took place … along a flexible chute, which was connected to the magazine receiver on the barrel. Since the drum spring could hardly (if ever) move in this flexible chute, the mechanism for feeding the cartridges is not entirely clear. But on the other hand, the presence of this "sleeve" gave reason to believe that this submachine gun had a belt feed, although in fact this was not at all the case. We can assume that it was supposed to use domestic pistol cartridges 9 × 23 mm Steyr. But this was, perhaps, his only merit. The complex feeding mechanism, and besides, also water cooling, put an end to this development. Although in itself it was interesting. For example, the bolt had two guides for two springs, which later, much later, was implemented in the design of many submachine guns.
By the way, in the same Germany, they tried to make a submachine gun even on the basis of the same Maxim machine gun! With a handle like a meat grinder handle and a machine-gun bolt, this ersatz weapon has remained a prototype!
But then there were the 20s and 30s. Years of searches and finds, years of preparation for a new war. And … here we already know that both German generals and young Soviet commanders and people's commissars were equally distrustful of such weapons as a submachine gun. And Bolotin, and Gnatovsky and Shorin, and the same Shant, all have it written that they were then considered a police weapon, but that was exactly the way it was. In Germany, they just entered the police of the Weimar Republic, since their use in the army was limited by the Treaty of Versailles. I had to resort to tricks. For example, the German company "Rheinmetall" simply bought the Swiss company "Solothurn" and … began to produce in neighboring Switzerland the German, in fact, the submachine gun "Steyer-Solothurn" S1-100 in the 20-30s of the last century, which was actively supplied to the markets most different countries of the world, including Japan, China and the South American republics. In addition to 9-mm submachine guns, samples were produced for the 9-mm Mauser cartridge and the 9-mm Steyer. Just the Chinese, Japanese and South American parties of this weapon were specially ordered for Mauser cartridges 7, 63-mm. The Portuguese, on the other hand, needed a submachine gun chambered for the Parabellum 7, 65 mm. Models were produced with a bayonet mount, with an attached tripod (!!!) and a lot of spare parts. Moreover, the manufacturing quality of this weapon was traditionally Swiss. And … it was enough just to buy one such submachine gun, disassemble, measure all its parts and … make it for your own production. That is, either better (which would be very difficult!), Or at the level of the Swiss, or… worse, but on the other hand. The latter path was followed, for example, by the Japanese, who released their "Type 100", and the same Englishmen who copied the German MP-28 (almost all the same MP-18, only 1928 of the sample), produced before that in Belgium, and in Spain, but in England turned into Lanchester. True, his store contained 50, not 32 cartridges, but in principle the changes in it were minimal. K. Shant notes that both the MP-28 and the Lanchester were reliable and generally good weapons, but their production was quite expensive.
Steyer-Solothurn S1-100 with all accessories.
Interestingly, 1928 was a landmark year for submachine guns. So, it was in this year that the US Navy officially adopted the "gangster" submachine gun of General John Thompson, which he "pushed" into the army from the very end of the First World War, and in the USSR it was this year that the Artillery Committee proposed to adopt for pistols and submachine guns 7, 63 × 25 mm Mauser cartridge, which largely determined the future of our domestic submachine guns. By the way, for some reason, in many books on the topic of weapons, their authors write that in the USSR, submachine guns were not given due attention in the pre-war years. But how can this be, if it was in the USSR in 1932-1933 that 14 (!) Samples of 7, 62-mm submachine guns were developed, embodied in metal and tested, including Tokarev and Degtyarev submachine guns based on his DP-27 machine gun) and Korovin, as well as Prilutsky and Kolesnikov. Much more, and most importantly - which country can boast of a large number of prototypes?
Partial disassembly of Steyer-Solothurn S1-100.
So, the same Germans in the 20-30s received submachine guns (except for the MR-18) MR-28, MR-34 and MR-35, not too different from each other. The Italian Beretta entered service in 1934. "Thompson" М1928, "Steyer-Solothurn" S1-100 (1930) in this sense were already practically veterans, just like the Finnish "Suomi" m / 1931. In the same glorious cohort of the heirs of the MP-18 of the mid-30s, we see our PPD-34 with a box magazine for 25 rounds and a drum copied from the Finnish for 71 rounds.
"Suomi" m / 1931.
Now let's see what tendency manifested itself in the design of PCBs during these years. Well, first of all, the length of the trunk began to grow. The longest barreled in this regard (until 1938) was the Suomi (314 mm), which allowed it to conduct more accurate fire even at maximum aiming ranges. Then the rate of fire began to grow. For the MP-18 it was 350/450 rounds per minute, but for the MP-28 it increased to 650, for the Beretta and Lanchester it was already 600, 700 for the Thompson, for the PPD-34 and the Type 100 No. - 800 and "Suomi" - 900 rounds per minute! There were firing switches, which now made it possible to shoot both single fire and bursts, and the same Suomi, in addition, also had a box-type two-row magazine for 50 rounds, placed in it in two sections with alternate feed. That is, it is obvious that the density of fire at this time began to be considered more important than accuracy, since at close range this indicator is the most important for a submachine gun.
PPD -34 with a magazine for 25 rounds.
PPD-34 with a magazine for 71 rounds.
The last of the "veterans" of the 30s, namely 1938, which also became a landmark in the history of submachine guns, was the Czechoslovakian ZK383. It differed from all other samples by the presence of a folding two-legged bipod, retracted when folded into the forend, a return spring in … the butt, and an original device that just showed the "direction of flight of thought" of the then designers - a removable weight-weighting agent for the bolt, weighing 170 g Put on the weight - and the submachine gun fires 500 rounds per minute, removed - the bolt became lighter, and the rate of fire increased to 700 rounds! They even equipped it with a quick barrel change mechanism. That is, use whatever you want! In addition to Czechoslovakia, the ZK383 (a model “P” without a bipod was produced for the needs of the police) entered service with the Bulgarian army, where, like the Lanchester in the British Navy, it was operated until the 60s of the last century. They also entered service with Brazil and Venezuela, but the parties were small. But when the Second World War began, it was these PPs under the vz 9 brand that went into service with the … SS troops who fought on the Eastern Front! The SS found him quite good, albeit rather heavy. But they fought with him throughout the war. True, the concept of "heavy" is very relative, given that the equipped PPD-34 weighed 5, 69 kg, Suomi 7, 04 kg (with a drum magazine), and ZK383 - 4, 83 kg.
Czechoslovakian ZK383 "on legs".
But it was the last submachine gun made in the "old tradition" and belonging to the first generation of submachine guns. In the same 1938, a completely new model of a submachine gun appeared in the same Germany, and with it a new page opened in the history of the PP …
