The Model 1940 9mm Light Rifle is without doubt the rarest weapon mass-produced by Smith & Wesson.
Many collectors, fans of the S&W brand, could not get this item in their collection, and many gun lovers have never even heard of it.
History of creation
The American self-loading carbine Smith and Wesson of the 1940 model (Smith & Wesson Semi-Automatic Light Rifle Model 1940), contrary to the name, is not a rifle, but a carbine chambered for a pistol cartridge. In all likelihood, development began in 1939, and the weapon was intended to arm the police units. The work was carried out by a team under the overall direction of Joseph Norman, head of research and development at Smith & Wesson. Since the model was introduced in 1940, it is also called the Smith & Wesson Semi-Automatic Light Rifle Caliber 9 MM Model of 1940, or in short: M1940.
Army conscription
After a series of tests of the self-loading carbine by the US Artillery and Technical Service for its adoption by the US Army, positive reviews were received for it, but experts recommended converting the carbine to a standard cartridge for the US Army, that is, chambered for.45 ACP cartridges. However, Smith & Wesson was already loaded with military orders, and therefore the S&W M1940 carbine continued to be produced under the 9x19 Parabellum cartridge.
Brotherly help
After the disaster near Dunkirk in 1940, an emergency evacuation followed (Operation Dynamo). During this evacuation, only the British lost weapons, equipment and equipment for the 9 divisions of the British Expeditionary Force. As a result, many soldiers patrolled the coast, armed with nothing but single-action Colt Peacemaker M1873 revolvers, and England asked American hunters and athletes to donate their rifles to defend foggy Albion. But these were half measures: it was necessary to urgently compensate for their losses. As a result, the Smith & Wesson campaign was awarded a contract for the supply of a huge number of Military & Police revolvers chambered for.380-200.
Most likely, during negotiations related to the purchase of revolvers, the British learned about a prototype of a promising carbine, and in the hope of partially solving their problem, ordered a batch of S&W М1940 carbines in the amount of 1940 pcs. We came to an agreement, signed a contract, patted each other on the back. The contract value was US $ 1 million.
Lend-Lease or not?
Many are convinced that the delivery of Smith & Wesson Light Rifle carbines was carried out under a lend-lease agreement, but I believe that this is not the case:
The "Lend Lease Act" was passed by the US Congress on March 11, 1941, while the contract for the supply of M1940 LR carbines was signed in the summer of 1940, and the production of a batch of weapons for Britain began in a month before the law was passed by Congress.
Another argument in favor of my opinion: the delivery of weapons was carried out on a full prepayment basis, that is, according to the principle "money in the morning - chairs in the evening", while according to the Lend-Lease law, only equipment that had survived during the war was payable.
The S&W M1940 carbine of the Mk I version went into production on February 6, 1941, and a serial number range from 1 to 1010 was allocated to personalize it, but only 860 carbines were produced by April 1941. The Americans sent 855 of them across the Atlantic and the cargo safely reached the customer, and on April 16, the production of the S&W Mk I was discontinued. This version was no longer produced.
Patron patron strife
The S&W M1940 carbine was developed for the original cartridge of Georg Luger, which had a bullet with a flat head (in the form of a truncated cone) and a powder charge weighing 4 grains (0.2592 grams). And the British, who also produced this cartridge, increased the powder charge to 6 grains (0.3888 grams) just before the war. The increase in the weight of the powder charge in the British cartridge led not only to an increase in the initial velocity of the bullet, but also to an increase in the amount of powder gases released.
Consequently, the pressure in the bore has also increased.
In addition, there are rumors that the British have changed the composition of the gunpowder and the weight of the bullet. I do not think that the American carbine had a sufficient margin of safety to withstand the use of British cartridges without consequences.
What is useless to me …
This deal may be one of the reasons why so many British WWII veterans hated the Americans: not only were the weapons expensive (1 million / 955 = $ 1,047 per unit), they were also quite cumbersome and difficult to maintain. It was impossible to visually determine whether it was ready for battle or not, since due to the design feature it was impossible to inspect the chamber for the presence of a cartridge.
Among other things, it did not differ in accuracy even when shooting at a distance of 50 yards (45, 72 meters). And the reliability of the carbine left much to be desired, since serious breakdowns began after the shooting of 1000 rounds. In general, the cousins made me feel good. Helped the allies …
The Americans decided to quickly rectify the situation. An updated version of the S&W Mk II carbine was born, but it was far from ideal.
It was supposed to release a large batch of Mk II, therefore, a range up to 2108 was allocated for serial numbers, but having collected only 100 pieces by May 1941, it was decided to stop their production. Probably, already produced one hundred Mk II carbines were sent to the British "in the load."
We demand satisfaction
The British were unhappy with the deal and decided to demand their money back, but that was not the case: the Yankees did not want to return the money. They assured that, according to their calculations, they had mastered the contract in the amount of 870 thousand dollars and there could be no talk of a return. Instead, as compensation for the damage, the people from S&W offered to significantly reduce the price of the Military & Police revolvers that started this whole story. On this they agreed.
Apparently, after this maneuver, the family scandal was hushed up. And the British made up for the losses in weapons with their own development, namely the "plumber's dream" - the STEN submachine gun, which was in service until the early 60s.
By the way, the Americans have adopted another light self-loading carbine: M1 Carbine chambered for.30 Carbine (7, 62x33 mm), developed by Winchester Repeating Arms. M1 carbines quickly gained immense popularity among the troops and they received the affectionate nickname "baby-guarantor". For the US Army, each copy cost $ 45 …
Device
The automatics of the Smith & Wesson M1940 Light Rifle self-loading carbine works by free travel of the bolt. Shooting is carried out from an open bolt, only single shots. In the Mk I version, the striker is made movable, and comes forward from the shutter mirror under the influence of a special lever only when the shutter comes to the extreme forward position. In the Mk II version, the striker is fixed in the bolt.
The cartridge in the chamber of the carbine version of the Mk I
Smith & Wesson Light Rifle Model 1940: bolt action.
Food is provided by cartridges from detachable box magazines with a capacity of 20 rounds.
Magazine for S&W Light Rifle M1940
The store is inserted in a very unusual way: in the front half of a special groove, which is about 2 times wider than the store.
Magazine attachment to S&W Light Rifle M1940
The back of the chute (which is not occupied by the magazine) is empty and open at the bottom. In other words, at the base of the chute, behind the magazine, there is a rectangular opening, through which empty cartridges are ejected downward (parallel to the magazine).
S&W Light Rifle M1940: magazine and spent cartridge cases
This design not only made the weapon more complicated and heavier, but also made it very difficult to eliminate the delays in firing associated with the non-ejection of spent cartridges, and also made it problematic to fire with the magazine focusing on the ground, parapet or other support blocking the window for the cartridge cases to fall out of the weapon.
The magazine catch is located at the bottom of the magazine chute, at the front. The bolt handle is at the top and is offset to the right side of the weapon. The sight is diopter adjustable, with adjustable aiming at 50, 100, 200, 300 and 400 feet. As far as I was able to find out, the safety devices on different versions of the M1940 carbine differed in both design and action: the Mark I was equipped with a flag-type fuse that locked the sear, and the Mark II was equipped with a lever-type fuse (rotator) that locked the bolt. The lever-type fuse (rotator) was large enough and performed another function: when it was turned on (turned forward), it blocked the trigger guard and the trigger with its body.
Fuse on S&W Light Rifle M1940 in “On” position
This eliminated accidental pressing of the trigger when the trigger was hooked with a gloved hand in the winter and excluded accidental pressing of the trigger when placing a gloved finger in the opening of the trigger guard.
Other sources write like this:
"There is a mechanical safety in front of the trigger guard, which, when turned on, locks the trigger."
Indeed, in the diagram, in front of the trigger guard, you can see a bolt head and a certain switch, and explanatory inscriptions to them: “trigger stop screw” and “trigger stop screw latch”.
Separately, the words are translated as follows:
trigger - trigger;
stop - stop, limiter;
screw - screw, bolt, screw;
latch - latch, latch, constipation.
How it was called correctly and how it worked - guess for yourself.
“The Mark II had a different safety mechanism: the hammer was made as part of the shutter mirror, and not as a separate part like the S&W Mark I”.
“In the Mark II, instead of a lever on the receiver, there is a metal swivel“sleeve”with a horizontal slot through which the cocking handle, rigidly fixed to the bolt, passes.
The rotation of this sleeve, which has an external notch, causes the slot to move out of the path of the cocking handle, thereby locking the bolt in the forward or rearward position."
"Safety sleeve" on the Mark II
In the factory version, a wooden butt was installed on the carbine, but the British equipped some of the carbines with metal pistol grips with detachable butts, developed at the Anfield plant.
S&W M1940 with metal stock
There were attempts to create the S&W M1940 with an automatic firing mode (bursts), but it did not go beyond experiments with several prototypes.
Stillborn
The S&W M1940 was a weapon anachronism even at the design stage: it was developed in the tradition of the 1928 Thompson PP. The weapon turned out to be expensive and difficult to manufacture.
Take, for example, a barrel: it had longitudinal ribbing (12 ribs) along its entire length and therefore was manufactured in an expensive way - by machining on a milling machine. Each rib is a separate operation on the machine, and it took a lot of time and high qualifications of the machine operator to make one barrel.
Barrel from S&W M1940
In any weapon, the receiver is one of the most expensive elements and to reduce the cost of production it is made by stamping or casting, or even from seamless rectangular pipes. And the S&W M1940 has an unnecessarily complex and expensive receiver: it consists of three parts, which were forged from manganese steel. Then these parts were machined to almost zero tolerances in order to ensure a tight fit when combined to smoothly slide the shutter.
The owner's manual says that the carabiner consists of 46 parts.
And most of them, including all sorts of small parts like studs and pins, are made by forging. And for the manufacture of any even the smallest detail, 3-4 operations were required.
The barrel and trigger were made of chromium-nickel steel, and the bolt was made of nickel steel. In general, “do not skimp on materials and specialists”.
The S&W M1940 self-loading carbines were distinguished by a very high quality exterior finish and materials. Even the belt was made of very high quality genuine leather.
And after the war, the British destroyed the remaining M1940 carbines, despite the quality of the finish. They say that everything that was collected was cut in half and thrown into the English Channel.
Given the small number of carbines produced and the scanty number of surviving samples, the S&W M1940s are of great collectible value. For example, the starting price of the S&W Mk 1 carbine (serial number 423) put up for auction at icollector.com is $ 6,000.
