It was this weapon that was called "Schmeisser", but alas, Hugo Schmeisser had nothing to do with the creation of the most massive Wehrmacht submachine gun.
The MP38 / 40 is a submachine gun developed by Heinrich Vollmer based on the earlier MP36.
The differences between MP38 and MP40 are very insignificant, and we will talk about them below.
The MP40, like the MP38, was primarily intended for tankers, motorized infantry, paratroopers and infantry squad leaders. Later, towards the end of the war, it began to be used by the German infantry quite massively, although at the same time it did not have such a distribution, as it is customary to show.
We offer you to watch a small review of submachine guns from Nikolai Shchukin.
The German military became interested in submachine guns back in 1915, but under the terms of the Versailles Treaty, only the police were allowed to have this type of weapon in service.
In the early 1920s, gunsmith designer Heinrich Volmer began work on a submachine gun. In 1925, the VMP1925 model (Vollmer Maschinenpistole) appeared. In general, the model resembled the MP18, but differed in the presence of a wooden handle and a disk-type magazine for 25 rounds.
In 1931 Erma bought all the rights to Volmer's submachine guns. In 1932, the EMP (Erma Maschinenpistole) submachine gun appeared with virtually unchanged design.
With the coming to power in Germany of the Nazi Party in 1933, the question arose of equipping the growing German army with weapons. In the mid-30s, Erfurter Maschinenfabrik (ERMA) converted the EMP submachine gun to the EMP36, most likely this was done by order of the army. The EMP36 has become an intermediate model between the EMP and the MP38. Outwardly, he resembled both the one and the other submachine gun at the same time. The mechanics of the weapon were seriously improved, although conceptually it retained the features of Volmer's design.
Between 1936 and 1938, the EMP36 was developed into the MP38. In early 1938 Erma received an official order for a submachine gun for the German army. The MP38 was officially adopted on June 29, 1938, but the troops had only a few hundred new weapons.
In total, about 1000-2000 MP38 submachine guns were manufactured in 1938. The production rate was initially very low. On September 1, 1939, at the start of World War II, there were about 9,000 MP38 submachine guns in the entire German army. From September to December 1939, the industry collected another 5,700 submachine guns. From January to the end of June 1940, the Reich armed forces received 24,650 MP38. A total of 40,000 MP38 submachine guns were produced by Erma and Henele.
Over time, each company was to receive 14 to 16 MP38s as weapons for platoon, squad, unit and company commanders in addition to automatic pistols.
The MP38 was the world's first submachine gun with a folding stock. There were no wooden parts in the weapon at all: only metal and plastic. The front pistol grip, characteristic of the first submachine guns, was excluded from the design, its role was played by the magazine.
Unlike most submachine guns in the MP38, the reload handle was located on the left instead of the right, which allowed the right hand to constantly hold the pistol grip with the trigger. To reduce the cost of production, plastic (Bakelite) was first used in the manufacture of the forend, and the pistol grip frame was made of aluminum alloy.
The MP38 had only automatic firing mode. The submachine gun had a moderate rate of fire (600 rounds per minute) and smooth operation of the automation, which had a positive effect on accuracy.
Development of the MP40 was completed at the end of 1939, and the first small batch was produced at the same time. Mass production of MP40 submachine guns began in March 1940.
The Steyr plant was the first to switch from the MP38 to the MP40 at the end of March 1940, after a while the production of the MP38 in favor of the MP40 was curtailed by the plants of the Erma and Henel companies.
MP40 in large quantities began to receive, first of all, airborne forces and special forces, then riflemen, sergeants and officers, as well as artillery crews and drivers of various vehicles and armored vehicles.
There were also structures in which the submachine gun was a very common weapon. This is the SS and the construction battalion, the "Todt Organization".
In total, a total of a little more than a million were manufactured during the war - 1,101,019 units.
Contrary to the popular belief imposed by feature films, where the Wehrmacht soldiers "beat" from the MP40 with continuous fire "offhand", the fire was usually aimed in short bursts of 2-5 shots with an emphasis on the spread butt on the shoulder (except when it was necessary to create a high density of non-aiming fire in battle at the closest distances, of the order of 5-10, up to a maximum of 25 meters).
The saturation of infantry units with submachine guns was low, MP 40 were armed with squad and platoon commanders. They became even more widespread among the crews of tanks and armored vehicles, as well as personnel of the Airborne Forces (about a third of the personnel).
Until June 1941, German submachine guns outnumbered the opponents' manual automatic weapons in all respects, moreover, often the enemy did not have weapons of this class at all. However, Soviet submachine guns turned out to be simpler and cheaper to manufacture.
Not the best solution can be called a constructive feature: shooting from an open bolt. In combat conditions, that is, dust and dirt, falling into the open window of the cartridge case ejector, did not have the best effect on the operation of the entire mechanism.
The main differences between MP40 and MP38:
The aluminum frame of the pistol grip, which had previously undergone additional machining (milling), was replaced by a stamped steel (in further modifications, the grip manufacturing technology continued to change in order to simplify and reduce the cost of production).
The body of the bolt box became smooth stamped, the milled grooves were replaced by four extruded longitudinal stiffeners.
The body of the magazine receiver has also been reinforced with stiffening ribs for greater convenience. For this, the large hole in it was abolished.
The middle guide of the telescopic tube of the reciprocating mainspring was made for simplification by the method of drawing.
All submachine guns were equipped with two-piece reloading grips with a safety lock.
The magazines, which originally had smooth walls, now have stiffening ribs: but at the same time, the magazines from the MP40 are suitable for the MP38 and vice versa.
The barrel support rail was stamped, initially from metal and later from plastic.
Thanks to Soviet films about the Great Patriotic War, the MP-40 under the name "Schmeisser" began to personify, along with the dive bomber "Stuka", the image of the German "war machine". This weapon has become a real symbol of the German blitzkrieg.
The impression was that literally the entire German army was armed with the MP40. In reality, this was not the case: the MP-40 was armed with almost only rear and assault units, and in them it was not the main firearm. For 10 million Mauser 98k rifles, there were just over one million MP-40 submachine guns.
On average, in 1941, an infantry squad relied only on one MP40 (for the commander), the infantry company consisted of 16 submachine guns and 132 Mauser Kar.98k carbines.
Later, due to the mass production of PPs, their number in the Wehrmacht increased, but not faster than in the Red Army, which by that time already had entire companies fully armed with automatic weapons. For comparison: during the war years, over 5 million Soviet PPs were produced, while MP40s were only a little over one million.
But, oddly enough, the MP40 is still in service in some third world countries. The last military conflict, in which MP38 and MP40 were noted, was military operations in the east of Ukraine.
Specifications:
Weight, kg: 4, 8 (with 32 rounds)
Length, mm: 833/630 with unfolded / folded stock
Barrel length, mm: 248
Cartridge: 9 × 19 mm Parabellum
Caliber, mm: 9
How it works: free shutter
Rate of fire, rounds / min: 540-600
Sighting range, m: 100/200 meters.
Maximum range, m: 100-120 (effective)
Ammunition type: box magazines for 20, 25, 32, 40, 50 rounds.
Sight: unregulated open at 100 m, with a folding rack at 200 m, or (less often and mainly in post-war specimens) sectorial with markings up to 200 meters after 50.
