The MP 18.1 manufactured by Theodor Bergmann Abteilung Waffenbau was the
first practical submachine gun used in combat. It was introduced into service
in 1918 by the German Army during World War I as the primary weapon of the
Sturmtruppen, assault groups specialized in trench combat. Although MP18
production ended in the 1920s, its design formed the basis of most
submachine guns manufactured between 1920 and 1960.
The firepower of this new class of weapons made such an impression on the
Allies that the Treaty of Versailles specifically banned further study and
manufacture of such light automatic firearms by Germany.
History What became known as the "submachine
guns" had its genesis in the early 20th Century and developed around the
concepts of infiltration and fire and movement, specifically for the task of
clearing trenches of enemy soldiers, an environment within which engagements
were unlikely to occur beyond a range of a few feet.
In 1915, the German Rifle Testing Commission at Spandau decided to develop
a new weapon for trench warfare. An attempt to modify existing
semi-automatic pistols, specifically the Luger and C96 Mauser failed, as accurate
aimed fire in full automatic mode was impossible due to their light weight and
high rate of fire of 1,200 rounds per minute. The Commission determined that a
completely new kind of weapon was needed. Hugo Schmeisser, working for the
Bergmann Waffenfabrik was part of a team composed of Theodor Bergmann and a few
other technicians. They designed a new type of weapon to fulfill the
requirements, which was designated the Maschinenpistole 18/I. It is not clear
what the "I" designation is intended to indicate, although its successor, the
MP28, was designated the Maschinenpistole 28/II.
Full-scale production did not begin until early 1918. Though technically not
the world's first submachine gun, being beaten by the double-barreled Italian
Villar-Perosa of 1915, in modern usage of the term the MP 18 is considered the
world's first submachine gun since the Villar Perosa had been designed to be
used as a light machine gun on aircraft before it was adapted to infantry use as
a single-barreled shoulder-fired weapon in late 1918.
= Service history= The MP 18 primarily served in final
stages of World War I in 1918, especially in the so-called
Kaiserschlacht offensive. At least 5,000 MP 18.1s were built and used during
World War I, based upon observed serial number ranges of captured weapons;
however, it is possible that up to 10,000 were built for the war. Though
production was outlawed by the Treaty of Versailles, manufacture continued in
secret into the early 1920s, as the final production total ended at around
35,000. The MP 18 proved to be an excellent
weapon. Its concept was well-proven in trench fighting. The basic design
directly influenced later submachine gun designs and showed its superiority over
the regular infantry rifle in urban, mobile, and guerrilla warfare. The MP 18
served with German police and paramilitary forces after the end of the
war. It was widely used in combat by the Freikorps Von Epp against the Spartacus
League in Bavaria and by other Freikorps in Berlin, where its efficiency in urban
combat was demonstrated. Since the Treaty of Versailles prohibited the use
and manufacture of pistols with a barrel over four inches and/or a magazine
capacity over eight rounds, all Trommel Magazines TM 08 were destroyed.
All the limited conflicts between 1920 and 1940 saw an increasing use of this
new class of weapons, first in South America during the Chaco War, then in
Europe during the Spanish Civil War, and in China during the Japanese invasion,
where its use by well-trained Chinese troops was costly for the invaders as in
the Battle of Shanghai, where fierce street fights prefigured World War II
urban combat of Stalingrad, Warsaw, Vienna and Berlin.
Since the treaty allowed the Weimar Republic to keep a small quantity of
submachine guns for police use, a few hundred MP 18.1s were modified to accept
Schmeisser's original 20-round magazine design. This modification, conducted by
Haenel Waffenfabrik, required removal of the existing magazine well collar, and
replacement with a different one. These weapons were overstamped with the date
"1920" on the receiver and magazine well to show they were legitimate weapons
owned by the Weimar Republic and not war bringbacks or clandestine weapons.
Bergmann sold the license of the MP 18. 1 to SIG Switzerland; the Swiss made
model was known as SIG Bergmann 1920. It existed in .30 Luger, 9mm Parabellum and
7.63 mm Mauser. The Bergmann MP 18.1 represents a milestone both in terms of
armament technology and warfare tactics. It opened the way for a whole new class
of weapons and triggered the research for lighter automatic firearms to be
used by mobile troops. Its first direct competitors did not see service in World
War I, but most of them saw use in all the limited conflicts taking place in
the inter-war period. = Evolution=
The Chinese produced a modified MP 18 in Tsing Tao with the assistance of
Heinrich Vollmer. The French, despite being moderately interested by this
class of armament because they had designed and introduced in service many
semi-automatic and automatic weapons, immediately launched studies based on
captured MP 18s. The design of the STA 1922 was adopted and the MAS 1924
entered service and was used in colonial war. The French MAS 35 and MAS 38
derived from one of the many prototypes of the immediate post war.
The MP 28 was produced by Haenel under the supervision of Hugo Schmeisser, it
was copied by the Second Spanish Republic under the codename Naranjero.
The Naranjero was chambered in 9mm Largo.
The Austrian Steyr MP 34 was created by a team of technicians led by Louis
Stange who designed a submachine gun for Rheinmetall in 1919 and used Bergmann's
MG 15 to design the MG 30. The SIG Bergmann 1920 was used by Finland and
Estonia, it was the inspiration for the Estonian Tallinn 1923 and the Finnish
Suomi model 31, which in turn inspired Degtyarev for his PPD 34.
Emil Bergmann, Theodor Bergmann's son designed the MP 32 that evolved into the
MP34 as adopted by Denmark before to receive the MP35 name when adopted by
nascent Wehrmacht in 1935. This submachine gun is often mistaken with
the Mitraillette 34, a MP28 made in Belgium by Pieper Bayard, former
Bergmann licensed manufacturer or with the MP34 made by Steyr. It is easy to
identify the Bergmann MP 3235 or its final version 35/1 since the cocking
lever works exactly like a rifle bolt. In 1940, with a pressing need for
individual automatic weapons, the British copied the MP 28 and developed
the Lanchester submachine gun for the Royal Navy. Solidly built with the use
of brass for the magazine well, and a bayonet mount, it entered service in
1940. The magazine and the bolt of the MP 28 could be used in the Lanchester.
The OVP 1918, an offspring of Revelli's Villar Perosa 1915, inspired Heinrich
Vollmer for his telescopic bolt used in the VPM 1930, EMP, MP 38, MP 40 and MP
41. The MP 18 remained in limited service with the German armed forces
during the Second World War, specifically with the Sicherheitsdienst,
later eastern foreign divisions of the Waffen SS and also with Kriegsmarine
coastal artillery units. Design details
A soundly engineered piece of equipment with near commercial grade fittings and
finish, the MP 18 was a heavy weapon, weighing over 5 kg when fully loaded.
The receiver tube was very thick, compared with later World War II
submachine guns with half that thickness or less, such as the Sten gun or MP 40.
Though Schmeisser designed a conventional 20-round-capacity "box"
magazine for the weapon, the Testing Commission, for practical reasons,
insisted that the MP 18 be adapted to use the 32-round TM 08 Luger "snail"
drum magazine that was widely used with the long-barreled version of the P 08
pistol known as the Artillery model. Like many other open-bolt designs, the
MP 18 was prone to accidental discharge. If the buttstock of a loaded gun was
given a hard knock while the bolt was fully forward, the gun could
accidentally fire because of the bolt overcoming the action spring resistance
and moving rearward enough to pick up a round, chamber it and fire. Soldiers
liked to leave the bolt of their firearm in this closed or forward position, so
dirt and debris would not enter the barrel and chamber. This 'Bolt-closure'
practice acted as a dust cover for the weapon's chamber, preventing a
malfunction from occurring because of the presence of foreign debris, but
making accidental discharge more likely. The German police asked for an external
safety on their MP 18s, and a universal bolt-locking safety was added on all the
submachine guns used by the police. Later submachine gun designs like the
Sten and the MP 40 were modified to allow the cocking handle to be pushed
inwards to lock the closed bolt to the tubular receiver casing. This design
change prevented accidental discharges when the bolt was left forward and a
loaded magazine was inserted. Operation
The original MP 18.1 was designed to use the snail drum magazine of the Luger
Artillery model pistol. This rotary design type of magazine holds 32 rounds
of 9 mm Parabellum, the user having to load the magazine with a proprietary
loading tool. A special sleeve was required when the snail drum was used on
the MP18 to stop the snail drum from being inserted too far in the magazine
well. After 1920, the MP 18 was modified to
use a straight magazine similar to those used in the later developed MP 40
submachine gun. The MP18 could only fire in the fully automatic mode. Its
successor, the MP 28/2, received a modified mechanism with a selector for
single shot or fully automatic fire. Britain directly copied the MP28 at the
beginning of World War II. The result was the Lanchester submachine gun, which
saw service with the Royal Navy. The British Sten used the side-mounted
magazine configuration and a simplified version of the open bolt firing
operating system of the MP28. The Soviet Union made a similar use of
MP 18 design in their PPD-40 sub machine gun in 1934. Further development of the
PPD-40 led to the simplified and mass-produced PPSh-41.
Users Notes
References Gotz, Hans Dieter, German Military
Rifles and Machine Pistols, 1871–1945, Schiffer Publishing, Ltd. West Chester,
Pennsylvania, 1990. OCLC 24416255 G. de Vries, B.J. Martens: The MP 38,
40, 40/1 and 41 Submachine gun, Propaganda Photos Series, Volume 2,
Special Interest Publicaties BV, Arnhem, The Netherlands. First Edition 2001
Smith, W.H.B, Small arms of the world: the basic manual of military small arms,
Harrisburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 1955. OCLC 3773343
Günter Wollert; Reiner Lidschun; Wilfried Kopenhagen, Illustrierte
Enzyklopädie der Schützenwaffen aus aller Welt: Schützenwaffen heute, Berlin
: Militärverlag der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik, 1988. OCLC
19630248 CLINTON EZELL, EDWARD. Small arms of the
world, Eleventh Edition, Arms & Armour Press, London, 1977
Deutsches Waffen Journal Visier
Schweizer Waffen Magazin Internationales Waffen Magazin
Cibles AMI
Gazette des Armes Action Guns
Guns & Ammo American Handgunner
SWAT Magazine Diana Armi
Armi & Tiro External links
MP 18.1 Video, Informations and Pictures A Bergmann MP 18 built in Tsing Tao,
China in 1927 Historic Arms
MP18 Small Arms Review: The MP28,II Successor
of the MP18,I Luger Artillery and Mauser Parabellum -
Trommelmagazine use The Pacific War 5: Chinese Infantry
Weapons