The Sten was a World War II, British, 9mm-caliber submachine gun which was used by infantry troops in every theater of operations. This crude and rugged firearm could malfunction in operation as it got sometimes jammed in combat. The name "Sten" was an acronym made up of the first letters of its two designers surnames, Shepherd and Turpin, and the first two letters of the name of the factory which manufactured it, Enfield.
The Sten gun was designed by Major Reginald V. Shepherd and Harold J. Turpin in 1940 and was produced by the British firms Enfield, Royal Small Arms Factory, Birmingham Small Arms Company, and Lines Brothers Ltd. Around 4 millions Sten submachine guns were manufactured in different variants; the first one being the Mark I, and the last one the Mark VI. The most widely made was the Mark II. The Sten gun was nicknamed by front line troops "Plumber’s Abortion".
Specifications
The Sten was an open-bolt, blowback-operated submachine gun. Its barrel was 196mm long and its muzzle velocity was 365 m/sec. It shot the 9x19mm Parabellum cartridge. Its rate of fire was 500 rounds/minute, but could also fire single shots. The feed system was a 32-round detachable box magazine. The Sten fired from an open bolt with a fixed firing pin on the face of the bolt. So, the bolt remained to the rear when the weapon was cocked, and on pulling the trigger the bolt flied forward under spring pressure, stripping the round from the magazine, chambering it and firing the weapon all in the same movement. It had no breech locking mechanism as the rearward movement of the bolt caused by the recoil impulse was arrested only by the mainspring and the bolt’s inertia.
The Thompson submachine gun was a US submachine gun which was used by American gangsters during the 1920′s, FBI agents, US Army, and US Marine Corps. The Thompson was the most well-known submachine gun of World War II, and it was also used in the Korean War, French Indochina War, and other small-intensity military conflicts during the first phase of the Cold War. It was nicknamed the Tommy gun.
The Thompson submachine gun was a .45-caliber fire arm, which was designed by the American gunsmith and army General John T Thompson between 1917 and 1919. The purpose of John Thompson when he began developing the gun was to obtain a portable, hand-held machine gun which would give the infantry soldier enough fire power to overcome the stalemate of trench warfare. Nevertheless, by the time the Thompson entered production the Great War had ended. It was originally manufactured by the Auto-Ordnance Company, producing the first model M1921, which was sold at $200.00.
The first Thompsons were delivered to the US Post Office to protect the mail from robbery, and to police departments in the United States. Later in the 1920′s it would be bought in large numbers by the American gangsters. Finally, in 1938, the Thompson submachine gun was also bought by the US Armed Forces, being fielded during the Second World War. It was a reliable weapon with a large volume of fire; the only drawback was that it was heavy and one had to get used to it in order to shoot accurately; one had "to get the hang of it".
Specifications
The Thompson submachine gun was a blowback-action submachine gun which fired the .45ACP (11.43mm) cartridge. It had a 267mm-long barrel and was fed by either a box magazine or a drum magazine ( 20-round stick/box magazine, 30-round stick/box magazine, 50-round drum magazine, 100-round drum magazine). M1 and M1A1 models did not take drum magazines. Its muzzle velocity was 920 ft/s (280 m/s), and its rate of fire was between 600 and 1,200 rounds/minute, depending on the model.
The M1 Garand was a World War II US semi-automatic rifle. Designed to replace the bolt-action rifle M1903 Springfield, the M1 was the first semi-automatic rifle to be widely adopted as the standard infantry fire arm. It was used by the US Army and US Marine Corps in every theater of operations of the war and proved to be a very reliable, precise, and powerful weapon. After World War II it remained in service until 1957 when it was replaced by the M14.
The M1 Garand was designed by the American gunsmith John C Garand in 1932 and entered service in 1936. It was manufactured by Springfield Armory, Winchester, and by Harrington & Richardson. Around 5 million M1 rifles were built from 1932 and 1957, and it was exported to several European and Latin American countries after the war. It was also used in the Korean and French Indochina Wars.
Specifications
The M1 Garand was a gas-operated semi-automatic rifle with rotating bolt. It was .30 caliber (7.62mm) and shot the .30-06 Springfield cartridge. It had a 24-inch long barrel and its muzzle velocity was 2,800 ft/sec. Its effective range was 440 yard (402 m). The M1 Garand was fed by an 8-round clip internal fixed magazine. The rifle weighed 9.5 lb (4,31 kg).
The MP 38, or Maschinenpistole 38, was a World War II German 9mm-caliber submachine gun. It was a light and accurate submachine gun with a low recoil. The MP 38 was known as the Schmeisser, for it was developed from the MP 36, which had been designed by the German gunsmith Hugo Schmeisser. Heinrich Vollmer revised the basic construction of Schmeisser’s MP 36, developing from it the well-known German submachine guns: the MP 38 and the MP 40. It was manufactured by the firm Ema Werke. Although it was produced for Fallschirmjäger (paratroopers) and tank crews, this effective weapon was also delivered to infantry troops. The MP 40 survived the war and continued to be used until late 1970s or early 1980s in some European armies such as Austrian or Norwegian.
Specifications
The MP 38, as well as the MP 40, was a straight blowback-action submachine gun which shot the 9x19mm Parabellum cartridge from an open bolt. It had a 551mm-long barrel. Its rate of fire was 500 rounds/minute and its muzzle velocity 380 m/second. Its effective range was 100 m and its maximum range 300 m. The Maschinenpistole 38 was fed by a 32-round detachable box magazine. Its sights were hooded front blade, and fixed and flip-up U-notch rear.
The M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle, or BAR, was a US .30-caliber automatic assault rifle used by the United States Army Infantry and US Marine Corps during the last three months of World War I and the whole period of World War II and the Korean War. It was powerful, reliable and simple to use, as it entirely changed infantry tactics. This solid piece of wood and steel could be used in any combat environmental conditions, with mud, dirt, rain, and its mechanical parts always worked. Slung over the shoulder or on the hip, the BAR was developed for advancing infantry troops, to replace the French light machine gun, the Chauchat (which was not reliable because it got jammed) on the Western Front of the Great War.
The Browning Automatic Rifle was designed by John Moses Browning in 1917 and was manufactured, with variants, by the American companies Winchester, Colt, and Marlin-Rockwell Corp. The BAR arrived in France in July 1918. The US Army’s 79th Infantry Division was the first unit to get these rifles. It saw action for the first time on September 13, 1918. During the Second World War it was used in every theater of operations.
Specifications
The M1918 BAR was a gas-operated, tilting breech block rifle with a 610mm-long barrel, firing from an open bolt. It was .30(7,62mm) caliber. Its rate of fire was 500-650 rounds/minute and its muzzle velocity 860 m/s (2,822 ft/s). The Browning Automatic Rifle had an effective range between 100 and 1,500 yards. Its weight was 7.25 kg (15.98 lb). The Browning Automatic Rifle was air-cooled and used a gas-operated long-stroke piston rod actuated by propellant gases bled through a vent in the barrel. It was fed by a 20-round detachable box magazine. As it was a fire selective weapon, it could fired in semiautomatic and in two full automatic modes: 350 rounds/minute and 500 rounds/minute. The most widely used and most popular Browning Automatic Rifle variant was the M1918A2 model.
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