Machine Guns - Forgotten Weapons

H&K UMP: An H&K SMG Made for .40 and .45

March 6, 2020 Ian McCollum 26

H&K introduced the UMP (universal machine pistol) in an effort to attract sales from American law enforcement by offering a modern submachine gun in .45 ACP and .40 S&W calibers. The MP5 was and remains […]

DTM: The Soviet Tank Version of the DP-27 LMG

February 8, 2020 Ian McCollum 24

Almost as soon as the Degtyarev DP-27 was put into Soviet military service, variations were developed for aircraft (DA) and tank (DT) use. The tank pattern we have here is actually a later improved DTM […]

Swedish K: The Carl Gustav m/45B and the Port Said

January 24, 2020 Ian McCollum 42

During the 1930s, Sweden acquired an assortment of different submachine guns, including Bergmanns, Thompsons, and Suomis. As World War Two progressed, they decided that they really needed to standardize on a single caliber and model […]

MAT 49-54 Police Submachine Gun

January 22, 2020 Ian McCollum 19

After the adoption of the MAT 49 as the standard French military submachine gun, elements of the French security services also adopted it to replace the 7.65mm MAS 38 submachine guns. These included the Paris […]

Ians Top 5 SMGs

January 18, 2020 Ian McCollum 74

One of the questions I got for this month’s Q&A was, “what are your favorite submachine guns?” Well, I figured that would be a good idea for a standalone video instead of just a Q&A […]

Star Z45: Spain’s Improved MP40 Submachine Gun

January 17, 2020 Ian McCollum 33

The Z45 was a submachine gun designed during World War Two by the Start firm in Eibar, Spain for export sale to Germany as well as domestic Spanish use. It was heavily based on the […]

Post-War Paris Police MAS 38 Variation

January 15, 2020 Ian McCollum 19

At the end of World War Two, the Paris Police decided that they needed a few different features on a police submachine gun than the then-standard MAS 38 offered. A few hundred were converted to […]

H&K’s Experimental SMG and SMG II for the US Navy

January 3, 2020 Ian McCollum 31

In the 1980s, the US Navy requested a new submachine gun to replace the MP5 then in use. In particular, the Navy wanted a gun that was optimized for use with a suppressor. H&K built […]

EOKA Cut-Down Beretta 38 SMG

December 27, 2019 Ian McCollum 24

This cut-down Beretta Model 38/44 submachine gun was made by the EOKA (Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston) terrorist group, which fought in the late 1950s for Cyprus to be reunified with Greece, instead of being a […]

Italian Sci-Fi Blaster: The Franchi LF-57

December 23, 2019 Ian McCollum 28

Introduced in 1957, Franchi’s LF-57 submachine gun has a very distinctive sci-fi look to it, but was never able to become a major player in the Cold War arms market. It is in all ways […]