Machine Guns - Forgotten Weapons

M1 Thompson: Savage Simplifies the SMG

April 28, 2024 Ian McCollum 12

The Thompson submachine gun struggled to find a market when it was originally produced, with the first batch of 15,000 Colt-made guns not finally all selling until the late 1930s. By that time, the clouds […]

Colt Automatic Machine Rifle Model 1919: the First Commercial BAR

April 26, 2024 Ian McCollum 16

Several patents were taken out on the BAR during World War One, but they were all kept unpublished and secret during the war. Just days after the Armistice, Colt patent attorney CJ Ehbets wrote to […]

Maxims in the Skies: the German LMG 08/15

April 24, 2024 Ian McCollum 9

As soon as the MG08/15 “light” machine gun was adopted by Germany, it was recognized as an ideal basis for an aircraft gun. Weight was of the essence for WW1 aircraft, and a lightened Maxim […]

MG11: The Magnificent Swiss Maxim Gun

April 19, 2024 Ian McCollum 7

The Swiss were one of the first countries to test Hiram Maxim’s new automatic machine gun in 1887, and they found it far superior to their just-recently-purchased Gardner guns. The first Swiss maxims were delivered […]

Type 100 / 44 (Late Pattern) Japanese SMG

April 17, 2024 Ian McCollum 41

The Japanese never really embraced submachine guns during and before World War Two. A series of development programs in the 1920s and 30s led nowhere, and there never really seems to have been much motivation […]

Chinese Type 50 PPSh: Founding “Gun City” in Manchuria

April 12, 2024 Ian McCollum 1

One of the first new weapons adapted and used by the Chinese Peoples’ Liberation Army after the Communist victory in the Chinese civil war was the Type 50, a copy of the Soviet PPSh-41. The […]

Zagi: Croatia HK’s a Sten Gun

March 20, 2024 Ian McCollum 29

The Zagi is one of the more prolific of the Croatian homeland War submachine guns. It was developed with the intention of making substantial numbers, and a lot of capital was put into the PHTO […]

Prototype Matra Manurhin Compact SMG at the Range

March 9, 2024 Ian McCollum 13

https://forgottenweapons.vhx.tv/videos/matra-manurhin-smg-at-the-range I came across this prototype (serial number 7) PDW/compact SMG in a collection, and had the opportunity to take it out to try on the range. I don’t have any specific data about it, […]

Token of Appreciation: a Presentation Sokac SMG

February 28, 2024 Ian McCollum 8

The Šokac was one of the more prolific Croatian domestic submachine guns of the Homeland War. This particular example is one that was specifically presented to the police chief of the town of Slavonsky Brod […]

Patchett Machine Carbine MkI: Sten Becomes Sterling

February 14, 2024 Ian McCollum 27

The Patchett Machine Carbine Mk I is the predecessor to the Sterling SMG. It was developed by George William Patchett, who was an employee of the Sterling company. At the beginning of the war, Sterling […]