Submachine Guns - Forgotten Weapons

Colt SMG: First of the 9mm ARs

August 8, 2025 Ian McCollum 3

All the best firearms history channels streaming to all major devices! Join today and get a week free: weaponsandwar.tv With the expansion of SWAT teams throughout law enforcement in the 1980s, Colt realized that it […]

CZ247: Experimental Swivel-Action SMG

July 16, 2025 Ian McCollum 11

The CZ247 was developed for Czechoslovakia’s post-war submachine gun trials, where it was pitted against the ZB47. It was a simple blowback 9x19mm SMG with a number of interesting elements, most notably the ability to […]

Orita 1941: The Original Romanian Submachine Gun

July 2, 2025 Ian McCollum 7

The Model 1941 Orita was Romania’s first domestic submachine gun, but after World War Two the design was upgraded in many ways. The Model 41/48 improved the stock, sights, and controls – and virtually all […]

Samopal vz 38: Czechoslovakia’s Interwar Drum-Fed SMG in .380

June 25, 2025 Ian McCollum 25

Military interest in a submachine gun was late in Czechoslovakia, but by the late 1930s a development program was put into place. Interestingly, the main use case for an SMG was seen as being a […]

Gerat Potsdam: Mauser Copies the Sten Gun

June 2, 2025 Ian McCollum 19

In the fall of 1944, the Mauser company was given a contract to develop drawings of a direct copy of the British Sten gun (code named Gerät Potsdam), and to manufacture 10,000 of them. In […]

Type 79 SMG: China’s MP7 At Home

April 25, 2025 Ian McCollum 15

The Type 79 is an overly-complex submachine gun that uses a scaled-down AK operating system chambered for 7.62x25mm Tokarev. In many ways, this is akin to the H&K MP7 – it’s a miniaturized combat rifle. […]

Erma EMP36: External Form Factor of the MP40

March 26, 2025 Ian McCollum 24

The German military began looking for a new submachine gun design in secret in the mid 1930s. There is basically no surviving documentation, but the main contenders appear to have featured: Hugo Schmeisser’s MK-36,II and […]

Schmeisser MK-36,II – The Mechanics of the MP40

March 24, 2025 Ian McCollum 9

The German military began looking for a new submachine gun design in secret in the mid 1930s. There is basically no surviving documentation, but the main contenders appear to have featured: Hugo Schmeisser’s MK-36,II and […]

The Swiss Suomi: MP43/44 (With Bayonet)

March 19, 2025 Ian McCollum 48

During World War Two, the Swiss had adopted Adolf Furrer’s toggle-locked MP41 submachine gun, and they found it too fragile, complex, and expensive. Looking for an alternative, one easy choice was the Finnish Suomi. Used […]

Development of the Uzi Family: Standard, Mini, and Micro

January 4, 2025 Ian McCollum 22

https://youtu.be/y3EIud0KKCM Full video cut available on the History of Weapons & War app. The Uzi was originally designed in the 1950s, and it was on the technological cutting edge at the time. The stamped receiver, […]