https://youtu.be/3qElfsloKH8
Walther began developing a modern stamped sheet metal SMG in the late 1950s, and it entered production in 1963. It was an open-bolt, simple blowback gun available in a short (MPK; 6.75” barrel) and long (MPL; 10.25” barrel) version. It was cheap and simple, but well thought out with a number of quite good features.
The standard design was just safe/full, but a semiautomatic selector position was available if desired by the client. An excellent safety sear prevented the bolt from bouncing open and firing, and the charging handle was both non-reciprocating and capable of also serving as a forward assist if needed. The sights were a bit too clever for Walther’s own good, with a 75m notch and a 150m aperture, both of which were not really great.
Faced with competition from contemporaries like the Uzi and MP5, the Walther never really became massively popular. It did get enough small and medium sized contracts (German police, South African police, Mexican Navy, Portuguese Navy, US Delta Force, etc) to remain in production until 1985 though. Overall a solid and reliable gun even if it failed to really stand out from the other options on the market.
“(…)remain in production until 1985(…)”
…sales, however,were not sufficient enough to warrant further production, and manufacture of both versions [i.e. MPL and MPK] has ceased in 1983.
So when production actually ended?
Above quote is from https://modernfirearms.net/en/submachine-guns/germany-submachine-guns/walther-mpl-eng/
To enhance confusion https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walther_MP claim
Die Walther-Maschinenpistolen (MPL/MPK) wurden von dem in Ulm ansässigen Unternehmen in den Jahren von 1963 bis 1987 gefertigt.
So this would mean finish in 1987. Above also gives total made (including both MPL and MPK) to be around 27000 examples.
What is the purpose of a forward assist in a open bolt smg?
I had the same question…
Quite why you’d want such a thing, I do not know. It’s not like you’re ever going to need to ease the bolt home in the name of silence…
SWAG;
“Ease springs” maneuver.
Closing bolt for storage with letting it slam forward on an empty chamber. Close bolt slowly with one hand on bolt handle, then if it doesn’t quite go all the way shut, press the bolt assist.
Again, just a SWAG.
cheers
eon
“With” = Without“.
Damn all autocorrects.
eon
@eon…
Given that there’s no lockwork at all, what on earth could impede a blowback bolt, and if there was something impeding said bolt…? Why the hell would anyone want to force the damn thing closed? With a fixed firing pin, that’s flat insanity.
Also, battering the breech face? Shouldn’t a blowback weapon firing open bolt with a fixed firing pin be pretty much designed to be immune to that, or at least robust enough to survive it?
I’ve no idea what the hell that handle is doing, but… I can’t see “ease the bolt forward” as any part of any sane design criterial list for a blowback weapon. On the MP5, yeah, sure… On this? Were they nuts?
Maybe the Germans had something like that in the solicitation. Still doesn’t make a lick of sense…
That’s the least-unlikely reason.
RfP includes manual bolt-closure device. Therefore, Walther puts one on it.
Most likely reason for that stipulation? The H&K 54 (as it was then known), firing from a closed bolt, could use such a feature.
It probably tells us at this late date that the H&K had been “pre-selected” as the winner (as the Beretta M92/M9 was in our JSSAP trials)- but they went through the motions of a “trial” for appearance’s sake.
Walther tried to meet as many of the “H&K specific” specifications as they could, even putting a FBA on a weapon that fired from an open bolt, mainly just as a middle-finger flagdown to H&K.
Entirely typical of the German small-arms industry going back to Peter Paul Mauser’s time.
The various players really, really don’t like each other, and never have.
cheers
eon
“(…)reason for that stipulation? The H&K 54 (as it was then known), firing from a closed bolt, could use such a feature. (…)”
This make no sense due to timeline. MPL https://modernfirearms.net/en/submachine-guns/germany-submachine-guns/walther-mpl-eng/ developed during late 1950s and early 1960s, and mass production commenced in 1963. and HK 54 https://modernfirearms.net/en/submachine-guns/germany-submachine-guns/hk-mp5-eng/ Development of the MP5 began circa 1964 under the company designation HK MP-54, or simply HK 54.
According to
PROVISIONAL OPERATION AND SERVICING
MANUAL
TO THE
WALTHER
SUB-MACHINE GUN 9×19 mm WITH FOLDING STOCK
MODEL L & MODEL S
(long) (short)
available at https://gunnerynetwork.com/manuals/Walther_MP.PDF
…
Cocking knob remains stationary, but may readily interlocked with bolt.
This is important, since the weapon can be rendered functional
again in any instance of clogging with dirt
…
Should the action become clogged up
with dirt, mud, or similar matter and
thus cease to function properly, the
action mechanism can in such case be
rendered freely operative again by
pulling the cocking knob back and at
the same time pushing the knob on to
the bolt, thereby interlocking the knob
with the bolt,
To “shake-through” proceed as follows:
Render the MP safe, remove the maga –
zine, look into the ejector opening to
make sure that the chamber is empty.
Interlock the cocking knob with the
bolt by pulling the knob backwards and
at the same time pushing the knob on
to the bolt and holding the latter there,
the move the safety lever to “D”
(“Automatic fire”), pull the trigger,
and move the cocking knob backward
and forward repeatedly whi[?]st pressing
the knob against the bolt. Release the
trigger and move the safety lever to
“S”. Cock the action, insert a full
magazine, move the safety lever to either “D” or “E”. The MP is now ready for
use again.
…
DISCLAIMER: double space before instance copied verbatim, space before – copied verbatim, [?] denotes character, which is unclear
Maybe AI started writing these articlettes, to put stupidities like “forward assist”.
Speaking of which, isnt it a strange, undeveloped term. Forward assist for what, forward is a direction not a part of the firearm
Did anyone actually see a video? I see just a link on this page, and when I cut and paste it YouTube tells me it’s been removed.
And now it works.
‘Unavailable’ to me…
Sorry, the link still didn’t work for me when I retried it. The only reason I got to see it was because the video was one of the recommendations on another video I started watching. Try this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0PGOrGEWtA
These are quite nice for what they are, third-generation submachineguns.
I’m impressed by the amount of refinement and thought that went into them, and I rather have to wonder if these are what would have come along after the MP40, absent the idiocy and insanity of the 1930s and 1940s in Germany. They’re certainly a fully-developed weapon, one that probably deserved far more success on the market than it got.
https://guns.fandom.com/wiki/Walther_MP claims that The MPL and MPK were developed in the early 1960s, and were based on the earlier Italian Franchi LF-57.
Also keep in mind MP40 was ERMA development, not WALTHER. Former entity was asked in 1950s by Bundeswehr to develop new sub-machine gun, which resulted in MP58 https://guns.fandom.com/wiki/Erma_MP58 which shows greater similarity to MP40 and even does feed from same magazines.
LF-57 that was itself inspired by the Armaguerra OG-43/44. The first SMG designed to have the mass of the bolt over the barrel, so shortening the receiver (see the magazine directly in front of the trigger) and stabilizing the burst.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armaguerra_OG-43#/media/File:Og-44.jpg
https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fbs42zm242bf21.png
I did see some in the hands of a Mexican Navy Police patrol on Isla Mujeres in 1991.
“(…)75m notch and a 150m aperture(…)”
https://gunnerynetwork.com/manuals/Walther_MP.PDF describes that in different way:
The MP is regulated (zeroed) at source at 75 m for both the
open and the aperture sight. The rear sight can be adjusted.
So it can be configured to 75 m and 150 m, but does not have to be and 75 m and 150 m is also not factory setting.
According to my notes, a German Television documentary in August 1980 showed Brazilian police of Rio de Janeiro using Walther MPK.
Entered production in 1963. Pretty sure I glimpsed one in the siege of Jadotville. I know, I know, a move not a documentary and showing a bit of “diversity” in the Mercenaries weaponry.
https://www.imfdb.org/wiki/The_Siege_of_Jadotville#Franchi_LF-57 claims that Franchi LF-57 was used, which is similar in appearance, but earlier weapon (easiest way to tell them apart by appearance is taking closer look at stock shape).
OK, I’ll buy that. A quick shot of a dead Merc with weapon next to him.
Thank u for the extra intel on this SMG, Ian!
I think this didnt get more popular as while employing cheaper production technologies like stamped receiver, being made in Germany (same as mp5) it does not equal instantly to cheap product in the end, buyers needing smgs could probably obtain more of similar on world market for a same price.
Also, it has one of the better if not among few very best 9mm magazines (do we have an opinion which is the best?), very triangular in cross section, that later got used in Ingram m10-9
Something completely different: As a native Geman speaker I twitched, when Ian said “Maschinenpischtol”. “Pistole” is one of the rare words in German where the “s” and the “t” are spoken seperatly like in the English word “pistol”.
And: In German there are NO silent “e”s. The “e” in “Pistole” is spoken much like the English word “a”, a short open vowel. This goes for ALL “e”s on the end of German words.