Quote Originally Posted by Benelli B76 View Post
As you say an SMG that fires from an open bolt is the easiest to produce from a bit of pipe a couple of springs and sheet metal. The mag is the probably the most complicated part to get right. That is why most Sten MK 111's were made by Tri-ang Toys ( Lines Brothers) in London. You do not need a lot of complicated production tooling as for a standard rifle. After the war they were mostly destroyed.

Baz
Another earlier example following pretty much the same approach is the genesis of the German 'Schmeisser', though the MP40 (and its final iteration the MP41 - which basically had a wooden stock) was actually designed by someone else (Heinrich Vollmer). Schmeisser designed the much earlier MP18.

Anyway - my point is that at the time the allies were touting the more-or-less unchanged 1921 and 1928 designed Thompson, Germany was knocking out well over a million MP40s between 1940 and 1945 because of its inherent simpler design. Whereas the Thompson was largely composed of machined metal requiring a more involved (and slower) manufacturing process, the MP40 was knocked out mostly from pressed steel and welded parts. Even the 'cladding' on the grip areas was 'bakelite' over metal with a folding frame stock, rather than the more involved staged fabrication of wooden grip and stock.

We wake up to this whole approach with the Sten, and the USA doesn't find a similar mass-production solution until the advent of the M3 - or 'Grease Gun' introduced 1942'ish?. And if I remember correctly, the Sten only rushes into production from 1940/41 because of the acute weapon shortage following on from Dunkirk, and the fact we couldn't get enough Thompsons from the US. Mind you, we then proceed to churn out over 4 million of them up to the end of the war and beyond.

Needless to say - the greatest exponent of this whole 'genre' is - of course - the AK/Kalashnikov.

Depressing ... isn't it! Our ability to simplify and 'improve' the art of war.

Richard