Costly and impractical
The MP41 turned out to be one of the most expensive submachine guns ever made, and only few were built before the design was modified
Afew months back we had a look at one of the most recognisable and well known submachine gun ever produced: The Thompson gun. This month I thought we should have a look at one of the world’s least known, the Swiss MP41.
Possibly the most impractical (and costly) submachine gun ever manufactured, the MP41 and MP41/44, as pictured here, was not a huge success to say the least. It was adopted in 1941 by the Swiss army when they realised that they were falling behind other countries by not having a submachine gun in their arsenal.
Locked breech
The MP41 (not to be confused with the German MP41, which was a completely unrelated gun) was designed by Adolf Furrer, who, it appears, had a fixation with Luger pistol toggle locking actions. He had originally worked at Waffenfabrik Bern, building Luger pistols and Maxim machine guns, and had already designed the larger and similar operating locked toggle LM25 light machine gun. A 9mm submachine gun like the MP41/44 does not need a locked breech at all (most of the more successful designs use simple blowback actions). Furrer, however, was not convinced and designed this to be recoil operated and toggle locked.
Upon firing, the barrel, barrel extension, and bolt assembly all move backwards a short distance, and a cam on the inside of the receiver forces the toggle joint to break out sideways, unlocking the action. At this point in most guns, the barrel would stop and the bolt would continue rearward under inertia, but the MG41/44 is different. The barrel and bolt parts remain connected at all times – so the barrel continues recoiling backwards until the bolt is fully open. The geometry of the toggle lock “legs” is such that the bolt is accelerated open faster than the barrel moves backwards, allowing the empty case to clear the chamber and eject. At the end of travel, a recoil spring in the rear pushes the whole assembly forward, forcing the bolt shut again and chambering a new cartridge.
Unbalanced
Another major difference that readers may have noticed is that the magazine inserts from the right, not the left as most guns with horizontal magazines do. Anyone who has ever fired a horizontal magazine fed submachine gun will tell you that the magazine housing gives a safe and positive hand hold for the right-handed shooter. Furrer claimed his idea was to stop the magazine interfering when the gun was carried in parachute jumps; in reality it unbalanced the gun when firing forcing Furrer to add a cumbersome folding fore-grip handle.
Over-engineered
Furrer further claimed that his design would be quick and easy to put into production, which in hindsight was a bare-faced lie, with each costing the equivalent of 50 British Sten guns or four Thompson guns. The MP41 turned out to be one of the most expensive production submachine guns ever made, and only a few were built before the design was modified to the 41/44 standard (as here, and still incredibly over-engineered), but which simplified many elements. Ultimately, only about 10,000 were produced before the Swiss gave up on it as a lost cause and concentrated on building the MP43/44, which was far more simple and basically a licensed copy of the Finnish M31 (Suomi) submachine gun. Visually, the MP41/44 can be distinguished from the earlier MP41 by having a bayonet lug, two-position fixed rear sight, vertical forward grip, and protective wings on the front sight.
“Only about 10,000 were produced before the Swiss gave up on it”