The centenary of the Thompson
In the 100th year since they were first produced, Richard Barnes continues his history of the development of the Thompson
In the 100th year since they were first commercially produced, Richard Barnes has the second part of the history of how the Thompson SMG was developed.
Unfortunately for AutoOrdnance Corp, AOC, the end of World War I in November 1918 removed the immediate need for a close-range handheld automatic gun for the US army. Despite a favourable press for the Model of 1919, and successful demonstrations at Camp Perry, attempts to sell the gun in significant numbers proved futile. John Thompson was still optimistic of potential sales, following the publicity during the summer. However, once the development team agreed they were satisfied with the firearm’s operating system, a manufacturer had to be found, as AOC had no tooling to produce the gun.
A production run of 15,000 Thompson submachine guns was bid out to two tenders for the contract, Colt Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company and Savage Arms Corporation. In
August 1920, the Colt Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company was awarded the initial production contract for 15,000 ‘basic firing mechanisms’, ($680,705), as well as spare parts ($9,105). Contract language stated that: ‘The guns and magazines shall be manufactured by the Company (Colt’s) the same as Sample Gun No. 26 and its accompanying magazine, and within tolerances to be mutually agreed upon, which will be shown on blue prints to be supplied by the Corporation (Auto-Ordnance).’
Contracts were also signed with the Remington Arms Co. for walnut butt stocks, pistol grips and fore grips ($65,456) and the Lyman Gun Sight Corporation for adjustable sights ($69,063) and, after 1926, the Cutts Compensator. The parts were to be assembled by AOC at its own facility.
The serial number of the first Model of 1921 produced by Colt was No. 41 and delivered to the AOC on 31 March 1921. Serial numbers 1 to 40 are presumed to have been allocated to the prototype Model of 1919s. The last serial number used on this production run was No. 15040, manufactured in July 1922. The new weapon, finished in Colt’s attractive bluing, was designated the, ‘Thompson Submachine Gun, Model of 1921’.
This production run was probably one of the best machined, hand fitted, submachine guns ever produced. The weapons were machined to perfection and then arsenic blued. The internal parts were nickel plated, except for the H-type Blish-lock piece, which was manufactured from bronze. All selector switches, actuator knobs, magazine release catches and stock release buttons were finely checked. All the barrels were finned with Lyman manufactured rear sights and removable Remington stocks. The barrels had an alignment mark that matched perfectly with a like alignment mark on the right-hand side of the receiver where the barrel screwed into place. The right-hand side of the receiver carried the ‘New York, NY’ address, the left-hand side the manufacturers’ details, ‘Colt Patent Firearms Mfg. Co.’.
Marketing the gun
The post-war budget constraints, and the delay in the design and production of the Thompson gun, resulted in a limited potential military market. AOC recognised this, but continued to actively
court the US Military, in the hope that the product would be adopted and become standard issue.
Both the US Marine Corps and the US Army had carried out tests during
1920 and 1921, and although the results were favourable so the Thompson was the perfect weapon to put in the hands of the infantry soldier, adoption of the submachine gun was not recommended.
In combat, where a soldier's only objective is to kill his enemy, usually there are no other considerations to take into account. So, the objective is straightforward, the soldier just fires the gun which, providing there is a continuous source of ammunition, continues to fire. The gun just keeps firing until the objective is accomplished or until there is no more rationale to shoot. As such, the Thompson submachine gun made perfect sense in this context. Its’ .45 calibre rounds are extremely powerful and can get the job done quickly. The spray of bullets is wide and thus eliminates the need for accuracy. Finding cover to reload it is not as much of a priority, as the gun fires continuously. The submachine gun is as powerful as a machine gun, but it is portable. Hence strategic placement is not as much of an issue, as the infantry soldier can easily advance with the gun in hand, while continuing to fire.
What changed everything however, which AOC did not appreciate at the time, was that when there are other considerations the Thompson submachine gun becomes less appealing because of its high rate of fire.
One issue that the prospective military buyers raised was economy: the gun is extremely powerful, but it also fired so many rounds, many of which may miss or be unnecessary shots, that result in wasted ammunition, which also meant wasted money.
AOC therefore looked elsewhere for a potential market for the 15,000 guns that Colt had manufactured for it. One market AOC pursued was US law enforcement agencies, and the AOC slogan: ‘On the side of law and order’, began to appear on the adverts. In 1921, following trials, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) adopted the Thompson and AOC shipped 10 Model of 1921s to the NYPD on 14 April 1921. Despite the NYPD lead, sales remained slow with just a trickle of Police departments purchasing a small quantity of the Thompson gun. Indeed, the only obvious pattern for Police sales during the first three or four years of Model of 1921 sales, was a consistent scattering of the guns in the mining areas. Most of these appeared to have been purchased by local industry and donated to the relevant law enforcement agencies.
Initially the new gun aroused some professional interest but, despite this, it continued to lack an institutional buyer.
Maybe this was due to the consideration of its suitability of a role in law and order, with collateral fatalities due to indiscriminate firing in city streets full of innocent crowds. Even in close quarters the gun's fire spread was too unwieldly and there were reports of policemen letting loose inside buildings, thinking they found hidden criminals, but in reality, were gunning down innocents.
In 1921, three foreign governments, who did see the potential of the new weapon, bought a small number of the weapon. The Republic of Cuba purchased 60 examples, the Republic of Panama purchased 41 examples, and Finland 10 examples. These small orders, however, did not hit the AOC sales targets, which would require larger orders to make a profit on the substantial investment that had been made. Some Thompson guns also found their way to the Soviet Union in the 1920s, being shipped via Mexico.
To market the new firearm to potential customers, including the British, Belgian, French and Spanish military, John T Thompson took his submachine gun to Europe in the summer of 1921. However, the only sales resulting from this trip, were 100 guns bought by Belgium, for use in the Belgium Congo.
John T Thompson was invited to demonstrate the Thompson gun at the Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield on June 30, 1921, which he did with some success. The chief inspector of small arms’ report illustrates his concerns about the accuracy and reliability of the gun. He was particularly puzzled by the requirement for the Blish locking system, albeit couched in faintly impenetrable army technical language.
‘There is an element of doubt as to whether the use of the lock is a positive one. The inclination of the sides of the ‘H’ and the corresponding angle of the grooves in the breech block tend to closure, whereas … the inclination of the outside ears and the corresponding angle of the grooves in the receiver tend to release. It is well known that with pistol ammunition the inertia weight of the breech block and the resistance of its return spring afford sufficient resistance to hold up the cartridge [case] while the bullet leaves the barrel, provided such weight and spring resistance are correctly worked out.’
In simple terms, the chief inspector was questioning the necessity of the
Blish lock, as the counterbalancing weight of the breechblock and its recoil spring, matched to the cartridge performance, should provide sufficient delay on opening when operating on a straightforward, blowback principle. Indeed, the Small Arms staff at Enfield predicted the alteration of the design of later Thompsons by removing the Blish lock completely and then firing the gun remotely under safe conditions.
The results were instructive: ‘The rounds were fired, both ejection and extraction being satisfactory. The gun functioned well, and the condition of the spent cases was found to be identical with that of the spent cases … fired with the wedge assembled to the gun.’
There was also doubt about the efficiency of the drum magazines: ‘The 20 round box magazines are much simpler than the drum magazines and appreciably lighter for the same number of rounds, 5 empty box magazines holding 100 rounds in all weighing 2 pounds as against 3 pounds, 2 ounces, for the 100 round drum and 2 pounds, 8 ounces for the 50-round drum. The box magazines are simpler for packing and transport.’ There were a few reliability
problems when the Thompson was tested, mostly with ammunition failing to fire, (not necessarily the gun’s fault), and some ejection problems.
Overall, the British report praised the Thompson: ‘The weapon is handy, compact and is designed in a manner convenient for manufacture.’ But there were no orders forthcoming, the British government being reluctant to spend money re-equipping the army with a gun that was relatively expensive, unproven in combat and against its guiding principles of not issuing light-automatic arms to soldiers. This was, after all, the same army command that had insisted that the Lee-Enfield rifle be fitted with a magazine cut-off to prevent the unnecessary expenditure of ammunition, and which refused to issue semi-automatic pistols to their soldiers during World War I for similar reasons. The prospect of issuing a gun capable of such high rates of fire, horrified many at the Board of Ordnance, and in the wake of the public’s distaste for anything involving military expenditure after 1918, there was little chance of Britain adopting the Thompson. Nearly two decades later, that was to change.
Perhaps the fact the IRA bought a substantial number of Thompsons during the same year, was also a factor that resulted in no sales to the British War Department.
Indeed, the Thompson gun and the Irish Republic Army (IRA), have had a close relationship, it has even been suspected that the Irish Republicans were intimately involved in the early development of the Thompson submachine gun. Serial number 46 was sixth Colt Thompson to be manufactured and was the first example consigned to the AOC salesman George Gordon Rorke on 2 April. In the first month of production, 28 Thompson guns were shipped to the IRA via Rorke.
The IRA did not waste time in using these guns and are recorded as the first to use the Thompson in a combat role in 1921. On 16 June, the IRA used two Thompsons to carry out an ambush a train transporting the West Kent Regiment at Drumcondra, Dublin.
Unknown to the rest of the world, the IRA became AOCs largest single customer for the new Thompson submachine gun. On the same day as the Drumcondra ambush, AOCs largest sale to date, a consignment of 653 Thompson guns was being smuggled on board a ship in New Jersey.
The early Irish Thompson submachine guns were often nicknamed the ‘Irish Sword’. The term is believed to originate from Irish mythology, where swords of magical power were used to lay waste to enemies. The Thompson gun was certainly a magical weapon to the IRA in 1921. The Thompson gun has stood out as a lasting symbol of Irish resistance since 1921 and is immortalised in the well-known ballad The Merry
Ploughboy, which refers to ‘the echo of the Thompson gun’ in its verse.
Collecting accessories
Over the last decade, a lot of Thompson gun accessories have come on the collectors market, thanks to former Soviet Union states, such as the Ukraine, selling their stocks of the gun with accessories to international dealers. This resulted in the availability of original World War II surplus Thompson gun pouches (£40 at www.grahamcurriemilitaria.co.uk), slings (£50 at www.dandbmilitaria. com), cleaning kits with oil bottles (£50 at www.deactivated-guns.co.uk). At www. chelmsfordmilitaria.com, you can find a good stock of both 20 and 30 round magazines at £12 and £20 respectively, as well as other accessories and occasionally it has a WWII 50 round drum magazine for around £500. In the USA, there are a larger variety of accessories available for collectors. A selection, including pouches ($500) and 30 round magazines ($80) can be found at www.autoweapons. com/photos/accys/thompson. html. Another source, which has a selection of pre-war accessories is www. tommyguncollectibles.com/products/. On the site is a good selection of pouches, including drum magazines pouches, priced from $50 to $200.
Be careful though, as there are a lot of reproductions sold as originals out there, especially on eBay, and a good source of information on spotting the reproductions can be found at www. machinegunboards.com.
More information on Thomson gun accessories can be found in two previous articles published in the May and June 2020 issues of The Armourer.