One of the most
instantly recognisable
German weapons
of WWII, the MP40
has seen a string of
movie roles and airsoft
replicas. In the first of a
new series, Jay Slater
looks at the colourful
history of the MP40
J
anuary 2012, The Gun Store,
Las Vegas: To say that I was a
cat who got the cream would
be an extreme understatement.
Brandishing an MP40, a real
MP40, I locked a 32-round magazine into
place with a satisfying click. Grinning, I
placed the stock into my shoulder, aimed
towards the target, held the magazine tightly,
squeezed the trigger and…
“Never, ever, hold the MP40 by the
magazine!” the instructor screamed. It was
obvious I had gone too far – I think it was his
red face, clenched fists and fiery temperament
that gave it away. His military discipline kicked
in; I was scared. “You will jam it. It’s not like
the movies. Grip the barrel, godammit!”
050
February 2012
ICONIC WEAPONS:
THE MP40
Childhood memories of the MP40, where
VHS terrors such as Fräuleins in Uniform (1973)
– joyous Swiss sexploitation where naked Nazi
hotties take on the Red Army with MP40s –
crashed and burned. Despite the lack of recoil
as the iconic ‘maschinenpistole’ made short
work of the paper target and cartridges spilled
to the floor with a pleasing odour of burned
cordite, holding the magazine was something
that Clint Eastwood would have got away with.
Move aside Dirty Harry. It was Eastwood
in Where Eagles Dare (1968) – a boy’s own
WWII adventure based on Alistair MacLean
pulp – that did it. With a body count of 100
luckless Germans, the Man With No Name
single-handedly took on an entire garrison in
Eastwood’s most violent action flick. Not only
that, Eastwood let rip with two MP40s. One in
each hand, Eastwood mowed down scores of
hapless Krauts, Ron Goodwin’s score imitating
the MP40’s ‘rat-a-tat-tat’ to good effect. The
MP40’s status as an onscreen sub-machine gun
legend was secured.
During the trench warfare of WWI, Britain
ignored the practicality of a weapon that
could be easily carried and fired by one man,
yet deliver a hail of bullets at close quarters
– something a bolt-action rifle could not
do. Germany, however, saw the genesis of
the machine pistol, the Bergmann MP181.
Invented by Hugo Schmeisser, the MP181 was
expensive to produce but the Strosstruppen
(assault troops) used it devastatingly in their
1918 offensive. The troops nicknamed it the
‘bullet squirter’.
After the war, Schmeisser developed his
MP181 further, resulting in the MP28; the new
design was aesthetically similar but with a
number of novel changes such as single and fullauto fire. There were a number of other variants,
but it was the MP38 in 1938 that introduced
entirely new concepts for machine pistols, such
as the magazine being inserted from below and
a folding metal shoulder brace replacing the
traditional wooden stock.
Despite the excellence of the MP38 in
combat, it was manufactured by craftsmen.
Not only was it expensive and slow to build, its
materials (such as precious aluminium) were in
demand by the Luftwaffe for its aircraft. What
was needed was a machine pistol that could
be manufactured quickly by non-skilled workers