allweaponsww2

Hello everyone! Found an interesting video on YouTube from @Rusty_Restore This is how he completely restores the rusty M1928A1. BEFORE: AFTER: If anyone is interested, I’ll leave a link to the full video here:

Hello everyone! There is a short article dated October 30, 1913 about John T. Thompson. This was timed to coincide with his receiving a new rank - colonel. Many beautiful words and a short biography. Many say that Thompson was not a gunsmith like Garand, Browning or Petersen, calling him only an organizer. But many also forget what contribution he made to the development of the American small arms system in the first half of the twentieth century. Participation in the development of the M1903, M1917 Rifles, 30-06 and .45 ACP cartridges, the adoption of the Colt M1911, the .22 Target Rifle and of course the most legendary SMG of the 20th century - the Thompson Gun.

I have a feeling that M1/M1A1 came in the last contracts, 44-45. When the Red Army no longer needed submachine guns. Since 95% of the wartime photos depict M1928A1, the situation is the same with the Museum storages. The condition of these TSMGs from the boxes is certainly amazing.

Great photo! Thank you! I think I see on this table an improvised "hybrid" front handle.

Good post! Thank you Richard 👍

Fort Sam Houston, September 1942 Death Island: Guadalcanal, 1943 Soldiers of the 172nd Infantry Regiment returning to the infirmary in July 1943 on New Georgia Marines during the invasion of Tarawa, November 1943 The crew of the USMC M3 "Stuart" light tank posing with their M1911 and M1928A1 Thompson pistols at Bougainville 1944 Marine patrol, Cape Gloucester, January 1944 Naval raider with a Thompson M1928A1 and a 50-round drum on Bougainville, December 1943. Notice the modified front handle A Marine covers a Bazooka on Okinawa, May 4, 1945 Soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Division of the United States during the attack on the city of Shuri. A Marine covers his comrade with a Thompson submachine gun is Davis Hargreaves (b. 1925), on the right is Gabriel Chavarria (b. 1926), he is armed with a BAR automatic rifle. Okinawa, May, 1945

Oh Richard please say what year is this manual?

Two women from the Norwegian Navy Women's Corps receive training with Thompson SMGs (M1928 or M1928A1) during recruit school in Liverpool, 1942.

Those two bipod grooves on the front forearm seem like one was made by mistake, just a miscalculation of the length of the bipod. 🤔

Richard thanks again for your post. I consider this catalog to be a discovery in the history of the Model 1923! Your catalog was printed in May-June 1923 and in it the Military Model is listed as "Thompson Submachine Gun, Model 1923" from where the legs grow with the formal designation of this rare experimental Model (Configuration). In various sources of literature, respected authors have always emphasized that the Military Model never officially had the designation M1923, now we see what it did. Here are some other early mentions of M1923 from other sources: 1. An early AOC catalog dated February 27, 1922, was a drawing of a mysterious prototype with Bipod called it "Model F 1922." (1922) 2. "Thompson Guns Models 1921-1923" AOC Catalog - listed as "Military Model" and shortened version as "Model Short Barrel". (1923) 3. Rare Price list AOC 1923, which also lists these two groups, such as "Thompson Gun with Bipod" and "Thompson Gun Short Barrel Type". (1923) 4. In the German Archives there are references to tests by the Reichswehr in the summer of 1924 of the Thompson SMG, Thompson Automatic Rifle and Thompson Military SMG chambered in .45 Special. (1924) 5. Price List of 1920s Pacific Arms Arms two models are designated as "Long Military Model", standard SMG is listed as "Short Model". (1920s) 6. In the book of the Russian gunsmith Vladimir Fedorov (the creator of the Avtomat 1916 ) "The Evolution of Small Arms" there is a drawing of a TSMG with a bipod, where it is simply listed as a Thompson submachine gun. (1939) 7. Another Soviet book "The material part of small arms" from A.A. Blagonravov, the military model is listed as "Thompson mod. 1923". (1945)

Если бы Каталог AOC о военных моделях M1923 существовал, он выглядел бы так.🤔

Hello! Recently, a good book "Foreign submachine guns in the collection of the Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineering and Signal Corps" by Nikita Ovodkov was published in Russia. It contains information about 275 SMGs on 700 pages. I hasten to share with you the Article about TSMG M1923 No 1605.

Hello everyone! Recently I came across an interesting "modification" Thompson M1A1 with a CAR-15 stock. After a little understanding, I found out that American soldiers in Vietnam often used their TSMGs with modified stock or without it at all. Weapon recoil must have been a secondary factor in jungle battles. I have attached some photos of this. PS: Captain Dale Dye, USMC, mentioned that he saw quite a number of M1A1 Thompson SMGs in Vietnam. “Many of the advisors to the Vietnamese took the opportunity to acquire and carry Thompsons in my observation. It was also a favorite of the guys working the USN Market Time ops off-shore as I recall. Very often I saw Thompsons modified with the stocks removed, although I never understood why beyond the cool factor." the same, LRRP with Thompson M1A1 modified with a CAR-15 stock. and some other photos

Hello everybody! I found the Technical Manual ( War Department ) about the Thompson M1928A1 from 1942. Its strangeness is that the title page depicts .... TSMG is a Chinese copy. The manual was printed for the US Army. The first question, the guys who published this paper did not know what the Thompson M1928A1 looks like .. the second question, where did they get the Chinese copy of TSMG in 1942 ... It's fun. Anyone have any thoughts on this? Thanks!

Richard, I'm glad to hear from you! Thank you for your detailed answer about the Model M1928 / M1928A1. One clarification did the IRA buy the Thompsons after WWII? Thanks ! Victor it is always a pleasure.The IRA always had good networks to supply weapons from the USA and in the 1940's and 1950's, it was not unknown for them to raid British camps or Police stations to steal weapons, until the security on such locations was improved from experience. In the 1970's and 1980's Libya used to supply more modern weapsons. Several recovered IRA Thompsons were sold by H.M. Government to a film prop company in the 1970s. In turn, these were sold onto the civilian market in the 1990s. The person from whom I bought mine from in 2012, informed me he had bought it from Batby & Co, suppliers of weapons to the TV and film industry in London, and that it was a former IRA Thompson. During the troubles, it was not only the IRA that used them, the loyalists also acquired and used Thompsons. In the early summer of 1974 Combat magazine carried reports of a Loyalist raid, which alleged, due to information received from the Security Forces, a unit of the Mid-Ulster Volunteers seized a quantity of weapons from what is believed to have been an IRA arms dump. The Unit captured a Thompson submachine gun, two revolvers and a quantity of ammunition and explosive materials. Before leaving the ‘dump’ the loyalists laid a booby-trap mine, which later exploded causing injury to an IRA quartermaster. In a report to Brigade Staff, the Officer Commanding the 3rd (Mid-Ulster) Battalion said that this had been the third successful arms seizure in the Tyrone area within the past month” . In another report from the same source, an Ulster Volunteer Force member in the late 1960’s, Gusty Spence, stated “I was always pestering this man for firearms and I bought the first Thompson submachine gun that was ever seen on the Shankill Road. I paid thirty quid for it and twenty rounds of ammunition. A .45 Webley pistol cost a fiver, which was big enough money in those days for working men”. Hundreds of the Model of 1921 guns, originating from the SS East Side shipment have been seized by Security forces in Northern Ireland, the Garda in the Irish Republic and the British police in Britain, many of these were destroyed under the law. Some have had legible serial numbers, while others have had their numbers defaced and no doubt some guns remain in forgotten concealed arms caches to this day. Between 1922 and 2001, the Royal Ulster Constabulary reported 61 Thompson guns seized in arms finds. In 1983, several captured IRA guns were auctioned off by the British Government, through the Weller and Dufty auction house, these included two US Model of 1928A1’s, six Model of 1921’s with the serial numbers erased and one Model of 1921 which retained its serial number, 873. Maria McGuire was an IRA volunteer, post 1969, who recorded her experiences in the book, “To Take Arms, A Year in the Provisional IRA” published in 1973, which mentions the old Thompsons resurfacing. “Most of the weapons were World War II military rifles such as the M1 carbine, the heavy Garand semi-automatic rifle (it weighs 12 pounds), bolt action Springfield’s and British Lee-Enfield’s……. The rest were assorted pistols of vastly differing types and calibres, plus a few submachine guns, mostly the famous Thompsons…. most IRA men refer to them as ‘The Thompson’, though some of the younger ones also called them ‘rattleboxes’. They do make an incredible din…. Hundreds of them appear to have been smuggled into the country at around that time, (1921), and they rapidly became as much a part of the IRA legend, as the trench coat. Many of the Irish Thompsons have spent more time under the ground than over it…. I remember a wizened old man came into Kevin Street and produced various parts of a rusty Thompson gun out of a brown paper parcel ‘tis a present form the boys in Cork’ he said. Many IRA men will tell you that the Thompson is their favourite weapon….one of the major faults with the Thompson is that unless it is kept spotlessly clean, (often difficult in combat conditions), it’s prone to jamming; another is that it needs a strong man to handle it, because its barrel should make an imaginary figure of eight around the target; a third is that it has a relatively low velocity and there has been instances in the North of its heavy .45 bullets failing to pierce soldier’s flak jackets”. As you can see I read a lot, maybe too much. Stay safeRichard Richard, thank you again for the information about the Irish Thompsons!