The concept had already been developed by German troops using their own Bergmann MP 18 (the world's first submachine gun) in concert with their Sturmtruppen tactics. Thompson intended for the weapon to provide a high volume of automatic, man-portable fire for use in trench warfare-a role for which the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) had been determined ill-suited. While other weapons had been developed shortly prior with similar objectives in mind, the Thompson was the first weapon to be labeled and marketed as a "submachine gun". Īt an Auto-Ordnance board meeting in 1919, in order to discuss the marketing of the "Annihilator", with the war now over the weapon was officially renamed the "Thompson Submachine Gun". Most of the design issues had been resolved by 1918 however, the war ended two days before prototypes could be shipped to Europe. Payne designed the new firearm along with its stick and drum magazines. 45 ACP to be used as a "trench broom" for the ongoing trench warfare of World War I. General Thompson envisioned a "one-man, hand-held machine gun" chambered in. It was found that the only cartridge currently in service suitable for use with the new lock was the. By late 1917, the limits of the Blish Lock were discovered (which is essentially an extreme manifestation of static friction), and, rather than the firearm working as a locked breech, the weapon was instead designed to function as a friction-delayed blowback action. The Thompson was primarily developed in Cleveland, Ohio. Ryan and proceeded to found a company, which he named the Auto-Ordnance Company, in 1916, for the purpose of developing his new "auto rifle". Thompson gained financial backing from the businessman Thomas F. Blish's design (then known as the Blish Lock) was based on the supposed adhesion of inclined metal surfaces under pressure. He envisioned it as being a fully automatic rifle in order to replace the bolt-action service rifles then in use (such as the American M1903 Springfield).īrigadier general Thompson came across a patent issued to the American inventor John Bell Blish in 1915, while searching for a way to allow his weapon to operate safely without the complexity of a recoil or gas-operated reloading mechanism. Thompson was the original developer of the Thompson submachine gun, who spent most of his career in the ordnance department of the U.S. Thompson holding an M1921 Development īrigadier general John T. These models retain a similar appearance to the original, but have various modifications in order to comply with US firearm laws.īrigadier general John T. Numerous semi-automatic civilian versions are still being produced by the manufacturer Auto-Ordnance. The original fully automatic Thompsons are no longer produced. It is the first weapon to be labeled and marketed as a "submachine gun". More than 1.5 million military Thompson submachine guns were produced during World War II. It was designated as the M1928A1, M1 and M1A1 during this time. military during World War II, and was used extensively by the Allied troops during the war. The Thompson was widely adopted by the U.S. It was a common sight in the media at the time, and was used by both law enforcement officers and criminals. The Thompson became notorious during the Prohibition era, used as a signature weapon of various organized crime syndicates in the United States in the 1920s. The Thompson saw early use by the United States Marine Corps during the Banana Wars, the United States Postal Inspection Service, the Irish Republican Army, the Republic of China, and the FBI (following the Kansas City Massacre). It was originally designed to break the stalemate of trench warfare of World War I, but was not finished until after the war ended. The Thompson submachine gun (also known as the "Tommy Gun", "Chicago Typewriter", "Chicago Piano", or "Trench Broom") is a blowback-operated, air-cooled, magazine-fed selective-fire submachine gun, invented by the United States Army Brigadier general John T. (M1 and M1A1 models do not accept drum magazines)