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Of all the weapons of World War Two, the most iconic is the legendary Thompson submachine gun. The brainchild of a distinguished Ordnance Department officer, who retired in 1915, John Taliaferro Thompson was also a key player in the development of two other legendary American weapons, the M-1903 Springfield rifle and the M-1911 pistol. He was recalled to active duty in 1917 and named as Director of Arsenals and charged with supervising small arms production. The results of Thompson’s work was very impressive and he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal. He was released from active duty in December of 1918.

After his retirement, Thompson remained interested in the development of improved military weaponry. He designed a semiautomatic rifle that was ultimately passed over in favor of the M-1 Garand.

Thompson was also very interested in the concept of a “trench broom” (as he called it), which would be ideal for close-quarter combat. He recognized that the .45 ACP cartridge (which he had been instrumental in having adopted in 1911) would be ideal for such a weapon.

While working on his semiautomatic rifle design, Thompson had become enamored with a locking mechanism developed by a U.S. Navy officer, John B. Blish. The Blish principle utilized a sliding wedge as a locking device. Thompson chose to adopt the Blish locking mechanism for his trench broom gun, which he eventually renamed a submachine gun.

With Thompson’s reputation, it was not difficult for him to obtain financial backing for his new gun. He was able to assemble a talented team of designers and began to work in earnest. In 1919, the new firm of Auto-Ordnance was at the fore-front in the development of a American submachine gun.

The prototype weapon was tested by the government on April 27,1920; the Springfield Armory ran the weapon through a variety of tests, most impressive was a string of 2,000 rounds being fired, with only one stoppage. The Army test was quickly followed by a Marine test with equally impressive results. The new weapon was given a public showing at the National Matches in August of 1920 and impressed the crowed to no end.

The new weapon was given the designation “Thompson Submachine Gun, Model of 1921”. While the Army and the Marines tested the weapon, the weapon was not adopted due to budgetary reasons. Auto-Ordnance demonstrated the weapon to several foreign governments, who were all impressed by the weapon, but orders were not forthcoming. The company then switched to commercial sales, where it had better luck, although sales were never very high. The Thompson eventually gained a reputation as a gangster weapon due to its widely publicized use in the hands of the notorious criminals of the era. Sales to law enforcement agencies increased as many municipalities, as well as the FBI, who felt obliged to obtain Thompsons so as not to be outgunned by the crooks.

The Marine Corps also obtained several hundred M1921s for use in Nicaragua, where the weapon proved quite valuable in jungle fighting. A number of Thompsons were also obtained for the use of Marines guarding the mail during a rash of armed robberies. The Navy also obtained M1921s and issued them for use on some of its vessels, particularly the Yangtze River gunboats patrolling Chinese waters.

In 1928, the Navy decided to official adopt the Thompson, but asked for several modifications. The Navy wanted a lower rate of fire than the M1921
(600rpm vs. 800rpm), a horizontal foregrip replacing the vertical handgrip and a Cutts compensator. This feature had been available by special order since 1926. It helped to hold down the muzzle during firing by deflecting the muzzle blast upwards. With these changes, the “U.S. Navy, Model of 1928” was adopted. An order for 500 was placed with Auto-Ordnance which, with the previous 340 M1921s were sufficient for Navy and Marine needs for the current time.

By the late 1920s, the Army was in the process of acquiring mechanized vehicles such as tanks and scout cars to reequip the Cavalry. It was recognized that the Thompson would be ideal for use in such vehicles and in March of 1932, the Army standardized the weapon as “Non-Essential Limited Procurement”. In September of 1938, the Thompson was changed from Limited Procurement to Standard and received the designation of Submachine Gun, Caliber .45, Model of 1928A1.”

The M1921, M1928 and M1928A1 all used either 20-round box magazines or a 50-round drum magazine. A very heavy and cumbersome 100-round drum magazine was available as a commercial product, but none were ever procured by the government.

In June of 1939, the Army placed an order for 950 Thompsons, Auto-Ordnance licensed this contract to the Savage Arms Company while they purchased a old brake-lining factory in Bridgeport, Connecticut and renovated it as a arms making facility, in anticipation of increased orders. By late 1940, the demand for Thompsons had skyrocketed. In 1940 alone, the Army placed orders for 20,405 additional M1928A1s and in early 1941, orders topped 319,000 weapons. Many of these initial weapons were intended for Lend-Lease as the Army was slow to purchase Thompsons for their own use, since it was felt that the new M-1 Carbine would replace the submachine gun. After Pearl Harbor, however, it was decided that both weapons were needed and by February 1942, some 500,000 M1928A1 Thompsons had been produced.

The Thompson submachine gun had acquired the nickname “Tommy Gun” early in its life and the name stuck with the weapon. Auto-Ordnance recognized the value of the name and soon patented it. Thompsons were referred to as Tommy Guns both in and out of military service and the term is almost generic for all submachine guns.

The Thompson had the great advantage of being the only submachine gun in mass production in any of the allied nations during the early days of World War Two. It quickly earned a reputation was a reliable, hard-hitting weapon; but faced with an ever-increasing demand, Auto-Ordnance searched for ways to simplify the Thompson and increase its rate of production. The first candidate for redesign was the finely made, fully-adjustable Lyman rear sight. This required a great deal of machining time was quite expensive. Realistically, the sight was superfluous and overly complicated for use on a short-ranged weapon. In December of 1941, it was replaced by a simple stamped sheet metal peep sight that was not capable of adjustment. This change speeded up production and reduced the cost of the weapon, but did not materially effect the usefulness of the Thompson.

Another feature that was changed was the deletion of the barrel cooling fins. These were finely finished on the commercial Thompsons but as military production continued, the fins were first squared-off and then eliminated altogether. Again, this had little impact on the gun’s performance further reduced the cost and speeded up production.

Another shortcut was the elimination of the checking on the safety and fire selectors levers. These were replaced by simple stick-type levers. While not as easy to manipulate as the early levers, once again, it eliminated machining time and further reduced costs.

The M1928A1 Thompson was manufactured in greater numbers than any other variant with some 562,511 being produced between 1940 and 1943. Of these, some 300,000 were supplied to allied nations via Lend-Lease.

Even with these modifications, the basic mechanism remained unchanged from the M1921. In order to make a significant impact on manufacturing time and cost, all aspects of the weapon had to be re-evaluated. The Savage engineering team proposed a radical redesign that centered around the elimination of the Blish locking device. The Blish lock had always been considered to be of dubious value and required a great deal of manufacturing time. Savage proposed a simple straight blowback system that worked quite well in tests. In spite of initial resistance by Auto-Ordnance, the advantages of the blowback design were to great to overlook and a prototype was tested in early 1942. The new design functioned every bit as well as the M1928A1 and had the advantages of being cheaper and taking less manufacturing time. The Submachine Gun, Caliber .45, M-1 was adopted in April of 1942.

The M-1 had several changes: it a straight blowback design. The cocking handle was moved from the top of the receiver to the right side. The Cutts Compensator was eliminated. The removable buttstock of the M1928A1 was replaced by a permanently attached stock. The ability to use the 50-round drum was eliminated, only box magazines could be used.

The M-1 Thompson was placed into production as soon as the M1928A1 contracts ended. It was produced in the lowest numbers of any of the variants, with some 285,480 being made from early 1942 to early 1943.

The M-1 Thompson was further simplified by the substitution of a fixed firing pin on the face of the bolt rather than the separate hammer used with the M1928 and M1 models. This was adopted as the Submachine Gun, Caliber .45, M-1A1 in October of 1942. A major change was the introduction of stamped metal guard “ears” on either side the of stamped rear sight to protect it from damage.

Almost twice as many M-1A1s were produced with some 539,,142 being built by the time production stopped in 1944. In addition, a number of M-1s were converted into M-1A1s at ordnance depots and arsenals.

The elimination of all of these features had no real impact on the performance of the Thompson. Likewise the fact that the simplified Thompsons could not use the 50-round drum magazine had no real impact. In spite of its capacity, the drum magazine was considered to be awkward, heavy and prone to rattle, all undesirable traits in a combat weapon. In order to compensate for the loss of the drum’s firepower, a 30-round box magazine was issued and this could be used with all models of the Thompson.

The Thompson was a reliable weapon, able to function surprisingly well even when quite dirty. At close range, the .45 ACP round was a proven man-stopper and the rapid rate of fire, which could make control difficult, could place a lot of lead on target when necessary.

In spite of its overall good reputation, there were a number of problems. At 10 pounds, the Thompson was heavier than the M-1 Garand. Its pistol-caliber round resulted in a short effective range. But perhaps the most serious drawback was its lack of penetrating power. The .45 ACP round simply would not penetrate trees, roots and the sides of dugouts to anywhere near the degree that the .30-06 round could, this was vital in jungle warfare.

Just how good was the Thompson? Even though the Thompson was replaced by the M-3 and M-3A1 submachine guns following World War II, many soldiers carried it throughout the Korean War as well as the Vietnam War. Sixty years after the end of World War Two, many veterans consider the Thompson as one of the best weapons of the war. As one GI stated “My Thompson never let me down, it saved my life more than once.” No better praise can be given to any military weapon.