Most wooden-stocked SMGs heretofore developed in Germany had their magazines sticking out to the left side. A rotating buttplate folded up against the receiver’s bottom and - of course - chambering was 9mm Parabellum. It had what we today call a folding stock (the Germans called it a “folding shoulder brace”). Their MP38 was the first “woodless” SMG, incorporating some primitive plastics. Also in the 1930s, both Finland and the Soviet Union got into SMG production but Germany was the most innovative. Schmeisser improved the MP18/1 and there were several other remodels well into the 1930s. Except for America’s fabled Thompson, most SMG developments were in Europe. The years between the world wars saw the SMG develop into a full-fledged combat weapon. These early SMGs got into combat in the last stages of World War I. It was wood stocked and used the same drum magazines as the Artillery Luger. A young German weapons designer named Hugo Schmeisser then developed a full-auto machine pistol - the MP18/1. They fired 9mm Parabellum in semi-auto mode and German soldiers used them to great effect in trench raids starting in 1917. Those guns were the long barreled Lugers for which flat wooden stocks and 32-round drum magazines were developed. Strangely enough, the MP40 story actually started with Germany’s Artillery Lugers. It’s certainly added spice to an aging gun’riter’s life! Suitably chastened, I followed Kirk’s advice and bought the MP40 (along with several other WWII SMGs after a decent interval). You could sell them, never miss one, and have the one gun you’ve always wanted,” Kirk pointed out. And they’re guns I know you haven’t shot in years. “You have lots of guns in the vault whose values add up to more than that MP40 costs. “It was more than Yvonne and I paid for our first house!” On the way home Kirk said, “I don’t understand why you don’t buy that MP40? Ever since I’ve known you, you’ve talked about them. I read the price tag and almost got woozy! There at the show an exhibitor had an eye-catching display of WWII guns including a fine condition MP40. However, my good friend Kirk Stovall prevailed on me to go. I didn’t want to go at first as there were no more Old West guns I wanted to buy nothing seemed remotely interesting anymore.
I then attended a gun show in Billings in December 2007. I figured they cost too much and the paperwork was too involved - owning an MP40 would be taking a long step and my legs are awfully short. However, most of my life I was frustrated about owning a real MP40. Consider this: I bought my very first gun magazine at age 13 in 1962 because it contained a photograph of a Viet Cong guerilla packing one. The answer to both questions? My German MP40 submachine gun.
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