Bergmann Mp18.I

This is the weapon that started it all. It was to created for fighting in the trenches of the Western Front. It is usually credited with being the first true submachine gun to go into mass production. It is Bergmann Mp18.I

Before Bergmann Mp18.I there had been numerous attempts to produce, or adapt, a portable weapon for close quarter fighting in the bloody trenches of WWI. Most had been either modifications of existing firearms like Winchester 1897 Trench gun, or using existing firearms such as Luger Artillery Model with the stock in place to create in a effect a small semi-auto carbine. Also along the way there were a few close, almost there, designs like the Vilar Perosa M1915.

Of course along with hand grenades, bayonets, knifes, entrenching tools, and brass knuckles, handguns also made up an important part of the trench arsenal. Like the Luger Artillery other manufacturers also had the tradition of producing stock holsters for their handguns to turn them into small carbines, Webley, F&N, Bergmann being examples. Along with stock holsters there were also small bayonets and even extended magazines, the 32rd Luger Snail Drum being an example, for existing models of handguns, and it was only matter of time before someone tried to make a selective-fire variant of their pistols.

Of course while most semi-auto handguns can be converted to selective-fire, capable of both semi and full-auto fire, it is rarely as successful as one might hope. Usually the handgun in full-auto has a rate of fire that either makes it uncontrollable or exhausts its supply of ammo so quickly that even the increased capacity of the extended magazine are of little use. What was needed was small, relatively light, weapon capable of laying down controlled automatic fire for Germany's newly formed Stosstruppen in the trenches. That weapon was the Bergmann MP18.I.

While it was built at the Theodore Bergmann Weapons Factory in Suhl, it was actually designed Hugo Schmeisser. It used the existing 32rd Luger Trommel or Snail Drum but was in general a new class of weapon. The submachine gun or 'Machine Pistol' as it is referred to in Germany. It was ready for front line use in 1918 but with the United States entry into the war in 1917 it was a case of "too little, too late".

After the war, the Treaty of Versailles placed tight restrictions on size and even what types of weapons the new German Wiemar Republic could possess. Having lost millions of their troops to German Maxims and other German automatic weapons, the Allies put severe restrictions on Germany's possession of them. Except for small numbers of existing machine guns for their police and military manufacturing was prohibited. So the Germans just built them outside of Germany!

Under an umbrella of joint ventures and specialist consulting/ advising for foreign governments, Germany got back into the ordnances business in the 1920's. In countries like Switzerland, Spain, Belgium, Sweden, and even the Soviet Union. German engineers and companies started exploring new designs and ideas for not only their clients states and companies but for the day when a new professional German military could step back on to the stage of European politics. The rest is already well known.

Recognizing several of the MP18's flaws the Germans licensed the manufacturing of the new improved MP28.II to the Belgium firm Anciens Establissement Peiper S.A. in Herstal. It incorporated several good changes like a stick magazine instead of the complicated Snail Drum and fire selector to give the option of either semi or full-auto fire. Maybe less useful, they replaced the simple two leaf rear sight with a very optimistic tangent sight that went out to 1,000 yds. Sold in Belgium as MI 34 it was sold to not only to Germany but Boliva, China, Spain, and Japan. It also served as inspiration for the British Lancaster smg which saw limited use in Royal Navy until the early 1960's.

Mp18.I is a 1st generation style of submachine gun like the Thompson, Suomi, Vz 383, SS-100 or Lancaster being other examples, it has very little of the stamped metal, parkarized finish of later generations of submachine guns. Instead everything was done in the Old World style of gun-making. Machined steel with blue finish and hardwood stock. This made them very expensive to make and for their class rather heavy weapons but they were built to last and many remain in useable condition!