Bergmann MP18/I (Maschinenpistole 18/I)

History

While much of the attention of the early submachine guns ended up focusing on the Germans and their MP18 (Machine Pistol 18), the Italians became the first national army to formally adopt the submachine gun as a standardized weapon class, which they did in 1915 Introduced the 9mm Glisenti Twin Villar Perosa. The design is a rather bulky and unorthodox instrument with no starting stock, while the spade handle manages the firing function and is fed from a pair of detachable 25-round magazines. It's just that the Italians lacked foresight to see this weapon as a static light machine gun rather than a real submachine gun weapon, which instead doomed its history, paving the way for the MP18 introduced in 1918.

By the end of the First World War, The Italians eventually introduced an improved, more traditional form of the submachine gun in the 1918 Beretta model - one that survived long enough to serve in World War II.

The submachine gun as a weapon class is an interesting middle ground between service rifles, pistols and machine guns. While rifles can be used (to a certain extent) more intimately to charge into trenches (with bayonet attached), and pistols have proven themselves in extreme hand-to-hand combat, machine guns offer high-capacity firepower and excellent interceptors with suppressive effects Skill.

So a submachine gun is essentially a hand-held machine gun that fires a smaller pistol cartridge and is significantly more useful in close encounters in trench warfare where combat is usually decided within yards between combatants . The results of World War I inspired a number of postwar gun efforts to provide the lone infantryman with a powerful, portable human interceptor as trench warfare returned to the battlefields of Europe.

For the Germans, victory in the First World War in 1918 was becoming increasingly elusive. Engineer Hugo Schmeisser began work on a compact automatic weapon as early as 1916, although his recoil design dates back to the late 1890s. During this time, Schmeisser developed recoil operating systems for various Bergman pistols and considered applying the same principles to larger weapon systems designed to fire more powerful cartridges. Since using a high-capacity magazine fired from a pistol proved cumbersome and restrictive, he used a traditional rifle-style wooden frame, including the grip, shoulder rest and foregrip, while mounting the internals in the usual way, like Same as added to service rifles. The barrel is mounted in a perforated barrel jacket to help cool and counteract overheating of the barrel due to the gun's automatic firing.

Internal action includes a floating striker, bolt assembly and return spring, allowing for high fire while maintaining reliable action. There are no muzzle devices, and iron sights are installed above the receiver and above the muzzle.

Strap loops are attached under the shoulder straps and under the barrel jacket. The integrated forearm allows for a firm two-handed grip when firing from the shoulder in the typical "three-point" stance. The magazine feed is offset to the left of the receiver and the charging handle is set to the right. The magazine itself is particularly important because it consists of a snare drum with an extended shaft to which the part on the receiving side is attached.

Because of their appearance, these magazines are called "slug" magazines, the same high-capacity magazines originally developed for the 9mm Parabellum pistol. The original submachine gun design was fired from a 20-round magazine, but was eventually abandoned in favor of a 9x19mm Parabellum caliber drum. The cyclic rate of fire is about 400 to 500 rounds per minute.

The weapon's official name is "Machine Pistol 18/I", and is also popularly (simply) called "MP18/I" or "MP18".

As the name suggests, the MP18 was officially adopted in 1918 and arrived in time for the Western Front in the "Kaiserschlachtoffensive". Although as many as 50,000 may have been ordered, only about 10,000 are actually available in competition (some sources say much less). The intention of the German Army was to use six of these guns per company, equipped with a special ammunition guidance device, as part of the "Stostruppen" trench assault force, tasked with raiding enemy positions. A lack of numbers and proper tactical training frustrates these adventures, and weapons can be used wherever and whenever they are in a war context. In practice, these early forms showed that their magazine feeds were complex and prone to being interrupted in the heat of battle - further limiting their usefulness.

As many as 30,000 MP18s are thought to have been completed by the end of the fighting in November 1918 - Germany found itself on the losing side of a long and bloody conflict. After modifying the feed mechanism with a special adapter, the MP18 proved to be a fairly reliable and robust field weapon.

Regardless of the personal success of the weapons, Germany was saddled with the cost of the war and was ultimately severely limited by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, the number and types of weapons it could stockpile or manufacture for the army (weapons like the MP18 were singled out specifically) . Despite the deadly automatic nature of the MP18 design, the submachine gun somehow survived as a police/security weapon (despite the 20-round magazine), but is still banned - production seems to be still going on in secret.

The MP18 was an innovative and revolutionary firearm design that influenced other submachine gun projects in the 1960s. The blowback operating system became the standard for many famous designs, no doubt inspired interwar designs such as the Soviet PPD, which essentially retained the same form and function as the MP18 that preceded it. Stockpiles of MP18s seized after World War I were in service with the French National Army, while the weapon was still in circulation in Germany and was used as a second-line weapon at the beginning of World War II. The French were so fascinated by German designs that they developed their own 20- and 32-round detachable magazines to overcome the limitations of the snail drum magazine.

The licensed production version from Belgium also includes French-inspired additions. The MP18 was eventually spotted with 20-, 30- and 50-round box magazines, and also received 7.63x25mm Mauser and .30 Ruger chambers from Swiss gunmaker SIG.

In later German police production models, security was required and ultimately granted.

The MP18 was eventually replaced by the improved "Machine Pistol 28/II" (referred to simply as "MP28") in 1928. Several other direct developments for MP18 exist in Austria, Spain, France, the UK, China and elsewhere.

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