Talk:MP 40

"Brownings"

I am deleting the line "Just as all semi-automatic pistols are called 'Brownings,' it is entirely possible that all German submachine guns were 'Schmeissers.'" I have been involved with firearms, modern and historical, for the better part of 25 years, and I have never heard of an automatic pistol referred to as "a Browning." Even the ubiquitous Browning Hi-Power and M1911 aren't called "Brownings," but "Hi-Powers" and "1911's," respectively. --DOHC Holiday 18:03, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

Rumor

I've never heard of this rumour that the allies preferred the MP40 over there own SMG's, can you tell me where you read this? Oberiko 12:02, 23 Feb 2004 (UTC)

I heard it from an interview with a GI on some discovery channel show. the reason being that the MP40 was much lighter and easier to use than a tommy gun, yet still had comprable lethality. According to this veteran, everyone in his unit that was suposed to carry a thomspon eventually ditched it in favor of captured mp40s. Vroman 12:54, 23 Feb 2004 (UTC)~

Dont forget you also had dead Germans with allot of ammo still on them after you kill him you take his ammo In history you will notice that soldiers will take enemy guns becuse of the ammo availibility or they are sometimes better Dudtz 7/23/05 1:35 EST

This is one reason for the widely usage of Soviet Weaponary by the Wehrmacht or earlier by the Finns, but I don't think, that the ammo situation of the German soldier (despite of some elite formations) was better than that of the American. So why wait for killing a German officer or Unteroffizier for grapping some magazines, when you can get more by your own support lines? Nekka 10:16, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

From my Osprey Men-At-Arms book on The Red Army of the Great Patriotic War 1941-5 by Steven Zaloga, there is evidence (including a photo) that Russian scouts preferred using captured MP38/40s over the Shpagin, trading off the firepower and reliability of the PPSh-41 in favor of the Schmeisser's lightness and compactness. Also, using the Schmeisser helped confuse the enemy and camouflaged the fact they were Soviet forces.--YoungFreud 10:22, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

I read once in a translated journal of a german soldier that the reverse was true. The germans would swap their MP38's/40's in favour of the russian gun because it had increased ammo capacity due to the drum magazine. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 210.215.75.4 (talk) 04:22, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

There's a link to the Mp38, which just redirects back to the MP40 article. Userpie 00:07, 25 January 2006 (UTC)

The "staged" photo of the American soldier using the MP40 is a still from the file Kelly's Heros

Which under the fiar use provision of US copyright law, would only make it eligible for inclusion on articles about that film, no? So I think it will have to go, which really is a shame. Shinobu 14:13, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

Is there any point in having 2 photos of the gun, both with their stock extended? One could go... Graham Bould 14:53, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

ABitConfused 20:28, 7 March 2006 (UTC) Actually my bad (I made the comment about Kelly's Heroes)- the photo is taken from "The Bridge at Remagen" 1969. The gentleman holding the MP40 is Ben Gazzara, who played Sgt Angelo. I guess that as Gerbrant says it's probably against copyright to use the picture.

Article needs work

This article is in some need of heavy attention: the specifications section in particular is of very low quality, lacking specifics such as mode of operation (open or closed bolt), key design features (IE the folding buttstock, the handgrip style magazine well), etc. I will give the article a once over after some research, it would be great to have some help. --Banana! 02:33, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

About the Thompson replaced by MP-40 quote

I'm am still not satisfied with this quote because of the lack of sufficient evidence of it being used and how the only resource is a tv episode, supposedly aired. Also only one or a few people can varify this. Even if that one veteran said that his squad prefered the MP-40 does not mean the Whole army did the same. For example: just because My grandfather and his buddies prefered the German Stick Grenade over their American Pinapple grenade doesn't mean the entire United States army did. Because of its rarety it should not be in this article.CarStuff 07:39, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

i have to agree with you with that remark. and the fact mp40 were issued to only platton and squad learders and such made having ammo much mroe aharder to find. and the relibilty of it to feed would of made it seem less desirable if one did not know how to corect this probolom. User Eskater11

It depends on which time period your talking about. Later in the war the Heer had special Sturm units armed with nothing but the MP40, Stg44 and MG42. I know for a fact that the SAS prized the MP40 and individual soldiers were loath to let them out of their sight.Veritas Panther 04:33, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

Yea SAS probly liked it becuase as they were behind enemy lines far from supply it would be eaisy to get ammo for it then say if a american GI could just go back to the rear lines and the fact the sten is a horrible weapon. P.S foreverDEAD is eskater11(ForeverDEAD 02:38, 2 August 2007 (UTC))

Duh, British forces used the 9x19mm themselves and didn't necessarily to rely on captured ammunition.84.152.71.185 16:15, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Shooting around corners?

Can anyone shed any light on a variant, or maybe an attachment, that enabled the Schmeisser to fire around corners? David T Tokyo 00:51, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

there isnt an attactedment to this but i know for a fact from seeing it theres one for the sturmgewher 44

Yeah, it was called the "Krummlauf." I have seen an example of it at the Patton Museum in Ft Knox, KY. It uses a curved barrel and a periscope. --DOHC Holiday 17:54, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

The scanned picture from the book...

...shows an MP38. I know it says MP40 under the picture, but that book is wrong. The MP40 had a "waffled" (don't know the english term) magazine well, whereas the MP38 had a flat one (like the picture shows). The cuts in the tubular part of the receiver (can hardly be seen due to low quality of the picture) also point to MP38.84.152.114.43 08:33, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Bullet Weight

This article lists the weapon's muzzle velocity, but without the bullet weight the muzzle energy and momentum can't be calculated. (The article on 9x19mm lists many bullet weights, and the velocities on that page are for pistols.) What was the standard bullet weight for 9mm Parabellum at the time? Boris B (talk) 21:42, 21 May 2008 (UTC)

people should really stop putting so much attention to muzzle velocity and the likes, it really isn't a fixed number. velocity varies by powder load, length of barrel, ambient temperature, elevation above sea level, air humidity, brass or steel cases and lots of other complicated stuff with horribly long mathematical formulas to calculate.

9mm in particular is a high-velocity, high pressure round that has, and is, loaded to alot of diffrent levels. high pressure SMG loads for example will at the least wear a pistol excessively in a very short time, and at worst may literally blow it up (I've seen pics of a Walther P-38 blown up by British WW2 vintage 9mm which, to be fair to the P-38, was pretty hefty stuff that you don't put in old or questionable guns).

The original 9mm, the Pistolen Patrone 08 was a brass cased, jacketed lead RN weighing in at 124 grains, the two wartime material shortage versions was the Pistolen Patrone 08 S.E. (S.E. standing for Sintereisenkern or pressed steel core) a steel cased, jacketed steel RN weighing 89 grains and the Pistolen Patrone 08 m.E. (m.e. = mit Eisenkern or with iron core) and was a steel cased, jacketed steel RN weighing 99 grains.

The steel cases were lacquered to help with the extraction in the blowback MP40, and as such they simply did not fit properly in the more finely machined luger and walther chambers. Therefore those boxes are often marked nur für maschinenpistolen (for machine pistols only) not because they were extra 'hard', but because the lacquer on the case changed the diameter to interfer with chambering and extraction and sometimes flaked off to jam the pistols.

But 9mm comes in lots of variations, another example is from the Norwegian armed forces, who started running newer and 'harder' 9mm (modern 9mm IS loaded harder than alot of the old stuff, for example the Swedish M39B is pretty hefty stuff that will wear\break older guns.) This gave the old MP40 trouble with it's rate of fire etc. and the solution was to change the spring. simple fix, but when the ammo started breaking older lugers and walthers still in supply, they went back to slightly weaker stuff. That was a very bad idea, as now with harder MP40 springs the bolt wouldn't lock back when you released the trigger because the harder spring would short-cycle the bolt and the thing would happily burp out all 32 rounds without a break. Not fun when the shooter doesn't expect it. Martin Sandbekken (talk) 18:09, 1 August 2008 (UTC)