trademark on an MP 18 What became known as the "
submachine gun" had its genesis in the early 20th century and developed around the concepts of
fire and movement and
infiltration tactics, specifically for the task of clearing trenches of enemy soldiers, an environment within which engagements were unlikely to occur beyond a range of a few feet. In 1915, the German Rifle Testing Commission at
Spandau decided to develop a new weapon for trench warfare. An attempt to modify existing semi-automatic pistols (specifically the
Luger and
C96 Mauser) failed, as accurate aimed fire in full automatic mode was impossible due to their light weight and high rates of fire of 1,200 rounds per minute. The commission determined that a completely new kind of weapon was needed.
Hugo Schmeisser, working for the
Bergmann Waffenfabrik, was part of a team composed of
Theodor Bergmann and a few other technicians. They designed a new type of weapon to fulfill the requirements, which was designated the
Maschinenpistole 18/I. The
I stands for the number
1. Four different versions of the MP 18 were evaluated by the German Army, known as the models I, II, III, and IV. They shared the same basic design but exhibited differences in the feed system. The MP 18 is often credited as the very first submachine gun, as some sources discount the
Villar Perosa, on account that it was originally fielded as a light support weapon on a mount. Whether the MP 18 was actually the first submachine gun is debated. In October 1915 the Austro-Hungarian
Standschützen-Battalionen trialed a submachine gun chambered in the 8x18mm Roth cartridge, known as the
Maschinengewehr Hellriegel. This was tested as both a support weapon fired from a prone position, and an assault weapon fired from the hip. In late 1916, the Military Aviation Corps of the Italian Army created the first official demand for a submachine gun when they requested the development of a single-barreled Villar Perosa with a detachable stock, which was made in early 1917 and later adopted as the
Carabinetta Automatica OVP, with 500 being issued to observation crews. The designer of the Villar Perosa, Colonel Bethel-Abiel Revelli, had already conceived the principles of the submachine gun in September 1915, when he wrote that his gun could be converted to a single-barreled version that "may be mounted in the manner of a rifle so that it may be fired from the shoulder". All the limited conflicts between 1920 and 1940 saw an increasing use of this new class of weapons, first in South America during the
Chaco War, then in Europe during the
Spanish Civil War, and in China during the
Warlord Era and the
Second Sino-Japanese War, where its use by well-trained Chinese troops was costly for the invaders as in the
Battle of Shanghai. It was also used during World War II by various partisans and resistance forces. During the 1920s Chicago gun dealer Vincent Daniels imported 7.65mm SIG Bergmann submachine guns and installed a two-position fire-selector behind the end cap of the receiver. This arrangement was somewhat similar to the later
Lanchester submachine gun. The guns were sold under the name "Daniels Rapid-Fire Carbine" and were bought by members of the
Northside Gang and the
Chicago Outfit. By 1933, with the Nazis gaining power and the Inter-Allied Commission of Control no longer enforcing the Versailles restrictions, Haenel was free to openly manufacture the MP Schmeisser. These guns were now stamped 'M.P.28,II', giving rise to the common name of this gun: the MP 28. Export sales of the MP 28,II were made to many countries. The MP28 was copied by the
Second Spanish Republic under the codename
Avispero. The
Avispero was chambered in
9mm Largo and had a 36-round magazine. The Austrian Steyr
MP 34 was created by a team of technicians led by
Louis Stange who designed a submachine gun for Rheinmetall in 1919 and used Bergmann's
MG 15 to design the
MG 30. The SIG Bergmann 1920 was used by Finland, Japan, and Estonia and was the inspiration for the Estonian Tallinn 1923, the Japanese
Type 100 submachine gun and the Finnish
Suomi model 31, which in turn inspired Degtyarev for his PPD 34. Emil Bergmann, Theodor Bergmann's son, designed the MP 32 that evolved into the MP 34 as adopted by Denmark before receiving the
MP35 name when adopted by nascent
Wehrmacht in 1935. This submachine gun is often mistaken for the
Mitraillette 34, an MP 28 made in Belgium by Pieper Bayard, former Bergmann licensed manufacturer or with the MP34 made by Steyr. It is easy to identify the Bergmann MP 32/34/35 or its final version 35/1 since the cocking lever works exactly like a rifle bolt. In 1940, with a pressing need for individual automatic weapons, the British copied the MP 28 and developed the
Lanchester submachine gun for the
Royal Navy. Solidly built with the use of
brass for the magazine well, and a bayonet mount, it entered service in 1940. The magazine and the bolt of the MP 28 could be used in the Lanchester. The British
Sten used the side-mounted magazine configuration and a simplified version of the open-bolt firing operating system of the MP 28. The
OVP 1918, an offspring of Revelli's Villar Perosa 1915, inspired Heinrich Vollmer for his telescopic bolt used in the VPM 1930,
EMP, MP 38,
MP 40 and
MP 41. The Soviet Union made a similar use of MP 28 design in their PDD-34 sub machine gun in 1934. Further development of the PPD-34 led to the simplified
PPD-40 and
PPSh-41. ==Design details==