MP 40
During WW II, German soldiers carried either Karabiner 98k rifles or MP 40s, both of which regarded as the standard weapons of choice for an infantryman. The Maschinenpistole 40 is a simplified and economical version of its predecessor, the Maschinenpistole 38, itself being a simplified version of the Maschinenpistole 36. This was achieved by the extensive use of backelite,aluminium and stamped steel rather than machined parts. Every MP 40 is endowed with 6 clips. Each soldier owned 2 cartridge bags of 3 clips, the left one being added a little pocket for the extra tools needed to refill the clips. In some specific occasions the MP 40 has been given a silencer. MP 40 is an automatic, blowback-operated open-bolt action submachine gun. It used a double-column, single-feed insert cartridge clip. The single-feed insert resulted in increased friction against the remaining cartridges moving upwards towards the feed lips, occasionally resulting in feed failures. Another problem was that the magazine was also sometimes misused as a handhold. This could cause the weapon to malfunction when hand pressure on the magazine body caused the magazine lips to move out of the line of feed, While on the Western front, US soldiers tended to prefer the MP 40 than their own Thompson, the German used soviet PPSh-41 on the Eastern front. Starting in 1943, the German Army moved to replace both the Karabiner 98k rifle and MP 40 with the new revolutionary StG 44. By the end of WWII, 1.1 million MP 40s have been produced of all variants: MP 36, MP 38, MP 40, MP 40/1 and MP 41. MP 40 technical specification sheet
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