Cutaway of the Day: AKM

The Avtomat Kalashnikova Modernizirovanniy – Automatic Kalashnikov Modernized – was adopted in 1959. It took Mikhail Kalashnikov and his design team to finish their improvement program who optimise the rifle for mass production. They lightened the AK-47 and introduced a new stamped, rather than milled, receiver. 

Production began in 1960 with the first rifles reaching troops in a year later. Between 1960 and 1977 the plants at Tula and Izhevsk produced over 10 million AKMs. They were widely produced under license by Soviet satellite states and allies including East Germany, Romania, Poland, Bulgaria and China. 

Despite being replaced in Soviet frontline service in the mid-1970s the AKM remains in service with dozens of militaries around the world and has been used in countless conflicts around the world. 

Sources:

If you enjoy the content please consider supporting Historical Firearms through Patreon!

John Garand’s .30 Calibre Carbine

In 1938 the US Army Infantry Board requested a new Light Rifle, this was initially opposed by the US Ordnance Department who did not wish to complicate supply and argued all troops could be armed with the new M1 Garand. However, June 1940 the Secretary of War overruled them and in October 1940, the Ordnance Department issued specifications for a new lightweight carbine. This required that the rifle be select fire, fire from a 50-round magazine and weigh no more than 5 lbs unloaded.

A large number of manufacturers including the government-owned Springfield Armory were called upon to submit designs. In May 1941, Springfield Armory submitted two designs one by Clarence Simpson and the other by John Garand. While Simpson’s design was not tested by the Army Garand’s was. Five of the prototype rifles were submitted for testing where it performed well against other designs during the Light Rifle Trials.

Garand’s carbine was simple with just 44 parts and could be stripped in 81 seconds. It weighed just under 5 lbs, Garand’s carbine was the only one to meet the weight requirement, and was fully automatic capable of rates of fire of between 700-900 rpm. In order to conform with the original specification the rifle could fire from 5, 10, 20 or 50 round magazines.

The layout of Garand’s carbine owes nothing to his earlier designs, instead it uses an unorthodox top mounted magazine which sits at a 45 degree angle to the receiver. Corresponding to this there was an ejection port beneath the receiver which later testing found threw spent cases on to the left arm of the operator (see image #4). The carbine’s charging handle sits horizontal at the side of the barrel and the weapon’s sights are offset to the left so the magazine housing does not obstruct the line of sight. Another feature was a combination rear sight and ejector piece which Garand patented in the late 1940s (see below).

The carbine impressed the Ordnance Department who liked its simplicity and found it functioned well in wet conditions. Garand’s gas system meant the carbine had good accuracy and low recoil. During the initial trials in May and June 1941, two Light Rifle’s impressed, Garand’s and one submitted by Bendix-Hyde.  

However, the Ordnance Department’s report made some suggestions for the improvement of the carbine. They requested that the bolt be adapted to prevent accidental discharge as well as realigning the charging handle from the vertical to the right. It was also suggested that the stock be strengthened and standard sling swivels be used instead of the stock cut out. It was also requested by some of the evaluators that the magazine housing be moved to the more conventional position below the receiver. Although many of those who fired the rifle did not dislike the original magazine position.  

These changes along with the incorporation of a short-stroke tapped gas piston system like that found in Winchester’s design (developed by David Marshall Williams) were made in what was designated the Model D. In September 1941 the final major round of testing began. Five rifles were tested including Springfield’s Garand, the Bendix-Hyde, a new entry from Winchester (which went on to be adopted as the M1), a rifle from an inventor - Turner, and the entry from Reising.

Each rifle was put through testing with 8,000 - 10,000 rounds fired for accuracy, endurance and reliability under simulated combat conditions. Garand’s ‘improved’ carbine was found to be less reliable and more difficult to disassemble. Springfield Armory’s attempts to improve the carbine also led to making it heavier at about 5.37 lbs. The carbine was tested for the final time in April 1942 however, by this time Winchester’s design had been adopted as the United States Carbine, Caliber .30, M1.

Souces:

This post is part of a series of collaborations with Chuck Kramer of Gunlab who was kind enough to provide the photographs used in this article.

If you enjoy the content please consider supporting Historical Firearms through Patreon!

Cutaway of the Day: MP40

The MP40 evolved from the MP38, the original design had steadily been streamlined in order to speed up the manufacturing process. The MP40 used an open-bolt, blowback-operated submachine gun which utilised Heinrich Vollmer’s telescoping main spring guide. The MP38 and MP40 both lacked a selector switch and fired fully automatic only however, the steady 400 to 500-rpm rate of fire made it easily controllable. The earlier MP38′s receiver had been machined while the MP40 utilised a stamped sheet metal receiver. The grip frame and trigger guard were also simplified. The bottom of the receiver was encased in a bakelite (plastic) moulded pieces to provide a place to hold the weapon.

Widely considered as one of the best submachine guns of the war it was initially issued to NCOs and support troops but as the war continued it was issued in greater numbers to maximise infantry firepower, especially on the Eastern Front. One issue with the weapon was the double stack, single feed 32-round stick magazine which were susceptible to jamming with dirt. Later magazines were ribbed in an attempt to give the dirt somewhere to channel. 

Throughout the war the MP40 was produced by ERMA Waffenfabrik, Steyr-Daimler-Puch and Haenel. Another interesting feature of the MP38 and MP40 is its aluminium barrel protector which was added after early field trials with prototypes. This was added to protect the barrel when troops used cover to steady the weapon or when dismounting or firing from vehicles. The MP40′s folding stock was also one of the first of its kind, reducing the weapon’s length to 63cm or 25 inches when folded.

While not the lightest of submachine guns, weighing over 8 lbs, the MP40 performed reliably on battlefields around the world from the burning deserts of North Africa to the icy tundras of the Soviet Union.  Over 1 million were made during the war and the MP40 has become one of the most iconic submachine guns of the 20th century. 

Sources:

Support Historical Firearms through Patreon!

MAS-49

Officially designated the Fusil Semi-Automatique de 7.5mm Modele 1949, the MAS-49 became France's primary infantry weapon during the latter half of the 20th century.  Early models bear a strong resemblance to the bolt action MAS-36 however, they are completely different rifles with some of the earlier rifle’s fittings tooling used to save money.  The MAS-49 used a direct gas impingement system and like the SAFN it uses a tilting breechblock to lock the action (see image #2).  The MAS-49 was updated in 1956, becoming the MAS-49/56, with the rifle shortened and lightened with a new 22mm grenade launcher/compensator added (see image #1).  These changes came in response to experience gained by troops during the numerous post-colonial conflicts the French fought in Indochina and Algeria.

The MAS-49’s design dates to back to well before the beginning of the Second World War with development and testing on semi-automatic rifles taking place throughout the late 1920s and 1930s.  The first of the prototype series semi-automatic rifles were built in 1922 with later evolutions of the design in 1935, 1938, 1940 and 1944 before it was resurrected in 1949. The MAS-44 added a detachable 10-round box magazine which would become standard in the MAS-49.  The final design was not finalised until after the end of the war and production only began in 1951.  

With the end of World War Two the French military had been almost entirely armed with surplus weapons donated by Britain and the US.  There was a desperate need for a new standard rifle in a single calibre.  The rifle was chambered in the MAS-36's 7.5×54mm cartridge which was the last French proprietary round used before the adoption of NATOs 5.56x45mm when the FAMAS was adopted in the late 1970s.

The MAS-49 and MAS-49/56 saw extensive service in Algeria and Indochina where they apparently coped quite well with the dust and dirt found in the field. All of the rifles were built by France's national arsenal Manufacture d'armes de Saint-Étienne with only 20,000 of the original MAS-49 design being produced before the refined MAS-49/56 replaced it with just over 275,000 more rifles being produced up until the mid 1960s.  The rifle's remained in service until it began to be replaced by the FAMAS bullpup in 1979. 

Sources:

Cutaway of the Day: M3 'Grease Gun'

The famously nicknamed 'Grease Gun' was officially designated the United States Submachine Gun, Cal. .45, M3, designed as a more cost effective alternative to the Thompson M1A1.  The M3 was designed by George Hyde who had spent decades working on submachine gun designs including the Hyde Model 35, the Bendix-Hyde Light Rifle and the short-lived Hyde M2 which was adopted as a substitute standard in April 1942 before it was declared obsolete in June 1943.  

The Hyde M2 was selected by the US military in April 1942 however, the weapon proved to be too complex to produce in the scale needed and the US Army Ordnance Corps began to seek an alternative.  The British STEN was studied as an example of a simple, effective design which was easy to manufacture en masse and was also cheap to produce. Hyde and Frederick Sampson, the chief engineer of the Inland Division of General Motors, worked together on creating a simple design which could be mass produced.  Hyde designed the weapon's action with Sampson using his experience in production engineering to devise how the gun could be made in the huge numbers required.  The designers took out patents covering the trigger mechanism, cocking mechanism, extending stock, bolt safety lock and the construction and fabrication methods for making the M3.

The result was the M3, a simple blowback submachine gun made up of pressed and stamped steel parts spot and seam welded together which required very little time consuming machine time.  The M3 had a wire collapsable stock, enclosed pressed metal trigger and its only safety was a safety lock protruding from the dust cover which locked into the bolt preventing it from moving when the cover was closed.  The utilitarian design was in stark contrast to the wood and milled and blued steel of the Thompson.  The M3 was officially accepted by the US Army Ordnance Committee in December 1942.  Production was undertaken by General Motor's Guide Lamp Division factory in Indiana which would also later manufacture the single shot M1942/Flare Projector Caliber .45 ACP ‘Liberator’ pistol and an Experimental Stamped M1911.

Perhaps the most complex part of the M3 was its cocking handle which used a crank action to push the bolt back and cock the action, this required approximately 18 lbs of force with the shoulder of the bolt being cut away to allow the pawl of the cocking piece to engage and push the bolt back. The trigger mechanism was also very simple with only fully automatic fire available.  Once fired the bolt recoiled along two guide rods against two recoil springs. The weapon had a relatively cyclic rate of 450 rounds per minute when compared with the Thompson's 700 rpm.  

In 1944 reports of issues with the cocking mechanism led to the design being refined further.  The M1A1 was adopted in December 1944 and removed the cocking mechanism.  Instead the ejection port was elongated to allow operators to simply push the bolt back with their fingers to cock the weapon.  This also lightened the weapon from 8.2 lbs to 7.9 lbs and the safety lock on the inside of the dust cover was moved further back to ensure it engaged with the bolt better when closed.

The weapon was initially chambered in the standard US .45 ACP pistol cartridge however, by replacing the barrel and bolt and fitting an adapter the weapon could be converted to fire 9mm from STEN magazines. However, while this was possible it was not widely done as the British and Commonwealth forces which used 9mm had an ample supply of STENs.

Problems with magazine feeding beset the M3 throughout its service life.  The weapon fed from a double-stack, single-feed 30-round detachable box magazine which often jammed when mud and the vulnerable feed lips could easily be bent.  Despite this it replaced the Thompson as the US Army's standard issue submachine gun in mid 1945 and remained in service during the Korean and Vietnam Wars.

Approximately 700,000 M3s were manufactured between 1943-1945 and during the Korean War.  They remained in service well into the 1960s with some tank and engineer units being issued them as late as the 1990s.  Some remain in use around the world with countries including the Philippines and Macedonia.  

Sources:

Cutaway of the Day: HK VP70

The futuristic looking Heckler & Koch VP70 (VP standing for Volkspistole/ People’s Pistol) was the first production polymer handgun.  The VP70 was chambered in 9mm and fed from a double stacked 18-round magazine. This was a marked increase on the earlier HK4.  A limited run of civilian variant pistols, the VP70Z, were also chambered in 9x21mm for the Italian market.

Work began on the design in 1968 and the pistol was was introduced in 1970, predating the Austrian Glock 17 by 12 years. The pistol used a polymer frame and receiver which supports the barrel. The weapon used a standard blowback action and was striker fired with a very heavy two-stage double action trigger. The VP70 doesn’t lock open on an empty magazine and has no manual slide lock. Unloaded the VP70 weighed 0.82kg slightly heavier than the later Glock’s 0.65kg. Unlike the Glock the VP70 had a conventional cross-bolt safety positioned behind the trigger. The magazine release is located on the heel of the magazine - common with European pistols.  

The VP70 was designed with an impending Soviet invasion in mind, it was light, small, cheap and easy to manufacture. It was intended to arm the German people should they need to resist a Soviet invasion. The military variant the VP70M (Militar) came with an attachable polymer stock/holster which interestingly allowed the weapon to become select fire with a controllable 3-round burst option available - a selector switch is located on the left hand side of the stock. This converted the pistol into a accurate machine pistol. The civilian VP70Z was restricted to standard semi-automatic fire only.  

The VP70 combined elements of the past and present with features like its holster/stock harking back the the earliest German automatic pistols while its polymer construction was at the cutting edge of manufacture in 1970. Production ceased in 1989 but the VP line continues with the current HK VP9.

Sources:

If you enjoy the content please consider supporting Historical Firearms through Patreon!

Cutaway of the Day: FG-42

Above is a cutaway diagram showing the internals of the first model FG-42 designed by Louis Stange at Rheinmetall.  The FG-42 was developed in response to a request from the Luftwaffe for a versatile paratroop rifle.

The rifle’s design is striking, it had an in-line stock profile and internal buffer system  (see the butt in image #1) that made the weapon controllable in automatic fire, its unusual sharply angled grip and flip-up sights made the rifle more compact and minimised entanglements with the paratroops’ equipment. The side mounted magazine meant that the length of the gun could be minimised as it sat above rather than in front of the trigger group.

The FG-42’s operation was also innovative using a closed bolt when firing semi-automatically and from an open bolt in fully-automatic fire. This made it accurate in semi-automatic fire and cooled the rifle during automatic fire.  The rifle used a long-stroke gas piston, similar to that of the Lewis light machine gun, to cycle the action with a rotating bolt locking mechanism.  The early model weapons were extremely compact for their calibre (7.92x57mm).  Weighing 4.2 kgs, much less than the contemporary StG-44 which weighted 4.62 kg (just over 10 lbs).  It was also only 37-inches in length, much shorter even than the K98k which measured almost 44-inches.  

Relatively few FG-42s were manufactured with only 10,000 or so seeing action during the last two years of World War Two.  

Sources:

Cutaway of the Day: Winchester Model 1897 'Trench Gun'

The famous Model 1897 shotgun was a development of Winchester's earlier Model 1893.  John Browning had designed the M1893 in 1890 as a 5-round exposed-hammer pump-action shotgun for the civilian market as a trap gun.  The patent was granted in November 1890 and bought by Winchester with production beginning three years later, with sales beginning in April 1894.  However, production of the Model 1893 was short lived as it was replaced in 1897 by an improved version which had been tweaked by Browning.  

The M1897 improved on the M1893 in a number of ways including changes to the stock, tweaks to the action and the frame was strengthened.  The main changes however, were the ability to remove the barrel and take-down the Model 1897 and the thicker frame and receiver which allowed smokeless cartridges to be fired.

The Model 1897 was extremely popular with the civilian market selling from $25 when it was first introduced.  Production continued for sixty years ending in 1957 with over 1,240,000 produced.  

Military use of the M1897 began as early as 1900, with the US Army using a number of 20-inch barrel Riot model shotguns for use in the Philippines and in Mexico.  By 1917, the US Army made large scale orders and requested that a bayonet lug be added.   The 'trench gun' adapted the existing Riot model adding a perforated steel heat shield around the barrel and a bayonet lug which allowed the then-standard M1917 bayonet to be fitted.  Each US infantry division was issued with 50-100 Trench Guns when they were shipped to Europe.

The standard ammunition issued with the M1897 Trench Gun were brass 00 buck shells containing nine .33 calibre pellets.  This gave troops considerable close range firepower which was extremely effective in the close quarters of trench warfare.  The M1897 was extremely popular because of its lack of a trigger disconnect, this allowed troops to slam-fire the weapon allowing soldiers to fire the M1897 as fast as they could work the action.   The M1897 was used in a number of roles including trench raids, rear echelon security and guarding prisoners of war.   In September 1918, the German government made an official complaint to the US government arguing that the M1897 breached the 1907 Hague Convention on Land Warfare.  This complaint was quickly discounted by the US Army.

After World War One the short configuration of the weapon became popular with American police departments and security firms.  It was again used during the Second World War where it was deployed alongside the hammerless Winchester Model 1912.  The US military requested that production of the Trench Gun configuration of the M1897 be resumed in 1941 with Army and USMC both issuing units shotguns. Some were again used during the Korean and Vietnam Wars but by this time later militarised shotguns had become available.

Sources:

If you enjoy the content please consider supporting Historical Firearms through Patreon!

Recoil Operated vs. Gas Operated

The above diagram comes from a June 1942, Popular Science article introducing the US Army's new M1 Carbine.  The diagram illustrates the difference in operating systems used by the new carbine and the Thompson M1A1 submachine gun.  

While both systems show use the expanding propellant gases or the fired cartridge they use it in different ways. The M1 Carbine siphons of gas into is gas cylinder driving the piston and operating rod backwards. While in the Thompson the bolt is blown back by the pressure of the gas.  

In actuality the diagram is incorrectly labelled, the Thompson's action is described as 'Recoil Operated' which would imply that the weapon's barrel and bolt move rearwards when firing.  In fact the Thompson uses a simpler blowback action where the unlocked breech allows the pressure from the fired bullet to push the bolt back against a recoil spring.  However, in a true recoil system the breech is locked during firing and it is the recoil of the weapon's bolt and barrel back unlocking the breech before returning forward.

Cutaway of the Day: TT-30/33

During the late 1920s the Soviet Army launched trials to find a new service semi-automatic pistol to replace the aging Nagant M1895 revolver.  A number of Russian konstruktors entered the competition including Sergey Korovin, S.A. Prilutsky and Fedor Tokarev.  It was Tokarev's pistol, which married a German-inspired cartridge, an American action and a Russian design, that was chosen following the trials and production was begun at the Tula arms works, resulting in the pistol's name: Tula-Tokarev Model 1930.

Tokarev's design melds the profile of John Browning's M1903 and some of the internals of Browning's M1911.    This gave the pistol a low bore axis making it a more naturally pointing pistol and has led to the pistol being described as the 'Russian 1911'.  

Chambered in 7.62x25mm (which was a Russian improvement on the German 7.63×25 cartridge) the TT-30 used the short recoil system and swinging link and tilting lock found in the 1911.  However, Tokarev's pistol integrated a lock and hammer assembly to the rear of the pistol which was easily removable for ease of servicing.  The TT also had integral magazine feed lips in the pistol's frame, this allowed the pistol to have a cleaner feed and minimised the damage to magazines if a round failed to eject.  

The TT's have a characteristically high rear sight post, a lanyard loop and slide lock on the left hand side of the pistol.  Unlike the Browning designs it is influenced by the TT has no safety mechanism.  The pistol's production design was revised slightly during the early 1930s with the locking ribs being forged with the barrel rather than being milled afterwards, similarly the grip's backstrap was forged with the rest of the frame rather than separately this simplified the manufacturing process removing several production steps.  These revisions were in place by 1935 and all future pistols were designated TT-33.

The pistol saw service during the Winter War where many captured examples of the pistol were used by the Finns as well as wide use during the Second World War although it did not fully replace the Nagant M1895. Similarly captured TT-33s were used by the German Army as they could fire the Mauser 7.63×25mm round.  They were widely used and copied throughout the Communist Bloc TT variants were used during the Korean War, Vietnam War, Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan and many surplus TTs found there way to Africa.

It is estimated that during the Second World War the Soviets produced approximately 280,000 TT-33s this relatively small number can be explained by the fact that not only was the Nagant M1895 still in production but also Soviet small arms manufacture focused overwhelmingly on the production of submachine guns.  All told it is thought that some 1,700,000 pistols were produced between 1930 and 1954 when production finally ended.  While production ended the pistol remained in service for many years alongside the Makarov which replaced it. The TT-33 has also been widely produced in other communist countries including China where the pistol was designated the Type 54, Romania and many other Communist Bloc states as well as many African states. Locally produced examples remain in service in both Pakistan and North Korea while Zastava in Yugoslavia still produce a version of the pistol in 9mm.

Sources: