Tommy gun question...

[Warmaker]

...I've heard before in this board that the British used the Thompson SMG in WWII. As a question of curiousity, when did the Tommies stop using the, well, erm... Tommy gun?

[Gyrene]

In 1943 when the British had enough stens to go around.

About 2 million Thompsons were made by then.

Gyrene

[Guest Babra]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Gyrene:

In 1943 when the British had enough stens to go around.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I don't think that's right. Wish I could prove it.

[Trooper]

I don't know when they stopped using them, but once they realised that they could manufacture loads and loads of Stens for two pound, ten shillings (About $10.59 US) apiece, it made a little more financial sense to stop buying Thompsons. This was about 1941/42.

NTM

[Rupert_2]

The British and Commonwealth troops where still using the Thompson up until the end of the war in Burma and they even used M1 carbine...... Don't where you get the idea they stopped using them because of the Sten gun.. Which the troops hated... And only the Government liked because of it's low-cost!!! :confused:

[Sten]

Mommy, mommy! Rupert_2 said everyone hates me! Buaahaha. *sniff*

In my next life could I please be christened something cool, like HMG42?

[Rupert_2]

Nothing personal mate...I kinda like you really !!!

[Sten]

Thanks. I feel much better now.

Had my mother known that there was a gun called Sten she would have been strongly against me getting that name.

(It actually means stone and is not that uncommon in northern Europe.)

Rupert_2, that would make you, what? Second in command?

[David Aitken]

The Czechoslovakian assassination attempt on Wilhelm Friedrich (head of the Abwehr?) nearly failed because their Sten gun jammed. One man stepped out in front of his car with the gun, and when it didn't work they had to use a Gammon bomb instead. They proceeded into a game of hide-and-seek with the driver, and were eventually tracked down by the German army and committed suicide in the basement of a cathedral.

The Sten was a crude mass-produced gun like the US M3, and was soon refined, but always suffered from a poor cartridge insertion mechanism which frequently jammed the gun. Before the end of the war the Sterling was in use, and remained the standard British SMG until the 1980's or thereabouts.

[Michael Dorosh]

The Sten was not used in Italy; the Thompson was used there to the end of the war.

[Rupert_2]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by David Aitken:

The Czechoslovakian assassination attempt on Wilhelm Friedrich (head of the Abwehr?) nearly failed because their Sten gun jammed. One man stepped out in front of his car with the gun, and when it didn't work they had to use a Gammon bomb instead. They proceeded into a game of hide-and-seek with the driver, and were eventually tracked down by the German army and committed suicide in the basement of a cathedral.

The Sten was a crude mass-produced gun like the US M3, and was soon refined, but always suffered from a poor cartridge insertion mechanism which frequently jammed the gun. Before the end of the war the Sterling was in use, and remained the standard British SMG until the 1980's or thereabouts.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Didn't Wilhelm Friedrich die not through the explosion but because of stuff that was blown up from the drains in the street through the blast ??? I seem to remember that, I could be wrong ??

I'm not very good on SOE stuff.

[Warmaker]

Thanks for the reply folks. Didn't even expect to get this number of replies.

[Bog]

Wasn't it Reinhard Heydrich who was assasinated? He was the Deputy Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia. All the rest of your info is correct, I believe.

[David Aitken]

You're right Bog, I had the feeling that I'd got the name completely wrong. It's one of these things that I picked up a while ago (read the book and saw the film), but didn't fully register, and I've been trying to dig it out of my subconscious. :0

[Rupert_2]

Was that the film with Martin Shaw in ????

[David Aitken]

That's the one.

Operation Daybreak

[Rupert_2]

Yeah, I liked that one... Though at the time I saw It I was a bit of an Professionals fan, God, around 1980...So thought It was a spin off of that series...Child-hood eh ?

[BloodyBucket]

One of my favorite pictures of Churchill is the one where he is pulling back the bolt on a Thompson, wearing a pinstripe suit and that derby of his. The Germans tried to make a "Churchill as gangster" propaganda thing out of it, but it backfired on them as the troops liked the picture.

[David Aitken]

But could he have hit a German with it at 100 yards in Scattered Trees on a Rainy day? The general consensus seems to be that the Churchill modelled in CM is slow with weak armament, but very thick skin. Is this an accurate representation?

[Stalins Organ]

At 100 yards?? Sure - SMGs' get great factors at 100 yds!!

Otherwise yeah - slow but tough, not sure about the weak armament tho' - although he did lose the next election IIRC, so perhaps he was obsolescent by the time of CM??!

[BloodyBucket]

I have a book with pictures from the same range session that shows Churchill , Ike and Bradley shooting carbines. They set Bradley's target at 75 yards, Ike's at 50 and Churchill's at 25. The three fired 45 rounds and scored 29 hits.

Same book says the GI's fired for qualification at 200 yards. No breakdown of who scored what percentage of the 29 hits.

[Michael Emrys]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Bog:

Wasn't it Reinhard Heydrich who was assasinated? He was the Deputy Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

He was also head of the SD. It was said that he was Hitler's fairhaired boy and was being groomed to take over as Führer someday.

Michael

[JasonC]

Well, lessee. Winston was a fencing champion in his school days, a champion polo player in India, a decent shot with a Martini-Henry in the Afghan and Boer wars, and rather accomplished as a pistol-shooter from the saddle in action in the Sudan. In WW I, besides suggesting the idea for the first tank ("Winston's folly", as the brass dubbed it), he led infantry battalions and eventually a brigade, but I believe that involved crossing no-man's land armed with stick, to direct his men.

But then, in 1944 he turned 70 years old, and no doubt his eyesight wasn't what it once was. Still, despite going through boxes of cigars and crates of whiskey with some regularity, he lived to be over ninety and buried essentially all of his political opponents. I think he might have mustered the wherewithall to clear a room with a tommy-gun, had he ever needed it. LOL.