Bergmann submachine gun variants
The Bergmann M.P.18,I submachine gun is widely considered to have been the first successful submachine gun, and as a consequence many variants of the design were made. This post covers the main derivatives of the Bergmann submachine gun which retained the basic elements of the design (variants like the Schmeisser M.K.36,III and Haenel MP41 are excluded for deviating too far from the original M.P.18,I).
Comparison of the various types of Bergmann magazine feed - M.P.18,I on the left; M.P.18,I police issue/M.P.28,II in the center; and SIG-Bergmann on the right.
The Bergmann M.P.18,I (military issue)
The original production version of the Bergmann M.P.18,I submachine gun was developed in 1918 by Hugo Schmeisser, then-employed by Theodor Bergmann. It operated on a basic blowback action upon which the bolt rode on a spring-loaded guide rod, and employed a canted magazine feed, taking the 32-round “Trommelmagazin” originally designed for the Artillery Luger carbine. The M.P.18,I had fired only in full-auto and had no mechanical safety whatsoever; the only safety provision was a catch in the cocking slot which could be used to manually hold the bolt in the rearward position. The gun was chambered in the standard German pistol cartridge, 9x19mm Parabellum.
The M.P.18,I was adopted by the German Army and first issued during the Summer of 1918, seeing some combat use during the later stages of World War I. It is estimated that some 35,000 M.P.18,Is were produced in total, although only a few thousand were actually issued during the war and the vast majority of examples were probably produced after the Armistice. Production lasted from 1918 - 1920.
It is often said that the M.P.18,I made such an impact on Allied troops that it was specifically singled out in the Treaty of Versailles. This is not actually true; submachine guns like the M.P.18,I actually fell under the rather ambiguous category of “light machine guns” and “automatic rifles”, and are never actually mentioned by name in the Treaty. Actual primary sources from the wartime period indicate that the M.P.18,I was not particularly valued by Allied authorities.
The Bergmann M.P.18,I (police issue)
After the enforcement of the Treaty of Versailles, the German Army was subjected to severe restrictions on the number of automatic weapons and machine guns that they were allowed to issue, and as a consequence the M.P.18,I was retracted from service. Some came into circulation with veteran’s militias like the Freikorps, although the vast majority were simply pressed into service with the German police, at a rate of about 1 gun per 20 men.
Schmeisser, now working at C.G. Haenel, continued to make improvements to the design after World War I and in 1920 he developed a new type of magazine feed for the M.P.18,I that would take straight box magazines of 32 or 20 rounds. On behalf of the German police, a large quantity of M.P.18,I submachine guns were converted to this new system by Haenel during the 1920s.
Police-issue M.P.18,Is are also often fitted with a safety switch on the forward receiver, which locks the bolt in place when flipped. These are the same type of safety switches that are commonly seen examples of the Erma EMP submachine gun.
The SIG-Bergmann Model 1920
Waffenfabrik Bergmann was one of many German armaments manufacturers that was closed after the enforcement of the Treaty of Versailles in 1920. Production of the M.P.18,I in Germany therefore came to an end, but Theodor Bergmann wanted to continue promoting the weapon and therefore sold the production rights to SIG in Switzerland, where manufacture could go ahead without running foul of the Versailles restrictions.
The SIG-Bergmann submachine was not, however, a straight copy of the Bergmann M.P.18,I. It featured several modifications made in-house at SIG, including a proprietary type of magazine feed taking 50-round straight box magazines. This feed was distinct from the Schmeisser-type straight feed, with the magazine catch being placed on the underside of the housing, and it could not take Schmeisser magazines.
Several other detail modifications were also made to the design. The fixed notch sights of the M.P.18,I were replaced by an adjustable tangent graduating to 1,000 meters. The cocking handle was a rounded knob rather than a curved lever, and the bolt lugs were added to the barrel collar. The SIG-Bergmann was not chambered in 9x19mm Parabellum, but instead only offered in 7.65mm Parabellum and 7.63mm Mauser.
The SIG-Bergmann submachine gun saw limited use by the Swiss Army and was also offered for export, with significant sales to Finland (in 7.65mm), China, and Japan (both in 7.63mm). It was used extensively in China in the 1930s and 40s, and was adopted by the Imperial Japanese Navy as the Type Be (”Be” for “Beruguman”). Production of the SIG-Bergmann lasted from 1920 - 1927, although it continued to be sold into the early 1930s.
From 1923 - 1930, an unlicensed copy of the SIG-Bergmann submachine gun was produced in Estonia by Tallinn Arsenal. This gun, known as the Model 1923 or M/23, was probably based on Finnish examples of the SIG-Bergmann. The M/23 was designed by Johannes Teiman and was constructed from original components, making it visually distinct from other Bergmann variants, particularly in its distinctive stock design and rectangular barrel vents. The M/23 took 40-round box magazines and was chambered in 9x20mm Browning Long, a rare cartridge for SMGs.
It is estimated that only about 570 Tallinn Arsenal M/23 submachine guns were produced, and the majority of these were later sold off to the Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War (1936 - 1939). Some examples were captured and used by the Italian CTV (Corpo Truppe Volontarie) during this conflict.
The Tsing Tao & Dagu Arsenal SMGs
Following the sale of SIG-Bergmann submachine guns to China in the 1920s, domestic copies of the design began to be produced at various factories, the primary manufacturers being the Tsing Tao Naval Arsenal and the Dagu Arsenal. The Chinese Bergmann was a straight copy of the SIG-Bergmann with the magazine housing rotated to a vertical feed rather than a horizontal feed; otherwise the design was essentially unchanged, and all the elements that distinguish the SIG-Bergmann from the M.P.18,I can be seen on the Chinese Bergmanns. The same long, 50-round magazines were used, making the Chinese copies awkward to use from a prone position.
The Tsing Tao & Dagu submachine guns were produced in relatively large quantities and used extensively during the Chinese Civil Wars and the Sino-Japanese War. It should also be noted that some Chinese Bergmanns were produced without the vertical magazine, and are basically identical to the original SIG-Bergmann except for the markings.
The production dates of the Chinese Bergmann copies are impossible to pin down, as manufacture was decentralized across many different factories. However, it is likely that several thousand were produced during the interwar years.
Throughout the 1920s, Schmeisser made further improvements to the M.P.18,I, culminating in 1928 with the development of the successor to the Bergmann, the M.P.28,II. This gun was based on the police-issue M.P.18,I but included several new features, most notably a cross-bolt fire selector and safety button placed above the trigger group. This is the feature from which the M.P.28,II is instantly identifiable from other Bergmann derivatives. The M.P.28,II also replaced the old M.P.18,I bolt with an entirely new type, with a separate firing pin. The new bolt travelled freely in the receiver against a wide diameter recoil spring, instead of riding on a spring-loaded guide rod. The M.P.28,II also had adjustable tangent sights similar to the SIG-Bergmann.
The M.P.28,II was produced at C.G. Haenel and was chambered in 9x19mm Parabellum by standard, but was also offered in a variety of calibers for export, including 9x25mm Mauser, 7.65mm Parabellum, and even .45 ACP. It was sold to Belgium, Bolivia, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Romania, among many other countries. In Germany, it was used by police forces and various paramilitary factions, including the Waffen-SS, but was never adopted by the Wehrmacht. Production lasted from 1928 - 1940, whereupon it was succeeded by the MP41 submachine gun, which utilized some components from the M.P.28,II.
In 1934, the M.P.28,II was adopted by the Belgian Army and it was produced under license by Anciens Etablissements Pieper, trading under the name “Bayard”. This gun, known in Belgian service as the Mi34 Schmeisser-Bayard, was identical in most aspects to the original M.P.28,II and differed only in the manufacturer’s markings and the redesign of the bolt handle from a curved lever to a long, straight handle with a rounded knob on the end, somewhat similar to that seen on the SIG-Bergmann. The Bayard Mi34 was produced from 1934 - 1940.
The so-called “Naranjero” was an unlicensed copy of the M.P.28,II produced in Spain during the Spanish Civil War (1936 - 1939) by Republican factories in Valencia; it apparently gained its name from the orange trees that grew around the city. This variant was basically a straight clone of the M.P.28,II except for the bolt, which was made from brass and featured a distinctive, oversized, circular cocking handle. These bolts were weaker than the original steel bolts of the M.P.28,II. On some examples, the magazine housing is also made from brass. A bayonet catch was also added to the underside of the barrel jacket.
The Naranjero was produced from about 1937 - 1939. Total production figures are unknown but were probably in the low thousands. It has been speculated that the British copy of the M.P.28,II - the Lanchester - was actually based on a Naranjero submachine gun from Spain, although this is difficult to prove.
In 1940, after years of inaction regarding the adoption of a submachine gun, the British government finally decided that a domestically-manufactured SMG was required. Initially the Royal Air Force requested a copy of the German MP38, but it was decided to instead produce a copy of the more expensive M.P.28,II - the logic behind this decision is not really clear. The design of this copy was handled by George Herbert Lanchester of the Sterling Armaments Company and the final production gun was named after him. It was adopted by the RAF and the Royal Navy for the protection of airstrips and naval vessels, but was not adopted by the Army, who were set on the cheaper Sten gun.
Despite being a copy of the M.P.28,II, the Lanchester Mk.I used no parts from the German gun and deviated in some elements of the design. The fire selector/safety switch was relocated to forward of the trigger group and the disassembly catch was placed on the rear receiver, behind the end cap. Proprietary 50-round magazines were used and a bayonet catch was fitted to the barrel. All in all, it may have ended up being more expensive to produce than the M.P.28,II. This was addressed to an extent with the introduction of a simplified variant in 1941, known as the Lanchester Mk.I*, which replaced the rear tangent sight with a basic flip-notch and saw the total removal of the fire selector, giving only fully-automatic fire. From 1942, many Mk.I Lanchesters had their fire selectors removed and their trigger mechanisms simplified.
The Lanchester was only in production during the war years and saw little actual use in combat. Just short of 100,000 were produced in total and it officially remained in Naval service until 1960, whereupon it was finally declared obsolete, although some examples remained aboard British vessels until the 1970s.