MP 34

The MP 34, short for Maschinenpistole 34, is an Austrian-built submachine gun produced by Waffenfabrik Steyr under the factory designation Steyr-Solothurn S1-100. It descends from a Rheinmetall design, the MP 19, and was developed through the Swiss firm Waffenfabrik Solothurn, which Rheinmetall bought in 1929 so that German-controlled arms work could continue despite the limits of the Treaty of Versailles. Production moved to Steyr in Austria, and the guns were sold on the commercial and military markets through the Zurich trade company Steyr-Solothurn Waffen AG. The weapon is a blowback-operated, open-bolt, selective-fire gun with a wooden stock, a perforated barrel jacket and a side-mounted box magazine of 20 or 32 rounds. Its very high build quality earned it the nickname Rolls-Royce of submachine guns, but the cost led to its replacement by the cheaper MP 40. The Austrian Army and police used it first. After the 1938 Anschluss the German Army took over most stocks, some re-barrelled for 9x19mm, and Waffen-SS, military police and reserve units carried it. It also served in Portugal into the 1970s, among Yugoslav partisans and Chetniks, and with the PAVN in the Vietnam War.