The Thompson submachine gun, nicknamed the Tommy gun, was designed by United States Army Brigadier General John T. Thompson between 1917 and 1920 and manufactured chiefly by the Auto-Ordnance Company, with the Model 1921 entering production that year as the first weapon ever marketed under the term submachine gun. Chambered in .45 ACP and fed by 20 or 30-round box magazines or 50 to 100-round drum magazines, the roughly ten to eleven pound weapon had originally been conceived to break the trench warfare stalemate of the First World War, though its prototypes arrived too late for that conflict. It instead became notorious during American Prohibition as the signature weapon of organized crime and the law enforcement officers who fought it, before the United States military formally adopted the Thompson in 1938; more than 1.5 million were produced during the Second World War for American and Allied forces.
Facts
Classification
Service Status Service Status Weapon Class Introduced Year Introduced Year Weapon Class
Weapon Class (category) Weapon Class (category) Connections
Associated With
World War II, Wars The Thompson submachine gun armed American paratroopers and infantry squads throughout World War II
Operated By
Source Wikipedia: Thompson Submachine Gun
Source Wikipedia: Thompson Submachine Gun
Source Wikipedia: Thompson Submachine Gun
Source Wikipedia: Thompson Submachine Gun
Used In
Source Wikipedia: Thompson Submachine Gun
Source Wikipedia: Thompson Submachine Gun
Source Wikipedia: Thompson Submachine Gun
Iraq War, Wars Source Wikipedia: Thompson Submachine Gun
Source Wikipedia: Thompson Submachine Gun
Source Wikipedia: Thompson Submachine Gun
Source Wikipedia: Thompson Submachine Gun
Source Wikipedia: Thompson Submachine Gun
Source Wikipedia: Thompson Submachine Gun
Source Wikipedia: Thompson Submachine Gun
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Wikidata: Thompson Submachine Gun
Wikidata Q269593, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)View the Source 2. Wikipedia: Thompson Submachine Gun
WikipediaLead section, first sentence, clause naming the weapon class
is a blowback-operated, selective-fire submachine gun invented and developed by Brigadier General John T. Thompson, a United States Army officer, in 1918.
Lead section, first sentence, clause naming the 1918 invention date
invented and developed by Brigadier General John T. Thompson, a United States Army officer, in 1918
service-status
service = 1921-present
Caliber attribute (thompson-submachine-gun)
Chambered in .45 ACP and fed by 20 or 30-round box magazines or 50 to 100-round drum magazines, the roughly ten to eleven pound weapon had originally been conceived to break the trench warfare stalemate of the First World War, though its prototypes arrived too late for that conflict.
- Used In: Spanish Civil War, infobox wars field: 'Spanish Civil War'
- Used In: World War II, infobox wars field: 'World War II'
- Used In: First Indochina War, infobox wars field: 'First Indochina War'
- Used In: Indo-Pakistani War of 1947, infobox wars field: 'Indo-Pakistani War of 1947'
- Used In: Korean War, infobox wars field: 'Korean War'
- Used In: Vietnam War, infobox wars field: 'Vietnam War'
- Used In: Laotian Civil War, infobox wars field: 'Laotian Civil War'
- Used In: Cambodian Civil War, infobox wars field: 'Cambodian Civil War'
- Used In: Yugoslav Wars, infobox wars field: 'Yugoslav Wars'
- Used In: Iraq War, infobox wars field: 'Iraq War'
Operated By: United States Army, Wikipedia article text
Used by the Home Guard (United Kingdom) *: Employed by the United States Marine Corps and by the United States Army 1938, including paratroops in World War II.
Operated By: United States Marine Corps, Wikipedia article text
The Thompson saw early use by the United States Marine Corps during the Banana Wars, the United States Postal Inspection Service, the Irish Republican Army, and the Republic of China; the FBI, previously an unarmed agency, adopted their use following the 1933 Kansas City massacre.
Operated By: British Army, Wikipedia article text
In the Malayan campaign, the Burma campaign, and the Pacific theater, Lend-Lease-issue Thompsons were used by the British Army, Indian Army, Australian Army, and other Commonwealth forces.
Operated By: Red Army, Wikipedia article text
These submachine guns were used to a limited extent by the Red Army.
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