GUNS OUT OF TIME

On February 21, 2008 in General

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Patent No. 1,131,319 “Breech Closure for Firearms” issued to John Bell Blish, a former US Navy Commander, was very important in shaping American history.  The story, in fact, starts a little earlier than that.

 

John T. Thompson was a general who retired from active service in November 1914, and then decided to make a difference in the First World War.  He took up a position with the Remington Arms Company, and wanted to develop a gun that can be used very effectively in the trench warfare that was going on in

Europe then.  That is when the patent for the breech closure came to his attention, and he immediately saw its potential.  He licensed it from Blish, in exchange for block of stock from the to-be-formed weapons company, Auto-Ordnance Company. 

 

Design work started on the new ‘Trench Broom’ (as John T. Thompson liked to call it) in 1916, and by spring of 1918, most of the design problems had been overcome, and the gun was ready to be manufactured.  The prototypes for the Annihiliator I were built by the fall of 1918, and the shipment arrived in New York port, ready to be shipped off to the trenches in Europe on November 11, 1918.  Armistice Day.  The timing couldn’t be any worse. 

 

Now the gun was redesigned for non-military use, and it was renamed ‘Submachine Gun’.  Many law enforcement offices and officials, including coast guards, were contacted to secure a contract, but none really wanted such a gun in the numbers the Auto-Ordnance Company wanted to sell.  Then, to help boost sales, in an unprecedented move, huge advertisements with pictures of cowboys using the new submachine gun to ward off cattle rustlers were put out (Guns weren’t a highly advertised product generally). 

 

Ironically, the biggest customer base for the ‘Tommy gun’, as it came to be known on the street was the street gangs.  Supposedly, this gun was the preferred weapon for any drive-by shooting, and to instil fear into passers-by so they don’t ‘squeal’ on the wielder-of-the-weapon.  This gun was most preferred by Al Capone, Bugsy Siegel, and other

Chicago gangsters, and hence acquired the names “Chopper”, “Chicago Typewriter” and “Chicago Piano”.  Supposedly, this $225 gun went a premium rate of about $1500 in the underworld with its serial number scratched out. 

 

Despite this unfortunate success for the sales of the ‘Trench Broom’, the company didn’t do too well.  The 1930s dragged on with the company eking out its existence, and by the time the next war came up, Tommy Gun, although looked upon favourably as a weapon of choice, didn’t receive as much attention as some of the other later models, such as the STEN gun, and so on (A picture of Winston Churchill holding the gun in his hands and a  cigar clenched between his teeth apparently didn’t help its cause; although one can imagine the cigar sales might have gone up).  Auto-Ordnance Company also endured some severe bad luck as well. The French placed a huge order for the submachine gun, but it fell to German hands before it could receive the shipment.  The Germans had a newer and slightly superior design of a submachine gun by that time, rendering this one rather obsolete. 

 

The ‘Trench Broom’ as envisioned by General John T. Thompson will, unfortunately, be remembered as the “Chopper” that was used extensively during the Prohibition Era Gang Wars between the North and South sides of

Chicago.  The Annihiliator I did everything that the General wanted it to, such as ease of carrying, be able to spit fire at the enemy at a rapid pace, light and simple to operate, and very reliable. It has earned a place in the American history.  It remained in “active service” between the two biggest wars mankind has seen unfortunately.  Too late for one, too early for the other. 

 

Source: The History Channel, http://www.nfatoys.com/tsmg/, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_gun

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