Submachine gun (Bergmann MP 18)
Subfusil (MP 18 de Bergmann)
- Date
- 1918 · confidence high
- Place
- Suhl, Thuringia, Germany
- Credited to
- Hugo Schmeisser (Theodor Bergmann Waffenbau)
- Field
- Conflict
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A portable automatic weapon with a short barrel firing a pistol cartridge (9 mm Parabellum) with a drum magazine, for trench fighting. It was issued to German assault troops in 1918 and gave the submachine gun its name.
The Italian Villar-Perosa (1915) is sometimes considered the first submachine gun, but it was a twin-barrelled support weapon; the Thompson (1918) and MP 18 compete as the first in service.
What it led to
- the Thompson, Sten, PPSh-41 and MP 40
- police and special-operations weapons
- assault infantry