The ‘Tommy gun’ was designed for soldiers. But Chicago gangsters made it notorious.
by Ron Grossman - Chicago Tribune - 10-20-24

Except for Al Capone, Gen. John Thompson would be forgotten by all but serious devotees of military history. The two never met, being cut from different cloth.

Thompson, a khaki-clad military man who was awarded a medal “for exceptionally meritorious and conspicuous service as chief of the small arms division of the office of the chief of ordnance,” was the inventor of the Thompson submachine gun. A rapid-firing rifle, it was initially designed for trench warfare during World War I.

But a more storied use of the “Tommy gun,” as it was dubbed, was employed by minions of Capone, the nattily dressed king of the Chicago underworld in the 1920s and ’30s.

On Feb. 14,1929, gangsters burst into a meeting of mobsters in the garage of the SMC Cartage Company at 2122 N. Clark St. It was rented by George “Bugs” Moran, who used it as a distribution center for his bootleg liquor racket.


You can read the rest of the article here:
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/10/20/tommy-gun-thompson-submachine-war-chicago-gangsters-mob

The Canadian Army liberated my town and country in WWII armed with those Thompsons.

Churchill with a Tommy.

https://media.gettyimages.com/id/15...rVw9Gm7rGUEZxEE0NX0U0j2PJaR8exNBYQ8vmTo=

If you notice, they show both a straight clip, and the so-called round 'drum' magazine - which held 50-rounds.

The clip was mostly utilized by the U.S. armed-forces in combat. While the round drum was most popular among the U.S. gangster element, especially in Chicago and New York. The "Tommy-Gun" of Al Capone's era.

It was a devastating weapon, especially back in those times. It was revolutionary!

1919-1920s, a thousand units or so were sold to the General Public, ranchers and farmers mostly since they needed to protect their live stocks, an army with no food cannot stand for long. Wolves were a big problem in those days as they hunted in packs a lot bigger than to today's packs, there are still a few large pack today. In the cold areas of America, they found some flaws to the Tommy. 1) It jammed up most of the time after 1st drum as it was designed to clear a trench on the go through allowing the soldiers in back to push through. 2) It only had the drum instead of the mag causing more weight, and difficulty moving in some terrain. The fist of the italian gangster to get their hands on this weapon and use it was Kansas City. Chicago cousins came to town and bought to of the models and the rest is history for the Tommy gun across America in the roaring 20s.

The creatore of Thompson died poor because he created the machine gun for WWI soldier but the war ended first,he made bankrupt and the Thompson gun was sell to private citizens.

Much of the infantry fighting in WWI was “trench warfare”: Enemies, hunkered down in trenches, faced each other across treeless, shell-pocked, barbed wire-strewn “No Man’s Lands.” Periodically, one side would “go over the top” to attack the other side. Attackers who survived withering artillery and machine gun fire then jumped into enemy trenches, slugging it out with fists, rifle butts and bayonets. It was a horrible, wasteful way to conduct combat.

Brig. General John T. Thompson had a better idea: The “Trench Broom,” a compact, rapid-fire weapon that an average sized infantryman could strap on his back without it impeding his dangerous transit of “No Man’s Land.” If he survived, he’d stand above the trench and “sweep” the enemy with a hail of bullets (hence “Trench Broom”). The M1A1 as it was designated, was a “submachine gun,” called that because it fired “submilitary” ammo--.45ACP, the same ammo used in the Colt Model 1911 pistol, the standard sidearm for US forces. The .45ACP doesn’t have anything near the range of a rifle round, but it has maximum, short-range stopping power—perfect for close-in trench warfare.

Tommyguns went into production too late to see action in WWI, and the rapidly demobilizing War Department wasn’t buying new, untested weapons. Law enforcement also had scant interest in Tommyguns. The manufacturer, Colt Arms, tried to sell them to civilians (it wasn’t illegal, nationwide, for private citizens to own machine guns until 1934). One of the most famous magazine ads of the Twenties shows a rancher, in Stetson and chaps, fending off mounted rustlers with his Tommygun:

https://www.machinegunboards.com/fo...4-original-1925-thompson-machine-gun-ad/

But, gangsters were interested. Peter Von Frantzius, a Chicago sporting goods vendor, sold them to the Capone mob, and to their rivals, the Northsiders. It became known as the “Chicago Typewriter.” It wasn’t until the Thirties, when high profile bank robbers like John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd and Machine Gun Kelly, started outgunning the cops, that law enforcement, led by the FBI, started using Tommyguns. They liked the concentrated firepower, and the intimidating look, of the “Chicago Typewriter.”

Tommyguns were widely used by US troops in WWII, but they were expensive (~$350, even in mass manufacture) and hard for average GIs to clean and maintain under field conditions. The War Department looked for a smaller, cheaper submachine gun, and found one late in the war in the M3A1 “Greasegun,” so called because it looked like an automotive grease gun, which was made of stamped steel and cost ~$80, and still fired the .45ACP round. Lots of manufacturers, including the Rock-Ola jukebox company, made them under contract.

Today’s US military has no standard submachine gun, although various specialty units of the Armed Services use foreign-manufactured submachine guns, most often chambered in 9mm. The Tommygun lives on in gangster movies and in the imagination of many gun enthusiasts.

Also in punk music,Turnbull.

Thx, Furio--that was good!
I like Clash--"Death or Glory" is my fave.