# Submachine guns OTHER than the Thompson in the 1920s **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 16, 2011, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/submachine-guns-other-than-the-thompson-in-the-1920s/567786 "2011-01-16T02:49:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2011, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/submachine-guns-other-than-the-thompson-in-the-1920s/567786/1 "2011-01-16T02:49:43Z")
I’m working on a story in which some foreign mercenaries are brought into an American city in the latter 1920s as hired muscle. Rather than having them equipped with Thompsons or BARs, it’s a point of plot that they brought their own weapons with them. What non-American submachine guns were available between 1925 and 1930? ---
**Author:** ![UncaStuart](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uncastuart/32/404_2.png) [@UncaStuart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncaStuart)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2011, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/submachine-guns-other-than-the-thompson-in-the-1920s/567786/2 "2011-01-16T03:07:05Z")
One possibility is the Bergmann [MP18](http://www.imfdb.org/index.php/Bergmann_MP18). ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2011, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/submachine-guns-other-than-the-thompson-in-the-1920s/567786/3 "2011-01-16T03:46:41Z")
Another is the [Beretta 1918 SMG](http://comandosupremo.com/m1918.html) Or [this link.](http://world.guns.ru/smg/it/beretta-m191-e.html) Looks like SIG made a [copy](http://world.guns.ru/smg/switch/sig-1920-1930-e.html) of the aforementioned MP18. If you want to be innovative, you can have your mercs use pintle-mounted[Villar-Perosas](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villar-Perosa_aircraft_submachine_gun)… Surprisingly, it doesn’t look like there were a whole lot of them before the late 30’s. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2011, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/submachine-guns-other-than-the-thompson-in-the-1920s/567786/4 "2011-01-16T05:01:49Z")
The French were making the MAS 1924 for their military in that period. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2011, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/submachine-guns-other-than-the-thompson-in-the-1920s/567786/5 "2011-01-16T11:26:43Z")
You’ve also got the Mauser M1932 _Schnellfeuer_, which was a full-auto version of the [“Broomhandle” C96 Mauser](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauser_C96). The “Official” full-auto Mauser versions didn’t appear until 1932 but Astra in Spain and various places in China were making their own full-auto C96s well before that- from the late 1920s at least. Otherwise, the already mentioned MAS-1924, Bergmann MP18, and the very similar Beretta M1918 are pretty much it, from what I can tell. For something closer to the BAR, there was a version of the [Lewis Gun](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Gun) which had a wooden foregrip and was designed to be used as an “Automatic Rifle” rather than a machine-gun (at least in the WWI context). If you’ve seen _The Mummy_, there’s a scene where the mysterious guardian character grabs the Lewis Gun from a crashed biplane and proceeds to use it in an “Automatic Rifle” capability throughout subsequent parts of the film.