Operation: How does it work?

All sub-machine guns are magazine fed and driven by the blowback principle where the pressure on the cartridge case to move backwards after firing pushes the breech back to extract the last case and feed the next. Many have folding stocks to make them even smaller. Almost all Western sub-machine guns fire either 9mm or .45in rimless pistol ammunition. They typically have a slightly longer barrel than a pistol which develops a little more power from the charge and a bigger magazine to carry more rounds. You already know what effect to expect from these rounds. Because sub-machine guns work like automatic pistols but fire many more rounds they are vulnerable to jamming through a build up of carbon on the working parts. So be sure to keep your sub-machine gun clean. Most sub-machine guns are fitted with a shoulder stock to steady the weapon and give better accuracy. But don’t expect too much as you will be doing well to hit anything at much more than 100 yards.

Skill: How do you use the weapon to maximum efficiency?

I was taught to double tap a couple of rounds at a time with an SMG and using this technique you can hit out to 100m without any trouble. But then you do have to wonder what the main advantage is in using an SMG as you are not using the firepower. Why are you not then using a rifle? Because of the stock and longer barrel you will achieve more accuracy than a pistol but so far as I can see the only time a sub-machine gun has anything over any other available weapon would be a rapid burst of fire from a team of bodyguards at close range to suppress an attack on a VIP. Or law enforcement using SMGs to overawe criminals carrying pistols.

As I said above, the time to use a sub-machine gun is when you have to sneak up on guards or similar and kill them quietly. Double tap into the centre of the body at distance or head if you are closer. (A double tap is where you squeeze and release the trigger so as to fire off two or three rounds in each burst. A little practice and you quickly get the feel of it.)

Types of sub-machine guns

There are dozens of sub-machine guns available from the old Thompson .45 ‘Tommy Gun’ through the Sterling 9mm and the Uzi to the modern Glock. I don’t think any of them are worth carrying unless you need a silenced weapon. And then a pistol is often better.

Summary: What are the important things to remember about sub-machine guns?

Because they make lots of noise and throw lots of lead around people tend to overestimate the effectiveness of sub-machine guns. It is better to think of them by the German name of ‘Machine Pistol’ because, effectively, that is what they are. They are longer range pistols with a large magazine and an automatic fire selector.

The sub-machine gun is neither fish nor fowl. You can’t hide it like a pistol and it doesn’t have any of the good points of a rifle – so I would always choose a rifle instead. Ideally only use it when it can be silenced, for shock value or when size/space is an issue. If you do use a sub-machine gun watch your ammunition use. Keep it very clean because sub-machine guns jam easily. If you are in a hurry, tuck the butt into the middle of your stomach and sight with both eyes open along the top of the gun.

PISTOLS – REVOLVERS AND AUTOMATICS

I am going to shatter some dreams and fondly held beliefs here but I am trying to make you a better soldier and keep you alive rather than make a friend of you so think about what I have to say before you start pouting. I believe soldiers should not carry a pistol as a back-up weapon when in combat. The only time for you to carry a pistol is when you are working undercover in plain clothes.

Why do so many soldiers carry a pistol in reserve?

The problems with pistols...

   Even the most powerful pistol is far less powerful than your rifle. It has to be or the recoil would break your wrist. The pistol bullet travels at a relatively slow speed and therefore does not cut up the target’s innards like a rifle bullet.

   A pistol is very inaccurate compared to a rifle. If you doubt me look at pistol competitions and you will see they are all shot over very short ranges whereas rifles are long range.

   The pistol has a low rate of fire because it only has room for a small magazine.

The reason many soldiers give for carrying a pistol as a reserve weapon is in case their rifle jams. Actually it is because they have seen too much TV. If your rifle is clean and it jams you don’t need a pistol you need a new rifle. Time after time I see gung-ho Private Military Contractors carrying pistols as a back-up weapon in case their rifle jams when actually carrying that pistol is a liability for two reasons. If you carry a pistol as a second weapon, as a soldier in an unfriendly crowd you are likely to get it snatched and used against you. In the USA about five police officers are shot and killed with their own weapons every year and the principle is quite similar.

If you carry a pistol and your rifle jams you are going to go for the pistol. Fine, I hear you say. Tell me this: if you are not Wyatt Earp, how long does it take you to get out your pistol, cock it or take off the safety and then begin shooting? Is it quicker than you can cock your rifle to clear the stoppage? I don’t think so – and if it is you need to practice your stoppage drills. You need to practice them anyway until you do them without thinking.

Pistol training. British Army, 2010. (Mike Fletcher © UK Crown Copyright, 2010, MOD)

So what are pistols good for?

Pistols are really useful for police and other people whose main job is to talk to people and tell them what to do rather than kill them. Police officers in many parts of the world carry a pistol all their lives and maybe never need to use it other than to intimidate people. In this situation, the weapon is there as an implied threat. ‘Don’t mess with me and do as I say because I have a gun.’ In some parts of the world law-abiding civilians can carry pistols for personal protection. In this case the pistol is either a threat if visible or to kill an aggressor if not. Criminals, of course, in most parts of the world carry pistols for almost the same reasons – to make people do as they are told or to kill their enemies.

But what we are interested in here are people like undercover operators who need to carry a weapon which other people don’t know about. A hidden weapon which allows them to mingle with civilians in a bar unnoticed yet kill efficiently at short range when they need to. The rest of this chapter is based on the idea you will use a pistol when you are working in an undercover role or on a covert mission as an SF operator to eliminate a bad guy. I say ‘bad guy’ because we only kill bad guys, of course. In this role, the firepower of a pistol is enough for what you need.

Revolver or automatic?

There are two types of pistol, the revolver and the automatic* but as they fire roughly the same ammunition, the hitting power – or lack thereof – is about the same for each type given a similar round. The main trade-off between the revolver and the automatic is that the revolver never jams while the automatic rarely jams and has a higher rate of fire.

The key difference between automatic and revolver ammunition is that the automatic round is rimless – having a groove around the base to allow the extractor claw to get a grip on it and to stack better in a magazine while the revolver round is rimmed i.e. it has a projecting rim at the base to stop the round sliding through the cylinder.