In the most recent battle pass the devs focussed on adding a few SMGs for BRs I-III. However, most of the weapons seemed to be mere copy pastes. Lacking the uniqueness which used to be the case with most of the guns of the previous BPs. I recently came across a few interesting SMGs that would fit this criteria. So I thought of sharing them with the community.
Andrews Machine Carbine
The Andrews machine carbine was an Australian prototype submachine gun produced by Birmingham Small Arms.
Production Information
Country of Origin: Australia/United Kingdom
Manufacturer(s): Birmingham Small Arms
Designer(s): M. Andrews
Year(s) Designed: 1943
Technical Specifications
Weapon Type: Submachine gun
Caliber: 9Ă—19 mm Parabellum
Length: 25.5 inches (65 centimetres)
Barrel Length: 6.8 inches (17 centimetres)
Weight: 6.2 pounds (2.8 kilograms)
Feed System: 30-round detachable box magazine
Cyclic Rate: 660rpm
Muzzle Velocity:1180ft/s
History
The Andrews machine carbine was designed by an Australian engineer who sent the blueprints to BSA in Britain, who constructed a small batch of prototypes. These guns were submitted to the British Ordnance Board in 1943 and trials were arranged in late September that year. It was tested against the Owen Mk.II, the Austen Mk.II, the Patchett Mk.I, the Sten Mk.IV, and the Welgun. Testing found that the Andrews was fragile and uncomfortable to fire, and the Ordnance Board expressed little further interest in the design. The Australian designer, who had come to the UK to oversee the tests, remained in the country to work on new designs for RSAF Enfield. The prototypes remain unaccounted for as of 2021.
Design
The Andrews was a 9Ă—19 mm submachine gun of an unusual design. The pistol grip was hinged and could be folded underneath the body when not in use, and a spare magazine could be inserted into a slot in the rear end of the weapon to be used as a rudimentary stock. Both of these novel features proved to be unreliable in practice, however, as the spare magazine was found to come loose easily and the folding pistol grip had poor ergonomics.
The internal mechanism of the Andrews was also unconventional. The bolt was carried by two spring-loaded guide rods that ran above and below the barrel. It featured a sliding dust cover that could seal off the ejection port to prevent dirt from fouling the weapon when it was not in use. Like the Sten, the magazine fed into the left side of the receiver.
Source: Andrews machine carbine | Gun Wiki | Fandom
SIG MP41
The MP41 was a Swiss submachine gun produced by SIG.
Production Information
Country of Origin: Switzerland
Manufacturer(s): SIG
Designer(s): Jakob Gaetzi
Year(s) Designed: 1941
Number Built: 200
Technical Specifications
Weapon Type: Submachine Gun
Caliber: 9Ă—19 mm Parabellum
Action: Delayed blowback
Length: 31.4 inches (80 centimetres)
Barrel Length: 12.1 inches (31 centimetres)
Weight: 9.6 pounds (4.4 kilograms)
Feed System: 40-round detachable box magazine
Cyclic Rate: 850rpm
Muzzle Velocity: 1,310 feet per second (400 metres per second)
History
When World War II broke out, Switzerland, while officially neutral in the conflict, was faced with the threat of potential invasion by Germany. The Kriegs Technisch Amt, the Swiss government body for war preparations, sent out an ordnance survey in May 1940; upon reviewing the results, they found that the Swiss Army had less than 500 submachine guns at their disposal. The KTA therefore commissioned the two largest small arms manufacturers in the country, SIG and W+F Bern, to produce new submachine gun prototypes for the Army.
SIG developed the MP41 in response to this commission. It was adapted from the MKMO submachine gun and retained the swiveling magazine housing that folded horizontally into a groove in the fore-end. A more conventional version without this feature was also prototyped.
In 1941, the KTA ordered a trial batch of 50 MP41s from SIG and 100 of the rival design from W+F Bern. The KTA exhibited obvious favoritism towards the W+F gun and adopted it without undergoing comparative tests to SIG’s MP41. Without a domestic military contract, SIG attempted to market the MP41 abroad, but were blocked from doing so by Switzerland’s neutrality laws. Only 200 MP41s were produced before the design was abandoned.
Design
The MP41 was a delayed blowback-operated submachine gun; the internal operation of the gun was largely the same as SIG’s earlier MKMO, utilizing a loose firing pin and one-piece bolt. The main changes were external, as the rifle-like wooden stock of the MKMO was replaced by furniture resembling the Thompson submachine gun. It had a finned barrel and large hollowed-out handguard which the magazine could be folded into when not in use. Upon doing this, the magazine would be locked into place, and pressing a catch located just under the fore sight would release it, allowing it to drop back into its regular position for firing. The safety was on the right side of the gun, just above the trigger.
Source: SIG MP41 | Gun Wiki | Fandom
Bechowiec 1
The Bechowiec-1 (“bek-hov-iets”), also known as the Beha, was a Polish submachine gun that was designed by Henryk Strąpoć.
Production Information
Country of Origin: Poland
Manufacturer(s): Bataliony Chłopskie
Designer(s): Henryk Strąpoć
Year(s) Designed: 1943
Production Began: 1944
Production Ended: 1944
Number Built: 11-13 (disputed)
Technical Specifications
Weapon Type: Submachine gun
Caliber: 9Ă—19 mm Parabellum, 7.62Ă—25 mm Tokarev
Action: Blowback
Length: 17.5 inches (44 centimetres)
Barrel Length: 9.45 inches (24.0 centimetres)
Weight: 6.22 pounds (2.82 kilograms)
Weight (Empty): 5.36 pounds (2.43 kilograms)
Feed System: 32-round detachable box magazine
Cyclic Rate: 650 – 700 RPM
History
Named after the informal nickname given to members of the Bataliony Chłopskie (Peasants’ Battalion) or BCh, which was Bechowiec, this insurgent machine pistol was designed by Henryk Strąpoć and was produced in underground factories in the Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski region.
A blacksmith by trade, Strąpoć was also a self-taught amateur gunsmith and illegally produced four semi-automatic pistols of his own designs, and became a gunsmith for the BCh during World War II. By 1943, he came up with a design of a submachine gun, which would become the Bechowiec-1, and later had his design improved with the help of Jan Swat, a former mechanic in a metalworks company in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski.
Lacking any form of automatic weaponry, the headquarters of the BCh in the Opatów district ordered serial production of the Bechowiec-1; this move was possible due to clandestine parts production in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski without the knowledge of the Germans. Once the parts were produced in the metalworks in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, they would then be smuggled out by workers and taken to Strąpoć’s workshop in a village where they would then be assembled; the first two weapons were completed in January 1944.
The weapons were then distributed to be used by the BCh and the affiliated Ludowa Straż Bezpieczeństwa (People’s Security Guard) partisan units mostly around the Opatów region. While some 20 more weapons were being constructed, the tables of the war turned and front lines approached the village; this practically caused all secret firearms production to cease due to increasing amounts of German surveillance in the area. The unfinished Bechowiec-1s were then hidden, and possibly cannibalized for parts later on.
After the war, Jan Swat went onto produce the Bechowiec-2, which was patterned after the Sten gun.
Design
Due to Strąpoć not being a very good firearms designer to begin with, his Bechowiec-1 design had a few odd and interesting design features; for instance, the use of a slide as opposed to a charging handle to cock the weapon. Due to these interesting design elements, the Bechowiec-1 is sometimes classified as a machine pistol despite its size being similar to that of a full-sized submachine gun.
The weapon’s barrels are made from scrapped World War I rifle barrels, which are then hand-cut and re-bored to chamber a smaller round. The weapon, as stated earlier, uses a slide as opposed to a charging handle, and fires from a closed breech. It also has an internal hammer and safety, which prevents the weapon from firing if the breech is not fully closed. Priming the weapon could be done by either racking the slide, or pulling a bandolier attached underneath the slide.
The weapons, when originally produced, were painted black; both surviving Bechowiec-1s have been polished.
Ammunition
Most of the weapons produced are chambered for 9Ă—19 mm Parabellum, although the final three or four produced are chambered for 7.62Ă—25 mm Tokarev instead.
Source: Bechowiec-1 | Gun Wiki | Fandom
