Foreword: This is, more or less, a translated version of my post on the Russian forum, and it, as it turned out, rather unsurprisingly overlaps with an already existing one back from 2022 by aizenns or another one from 2023 by Nakamuragp. Can you blame me for bringing it up again, considering that it was already 2 years with no signs of change?
Special thanks to @Killerwolf1024 for his help regarding the documents and books.
TL;DR: Correct the displayed caliber of the ‘S1-100’ and ‘SIG 1920’ (and, maybe, ‘MP 28 (7.65mm)’ as well) submachine guns from 7.65mm to 7.63mm and increase bullet velocity from 370 to 430 m/s (same as the German MP 717(r) that is chambered for the same 7.63mm Mauser round)
Some background information
In 1929 Imperial Japanese Navy had purchased a batch of SIG-Bergmann submachine guns. According to some researchers, the first 120 submachine guns were originally intended for Finland and, as such, were chambered for 7.65x21mm Parabellum (from LiveJournal of Andrey “lautlessen” Tsvirshits).
However, beginning from 1931 and up until 1938, the only SMGs that were purchased were chambered exclusively in 7.63x25mm Mauser, as suggested by 陸戦参考－第１号・陸戦兵器要目表 (Land Warfare Reference - No. 1 Land Warfare Weapons Specification Table), which mentions both Type Be (jp. ベ式機関短銃, from
Japanese pronunciation of Bergmann - Beruguman) and Type Su (from Japanese pronunciation of Steyr - Sutaya) submachine guns to be chambered for 7.63mm.
Right - Type Be SMG, middle - Type Su SMG, green - designation, blue - Caliber (mm), red - 7.63.
Jiro Sayama also mentions 7.63mm as a primary round for Bergmann submachine guns in his book “Introduction to Rifles, Handguns, and Machine Guns: A Thorough Study of Japanese Small Arms”(小銃・拳銃・機関銃入門―日本の小火器徹底研究), p. 375.
下)ベルグマン自動短銃。ドイツ製。口径7.63ミリ、箱弾倉50発入り。
(Bottom) Bergmann automatic pistol. Made in Germany. Caliber 7.63 mm, box magazine holds 50 rounds.
In “Bewaffnung und Ausrüstung der Schweizer Armee seit 1817 / Automatwaffen Maschinenpistolen Selbstladegewehre” by Christian Reinhart and Michael am Rhyn there is a mention of where exactly SIG-Bergmann SMGs were exported to and in which caliber, namely, 7.65mm for Finland and 7.63mm for China and Japanese Navy.
Why did I even feel the need to bring this up? AFAIK, other nations’ submachine guns appear to be chambered for correct ammunition, and even Japanese domestic SMGs display a correct caliber even if damage values on some of them are way too big for the performance people usually expect from Japanese pistol rounds. And it’s only the foreign SMGs in Japanese service that appear to be using an incorrect ammunition ever since their appearance in the Pacific campaign.
Those being the ‘S1-100’ (the aforementioned Type Su SMG, using factory designation instead of the one used by Japan), ‘SIG 1920’ (the aforementioned Type Be SMG, using one of its more known names instead of the Japanese one), and, arguably, ‘MP 28 (7.65mm)’ (which is not an MP28 in the first place but the same SMG as the ‘SIG 1920’, for a proper designation it might be better to refer to this post by aizenns, but it appears that devs are not bothered by this at all, and they would rather adjust the name of some German/Italian SMG instead)
Judging by their stats, it appears that devs really wanted to sell them as 7.65mm Parabellum weapons, featuring lower velocity than the other SMG chambered for 7.63mm Mauser round, that being MP 717(r) (and excluding some outliers like MP35/I compared to other 9mm Parabellum SMGs, most of the time weapons chambered for the same round appear to have the same bullet velocity in this game). Which is why, on top of fixing their incorrect displayed calibers, I am also proposing to adjust their stats to match.
- ‘SIG 1920’ doesn’t really require much change, already featuring damage similar to other 7.62mm Tokarev/7.63mm Mauser SMGs, and only really requiring its velocity to be upped from 370 to 430 m/s.
- ‘S1-100’ is a bit more problematic, as, with its current damage that is .2 higher than that of German MP34, and with adjusted velocity, it could become a better weapon than its German counterpart, which is why I am proposing to also lower its damage to 6.8 (still keeping it higher than ‘SIG 1920’ due to its slower rate of fire, but bringing it more in line with the German counterpart).
- As for the ‘MP 28 (7.65mm)’, it can either be left as is statwise and have it be explained as it being either a “captured Chinese gun” or “a gun from the first batch”, or it can be adjusted along with the other two guns, with the obligatory change to its name.