Hello, everyone. As you know, some weapons were not distinguished by any unique design. The Estonian submachine gun Tallinn-Arsenal is one of them. It is a little modified copy of the existing model, but was characterized by an interesting history. German in Estonian. Tallinn-Arsenal submachine gun
General view of the Estonian Tallinn Arsenal.
HISTORY OF TALLINN ARSENAL
CHANGE OF MIND
Up until the mid-twenties of the last century, independent Estonia did not have its own submachine guns. There were only a few German-made MP-18s. There was no development of its own weapon of this class, and it was hardly even planned. But on December 1, 1924, the Estonian underground, connected with the Comintern, attempted an armed uprising. Several military infrastructure facilities were attacked. One of the targets of the Communists was the military school on Tondi Street. There they planned to seize weapons for further uprising
. However, the plan did not work. One of the cadets of the school managed to take a convenient position and prevented the attackers from breaking through to the second floor with a dense fire. While he was holding the defense alone, his comrades had time to arm themselves and come to the rescue. The cadets successfully fought off the attack and prevented the loss of their weapons.
The cadet on the second floor of the barracks was armed with a “9-millimeter automatic pistol.” The specific type of this item is unknown. According to the popular version, the underground soldiers were stopped by fire from an MP-18 submachine gun.
The battle for the second floor of the school clearly demonstrated to the Estonian military and the Estonian leadership the power of automatic weapons with pistol cartridge. It was decided that the army should produce its own submachine guns.
THE BEGINNING OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT
The external differences between the two models of the MP 18 and the Tallinn Arsenal are minimal.
In 1925-26, the designers of the Tallinn Arsenal developed the first Estonian submachine gun design. Estonian is a proud word here, in fact
is a copy of the German MP-18 - just with its own improvements.
The new weapon was named Tallinn-Arsenal or Arsenali PĂĽstolkuulipilduja (Arsenal submachine gun), after the name of the developer.
The new model was successfully tested and recommended for adoption. In 1927, a serial production order was placed for the Estonian Army. A few months later, the first serial production units were shipped to the customer.
Design features and characteristics
There is not much to say here, as the Tallinn-Arsenal is basically an MP 18 with minor modifications, which had very little effect on its performance
The country’s leaders get acquainted with the new Tallinn-Arsenal
Like the basic model, the Tallinn-Arsenal was a machine pistol - an automatic weapon for pistol cartridge, using the free-floating bolt principle. At that time, the FN M1903 pistol, chambered for the 9x20mm Browning Long cartridge, was in service in Estonia. To unify the small arms, the army decided to convert the German submachine gun to the 9x20mm Browning Long ammunition. A new 40 round long box magazine was also made for the new cartridge.
CHARACTERISTICS Tallinn-Arsenal
Type: submachine gun
Production time: 1926-1940
Weight (without ammunition): 4,275 kg
Length: 809 mm
Caliber: 9Ă—20
Cartridge used: 9Ă—20 mm Browning Long
Trigger type, single-action/automatic fire mode
Rate of fire: 600 rounds per minute
Initial bullet velocity: 365 m/s
Aiming range: 600 m
Magazine capacity: 40 rounds
Soldiers in the camp.
DIFFERENCES FROM MP 18
The original chamber was lengthened to accommodate the new 20mm cartridge case
The barrel was lengthened to accommodate the new 20mm cartridge case.
Barrel was lengthened to 210 mm,
Outside of the barrel, doles were made for better cooling.
On MP-18, the barrel was covered with a casing with many round shaped holes. The Estonian shroud had several longitudinal rows with three oval holes in each row.
The shape of the wooden stock is different from the MP 18. No pistol protrusion on the neck.
According to some information, the Tallinn Arsenal had a firing mode switch, with two firing modes - single and automatic.
PRODUCTION
The submachine gun was adopted into service in 1927, and the order for serial production of such a weapon appeared at the same time. The Estonian army needed a large number of new automatic weapons, but due to the limited budget, they had to restrain their desires. Later a new order came, from the Estonian police.
The production of submachine guns did not last long, only a few years, and was finally phased out in the early thirties. During this time, no more than 570-600 submachine guns of the new model were produced. This number of weapons did not seem unacceptably small.
Tallinn-Arsenal in the museum.
Estonia tried to sell its “development” on the international market. However, no orders were forthcoming, and the only buyer of the Tallinn-Arsenal was Estonia itself
SERVICE IN THE ARMY
The Tallinn Arsenal machine guns were distributed to army units and police departments. Due to a large shortage, they could not become a mass weapon in the Estonian army
However, subsequent use revealed problems:
The new magazine was unreliable, there were problems with ammunition feeding
The new barrel cover did not help cooling, but made production more expensive.
In the end, somewhere in 1930s the Tallinn-Arsenal design simply became obsolete, as well as the design of its ancestor MR-18, the World War I machine pistols were inferior to more modern weapon designs and could not really compete with them
Therefore, in the end Estonia adopted the Finnish Suomi. At the same time they signed a contract for the supply of imported weapons. Before joining the USSR, independent Estonia managed to receive 485 ordered Suomi KP-31 submachine guns. Tallinn-Arsenal decided to sell off the old models to the rest of the world.
Finnish Suomi submachine gun
A couple of them were sent to Latvia. One was sent to Japan. The plan was simple, Estonia wanted to interest foreigners and sell the already unnecessary and obsolete weapons. However, nobody needed them, and then they were all bought by some private company, what kind of company it was, what was its name, why did it need submachine guns - history is silent
Some number of Tallinn-Arsenal - from dozens of pieces to all the remaining products, soon
lit up in Spain, in the hands of Republican fighters. How they ended up there is not known. The last mention of Tallinn-Arsenal also dates back to the Spanish Civil War, and all the remaining pieces were scrapped, although a couple managed to survive and end up in museums, where they still lie today
Tallinn-Arsenal in Spain
Italian tankers in Spain.
What do you think about this submachine gun? I think on 1 or 2br, as an event weapon or with some event/premium squad, it will be good. Just who to give it to? USSR? Germany? I think it would be just fine for the USSR
, but Estonia… They don’t have enough equipment and weapons for a full faction, even if you consider prototypes. And I’m already making a post about the Tallinn Arsenal M38