The Australian armed forces already had a significant number of submachine guns at the beginning of 1943. But this was preceded by an unusual action: on May 6, 1943, the country’s military leadership distributed a questionnaire to the troops, which aimed to study everything that soldiers thought about submachine guns as a type of weapon. Twenty-four questions covered technical details of the location and type of magazine, as well as the design of the reloading handle, sighting device and bayonet; information was also collected on the wishes of soldiers regarding assembly, disassembly and repair in field conditions. Soon after, a prototype of a weapon appeared, taking into account the experience and wishes of the soldiers. This was the Kokoda submachine gun, developed under the supervision of Major S. E. M. Hall
The weapon was named after the place in Papua New Guinea where the first battle of the 39th Australian Battalion under the command of Captain Templeton with a Japanese detachment of 500 people took place on July 25, 1942. The action of the automatic system of this weapon was based on the use of recoil energy. It was equipped with a free spring-loaded massive bolt. The weapon was intended for single and automatic shooting and had a second handle located on the barrel, near the muzzle. Its length with an extended shoulder rest was 686 mm, its weight in an unloaded state was 3.63 kg. The ammunition used was 9 mm Para cartridges. A straight sector magazine with a capacity of 30 cartridges was inserted from below into the pistol grip. The theoretical rate of fire was about 500 rounds per minute, the muzzle velocity was about 365 m/s, and the barrel length was 203 mm. This weapon had no buttstock and instead used a retractable wire shoulder rest
The Kokoda submachine gun was developed on the basis of the Owen submachine gun, but with a completely different magazine mount. During military tests, it was found that the weapon was unsuitable for use. Its two most significant drawbacks were the following: after a relatively short period of use, it heated up greatly, and due to the lack of a muzzle brake, it was unstable during automatic fire. The prototype of this weapon was noticed by the famous Uziel Gal when creating his equally famous creation, the Uzi submachine gun. But unlike the Uzi, the Kokoda was never mass-produced.
Tactical and technical characteristics : cartridge - 9mm Para, weight without cartridges - 3.63 kg, total length with extended rest - 686 mm, barrel length - 203 mm, muzzle velocity - 365 m/s, rate of fire - 500 rounds/min, practical rate of fire - 100 rounds/min, magazine capacity - 30 rounds, effective firing range - 100m
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I think it’s missing a “0”, isn’t that 1000?
yes, even in the original post it says 100 instead of 1000
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God, it’s so ugly. I want it.
Damn, women usually only say that first part about me XD
Here’s a video about it that gives a real good close up
The serial numbers were censored to prevent the IPA from stealing Australian secrets sorry mate