I just found a document about captured weapons from Chinese army, in 1932 Japan captured the 50 and 100 round drum magazine of the Thompson M1921.
Since Japan only have 1 BR5 submachinegun and the damage is low, it’s necessary to give them the M1921(50) as TT weapons.
As for the 100 round magazine, I think it’s better to be added as premium squad weapons, because Japan is the only country that doesn’t have a BR5 guerrilla squad.
Also, the Japanese archives list a “Manual for the 1921 Model Thompson Automatic Pistol” dated March 1939 (１９２１年式トンプソン 自動短銃説明書 昭１４．３).
During the Japanese capture of Singapore, 583 Thompson submachine guns were captured in fully serviceable condition—excluding those issued to military units (Source: 第２編 昭南島に於ける調査事項 C14110703600). In turn, on the island of Java, 722 fully serviceable Thompsons were captured (Source: 第３編 「ジャバ」島に於ける調査事項 C14110703700).
You are likely mistaken—or misleading people—regarding the 100-round magazines; while there are records of 50-round magazines being captured during combat, the Japanese only seized “Thompsons” equipped with 50-round magazines in two specific locations: Java (Indonesia) and Singapore.
There were no 100-round magazines there at all—that is a fabrication. Archival reports clearly document the location, quantity, and origin of these captured items.
Well it’s a list about weapons of the Chinese Army, the result shows that they did use the 100-round magazine. The only problem is that we don’t know how the Japanese got these information. Maybe they did captured one, or they just found the trial document.
Here’s the picture of the Chinese Thompson M1921s with 100-round drum magazines.
Where did you get this information? You might be confusing the 100-round and 50-round magazines.
China purchased M1921 and M1928 models specifically with 50-round drum magazines. Later, they even began manufacturing copies at their own arsenals. It was from Chinese soldiers that the Japanese army captured large numbers of these submachine guns as war trophies during the occupation of China.
The Chinese grew so fond of the Thompson that they began manufacturing unlicensed copies at their own factories (such as the Taiyuan Arsenal in Shanxi Province). They copied the submachine gun itself and only the 50-round drum magazines; they did not even attempt to copy the 100-round drums, as those were too complex to manufacture, expensive, and unreliable.
Conclusion: China did indeed make extensive use of early M1921 and M1928 Thompsons, and it was from the Chinese that the Japanese captured them by the hundreds as war trophies. However, these submachine guns were equipped with either box magazines or 50-round drum magazines; 100-round drums were not present in China.
It seems that the 100-round versions were encountered very infrequently and were quite rare.
Since the Japanese had captured both mass-produced British models (with 50-round drums) and Chinese-made examples (with 100-round drums), their technical specialists consolidated the information into a single reference manual. They meticulously recorded the fact that they possessed the weapon and that their troops had also captured all three types of magazines existing worldwide for it.
100 round drum magazines are also confirmed by the book: China’s Small Arms of The 2nd Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) by B. Shih
However, in my experience (after looking at dozens of WW2 era pictures) Chinese usually preferred to use 20 round stick magazines for their Thompson submachine guns.
Although it states that some were captured, I believe the technical specifications data was compiled based on documentation the Japanese already had on hand, without taking into account what magazines were actually used in China. M1921 Thompson submachine guns were tested in Japan itself back in the 1920s.
These M1921 thompsons are believed to have been purchased by Sun Yat-sen in small quantities.
It is not known if any other forces would have used the Thompson in China at the time (1924), other than the guards.
On one hand, if the Japanese receive a Thompson with a 100-round magazine, it would be bad for the US they lack such a model in both the research tree and as an event squad (unlike the USSR), and the only American counterpart is a premium version for paratroopers that is significantly inferior in terms of performance.
Because Germany already have enough weapons,it won’t be necessary. However, Japan still lack of br 1 submachine gun, br2 bolt action rifles,br3/4 semiauto rifles,and br5 submachine gun.Adding captured weapons would be very helpful.
As for trophy weapons—such as rifles, submachine guns, and machine guns—I believe they should be rare, limited in quantity, or tied to event squads so that no one feels left out. That is my opinion.
The Germans have a huge amount of weaponry. Japan and the USA, on the other hand, don’t have a decent rifle or machine gun available for research at BR 4.
The last two posts, here and here, about adding Thompsons to Germany/the Axis were both very similar in outcome to this, as of now, with about 50% support whereas this sits at 56% support. While there is a difference it is not large enough to be properly noteworthy.
