Carry a Thompson with a full load out around for a day or two and you'll change your mind.  A M4 weights 6.36 lbs empty.  A Thompson weights 10.8 lbs empty.  It is one heavy son of a bitch to hump around all day.

Poll fail...OP forgot a lot of SMG's in use during WWII

This.  

Thompson WAY too heavy.  We've owned over 10 over the years plus our rentals at the Knob Creek MG Shoot.

Our M3A3 is awesome.

Vickers and Hackathorn did a vid comparing them a few years back.

The mp40 of course. The rate of fire is just about perfect. Slow enough for single shots if needed.

The mp40's that i have fired have been accurate and, the slow rate of fire has made shooting them a fairly long lasting experience compared to the PPSH 41.  That and fire the PPSH/PPS 43 in a room with low ceiling

Apparently loved by the troops as well. Beautifully ugly.



Early Krylon jobs...

Yeah you fail. Not a SMG.

Thompson 45 acp with a drum and that front grip would have been my choice 7 days out of the week.
However if I could have done anything to a weapon in WW2 it would have been putting a good selector switch on the BAR and a pistol grip stock. Or making the Garand into a bottom fed magazine with straight mags.

Your fully loaded Thompson with a 50 round drum magazine weighs 14.75 lbs.

KP m/44 would have to rate up there as it is the best refinement of the pps guns; and had 36 round stick mags or 71 rd drums.  It also had a so so muzzle brake.

But most of us are in the US so who can not say the Thompson.

The Thompson had some of the best sights of any SMG of the era; better than many rifles even.


It is select fire, which is a huge deal if you really want to sight in a gun or conserve ammo.

It has a trigger disconnect for when the mag is empty that keeps the bolt from slamming forward without a cartridge to slow it down and more importantly to make it easier and faster to reload as all you have to do is replace the magazine.  Most other SMGs of this time period need to be cocked after emptying a mag.

30rd sticks and 50 and 100 round drums put its capacity towards the top of SMGs of the time.

It fits a grown man not like some of the small stocks of many SMGs.

Its biggest faults are weight which made it more controllable and really only a pound or so more than most subguns of WW2 and the expense which should not be a factor for best SMG.

They were much better made than most SMGs of the war with nicely milled receivers and polished blued finish with nice wood furniture.

A mag dump with a 30 round Thompson mag will put a pound of lead down range in about 2 seconds much more than double what the mp40 will do.

The Cutts compensator was fairly effective for this time and most other SMGs did not even have a compensator.


45 ball > 9mm ball

And it is American!  

With the M3 you have to stick your finger into the bolt to cock it.

I say the M3 Grease gun, my FIL carried one in his halftrack from Normandy to the end of WWII. I always wanted one.

Shot all three and I'll take the Thompson.  Maybe it was the example I shot, but it was butter smooth.

Pull trigger, "chuck chuck chuck chuck....." inspect hole in center of target.

I wouldn't want to carry it though.

X87!!!!

M1A1 Thompson - Bigger punch
Ppsh-41 "Papa Shaw" - Faster rate of fire
MP40 Schmeisser - Great recoil control
Sten - Ease of production

$10 to make, 47 parts, could easily be made in a machine shop, minimal maintenance, and damn effective.

The true workhorse of WW2 SMGs.

Can I be your friend?  No homo.....

You better bring crab meat then

M2 Carbine

I believe that would fit better as a assault rifle.

Idk why this did not begin and end with the sterling.

Damn

lol

The only category the Thompson wins in is nostalgia.

double

Indeed... and even taking the weight out of the equation... no way in hell I'm trusting my life to a Thompson drum.

Forget about the modded BAR....just trade a Raider or Forceman for a Johnson Light Machine Gun......not that he'd give it up, but you could try.

The Sterling may technically be a WW2 SMG, but it really wasn't issued until the 1950s. I also doubt it would have replaced the STEN if Sterling-style magazines were developed over copying the MP28 mags.