It opens with the claim by some expert, an editor at a small arms magazine, that if a crook (sic) saw a man with a badge and a Tommy gun, it meant you were coming one way or the other. Furthermore, the Tommy gun has "prevented more violence than it ever caused." Nevertheless, I readjusted my jaw, which had dropped to my chest, and carried on because the Tommy gun really WAS an important weapon and its development deserves scrutiny.
It's ironic because it was the desire to end violence that created the Tommy gun. Like so many other weapons that were to be so formidable that they would spell the end of war, it didn't work any more than dynamite or the machine gun or the nuclear bomb.
John Thompson came from a military family and was a graduate of West Point. In the Spanish-American War he was a munitions officer and was dismayed by what he found. The US Army was adequately equipped but the volunteers, such as Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders, were using single shot breech loaders that had been designed thirty years earlier. Each shot left a puff of smoke indicating the shooter's position. The Spanish had modern European rifles that used smokeless powder.
The Americans did have an advantage -- the Gatling gun, an early machine gun that was heavy and took two men to operate. Browning dreamed up the idea of a gun that could fire automatically and be carried by one man. He designed it too. He sought the best-sized bullet for a rapid fire gun by shooting live cattle at the Chicago stockyards and, later, human cadavers. He settle on the slow, heavy .45 caliber of the Colt automatic pistol then in use, more effective at close quarters than smaller, high-velocity rifle rounds.
The Army wasn't interested so Thompson resigned and built it himself, but the first shipment to Europe was still sitting on the docks the day World War I ended. Thompson adapted it for police work, and rate of fire of variants ranged from 500 rounds per minute to as high as 1500, although the bulk of that ammunition couldn't be carried in any magazine.
Thompson's weapon was supposed to stop violence. Instead, finding the official market limited, he sold the gun through hardware stores and by mail. Ads promoted it as the ideal weapon for home defense against burglars. It was small and portable. It was legal to carry one down the street. Anybody could buy it. Among the first were the Irish Republican Army fighting the British. Next were the bootleggers and the "motorized bandits" of the 20s and 30s.
The gun's notoriety piqued the interest of the military at home and overseas. The US Coast Guard was the first American service to order the Thompson and the British were the first to use it in combat. It was still expensive to make and had a complicated mechanism, so a simplified version was manufactured for the American military in 1942. The film makes no mention of the Cutts compensator, which was fitted in order to control recoil. Actually, the film treats the gun's weaknesses rather lightly.
Both John Thompson and his son Marcellus died before they could see their invention glorified in World War II. Thompson still grieved over some of the uses to which his gun had been put. By the time we entered the war, the founders of Thompson's Auto-Manufacturing Company were mostly dead and their heirs saw none of the millions of dollars that were made from the sales.
The gun is now a collector's item and some of them are worth tens of thousands of dollars.
It's a well-written and editing series. We can be thankful that the director hasn't wobbled the camera, used instantaneous cuts, or dazzling effects. It's a straightforward topical history documentary.
It's ironic because it was the desire to end violence that created the Tommy gun. Like so many other weapons that were to be so formidable that they would spell the end of war, it didn't work any more than dynamite or the machine gun or the nuclear bomb.
John Thompson came from a military family and was a graduate of West Point. In the Spanish-American War he was a munitions officer and was dismayed by what he found. The US Army was adequately equipped but the volunteers, such as Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders, were using single shot breech loaders that had been designed thirty years earlier. Each shot left a puff of smoke indicating the shooter's position. The Spanish had modern European rifles that used smokeless powder.
The Americans did have an advantage -- the Gatling gun, an early machine gun that was heavy and took two men to operate. Browning dreamed up the idea of a gun that could fire automatically and be carried by one man. He designed it too. He sought the best-sized bullet for a rapid fire gun by shooting live cattle at the Chicago stockyards and, later, human cadavers. He settle on the slow, heavy .45 caliber of the Colt automatic pistol then in use, more effective at close quarters than smaller, high-velocity rifle rounds.
The Army wasn't interested so Thompson resigned and built it himself, but the first shipment to Europe was still sitting on the docks the day World War I ended. Thompson adapted it for police work, and rate of fire of variants ranged from 500 rounds per minute to as high as 1500, although the bulk of that ammunition couldn't be carried in any magazine.
Thompson's weapon was supposed to stop violence. Instead, finding the official market limited, he sold the gun through hardware stores and by mail. Ads promoted it as the ideal weapon for home defense against burglars. It was small and portable. It was legal to carry one down the street. Anybody could buy it. Among the first were the Irish Republican Army fighting the British. Next were the bootleggers and the "motorized bandits" of the 20s and 30s.
The gun's notoriety piqued the interest of the military at home and overseas. The US Coast Guard was the first American service to order the Thompson and the British were the first to use it in combat. It was still expensive to make and had a complicated mechanism, so a simplified version was manufactured for the American military in 1942. The film makes no mention of the Cutts compensator, which was fitted in order to control recoil. Actually, the film treats the gun's weaknesses rather lightly.
Both John Thompson and his son Marcellus died before they could see their invention glorified in World War II. Thompson still grieved over some of the uses to which his gun had been put. By the time we entered the war, the founders of Thompson's Auto-Manufacturing Company were mostly dead and their heirs saw none of the millions of dollars that were made from the sales.
The gun is now a collector's item and some of them are worth tens of thousands of dollars.
It's a well-written and editing series. We can be thankful that the director hasn't wobbled the camera, used instantaneous cuts, or dazzling effects. It's a straightforward topical history documentary.