July 27th, 2021
6minute read
Have you ever pondered the miraculous design of the human digits?
They are, in general, stubby, crude sorts of things.
Anyone who has ever tried to remove a splinter without the aid of tools can appreciate their innate limitations.
Human fingers are the archetypal blunt instruments to be sure.
Your brain weighs three pounds and is mostly fat.
It consumes one-fifth of your bodys total energy output and contains about 100 billion neurons.
With the world as its playground, the human brain has contrived some of the most wondrous machines.
World War I was the species rude introduction to warfare on an industrial scale.
It also saw the introduction of the German MP18, the worlds first viable handheld man-portable submachinegun.
For the defeated Germans desperate to acquire the refined implements of modern combat, this required some creativity.
Working in secret, German and Swiss engineers produced the prototype S1-100 submachine gun.
The resulting Steyr-Solothurn Waffen AG conglomerate produced the redesignated MP34 for both military and commercial markets.
Technical Details
The MP34 is a blowback-operated open bolt selective-fire submachine gun that weighs 9.9 lbs.
Most of the guns remaining today fire Georg Lugers Parabellum round.
The MP34 fed from the left side via 20- or 32-round magazines canted slightly forward for optimal feed geometry.
A sliding switch on the left aspect of the receiver selects between semi and fully automatic modes of operation.
The heavy steel barrel shroud is an absolutely beautiful thing liberally perforated and sporting a bayonet lug.
The magazine housing incorporated a curious gadget wherein an empty magazine could be locked in place from the bottom.
Ammunition could then be quickly loaded via eight-round stripper clips charged from above.
Absolutely everything about the gun is executed to a ludicrously refined standard of fit and finish.
A beautifully machined top cover pivoted upward in the manner of a belt-fed machinegun.
The rigid cocking handle reciprocates with the bolt.
It can be locked into a safety slot in the manner of thelater MP40as needed.
Combat Use
The Germans never had enough weapons to go around.
The MP34 saw limited service with the Wehrmacht in the opening phases of WWII.
The advent of the MP38 and MP40 soon pushed the MP34 to second-line users like police and security forces.
However, the Waffen SS used the gun fairly extensively throughout the war.
Literally Armed SS, the Waffen SS or Schutzstaffel began as an offshoot of Hitlers personal bodyguard.
The Waffen SS was forever finding itself scrambling for small arms.
As a result, the SS remained the most prolific operational user of the MP34.
The gun easily stays on target even in long bursts.
Firing semi-auto, the weapon remains monotonously accurate out to the effective range of the 9mm Parabellum cartridge.
The guns sedate 600 rpm rate of fire is simply mesmerizing.
Singles and doubles are easy with a disciplined trigger finger.
The bolt must be manually locked to the rear with each magazine change.
In many ways the MP34 was like the Thompson gun on our side of the pond.
Expensive, heavy, and unnecessarily onerous to produce in bulk, it was nonetheless available when needed.
Regardless, the MP34 was both gorgeous and effective as aWorld War II submachine gun.
Special thanks toworldwarsupply.comfor the period replica gear used in the production of this article.
