Everyone has seen the Thompson submachine gun used in those black and white gangster movies of the 1930s, and, of course, the famous bootlegger Machine Gun Kelly used the weapon exclusively. What many people don’t know, however, is that the legendary Tommy gun (as it was popularly known) was the brainchild of an American general.Rico says it's always been one of his favorites, as carried by Vic Morrow in Combat!:
The first production model, renamed the M1921, was manufactured by Colt in 1921. This weapon was capable of a firing rate of eight hundred rounds of .45 caliber ammunition per minute, and fifteen thousand were made. The gun was an impressive performer, but sales were poor, even when an improved version, the M1928, considered by many to be the best version ever made, was developed. One problem was the high cost, as an M1928 sold for two hundred dollars, over two thousand dollars in today's money.
The Army introduced the M3 and M3A1 submachine guns (photo, bottom) in 1943, with plans to produce them in numbers sufficient to cancel future orders for the Thompson, while gradually withdrawing it from first-line service.
No longer in service, they are nowadays much sought after by collectors. A clean Thompson in full working condition will sell for as much as $25,000.
If Rico ever succeeds in getting his tugboat, a Thompson will be mounted in tool clips on the overhead in the wheelhouse:
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