RED CELL SUB MACHINEGUNS
RED CELL SUB MACHINE GUNS
JUST LIKE MANY OF OUR FELLOW PLAYERS AROUND THE WORLD, RED CELL ARE LITERALLY CHAMPING AT THE BIT TO GET BACK OUT FOR FULL RANGE DAYS AGAIN, AND WE SINCERELY HOPE THAT THIS IS THE LAST REPORT WE’LL HAVE TO BRING IN WHILST SEPARATED! HOWEVER, WITH A DEPTH OF KNOWLEDGE BASED ON HARD GAME USE, YOU MIGHT SAY WE KNOW A THING OR TWO ABOUT SMGS, AND AS USUAL BILL KICKS THINGS OFF!
A
h, the Sub Machinegun, or SMG, is a subject I never tire of talking about! I guess I come from a slightly different timeline from many of you reading this, and I grew up reading “Victor, Warlord, Battle/Action” and “Commando” comics where the hero of the piece would undoubtedly have a Thompson, a STEN gun, or an MP40 in hand during their adventures! The SMG was “THE THING” for many of my age and it’s something that I carried all the way through my earliest airsoft games in the form of an MP5 from numerous brands! But the tale of the SMG is a long one! I would argue that the very first of what we would refer to as the “modern military SMG” was the MP 18 manufactured by Theodor Bergmann Abteilung Waffenbau that was brought into service in 1918 by
the German Army during World War I as the primary weapon of the “Sturmtruppen”, the specialised German WWI trench assault groups. Up until then infantry combat was traditionally “ranged” and the bolt-action rifle was the king of the battlefield, but the bloody and gruesome, often hand to hand combat seen within the close-confines of trench systems called for something smaller, and with a higher rate of fire… the term “trench broom” which referred to shotguns, fully-automatic carbines, and eventually the Bergmann SMG was coined for a reason! WWII saw most armies still largely armed with those bolt-action rifles, and the .303 SMLE did sterling service against the venerable 7.92×57mm Kar98k, but the with the “Blitzkrieg” came a new, fast-moving type of land warfare fought from the backs of vehicles
“I GREW UP READING “VICTOR, WARLORD, BATTLE/ACTION” AND “COMMANDO” COMICS WHERE THE HERO OF THE PIECE WOULD UNDOUBTEDLY HAVE A THOMPSON, A STEN GUN, OR AN MP40 IN HAND DURING THEIR ADVENTURES! ” 50
MARCH 2022
