MP 40 - Role & "Tactics"

Want to see more videos with content from museums or historical sites? Consider supporting me on Patreon or Subscribestar, these supporters make trips like this possible. Additionally, you will get early access (no ads) and other features, more info here: » patreon - www.patreon.com/join/mhv » subscribe star - www.subscribestar.com/mhv >> ERRORS & CORRECTIONS << 11:57 - "geschwungener Spaten" should be translated with "swung spade" or "wielded spade". Thanks to the Patreon Galgenvogel for pointing that out.

Petition for Military History Visualized to do a crossover episode with ForgottenWeapons where they go to the firing range and shoot off some MP40s

I love how every ww2 movie from the 50s to the 90s has every german unit armed with only mp 40s and they all have stormtrooper aim.

Must have been the Ausführung A that took a 32 round clip, because Clint Eastwood's MP-40 in Where Eagles Dare fired a 1,152 round magazine.

“...I’m not Ian from Forgotten Weapons...” Things wise men say to preface their video.

The “I’m not Ian from forgotten weapons” has migrated from Garand Thumb to MHV

Something to add here regarding the term "Machine Pistol". A major part of the reason the term isn't used in English speaking countries is that most of those nations first real experience with USING such weapons was with the Thompson. Auto Ordinance, the company founded to market and sell the gun by Thompson, coined the term "Submachine Gun" as a marketing ploy to get people interested in what was seen as a strange, man portable and comparatively underpowered automatic weapon when placed alongside a proper belt or strip fed machine gun commonly associated with the great war.

"The primary German infantry tactic was to Rush B using the MP 40 w/ drum magazine & aperture sight."

Movies made me believe these were way more common than they actually were

Wait! It was in the regulations to shout Hurra!? BTW: a story from my grandfather was that he was in combat and his MP40 failed and got him nearly killed. In anger he tossed it away and picked up a PPSH41 and used that for the rest of the mission, but then he was either not willing or capable of going to retrieve his MP40 and thus he got into trouble... He was a funny guy, but his vivid depictions of WWII gave me nightmares as a kid...

11:44 "during the assault, the squad leader pulls the whole squad forward by his personal example" How to use submachinegun: Be an hero.

FYI: I was in the U.S. Army early '80s, trained on M-60A3. Complete with M-3A1. I don't know if I would want to have my life depend on it, but I was fascinated by its simplicity.

last time I was this early we were using MP18s

12:56 Wehrmacht: Inspires contempt for death MHV 2020: I wonder what the German military thought about the work/life balance

Interesting presentation and makes sense. I was an infantry officer and weapons like Mp 40 are not that useful for infantry except in close combat because of the very short range, low calibre, lack of penetration and high inaccuracy. Certainly not the go-to weapon of the movies. There is a danger in issuing a distinctive weapon to team leaders because the enemy will notice and target the leader so I wonder what soldier got the mp 40 in practice at platoon level. Good weapon for recce elements for example. I notice the driver got the mp40 in vehicles. The Ka 98 was an excellent if dated rifle. Maybe you could do a short presentation on that too some time. Thanks.

From what I read the Fallschirmjaeger regiments had not only two LMGs in infantry squad but also a lot more SMGs than typical infantry squad, at least few people from squad had them apart from leader. I also remember reading that Jaeger divisions had so many SMGs allocated that they created whole squads entirely equipped with SMGs + 1 LMG. I couldn't find any exact tables or more info about it but maybe you could find something more. If there's something to find about SMG tactics then it's probably those Jaeger divisions, or the Sturmpioniere.

MP-40 was the weapon of choice for Soviet reconnaissance squads in tactical or operation intelligence departments. MP-40 was much lighter than PPSh-41 and availability of ammunition behind enemy lines made this weapon a valuable trophy.

A notification of Military History Visualized about infantry tactics. Today was a good day.

Now it would be interesting to know how they dealed with the other submashineguns like the MP28, MP34, MP35/1 and Erma MP35. All of those were used by the German army or Luftwaffe at some point early in the war. Allthow many of were given too ss or second line units as far as I know. I think it would be really interesting to see how the German army used them generally

I was surprised to see a video about a simple small machine gun but I'm glad you made it. I didn't realize that I had questions about it until you started answering them. Great job, many thanks!