Thompson Stick Mags & "Public Enemies"
 

Does anyone know what year the 20 & 30 round magazines were introduced for the Thompson SMG?

I ask because someone posted the following "goof" for "Public Enemies" on IMDB:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1152836/goofs

He's insinuating that box magazines didn't exist until after the start of WW2..isn't this total BS? Weren't the 20 round magazines available when the the 1921 model Thompson came on the market? I'm not sure when the 30 round mags became available, but I thought it was prior to WW2. Can anyone clear this up for me? Thanks.

The 20 round magazine was available when the M1921 was first introduced to the gun buying public. From what I remember, the M1 and M1A1 were introduced in either late 1941 or early 1942 (steve, jump in if you can ;) ) but I'm doing this from memory (and no, I'm not THAT old hahaha) so the 30 round magazine was developed since the soldiers didn't like the rattle of the drum magazines. But the drums were available since the late 1920s and were issued in the pre WW2 years to the U.S. Military (in the late 1930s) and as lend lease weapons to our allies. Photos of soldiers BEFORE Dec 7th show them with M1928 thompsons with drums.

The 20 round magazines have been around since the beginning, and 30 round magazines were developed for the M1 series of Thompsons since they could NOT take the drum magazines, so the 30 round magazines were WW2 issued items and not issued until after 1941.

So the guy who posted the goof is only partially right..he would be correct if he was only referring to the 30 round mag but the way that it's worded it sounds like box magazines didn't exist at all until WW2.

MPM has it right on the mags for the Thompsons. The 20rd sticks have been around since the weapon was designed and the 30rd mags came into being in 1942 to increase the amount of ammo you can carry. A pouch carrying one 50rd drum can carry about five 30rd mags in the same space. That's extra 100rds and they are easier to load than the drum.

I can't tell from the angle of the screen caps. Are those we see in the movie 20 or 30 round magazines? If they are 30, then we should point out that 30 rounders don't exist at the time.

The person who quoted that on IMDB is a crack smoker. If you compare the Thompson that Johnny Depp has and the Colt 1921A with 20rd mag IMFDB has you can see it's a 20rd mag. More pros on movies guns that don't know which end the bullet comes from.

We do research the weapons for large period features to get the weapons correct right down to the magazines. There are other things that can change like Michael Mann wanting something special that might be iffy for the period. But for the most part we research the period to get things right. If you notice on Westerns from the 1930's to 1970's it was only the 1892 Winchester now it's Henry Rifles, 1866 Carbines and 1873 Carbines. Research, Research, Research, to change the was of Hollywood.

The Thompson was originally sold with the 20 round mag, the drum was an optional extra. In fact I believe that Dillinger really did use a Thompson with a box mag, though its been awhile since I saw the picture of his gang's weapons.

Thompson drum and in general are unreliable. In Thompson case if the drum has a dent or drop it become useless. You also need to wind the drum certain number of times. If you go over or under the range it will cause reliability issues.

The first Thompson sub-machine guns came with 20 rnds of stick magazine, IIRC.

Interesting tidbit - there's an article in the current issue of Man At Arms For The Gun Collector that suggests Dillinger carried a Super 38 rather than a Government Model .45, and the infamous machine pistol made by Harold Lebman was also a .38 Super.

The is correct on the .38 Super it was and still more accurate than a .45 Auto. The other reason is that the .38 Super would penetrate the vest they had back then and a .45 would not.