Kalashnikov submachine gun m.1942

[Уланов]

Kalashnikov submachine gun 1942 (mod 2)

By June 22^nd, 1941 (the 1^st day of World War 2 for Soviet Union, when Nazis began their attempt to invade it) Red Army was equipped with Degtyareva submachine gun (PPD), which was later replaced in production by a more high-tech Shpagina submachine gun (PPSh). The latter was used by the soviet infantry till the end of the World War 2, up to the streets of Berlin with operators’ feedback on the firearm being mostly positive.

Nevertheless, apart from infantry, there were many other specialized troops in the army, who didn’t find the heavy submachinegun with fixed wooden stock too handy. Bearing in mind, that with the start of the war soviet soldiers got to know the totally different concept – the German MP-40. Perhaps, the german’s folded stock was mot much of a skull crusher in melee combat, but there were situations, in which compact size was just as important. For instance, one PPSh was assigned to each legendary T-34 tank crew. T-34 deservedly is given high reviews, but not many could call this tank spacious, especially the hatches through which personnel frequently had to leave the tank in emergency. It is of no surprise, that it was the Main Auto-ArmorTank Department, which kept insisting for the Main Artillery Department (the one in charge of firearms development) to come up with a new, more compact and useful submachine gun “similar to the German MP-40”, as soon as possible. As a result, a contest took place in 1942 and was son by  Alexei Sudaev’s model of submachine gun. There were many other samples created by participants of the competition and other enthusiasts, however. Among these, was one designed by unknown to anybody back then – sergeant Mihail Kalashnikov.

Now a days, there is not much information about the first model made by the future world-famous arms designer. With the prototype being built in a depot of a train station lost somewhere in Kazakhstan, the Kalashnikov submachinegun (PPK) didn’t become the weapon of victory in World War 2 and didn’t survive to present day. Nevertheless, his first creation helped Mihail Kalashnikov get to the place, where his talent was acknowledged and demanded.

 

 

Long before the World War 2 Research and development of firearms facility of Red Army was not a regular institution dealing in tests of all sorts of guns and machineguns. It had the production capabilities to incarnate “in metal” various projects, it also had its own designers and engineers on site. In particular – the winner of the 1942 submachine contest Alexei Sudaev was among test facility staff. 

Long before getting to the test facility mentioned above, Mihail Kalashnikov got the opportunity to produce his second (modified version of the first) submachine gun in Moscow institute of aviation, which was evacuated to Almaty, Kazakhstan during the war. This was the model he was introduced with at the test facility with later on.

 

By the time of his appearance at the test facility, the competition for the new submachine gun was coming to its end. 2 almost constructionally-equivalent submachine guns (PPSh-2 Shpagina and PPS Sudaeva) came to the contest final. Which one of them was to be adopted by the military, was to be decided based on battlefield test of the first production series.

The end of the contest didn’t, however, mean the end of submachine guns development at the ground. New prototypes kept arriving to the test facility, among which was the model designed by sergeant Kalashnikov.

 

Characteristically, Mihail Kalashnikov did the final modifications to his submachine gun right in the field, just before the tests, these modifications were later separately stated in the certificate of acceptance. In particular, the barrel was replaced by a modified PPSh barrel, adapted for this model, new charging handle was designed and manufactured promptly, trigger uncoupler, spring and several other parts were redone.

Factory tests of the new PPK took place form January 30^th to February 3^rd 1943. During the tests the PPK was compared to already used in the military – PPSh (Shpagina) and with the winner of the earlier contest – the PPS (Sudaeva). Judging by the data in the table below, originally a tank operator Mihail Kalashnikov designed his firearm specifically for his fellow tank personnel, focusing on light weight and compact size.

 

 

	Kalashnikov submachine gun (PPK)	Sudaeva submachine gun (PPS)	Shpagina submachine gun  (mod 1941) (PPSh)
1. Overall weight without magazine (kg).	2,630	2,800	3,640
2. Overall weight with empty magazine (kg).	2,805	3,040	3,920
3. Overall weight with loaded magazine (kg).	3,075	3,420	4,800
4. Overall length unfolded buttstock (mm)	747	905	850
5. Magazine capacity (rounds)	25	35	35

 

 

Unlike its competitors, the Kalashnikov submachine gun was built on delayed blowback bolt mechanics. The design turned out to be quite unique: after the shot, the bolt rolled back, shifting the buffer connected to it by rectangular thread. The buffer moved to thread on to a fixed spiral tube, fixed at the back of the receiver, while compressing the recoil spring. The tension of this process slowed down the bolt, reducing the speed of its blowback.

The trigger group of the PPK had independent triggers for semi auto and full auto fire. When shooting semi auto, the trigger pushed the uncoupler up, which after the shot under the pressure of the bolt going back, forced the trigger pull and the sear lever to disconnect . For full auto, the selector was set to forward position, deactivating the uncoupler from the process.

 

 

Kalashnikov submachine gun showed outstanding accuracy when in semi-auto. However the results were completely different, when switching to full-auto short bursts: the grouping was twice as bad as of PPS and PPSh for the distance of 100 meters. According to the report, this was due to 2 factors: 1) the scheme of independent hammer, which struck the primer slightly after the bolt hit the front  of the receiver, locking into place after previous shot; 2) relatively fast rate of fire (though slower than the one of the PPSh, but faster than the PPS), combined with low weight of the gun and low effectiveness of the compensator. Likewise, more experienced designer Shpagin had to previously put a lot of effort to tackle similar problem with his PPSh.

 

 

The reliability of the automatics was tested by a large number of rounds from two different supplies of ammo. After 730 shot a crack was formed at the back of the receiver. This defect was easily eliminated by the lab at the facility by welding a 4 millimeter steel plate on to the back of the receiver, with the firearm returned for testing after.

 

 

The main problem encountered during the shooting tests was misfire, cause by what the personnel on ground thought, early release of the hammer (12 times per 2280 shots). However, having examined the reports and having heard the designer’s opinion, the specialists at the Main Artillery Department came to a conclusion, that the real reason for misfire was miscalculation of the resistance caused by parts welded onto the spiral tube. The automatics lacked suficiend energy to overcome this extra resistance. This lesson was well learned by the young designer, paying special attention to the reliability of the automatics in future.

 

 

Overall, the result was not too bad – the maximum percentage of misfire didn’t exceed 3.1%, average of 1.5%. Mass production PPS (Shpagina) of several factories showed much worse results during quarterly repeating tests without any particular “difficult conditions” of production compared to the PPK. Moreover the acceptance commission itself acknowledged that the accuracy and reliability issues of the Kalashnikov could be easily overcome by minor improvements.

 

 

The uniqueness of the mechanism of the Kalashnikov submachine gun itself was noted, which was a high reward for a beginner designer.

 

 

However, there was one more very important issue, that normally doesn’t get into the spec sheets and acceptance reports. It was one that Mihail Kalashnikov didn’t give much thought to, while designing his “best” submachine gun, with which it would be quite easy to engage into combat for the tank personnel.

 

 

“By its constructive design and the technology of manufacture the PPK gave way to the PPS (Sudaeva) and didn’t have advantages over the PP-41.

 

 

 

The configuration of PPS parts was such, that they required machine (mostly milling) and locksmithing works. For instance: it took 12 machine working hours by high-qualified staff to make 1 spiral tube for the bolt (7^th level of employee qualification), and for finishing it also took to manufacture milling heads and locksmithing tools”

 

As a comparison – according to Main Artillery Department standard at that time, it took 7.3 machine work hours to produce 1 PPSh, with only 2.73 hours for the PPS. With most parts of the PPS being able to be produced at any factory having sufficient stamping machine capability.

A somewhat similar story happened at almost the same time in the United States. The main service submachine gun of the US military by the start of World War 2 – the Thompson submachine gun (which also had delayed blowback bolt mechanics and had some exterior similarities with the Kalashnikov submachine gun) was a great firearm, highly demanded by the military. However, even the worlds richest and industrially-developed country, which didn’t have to surrender a significant part of its territory to the enemy and evacuate its factories over thousands of kilometers away from the frontline and set up new production facilities, was initially forced to focus on simplifying and lowering cocsts of production ot the Tommy Gun, and then eventually set up production of simple and cheap M3 “Greaseguns”

 

By winter 1943, after 2 heaviest years of war, USSR simply could not afford to set up production of a better in some ways, but resource-demanding firearm. This is why the Kalashnikov submachine gun was destined to stay a prototype. The experience gained during its manufacture, field tests and modification eventually was of great benefit to Kalashnikov with his production of other models, some of which later to become mass produced and even legendary.

 

 

But this “thousand “ifs” long” journey started in the depo workshop of Matai station and winter test facility next to Shyurovo in Moscow outskirts.

Andrei Ulanov.