Walther MP
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The Walther MP (''Maschinenpistole'') series is a family of
9×19mm Parabellum The 9×19mm Parabellum (also known as 9mm Parabellum or 9mm Luger or simply 9mm) is a rimless, tapered firearms cartridge. Originally designed by Austrian firearm designer Georg Luger in 1901, it is widely considered the most popular handgun a ...
machine pistol A machine pistol is an autoloading pistol capable of fully automatic fire. The term can also be used to describe a stockless handgun-style submachine gun. The term is a calque of ''Maschinenpistole'', the German word for submachine guns. Machine ...
s produced in
West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
from 1963 to 1985 by
Walther Walther is a masculine given name and a surname. It is a German form of Walter, which is derived from the Old High German ''Walthari'', containing the elements ''wald'' -"power", "brightness" or "forest" and ''hari'' -"warrior". The name was fir ...
.Hogg, Ian (2002). Jane's Guns Recognition Guide. Jane's Information Group. .


History

In the late 1950s, Walther began designing submachine guns in line with military and police re-arming plans in West Germany. This new submachine gun became the Walther MPL / K, and mass production began in 1963. When released, it was adopted by West German intelligence agencies, as well as US military special forces in Germany, such as the 39th Special Forces Detachment. In West Germany, the Navy has adopted MPL, and some police agencies, just like the West Berlin Police, adopted either MPL, MPK and/or both. During the 1972 Munich Olympics and the ensuing terrorist incident, the local police was equipped with the MPL. However, most of the police officers dispatched at this time were only trained as patrol police officers and had little experience in using the MPL. The counter-terrorist unit
GSG-9 , formerly (), is the police tactical unit of the German Federal Police ''( Bundespolizei)''. The state police ('' Landespolizei'') maintain their own tactical units known as the '' Spezialeinsatzkommando'' (SEK). The identities of GSG 9 memb ...
, which was established after the incident, adopted the
H&K MP5 The Heckler & Koch MP5 (german: Maschinenpistole 5) is a 9x19mm Parabellum submachine gun, developed in the 1960s by a team of engineers from the German small arms manufacturer Heckler & Koch. There are over 100 variants and clones of the MP5 ...
as their service submachine gun instead of the Walther MP. As spread of MP5 began, it would begin to eclipse the Walther MP's sales until the Walther product was discontinued. In addition, exports to other countries were also carried out. Many countries, such as Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela, only acquired the compact MPK variant. Walther MP was also used as a submachine gun for special forces in the United States. In addition to being used by
US Navy SEALs The United States Navy Sea, Air, and Land (SEAL) Teams, commonly known as Navy SEALs, are the U.S. Navy's primary special operations force and a component of the Naval Special Warfare Command. Among the SEALs' main functions are conducting sma ...
during the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
, it is said to have been used in
Operation Ivory Coast Operation Ivory Coast was a mission conducted by United States Special Operations Forces and other American military elements to rescue U.S. prisoners of war during the Vietnam War. It was also the first joint military operation in United States ...
by the
United States Army Special Forces The United States Army Special Forces (SF), colloquially known as the "Green Berets" due to their distinctive service Berets of the United States Army, headgear, are a special operations special operations force, force of the United States Ar ...
. The
Delta Force The 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment–Delta (1st SFOD-D), referred to variously as Delta Force, Combat Applications Group (CAG), Army Compartmented Elements (ACE), "The Unit", or within Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), Task Fo ...
used the Walther MP during transitional period of US Army, when the
M3 submachine gun The M3 is an American .45-caliber submachine gun adopted by the U.S. Army on 12 December 1942, as the United States Submachine Gun, Cal. .45, M3.Iannamico, Frank, ''The U.S. M3-3A1 Submachine Gun'', Moose Lake Publishing, , (1999), pp. 14, 22†...
was starting to get phased out in favour of the MP5. Members of the Delta Force were equipped with the Walther MP during the abortive
Operation Eagle Claw Operation Eagle Claw, known as Operation Tabas ( fa, عملیات طبس) in Iran, was a failed operation by the United States Armed Forces ordered by U.S. President Jimmy Carter to attempt the rescue of 52 embassy staff held captive at the ...
.Griswold, Terry and D.M. Giangreco. Delta: America's Elite Counterterrorist Force. Osecola, WI: MBI Publishing Company, 1992. . At the end of its lifespan, its sales were sluggish. The production of the MP ended in 1983 with the final production was about 27,000 guns.


Variants

There are two versions of the Walther MP: the MPK (''Maschinenpistole Kurz'' or "short machine pistol"), illustrated at right, and the MPL (''Maschinenpistole Lang'' or "long machine pistol"). The only difference between MPK and MPL guns is the length of the barrel, and that the MPL’s iron sights have 100 and 200 meter settings.


Description

The mechanism is simple blowback, but with an unusual bolt design, similar in concept but distinct from that of a
telescoping bolt A telescoping bolt (also known as an overhung bolt) is a firearm bolt which telescopes over, that is, wraps around and past, the breech end of the barrel. This feature reduces the required length of a weapon such as a submachine gun significant ...
. In the Walther, most of the mass of the bolt consists of a hollow tubular weight that is actually placed above and parallel to the barrel, housed in a separate channel in which it reciprocates when the gun is fired. Fixed rigidly to the underside of this heavy tube is an additional steel block that performs most of the tasks of a standard sub-machine gun bolt, that is, this part chambers the rounds and seals them in the chamber, fires them and extracts the empty cartridges. This section is however very small and light in comparison to the bolts of more conventional simple blowback sub-machine guns, as most of the necessary mass and thus inertia is provided by the tubular weight above. This weight extends well ahead of the chamber when the gun is in battery, and also contains the main spring, and so the design is horizontally compact and permits both guns to feature relatively long barrels for their overall length. The receiver is made from stamped steel, with plentiful ventilation slots; and the prominent cocking handle is located on its left front. A selective fire switch is also on both the left and right side of the receiver, behind the trigger, allowing for ambidextrous use. During the cold war, the MP was issued to many special forces units and was designed to use a suppressor. However, the Walther MP had a very loud mechanical operating noise, and its quietness was limited. In a test in which a silencer was attached and the sound of shooting subsonic bullets was measured from a distance of 5 m, a peak value of about 116–118 decibels was measured. Both guns feature side-folding buttstocks, made from thin steel tubes wrapped in a rubber coating.


Users

*: MPK variant.Jones, Richard D. Jane's Infantry Weapons 2009/2010. Jane's Information Group; 35 edition (January 27, 2009). . *: MPK variant. *: Used by various naval units in the 1960s. Also used by various police forces. *:
Mexican Navy The Mexican Navy is one of the two independent armed forces of Mexico. The actual naval forces are called the ''Armada de México''. The ''Secretaría de Marina'' (''SEMAR'') (English: Naval Secretariat) includes both the ''Armada'' itself and ...
. *: Used by 1st SFOD-D during
Operation Eagle Claw Operation Eagle Claw, known as Operation Tabas ( fa, عملیات طبس) in Iran, was a failed operation by the United States Armed Forces ordered by U.S. President Jimmy Carter to attempt the rescue of 52 embassy staff held captive at the ...
.Griswold, Terry and D.M. Giangreco. Delta: America's Elite Counterterrorist Force. Osecola, WI: MBI Publishing Company, 1992. . Used by Detachment A, Special Forces, Berlin *: MPK variant. *: MPK variant.


See also

*
Franchi LF-57 The Franchi LF57 is an Italian pressed-metal submachine gun. A small number were made for the Italian Navy in the 1960s, and approximately two hundred were ordered by the army for the Target Acquisition Group of the 3rd Missile Brigade (GRACO), bu ...
*
Borz The name Borz ( Chechen: Борз, "wolf") is an umbrella term applied to all improvised submachine guns produced during the years of independence of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. It was produced in small numbers from 1992 to 1999. The initial ...


References


External links


Modern FirearmsForgotten Weapons - Walther MPL Submachine GunWalther MPL: full disassembly & assembly
{{Walther Submachine guns of Germany Cold War weapons of Germany Machine pistols Military equipment introduced in the 1960s