George J. Hyde Sr. (born Heide; January 4, 1888 – December 2, 1963) was a German-born American machinist, gunsmith and gun designer best known for his

submachine gun A submachine gun (SMG) is a magazine (firearms), magazine-fed automatic firearm, automatic carbine designed to fire handgun cartridges. The term "submachine gun" was coined by John T. Thompson, the inventor of the Thompson submachine gun, to descri ...

s. He was born in Apfingen, Germany. Already a skilled machinist, he immigrated to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

in 1927. His family followed the next year. Before 1935 George J. Hyde was a machinist and shop foreman at Griffin & Howe. He quit Griffin & Howe and went on to become the co-owner of Leonard & Hyde in New York. He partnered with Samuel A. "Harry" Leonard, an expert shotgun and rifle stock maker, who had trained at James Purdey & Sons of London. Hyde also did contract gunsmithing work for Roberts and Kimball in Woburn, Massachusetts. (The latter was an early semi-custom maker of rifles chambered in .257 Roberts.)

Hyde's gun designs

Hyde was the chief gun designer for the Inland Division of

General Motors General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...

(GM) during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. He also did gun design work for

Bendix Aviation Corporation Bendix Corporation is an American manufacturing and engineering company founded in 1924 and subsidiary of Knorr-Bremse since 2002. During various times in its existence, Bendix made Automotive industry, automotive brake shoes and systems, vacu ...

. Among others, he was the designer or co-designer of these guns: * The Hyde Model 33, a prototype submachine gun.The World's Submachine Guns, Volume 1, by Thomas B. Nelson, Pages 70-72. * The Hyde Model 35, a prototype submachine gun. A patent was issued to Hyde for this model on August 4, 1936. * The

M2 Hyde The Hyde-Inland M2 was a United States submachine gun design submitted for trials at Aberdeen Proving Ground in February 1941. Work was undertaken by General Motors Inland Manufacturing Division to develop workable prototypes of George Hyde's des ...

submachine gun.Canfield, Bruce N. ''

American Rifleman ''American Rifleman'' is a United States–based monthly shooting and firearms interest publication, owned by the National Rifle Association of America (NRA). It is the 33rd-most-widely-distributed consumer magazine and the NRA's primary magaz ...

'' (August 2008) p. 52 * The M3 grease gun submachine gun.Iannamico, Frank, ''The U.S. M3-3A1 Submachine Gun'', Moose Lake Publishing, , (1999) About 700,000 were produced at a unit cost of around $20 each. * The FP-45 Liberator pistol.Bruce N. Canfield "Desperate Times: The Liberator Pistol" ''

'' August 2012 pp.48-51&83-84 About 1,000,000 were produced at a unit cost of $2.10 each. * The Bendix Hyde carbine. (A prototype he designed for Bendix Aviation Corporation that never went into production.)

Personal life and death

Hyde was married in Germany about 1917, to German-born Margaretta ("Greta") Levy (1895–1985). Their first child was George J. Hyde Jr., born 9 March 1918 in Germany. He died in 1999 in Florida. They also had a daughter, Giselle, born about 1924 in Germany. George Sr. died on December 2, 1963, at Adelphi Hospital in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hyde, George J. 1888 births 1963 deaths German emigrants to the United States Weapons scientists and engineers Firearm designers 20th-century American inventors Bendix Corporation people