The
9×19mm MP 3008 (''Maschinenpistole 3008'' or "machine pistol 3008", also Volks-MP.3008 and Gerät Neumünster) was a
German last ditch
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 ...
manufactured towards the end of
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 ...
in early 1945.
Also known as the ''Volksmaschinenpistole'' ("people's machine pistol"), the weapon was based on the
Sten Mk II submachine gun, except for its vertical
magazine
A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...
; some had additional pistol grips.
The MP 3008 was an emergency measure, designed at a time when Germany was at the point of collapse. Desperately short of raw materials, the Germans sought to produce a radically cheaper alternative to their standard submachine gun, the
MP 40.
The MP 3008 was a simple
blowback design operating from an
open bolt
A firearm is said to fire from an open bolt or open breech if, when ready to fire, the bolt and working parts are held to the rear of the receiver, with no round in the chamber. When the trigger is actuated, the bolt travels forward, feeds a car ...
. It was crudely manufactured in small machine shops and variations were common. Typically, the magazine was bottom-mounted unlike the side-mounted Sten. Initially all steel without handgrips, the wire
buttstock was welded to the frame and was typically triangular, however the design changed as conditions inside Germany worsened and on final guns wooden stocks and other variations are found.
The Gerät Potsdam (MP 749 (e)), another, earlier, version of the
Sten Mk II produced by Mauser in 1944, was an exact copy of the original Sten, right down to its manufacturing stamps in an effort to conceal its origin for clandestine operations. About 28,000 were claimed to have been produced, but postwar interrogations of highly ranked Mauser personnel failed to provide proof that any more than 10,000 units had been made
: 9972 are shown to have been delivered and accepted in the records of the Mauser company.
See also
*
Austen submachine gun: an Australian design based on the Sten and the German MP40.
*
EMP 44: a separate German design analogous to the Sten; prototype only.
*
HIW VSK: a carbine intended for use by the ''Volkssturm''.
*
Volkssturmgewehr 1-5: a semi-automatic rifle intended for use by the ''Volkssturm''.
*
Wimmersperg Spz-kr: late war machine pistol that included Sten/MP 3008 components.
*
Volkssturm
The (, ) was a ''levée en masse'' national militia established by Nazi Germany during the last months of World War II. It was set up by the Nazi Party on the orders of Adolf Hitler and established on 25 September 1944. It was staffed by conscri ...
*
Werwolf
*
List of World War II firearms of Germany
References
9mm Parabellum submachine guns
World War II infantry weapons of Germany
Submachine guns of Germany
World War II submachine guns
Weapons and ammunition introduced in 1945
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