From: Rick v100 (rickv100@yahoo.com)
Date: Thu Apr 27 2006 - 11:26:21 PDT
This is taken verbatim from the Smithsonian American
"During World War I, machine guns were heavy,
Is it me or is this way wrong.
Trench brooms to me are Trench shotguns and the
Rick
History museum website about the Thompson machine gun.
crew-served weapons. Their operation required several
soldiers. Even so-called light machine guns could not
easily be handled by single soldiers. To meet the need
for an individual rapid-fire weapon, several inventors
devised submachine guns. Light enough for one-man use,
the new weapons were nicknamed "trench brooms" because
they swept the trenches clear of enemy troops. The
Thompson submachine gun was the handwork of John
Taliaferro Thompson (West Point Class of 1882). It saw
only limited wartime use, but the "Tommy gun" in the
hands of police and gangsters achieved notoriety as
"the gun that made the twenties roar." "
Thompson didn't come out until after WWI.
[ author ]
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