Heer MP40

[Staff Sgt Jock MacSplock]

Here are some pictures of a de-ac MP40 that I've had in my collection for nearly 20 years. I bought it in 1990 for ?370, and up until last week it was doing quite well in value terms!

Anyway, thought I'd share some pics before I have to hand it in for melting down!

The marks on the barrel show that it was manufactured by Steyr-Daimler-Puch in Austria in 1941. The story that I got was that a number of these guns were placed in storage after the war and only given over to dealers and collectors in the 1980s when it was finally decided that they'd become obsolete. Accordingly, the gun is in almost perfect condition with all the blueing still on the barrel.

The only fault is a slight bend to the extendable stock which was done by yours truly while trying to figure out how to extend it!

[Staff Sgt Jock MacSplock]

I've picked up a couple of "extras" over the years.

First is a "loader" that could be attached to the top of the magazine and repeatedly pressed down to make space for the 9mm bullets. I imagine this came in particularly handy on the Russian Steppe when frozen hands wouldn't have been much use. The magazines only took 32 bullets and with a fire rate of nearly 1000 rounds per minute it didn't take long before they needed to be reloaded.

Some of the MP40 magazine pouch webbing sets have a clip up near the shoulder for holding the loader - I was told that it wasn't issued to everybody, e.g. only Unteroffiziers and above, but not sure if this is correct. It's not that substantial a piece of kit compared to the gun itself so I can't see why it wouldn't be given to everybody.

[Staff Sgt Jock MacSplock]

Next is a bit of a funny - it was sold to me as a blank firing attachment for the MP40, and right enough, it fits!

There's a partial waffenampt stamp on it.

[Staff Sgt Jock MacSplock]

Finally, just below the de-ac stamp on the barrel you'll see a folding stock that is hinged just to the bottom-left of the sight. It doesn't come down anymore as it was welded to the barrel as part of the de-ac.

The idea with this was that if somebody was inside e.g. an armoured vehicle firing through a slot then this stock would come down on the outside to keep the barrel from coming back into the vehicle. This was so that if the soldier was hit and fell back into the vehicle, he wouldn't take the MP40 with him spraying the remainder of the magazine as he crumpled to the floor. Makes sense I suppose!

Edited January 12, 2008 by Staff Sgt Jock MacSplock