OVP 1918: Italy's first WW1 Submachine Gun
Submachine Guns
•
11m
The original Villar Perosa machine gun was a rather odd combination of features; a double-barreled gun in 9mm Glisenti with spade grips and a blistering rate of fire. This proved to be of limited practical utility, and the Officine Di Villar Perosa went back to the drawing board in response to an Italian military desire for a true submachine gun. The result was the OVP-1918, which utilized a number of parts from the 1915 guns, including the bolts, magazines, and magazine locking system. The OVP-1918 retained the very high rate of fire that the earlier 1915 weapon had, but had a traditional style stock and grip, along with a semiauto trigger and a full auto trigger. The most unusual aspect of the design was the cocking sleeve in the place of a normal charging handle.
The Beretta firm also developed a submachine gun in 1918, and it is still debated among historians whether either of them saw combat earlier than the German MP-18. Whether they were the very first or not, the combat use of the OVP was limited during World War One, and they would be replaced by more well-developed designs long before World War Two.
Up Next in Submachine Guns
-
The Soviet Union Adopts an SMG: Degty...
The Soviet Union adopted its first submachine gun in 1935 after trials of some 14 different design in 1932/33. The winner of the trials was Vasily Degtyarev, once of the Soviet Union’s most prolific firearms designers. His model 1934 was a simple blowback gun reminiscent of the MP-28,II albeit wi...
-
First to the Fight: The Marines' Reis...
Eugene Reising developed a .45 ACP submachine gun in the late 1930s that was basically the opposite of the Thompson - it was light and handy, fired from a closed bolt with a delayed blowback action, and was inexpensive to produce. Reising contracted with Harrington & Richardson to produce the gun...
-
MAS-38 Shooting Fail
I have been getting a lot of comments asking when there will be a shooting video with my MAS-38 submachine gun. If has cleared the NFA transfer process, so it's not actually in my possession. So, the next hurdle is finding ammunition. The 7.65 French Long cartridge it uses has been out of product...
