Carl Gustaf M/45

Description

Developed by Carl Gustaf during the closing stages of World War 2, the M/45 submachine gun (SMG) entered into Swedish military service in 1945.

The weapon is a mismatch SMG’s used throughout the war, from the cylindrical receiver/action of the British STEN, to the pressed/machine stamped steel contruction techniques of the German MP40 and Soviet PPSh-41/PPS-43.

It fires the standard 9×19mm Parabellum cartridge, via a 36 round detachable box magazine and like the vast majority of SMG’s that era, it fires from an open bolt. No single shot mode is available, so with a rate of fire of 10 rounds per second, good trigger discipline is required.

Adopted by Egypt in the early 1950’s, they would also manufacture it under license, renaming it the Port Said. Mk V STEN equipped British Commandos and Paratroopers would soon face its rapid rate of fire during the 1956 Suez Crisis.

Discontinued weapons such as these readily found themselves in the hands of the criminal underworld and paramilitaries/terrorists. Their presence in these organizations would last for decades and even today the odd example still appears in an obscure civil war or police seizure.