Soviet Submachine Gun - PPSh-41 In The Movies

shhh [Applause] the ppsh-41 saw more frontline combat than any submachine gun in history it was also the most produced submachine gun of world war ii with 6 million manufactured making it the second most produced submachine gun in history right behind the uzi uzi nine millimeter you know your weapons buddy in the movies the ppsh-41 is in virtually every russian film so let's take a closer look at one of the most prolific firearms in history no no no it isn't ready it hasn't been tested we don't even know if it works if what works okay before we get into the ppsh-41 we need to highlight the finnish kp-26 and russian ppd-40 like virtually every nation fighting in world war ii the russians started with an expensive higher quality submachine gun of course being the largest war in human history precision built firearms needed to be modified into what could be built cheaply and most importantly for russia quickly the ppsh would be the start of soviet mastery of simple effective and inexpensive weapon design right boys meet your days for tonight i'll take the tall blonde just as the british turn the lanchester into the simple sten and the germans the mp38 into the stamp metal mp40 design characteristics of the ppd40 would be simplified for the ppsh-41 though some improvements were also made including a simple gas compensator that reduced muzzle climb yes my friend you have been promoted many war movies actually feature the ppd-40 and is often mistaken for the ppsh-41 big credit to movies such as tally huntala the unknown soldier and panfilov's 28 men just to name a few that feature engagements including ppd-40s and ppsh-41s reflecting its early and mixed use the ppsh-41 entered service in 1941 but wouldn't be manufactured in large numbers until later in the same year to go back a little further in time it was actually the finnish kp-31 that inspired the russians to really go big with some machine guns when the soviet union invaded finland in november of 1939 they met with extremely fierce resistance and the finnish kp-31 contributed to finnish success in close quarter fighting though the weapon may have a similar look to the ppd-40 and ppsh-41 it had little in common besides the drum magazine which was copied and adopted by the soviets by early 1942 ppsh factors were producing over 3 000 units a day it was both a production and frontline success a ppsh could be manufactured in five and a half to seven and a half hours production time and quality did vary one interesting manufacturing shortcut involved machining then cutting the standard motion rifle barrel in half to create two ppsh barrels production goals would be monitored from the highest levels in the soviet government don't bring our glorious leader into your treachery confess spy bastard confess the ppsh-41 fired a large token of round which gave a good stopping power but made the weapon heavy particularly with a loaded drum magazine which when equipped the weapon weighed 12 pounds the rate of fire was very impressive at up to 900 rounds a minute maximum range was about 200 meters the ppsh was considered a durable and low maintenance weapon it was also incredibly simple to field strip and service a huge plus in frigid temperatures the drums of the ppsh were considered one weakness which was the same experience the americans had using drums on the thomson submachine gun [Music] drums in general are cumbersome and hard to load production at time for the soviets got bottlenecked by drum magazines and this led to mixed quality a scene from the movie klashnikov even shows the famous mikael kalashnikov examining one and speaking to its poor construction the soviets would introduce box magazines for the ppsh to help relieve some production and quality issues both drums and box magazines would be manufactured at the same time in hollywood almost all world war ii submachine guns have a spray and prey reputation often being fired from the hip the ppsh is one such weapon where suppressing fire and hip fire might have been more common than with other submachine guns the ppsh had a great rate of fire combined with good controllability this weapon was accurate on or off the sights some of the house clearing scenes from stalingrad highlight good use of the weapon by the battle of stalingrad the weapon was really proving its usefulness at stalingrad the red army started using squads of submachine gunners which would become more commonplace by 1944. in urban settings these squads proved highly effective against german squads with only limited mp40 submachine guns the german army though valued the submachine gun was still only slowly upping production while beginning to shift their focus on their newly developed assault rifles need for submachine guns during the trench and city fighting on the eastern front would be highlighted by the pervasive use of captured submachine guns by both sides the german army often praised the ppsh-41 in city fighting it was highly common for a car 98k german rifle to be discarded for a soviet ppsh this is a problem ppsh capture and use for germany would become a common and officially adopted practice a program was developed to convert ppshs to standard german nine millimeter cartridges even german manuals are printed on use and service of the ppsh after world war ii the ppsh was supplied to numerous soviet-aligned states and was used heavily during the korean war both as the ppsh-41 and type 49 north korean or type 50 chinese licensed copy one of the most famous visual uses of the weapon was during the construction of the berlin wall with the weapon gaining notoriety in association with the east german police something not lost on the production team in bridge of spies yes so was the ppsh a good weapon it was an excellent weapon and the soviets used it well it had some flaws the drum the weight it was also easy to spot at night and had a distinct muzzle flash but when you considered this was one of the most used weapons in history it did very well even getting the better of thomas crutchman on multiple occasions all right i'm johnny thanks for watching this brief amateur review on the ppsh-41 feel free to expand on any information in the comments section below and we'll see you next time

Channel: Johnny Johnson

Views: 753,326

Keywords: war movies, war movie, ww2, ww2 movies, ww2 weapons, ww2 gun, guns, ww2 guns, ww2 submachine, submachine gun, submachine, ww2 russia, soviet, soviet guns, soviet weapons, soviet union, red army, ww2 soviet, soviet ww2, eastern front, johnny johnson, weapon review, weaponology, ppsh-41, ppsh, ppsh41, ppsh gun, ppsh russian, soviet submachine gun, soviet gun, red army guns, soviet squad, russian war movies, russian war, russian war movie, soviet war movies, soviet war, wwII

Id: QMcD51AQA6c

Length: 8min 34sec (514 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 11 2021