Chapter 107: What is a submachine gun? (1/2)
Legion-PEACEMAKER, the first quest is a request from the special advisor Gharma of the Chrysanthemum Knights.
It seems that the Chrysanthemum Knights are involved in maintaining the security of the city on the Beast Man Continent. There are many incidents where magicians are targeted in that city. Perhaps it is the work of a skilled killer – “Magician killer”.
The current Chrysanthemum Knights do not have the power to hunt the ‘magician killer’ that targets multiple sorcerers. For that reason, ‘PEACEMAKER’ was nominated to do it.
It’s disagreeable that Gharma is trying to deceive Eru sensei, but PEACEMAKER’s philosophy is “to help people who are in need, those who seek salvation.”
Even if I dislike him, I cannot turn him down if he is asking for help!
Well, more than half a year has passed since we returned to the Dragon continent. I never thought that I would move in the continent by airship again in such a short time. But I will do everything I need to do, I want to do my quests exactly. I will get ready for that.
I was in the studio with Meiya and two workers at Meiya’s House. This time, Shea is taking over the preparation of the airship. Meiya clenched her palm in front of her chest and asked.
“Lute-sama, what kind of armament you want to make for this quest?”
“This time it is a case in the city unlike so far, so it is not convenient for AK 47 nor Sniper rifles, so I’m thinking of creating firearms that fit the city.”
“Is there a firearm suitable for the city?”
“Oh, the firearm we’re making is – MP5 submachine gun”
First of all, I would like to explain the term “submachine gun” – It means “short machine gun”.
“What kind of thing is a submachine gun, short machine gun?”
In my world before the incarnation, the first time on earth that the submachine gun appeared – was from the trenches of the First World War.
The Machine gun appeared during the first World War. With a machine gun and just a few soldiers, you can kill hundreds of thousands of enemies and stop them.
It has become impossible to defeat enemy places equipped with machine guns with traditional infantry attacks – The army spreading from several hundred meters to 1000 meters away and shooting with bolt action rifle.
As a result, they were often forced to attack at night, to dig a trench, to approach them, and to fight inundated battles at close quarters where machine guns could not be used. Then, with the conventional bolt action type infantry gun, enemy soldiers are attacked while bolts are moved back and forth each time they shoot. Within a narrow trench, long guns are hard to handle.
Based on these tactics, the German army added a wooden stock to the automatic pistol and raised the speed of fire and accuracy. They further developed this ‘compact gun’ to spread the bullet in the form of a short rifle. And a new gun concept, the submachine gun, was born.
The original submachine gun was the German “Bergman MP18”. In Germany, they called the submachine gun “Maschinen Pistole”, “Machine Carbine” in the UK. In America, it was called a submachine gun.
However, after the end of the Second World War, rapid fire is very effective, but using gun bullets in the submachine gun gives low power, range and hit rate.
In this way, Germany produces the originator of the assault rifle, that has a higher power and accuracy rate than a submachine gun. It has a semiautomatic shot that can aim for 1 bullet per shot, and a fully automatic shot that has sweep fire.
With the advent of the assault rifles, the military value of the submachine guns disappeared.
However, after the war, due to the extreme crime in the 1960s and 1970s, the submachine gun gathered attention once again.
Why submachine guns?…… You can’t rely on a handgun to counter extreme crimes. Because the power is too high in assault rifles, there is the possibility of unexpected damage.
In short, the guns are roughly divided into three categories. Sniper rifle for long-distance use. Assault rifle for middle range use. Submachine gun for short range use. Each has a role, and it is used properly according to the scene.
To my explanation, Meiya nods many times while taking notes.
“Indeed, this quest is expected to be fought in the city. That’s why Lute-sama is trying to make a submachine gun.”
“Of course we don’t have time, so I think that we will be making it while traveling in the airship like the last time.”
For this reason, Shea had already been instructed to load the airship with magical liquid metal.
Well, there is a wide variety of submachine gun. Then, why am I trying to make German ‘H & K (Heckler & Koch) MP5’?
As I explained earlier the submachine gun is a “bullet dispenser” born from the trench warfare. It is a firearm made for the purpose to spread bullets much more quickly. For that reason, the “hit accuracy ” is neglected.
Instead, what was required at that time from the submachine gun was a gun that was easy to produce in large quantities with a simple structure that spread bullets. The MP5, that the H & K of Germany developed, broke the common sense of such submachine gun. The MP5 was more accurate than other submachine guns.
There is no ideal submachine gun for the counter-terrorism troop as much as it is compact, capable of loading many bullets in the magazine, strong firepower, and high accuracy.
For that reason, it came to be equipped not only in Germany but also in law enforcement agencies around the world including Japan. Perhaps is the most famous submachine gun in the world, right?
In addition to the good performance, there was an incident that spread suddenly the name of the MP5.
It was in October 1977.
A Lufthansa airplane was hijacked by four Palestinian terrorists at Mogadishu airport in Somalia. While the world was paying attention, members of the border guard GSG-9 equipped with the MP 5 suppressed the cabin in just 5 minutes. All 90 hostages were released.
At that time, the specifications of MP5 used are as follows:
Diameter: 9 mm (9 mm, Parabellum bullet)
Total length: about 70 cm
Weight: about 3 kg