Editing Thompson submachine gun (section)

===Development===
[[Brigadier General (United States)|Brigadier General]] [[John T. Thompson]], who spent most of his career in the ordnance department of the [[United States Army|U.S. Army]], was the original inventor and developer of the Thompson submachine gun. He envisioned it as being a fully [[Thompson Autorifle|automatic rifle]] in order to replace the [[bolt-action]] service rifles then in use (such as the American [[M1903 Springfield]]).

Thompson came across a patent issued to the American inventor [[John Bell Blish]] in 1915, while searching for a way to allow his weapon to operate safely without the complexity of a [[Recoil operation|recoil]] or [[gas-operated reloading]] mechanism. Blish's design (then known as the [[Blish lock]]) was based on the supposed adhesion of inclined metal surfaces under pressure.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hatcher |first=Julian S. |title=Hatcher's Notebook |publisher= Military Service Publishing Co. |year=1947 |page=44}}</ref> Thompson gained financial backing from the businessman [[Thomas Fortune Ryan|Thomas F. Ryan]] and proceeded to found a company, which he named the [[Auto-Ordnance Company]], in 1916, for the purpose of developing his new "auto rifle".

The Thompson was primarily developed in [[Cleveland, Ohio]].<ref>{{cite web |title=The Unofficial Tommy Gun Page |url=http://www.nfatoys.com/tsmg/ |website=www.nfatoys.com |access-date=2004-02-22 |archive-date=2002-10-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021014034546/http://www.nfatoys.com/tsmg/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> Its principal designers were Theodore H. Eickhoff, Oscar V. Payne, and George E. Goll. By late 1917, the limits of the Blish lock were discovered (which is essentially an extreme manifestation of [[static friction]]), and, rather than the firearm working as a locked breech, the weapon was instead designed to function as a friction-delayed [[Blowback (arms)|blowback]] action. It was found that the only cartridge then in service suitable for use with the new lock was the [[.45 ACP]]. General Thompson envisioned a "one-man, hand-held machine gun" chambered in .45 ACP to be used as a "trench broom" for the ongoing [[trench warfare]] of [[World War I]].{{Sfn|Pegler|2010|p=9}} Oscar V. Payne designed the new firearm along with its stick and drum magazines. The project was titled "Annihilator I". Most of the design issues had been resolved by 1918; however, the war ended two days before prototypes could be shipped to Europe.<ref name="Frank Iannamico 1928">{{harvnb|Iannamico|2000|page={{page needed|date=December 2011}}}}</ref>

At an Auto-Ordnance board meeting in 1919, in order to discuss the marketing of the "Annihilator", with the war now over the weapon was officially renamed the "Thompson Submachine Gun". While other weapons had been developed shortly prior with similar objectives in mind, the Thompson was the first weapon to be labeled and marketed as a "submachine gun".<ref name="James"/> Thompson intended for the weapon to provide a high volume of automatic, man-portable fire for use in trench warfare—a role for which the [[M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle|Browning Automatic Rifle]] (BAR) had been determined ill-suited.{{sfn|Fitzsimons|1977|p=272}} The concept had already been developed by German troops using their own Bergmann [[MP 18]] (the world's first submachine gun) in concert with their {{lang|de|[[infiltration tactics|Sturmtruppen]]}} tactics.<ref>{{cite book|last=Gudmundsson|first=Bruce I.|year=1995|title=Stormtroop Tactics: Innovation in the German Army, 1914–1918|publisher=Praeger Press|isbn=0275954013}}{{page needed|date=December 2011}}</ref>