Maschinenkarabiner 36
type of Submachine gun
The Maschinenkarabiner (M. K.) 36 is a prototype German 9mm submachine gun developed by Hugo Schmeisser.
Overview
The M.K. 36 represents one of the early attempts to build a submachine gun for widespread issue to infantry troops. M.K. 36s feature a full-length rifle-style furniture, provisions to mount the standard S84/98 bayonet, and tangent leaf sights that go out to 1 km. They have considerably longer barrels than most contemporary submachine guns in an attempt to increase the effective range by boosting muzzle velocity.
The M.K. 36 operates on the blowback operating system and fires from the open bolt. It has a fire selector that allows the operator to choose between semi-automatic and fully automatic firing modes. The fire selector and control mechanisms were largely derived from the earlier MP 28, II. Oddly, the M.K. 36 features a bolt safety, the bolt cannot be cocked without a magazine inserted.
There is photographic evidence of three variants of the M.K. 36: the M.K. 36, III, the M.K. 36, II, and the M.K. 36, II made for Hungarian trials. The variants differ in the type of rifle furniture they mount, bayonet lug configuration, caliber, and the position of the charging handle. The original M.K. 36, II is chambered in 9×19mm Parabellum, has a left-side charging handle and a standard German bayonet mount and markings behind the rear right sight.
“Maschinenkarabiner 36” enters the record as type of Submachine gun. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Maschinenkarabiner, type and Submachine can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Maschinenkarabiner 36” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.