Erma EMP: Heinrich Vollmer's Interwar Submachine Gun 

Wow Vollmer was way ahead of his time with the M-lok free float hand guard 😉

I love interwar stuff. Erma EMP, MP-28, KP-31, Thompson 1928, ZK-383, MP-34, MP-35, MP-38, the early Beretta 38's... all so sexy.

(Joke about disabling electronics or something like that)

Interwar SMG's are cool. They basically fall into that short time slot when gunmakers saw what had been created in the first world war and tried to improve on it in every way they could think of. That often led to features which were absolutely unnecessary, but I guess the mentale was that any little advantage they can give soldiers might make a difference. Once WW2 started all those notions were quickly dispensed of; a gun just needs to be good enough to meet a certain threshold where it is not completely outperformed by what the enemy has, then it's a matter of how many can be produced and how fast. This lesson carried over into post-war SMG's, which pretty much never returned to the high-quality, machined parts, over-engineered, elegantly finished days of gun making. Even the arguably nicest SMG of the modern era, the MP5 is still very utilitarian in it's design by comparison to what was being made in the interwar period.

Someone's German is getting better.

Ah the EMP; a weapon of the future

That’s a very elegant looking SMG. Another fantastic video Ian!

Wow, I guess the Great Depression left him financially Vollmerable

I've seen one of these in a Dutch museum at least 5 years ago when I didn't even know what it was. The wooden foregrip is indeed very distinctive

You can pull a lil sneaky on Ian and click the link on the end card to see the EMP shooting vid today.

An Electro Magnetic Pulse weapon. Shoots electromagnetic pulses to disable electronic devices. Quite advanced weapon for it's time.

Just woke up and this is the first thing I see. Nice wake up.

This made me wonder, with the prevalence of cavalry in the interwar period and their close-range tactics, has any army tried equipping their cavalry with SMGs?

ok, so i damn near shit myself when you took that gun apart, i am so used to seeing 14 screws, 4 pins, a punch and a prayer being used to take down older guns. I was truly amazed.

Heinrich Vollmer...it has that Scary German Guy ring to it...I wonder what nefarious things he was up to in his spare time...

The republicans in Spain used the ones made in eastern Spain, where there are many orange groves, hence they were called "naranjeros" (orangier) and the name stuck.

Good morning Ian! Thank you for providing a video before I have to start virtual school.

Please never stop making these Ian

I really like this gun. The barrel shroud, the vertical grip, the bolt are all very nice.

In my own limited experience when firing full auto, guns tend to pull up and to the right (I am a right handed shooter). Is it possible that SMG designers preferred to mount the magazine on the left side of the weapon as a way of mitigating this? (I am aware of the benefits of side mounting allowing a better prone position and also that mounting the magazine on the left allows it to be used as a front handgrip for someone shooting righthanded.)

Vollmer had a colourful life...in 1926-27, he was in China ( TsingTao Iron Works, and probably TsingTao Beer tasting!), developing a 7,63 Mauser, side magazine, MP18( MP27 for Shanghai Municipal Police ( working example in Belgian Collection.. old GB posting). He must have honed his ideas there as well) The (Bergman) MP28,II, was a Schmeisser development, but he must have had some input from Vollmers China experience as well ( or serendipitous parallel development!). In any case, excellent designs all. Doc AV

Still my favourite channel, you’re the man Gun Jesus

Always enjoy your videos!

Gorgeous looking metal work and bluing on that Erma!

It seems like every video this week is of guns I actually like

Submachine guns on Fridays always gets me hopeful. Glad this one doesn't disappoint.

Thank you , Ian

French tip : in "Corps Francs", the 'c' letter is mute.

A special silenced version of the MP35 was developed specifically for the Carlingue, the Vichy secret police. The unwieldy suppressor was lined with aluminum alloy and featured a muzzle plug.

Such a beautiful weapon

A left handed subgun - Ian must be pleased!

Curious to see how this gun preforms. I'm wondering if having the action so far forward will prevent climb, or if the forward weight cause Ian to shoot low. It will be interesting to see.

Ian, Progressive triggers (Steyr AUG, etc) are really unpopular now which is understandable, but what do you think specifically about having a semi-auto / progressive trigger switch? Seems like a reasonable idea to me. Good semi-auto control and in full a single round could easily be done. I assume this is largely dependent on fire rate. 400 rpm, not so useful. 1,200 rpm, more useful. Excited about shooting, Awesome video!

Ha!! I just knew that a Friday sub gun video from Morphy's was going to be followed up by a Saturday shooting video. By the way, the bluing on that EMP is absolutely beautiful.

When a Schmeisser and a Sten have a Baby....

Progressive Trigger... Now there's 2 words you don't want to hear in the same sentence anymore nowadays.. But as usual, great video. very informative. :)

Look pretty expensive to make, our spanish version looks cheaper to make; never seen one working, gonna be nice to see how it works.

interesting they went ahead and used the progressive trigger there despite the gun having the switch for this purpose... I guess it was at the time when the SMG was still not meant to be cheap and mass produced gun.... :) another video, another new info.... thanks :)

the biggest problem of a vertical front grip is that it can get caught in other military equipments.

Saw a deactivated one of these in my local store for $200, passed on it because it was missing the bolt, the handle was welded onto the receiver, and the magazine was seemingly stuck in the well

Wooden foregrips always looks odd to me.

God i love that wooden foregrip

who the hell attached a Romanian Dong onto my MP18

That integral carved front grip reminds me of the Walther 2000!

That bolt is substantial enough to be used as an emergency self-defence tool (though there are very few situations where using the gun would not be more effective).

Beautiful.

This thing decades ahead of it's time

A couple of times over on the WW2 channel there's been a picture of a German soldier carrying one of these on the eastern front circa 1941.

Just a little information which might be useful - E is for "Einzelfeuer" (single shot), while D is for Dauerfeuer (automatic - literally continous - fire).

ERMA GOD! I totally missed this video.

Now this is a lovely lookin SMG!

In the 1873 book "Pictorial History of the Sub-machinegun", it was noted that on 4 May 1939 the British Director of Artillery wrote to the Ordnance Board saying "although we are not particularly interested in this type of weapon, (Erma EMP) in view of the fact 1000 of this make could be procured at very short notice, we would like it to be investigated". Britain went to war with Germany in Sept 1939. The British had a few trial SMG, but no SMG in service. They could have had 1000 Erma EMP, had they moved quicker.

With where that front sling attachment point is located; I wonder if that ever lead to failures to eject.

They just get cooler day by day

I like the large police safety feature. Lots of innovative features, actually.

Awesome sub gun!

I like this series about submachine guns

i like the m lok slots on the barrel shroud.

Mlok has been around a lot longer than I thought. Nice to know.

*Hands @ForgottenWeapons a PhD in Guns.*

Is the mag double stack double feed?

I will never get used to the way the fore-grip looks.

Protip for German, Ian: "v" is pronounced as "f". Heinrich Follmer Ludwig fan Behthofen and so on.

I have an erma lever action 22 with hexagonal barrel. It’s a beautiful little rifle to shoot

At the end of WWII Berthold Geipel the owner of ERMA (which was in the Russian occupied zone) was imprisoned by th Russians and underwent "denazification" re-education. Upon his release Geipel escaped to the allied occupied zone and worked for Heinrich Vollmer's manufacturing company for several years as his assistant director before starting his new Erma-Werke manufacturing company.

Did this get re-uploaded? Or am I going insane?

Now this is a rarity of a gun you dont see to often

Anyone know what that rifle is behind Ian on the right side of the screen?

OK so im watching this and thinking.... Man I sure would like to see that thing on the range..... and then i hear those magical words.... Thank you.

Very interesting video on the EMP, just a quick question, was that a Sten Mk.II with a forward pistol grip in the rack behind you?

There is a game called "Cuisine Royale" who have a lot of this kind of weapons that are maybe never heared before.

Slightly off topic: my local gun store has a Burgess Folding Shotgun for sale.

What is the rifle behind Ian, over his left shoulder with triangular front sight?

Any idea if and when a vid on a HK P7K3 I coming out?

what are the downsides of a side mounted magazine?

Sooo the emp was headspace and timed behind the bolt?

A very pretty angry tube... Yet very safe.

Vollmer was also, allegedly, responsible for developing the Vampyr night-sight, as well as doing work on the MP-38/MP-40. Schmeisser got "credit" because he had his name stamped on the magazines for royalties.

Any chance you d be able to do a video on the EMP44? Or were the surviving prototypes destroyed ?

There seems to be a lot of machine guns coming on the market suddenly. Is Vickers selling off some of his collection???

Out of the mp3# sub guns, what’s the best one?

does someone know what that AR looking gun with the huge mag is? (on the very right)

An EMP weapon is the best weapon against a terminator or against any robot trying to kill you. Very advanced for the '30s.

What is that funky looking thing in the background first one from right?

Beautiful gun...

I've wanted a video on this weapon for so long! I love the look of it. It's fun to use in battlefield 5.

Its so beautiful speechless now

Usually when I hear Vollmer, I think of that H&K conversion they did.

Nice

That trigger sensitivity is op

0:17 Excellent "ñ". Congrats.

Obvious question - MP18,1 or Erma EMP..? I'm going to go try find a Lanchester video now - that may or may not be a fair comparison, but hey.

7:03 Wait, that's not how those screws are supposed to work !

I really like the EMP. :)

The Erma looks gorgeous

Your German pronunciation is actually pretty good.

Wasnt there a video about this gun released prior to this?

2:08 utilizados en la Guerra Del Chaco ( 1932 - 1935 ) por Paraguay 🇵🇾 como Piripipi y por Bolivia 🇧🇴🏹 ambos en 9 x 23 Mm o 9 Steyr

Erma geerd! Its a new video

Of course Ian threw in the ties to France