Earlier on Silah Report we wrote about the so-called ‘Egyptian Thompson” from what little information that was gathered by Mr. Lawerence on his website devoted to submachine gun designs. Recently Mr. Lawerence contacted us regarding some updates on the “Egyptian Thompson” and has kindly provided us with some details on its fit, finish, and handling characteristics. In a separate note, while on a recent foray in Egypt, Silah Report staff learned about the possible presence of some “Egyptian Thompsons” still in the country. We’ll be looking more into them as time goes on.
From the original post on his website-
An Egyptian-manufactured Thompson submachine gun copy made in the early 1950’s. The barrel is an original Thompson barrel made by Auto Ordnance Corp. but everything else was made in an Egyptian state factory. It is of poor quality. Interestingly, the body is cylindrical rather than rectangular, and the cocking is on the right side.
From Mr. Lawernce-
The quality of the finish would definitely suggest it was hand-built in a workshop. The magazine was of pretty poor quality and didn’t feed into the receiver very comfortably. Ergonomically it was very uncomfortable, as the stock is excessively long! It seems that the stock may have been appropriated from a pre-existing rifle. The fore-end was wobbly and did not fit well to the barrel. The barrel itself is by far the best-made component of the gun; it’s well-finished and is either an actual Thompson barrel or a very close copy. I should say that internally, it’s not really a Thompson at all – it’s actually just a very basic straight-blowback gun. Overall it’s difficult to shoulder, awkward to operate, and feels quite brittle, but for a workshop gun made on no budget you could do a lot worse. If the magazine feed was smoother and the stock was shortened, it would probably be sufficient.
As mentioned in the original post from Silah Report, we quote a source from Small Arms Review that goes into further detail-
According to the description, Auto Ordnance was in one way or another, involved with this Egyptian prototype, but according to an article written in Small Arms Review, “The Kilgore Manufacturing Company, Westville Ohio” by an author named “Tom Davis, Jr”, that’s not the case at all. Initially, the article mentions a book written by Thomas B. Nelson called “The World’s Submachine Guns” where he mentions the weapon in question and calls it “Experimental Egyptian Thompson”, that it was produced in the early 1950’s and had an Auto Ordnance markings on the top of the receiver!
The author of the article goes ahead and proves that Auto-Ordnance wasn’t involved and there are no markings for the company on the receiver whatsoever. He mentions a British firearm research known as John Cross who checked the weapon out in the NFC who had the following to say on the weapon as the article quotes him-
“This submachine gun is very crudely made. There are no markings or numbers of any sort on any part of the gun. The gun pictured in Mr. Nelson’s book is indeed the same gun as on display at the National Firearms Centre. There is no background information on this gun at the Centre. However, a careful study of the Register of Firearms at the Centre indicates the acquisition would have been in the 1956 timeframe, around the exact time of the Suez Campaign of 1956…”
Along with additional pictures posted on the article’s website for the dismantled receiver, we can safely presume that indeed, Auto-Ordnance had nothing to do with this Thompson.
Mr. Cross went ahead describing the weapon down to its smallest detail-
“The buttstock appears to be sawed off from an Italian Carcano rifle and has a poorly fitted alloy No. 4 butt plate. The foresight is similar to the Thompson Model M1A1 but homemade, and the rear sight is taken from some old military rifle, possibly a Martini. There is no provision for semi-automatic fire. It contains only two Thompson parts, the magazine and barrel – which is screwed only hand tight into the receiver. The extractor and the front part of the reduced diameter of the bolt have been brazed on the rear section of the bolt and then badly case hardened in an open furnace. The firing pin is machined into the breech face of what could possibly be the front section of a M1A1 Thompson bolt. Interestingly, the mainspring cap is the sawed-off base of an EC 43 steel .45 caliber ACP casing. The mainspring was either originally not long enough or had broken and had been brazed together. The bolt body consists of a rear section of several sections welded together. The pistol grip is a machined block with the grips made of several sections of 1.5mm steel welded together in the same style as a Lewis gun. Despite appearances, the magazine catch is not from a Thompson gun.”
In classic British humor, he stated the following “As I had not remembered to bring my suit of armour or safety glasses with 1 inch thick glass, no attempt was made to fire this weapon!”