There is a one of a kind Thompson submachine gun variant that remains hidden from the public eye for more than fifty years at the National Firearms Centre in the United Kingdom (NFC catalog reference page here). The so-called “Experimental Egyptian Thompson” caused a lot of confusion and rumors to spread about Auto Ordnance and Kilgore Manufacturing Company for years but the mysterious Thompson’s mystery was finally resolved.
This is the picture of the Egyptian Thompson, and before I get into the details of the “Silah” (weapon, in Arabic, the more you know!), here is what was written on a small arms enthusiast’s 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.”
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!” The “silah” sounds like a real DIY (Do It Yourself) Middle Eastern firearm, and probably one of the first in the 20th century!
In the end, this was a “Thompson-ish” weapon made and used to fight the Anglo-French occupation of Egypt and as I am Egyptian and therefore biased as hell, unfortunately, I see it as a crude weapon made that is a manifestation of Egyptian willpower to fight back. True, Egypt was invaded and occupied by almost every superpower or major civilization throughout history, but there are Egyptians, who are willing to stand up and fight back although all the odds are against them. On the other hand, you might see whoever made that weapon as a brainwashed patriot who fought for the wrong cause. Perhaps one day I might be able to see the silah in person.