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Submachine gun
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====Submachine guns in the Korean War==== Submachine guns again proved to be an important weapon system in the [[Korean War]] (25 June 1950 โ 27 July 1953).{{Cn|date=November 2024}} The [[Korean People's Army]] (KPA) and the Chinese [[People's Volunteer Army]] (PVA) fighting in Korea received massive numbers of the PPSh-41, in addition to the North Korean Type 49 and the Chinese Type 50, which were both licensed copies of the PPSh-41 with small mechanical revisions.{{sfn|McNab|2015|pp=22-23}} While lacking the accuracy of the U.S. [[M1 Garand]] and [[M1 carbine]], it provided more firepower at short distances and was well-suited to the close-range firefights that typically occurred in that conflict, especially at night.<ref name="Halberstam447">{{cite book |last=Halberstam |first=David |title=The Coldest Winter |publisher=Hyperion Press |year=2007 |page=[https://archive.org/details/coldestwinterame00halb/page/447 447] |isbn=978-1-4013-0052-4 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/coldestwinterame00halb/page/447 }}</ref> [[United Nations Command]] forces in defensive outposts or on patrol often had trouble returning a sufficient volume of fire when attacked by companies of infantry armed with the PPSh. As infantry Captain (later General) [[Hal Moore]] stated: "on full automatic it sprayed a lot of bullets and most of the killing in Korea was done at very close ranges and it was done quicklyโa matter of who responded faster. In situations like that it outclassed and outgunned what we had. A close-in patrol fight was over very quickly and usually we lost because of it."<ref name="Halberstam447"/> U.S. servicemen, however, felt that their [[M2 carbine]]s were superior to the PPSh-41 at the typical engagement range of 100โ150 meters.<ref name="Thompson2011">{{cite book|author=Leroy Thompson|title=The M1 Carbine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=km5XxecLeOkC&pg=PA56|year=2011|publisher=Osprey Publishing|isbn=978-1-84908-619-6|page=56}}</ref> Other older designs also saw use in the Korean War. The Thompson had seen much use by the U.S. and South Korean militaries, even though the Thompson had been replaced as standard-issue by the M3/M3A1. With huge numbers of guns available in army ordnance arsenals, the Thompson remained classed as "limited standard" or "substitute standard" long after the standardization of the M3/M3A1. Many Thompsons were distributed to the US-backed Nationalist Chinese armed forces as military aid before the fall of Chiang Kai-shek's government to Mao Zedong's communist forces at the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. (Thompsons had already been widely used throughout China since the 1920s, at a time when several Chinese warlords and their military factions running various parts of the fragmented country made purchases of the weapon and then subsequently produced many local copies.) US troops were surprised to encounter communist Chinese troops armed with Thompsons (among other captured US-made Nationalist Chinese and American firearms), especially during unexpected night assaults, which became a prominent Chinese combat tactic in the conflict. The gun's ability to deliver large quantities of short-range automatic assault fire proved very useful in both defense and assault during the early part of the war when it was constantly mobile and shifting back and forth. Many Chinese Thompsons were captured and placed into service with American soldiers and marines for the remaining period of the war.
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