The M3 “Grease Gun”
BY Herschel Smith
4 years, 11 months ago
Often recognized as being a success story of small-arms design and development, the .45 ACP M3 submachine gun was born of the exigent circumstances of industrial mass production during the Second World War. It had the enormous virtue of low manufacturing costs that made it cheaper to produce than all other American submachine guns.
At peak production, M3s were a bargain at $20.94 each—less than half the cost of the mass-production version of the Thompson submachine gun (which was itself cheaper than the pre-war model). Although low cost was a major factor in the M3’s success, so too was the speed of its development and adoption.
The project went from a concept on paper, to the T20 prototype, to adoption and production within just seven months—a record that no other firearm in U.S. military history has ever rivaled. When it went into production in May 1943 at GM’s Guide Lamp Division plant in Anderson, IN, the M3 was a reliable open-bolt submachine gun weighing slightly more than 8 pounds with a fully loaded, 30-round, detachable-box magazine.
Its design made extensive use of sheet-metal stampings to include the two halves of the receiver assembly, the trigger, the rear sight, and a crank handle on the right side of the gun used to retract the bolt before firing. Not only did the M3’s sheet-metal construction make it lighter and cheaper, it also gave the gun an appearance resembling one of the most-ubiquitous tools of the auto-repair shop: the mechanic’s grease gun.
On Tuesday, June 6, 1944, U.S. troops used the M3 Grease Gun in action for the first time. During the weeks that followed, it fought a vigorous campaign stretching from Normandy through to the liberation of Paris and the push to the Siegfried Line. Soldiers carried it up hills and down valleys through the adversity of dust, rain and, eventually, even snow. M3s fought the Battle of the Bulge, crossed the Rhine River by boat, parachute and glider, and they eventually even blew the locks off of the front gate of OFLAG XIII-B.
Concentration camps were liberated by men carrying them, and islands in the Pacific were captured by men fighting with them. Although Gen. Patton described the John Garand’s M1 as “the greatest battle implement ever devised,” perhaps the same can be said about George Hyde’s M3. When you consider how quickly this paragon o of rugged dependability went from drawings on paper to the gates of the prisoner of war camp at Hammelburg, it certainly seems like Patton’s endorsement fits the M3 just as nicely as it does the M1.
I wish someone would sell me an M3 for $21. America was a better place then, yes?
This reminds me of something Tim Lynch told me one time. Tim blogged when he was a contractor in Afghanistan, and he said when he went into villages carrying the M3, no one messed with him, including the Taliban. One villager told him, “We’re all scared of that thing.” Tim replied, “Yes, I understand. I would be too.”
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On December 6, 2019 at 12:14 am, Bill Sullivan said:
I have fired a variety of submachine guns, and the M3A1 is my favorite.
On December 6, 2019 at 8:44 am, Ned said:
Closest I got to a Grease Gun was an Ingram M10 45 ACP with a can. Pretty impressive, and easier than I thought it would be to control.
BTW I’m pretty sure we all need a $21 M3.
On December 6, 2019 at 9:38 am, TommyA said:
Great story, but my personal experience is that the M3 is wildly inaccurate, but good enough at pistol range.
On December 6, 2019 at 10:04 am, Max said:
Fired one in the Guard back in the day. You could see the bullets leaving the barrel in a line and dropping. Anything past close range, you would have to arc the bullets in.
On December 6, 2019 at 10:09 am, Bill Sullivan said:
TommyA- My wife took an M3A1 at a pumpkin shoot, and shot a smiley face into one. Range was about 50 feet.
On December 6, 2019 at 10:35 am, Herschel Smith said:
I wouldn’t ever really expect it to be anything more than an automatic pistol, useful for pistol ranges. Not mass produced, anyway.
On December 6, 2019 at 10:38 am, Drake said:
I went from the Marines – where I always fired the M16A2 as well as SAWs and M60s – to a National Guard Armor unit. There were still guys who had qualified with the M3 and loved it. Unfortunately they had recently retired all the Grease Guns and replaced them with M16s. So… I didn’t get to shoot one, and I ended up as a range coach trying to teach tankers how to shoot a rifle (most were terrible shots without a laser sight and targeting computer).
On December 6, 2019 at 11:22 am, Broadsword Calling Danny Boy said:
The Sten only cost $10 to make. Does the grease gun leave a huge cloud of smoke like the PPSh-41?
Treat yourself to some magazines and ammo this Christmas because you are worth it.
On December 6, 2019 at 12:37 pm, MTHead said:
All good. And who can forget one of America’s top fighters, Jerry “mad dog” Shriver of SOG / Vietnam fame. And what’s that he’s getting on the chop with? An M3- suppressed.
On December 6, 2019 at 2:59 pm, Drake said:
Once legally manufactured guns are outlawed, they’ll all look like Stens and Grease Guns.
On December 6, 2019 at 4:14 pm, ROFuher said:
All ready happening, Drake.
Machine shops in Melbourne and Sydney have been found producing these designs for Australian gangs.
They are reportedly of better quality that the allies were producing, but still at a price to be essentially on job wonders.
On December 6, 2019 at 4:49 pm, Fred said:
@Drake,
Saw a stat that half of all weapons po po are seeing involved in crimes in LA now have no serial number. Something about a signal and not being able to stop it?
On December 7, 2019 at 11:30 am, Frank Clarke said:
The best (but probably apocryphal) story I ever heard about the M3 is that the first prototype was constructed of hammered-out Contadina cans in a basement workshop in Brooklyn. If that is even partially true, it’s a HUGE tribute to Brooklynites’ ability to build zip guns :-)
On December 7, 2019 at 4:58 pm, Fred said:
Correction: It was 1/3 of guns in LA that have no serial number. Source is LA office of ATF spokesman (who has a vagina for some reason, I think they call that a spokeswoman or spokesperson? Why is she not making sam’iches?) per their propaganda outlet the LA Times.