As its designation suggests, the MP18 was officially adopted in 1918 and arrived in time for the "Kaiserschlachtoffensive" along the Western Front. Despite perhaps as many as 50,000 units on order, only 10,000 or so were actually available in the contest (some sources state much less). The German Army's intent was to field six such guns per company with one dedicated ammunition handler in tow as part of the "Stosstruppen" trench assault troops charged with storming enemy positions. The lack of numbers and appropriate tactics training negated any such ventures and guns were used whenever and however they could be used in the scope the war. In practice, these early forms shown their magazine feeds to be complicated and prone to stoppages in the heat of battle - further limiting their usefulness. It is suggested that as many as 30,000 MP18s were eventually completed by the end of the fighting in November 1918 - Germany finding herself on the losing side of the long and bloody conflict. After the feed mechanism was reworked by way of a special adapter, the MP18 proved a rather reliable and robust field weapon. Regardless of the weapon's individual success, Germany was saddled with the cost of the war and ultimately severely restricted by the provisions found within the Versailles Treaty in the number of - and type of - weapons she could hold in inventory or manufacture for the military (weapons such as the MP18 were specifically singled out). Despite the deadly automatic nature of the MP18 design, the submachine gun somehow survived as a police/security weapon (though with 20-round magazines) while still being banned - production, under secret it seems, continued regardless.
The MP18 was an innovative and revolutionary design in the scope of firearms that went on to influence other submachine gun projects well into the 1960s. The blowback system of operation became the standard for many famous designs to follow and undoubtedly inspired such interwar designs like the Soviet PPD which essentially retained the same form and function of the MP18 before it. Confiscated stocks of MP18s went on to serve in the French national army after World War 1 while the weapon was still in German circulation at the start of World War 2 and used as second line weapons. The French were keen enough on the German design that they developed a 20- and 32-round detachable box magazine all their own, doing away with the snail drum magazine restriction. License production versions from Belgium also featured the French-inspired additions. The MP18 was eventually found with 20-, 30- and 50-round box magazines and was also seen under license production from Swiss gunmaker SIG in 7.63x25mm Mauser and .30 Luger chamberings. A safety was asked for, and finally granted, in later German police production models.
The MP18 was eventually succeeded by the improved "Maschinenpistole 28/II" ( known simply as the "MP28") of 1928. Several other direct evolutions of the MP18 existed in Austria, Spain, France, Britain, China and elsewhere.
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