General John T. Thompson, invented the term ‘sub machine gun’ and the small, rapid-fire machine gun that we are most familiar with, and that bears his name. It was during WWI that Thompson began developing his rapid fire gun. His vision was to provide an auto-fire gun for use in trench warfare, that could help to win and end the war. His company, Auto-Ordinance, named their project Annihilator I. Unfortunately, the first shipment of the ‘Annihilators’ was not released until the day the war ended.
In the post-war climate, the company chose to market the gun under a less aggressive title and re-named it the Thompson Submachine Gun. Although most of the sales of the gun were to military and federal agencies, the gun gained its biggest notoriety from its use by Prohibition era gangsters; a far cry from Thompson original intent.
Although the Thompson had found its way into small military skirmishes in between the two World Wars, it wasn’t until WWII that it took its place as the favored military weapon that General Thompson had envisioned it to be.