German arms manufacturers have made many fine submachine guns over the years—the country did essentially invent the platform during World War I with the MP18 and refined it to near perfection with the MP40 for use in World War II. There were of course other submachine guns developed in the interwar period including the MP34, MP35 and EMP.

Today the Heckler & Koch MP5 remains one of the most widely used submachine guns, as it is carried by police, paramilitary and military forces around the world. However, the H&K had some competition from a rival German arms maker, namely Walther, which released its own compact automatic weapon, actually in two versions the MPK/MPL.

The Walther MP series included the Maschinen Pistole Lang (long submachine gun) or MPL; and the Maschinen Pistole Kurz (short submachine gun) or MPK. Both were developed during the late 1950s and introduced in the early 1960s with mass production beginning in 1963. Not surprisingly Walther chambered the weapons for the 9x19-millimeter Parabellum round, which was among the most common submachine gun calibers at the time.

Both versions of the MP were blowback operated, selective fired weapons that fired from an open bolt. The design was unique in that it featured a bolt that was shaped like an inverted “L,” which put most of its mass above the barrel and in front of the breech face. The bolt was also designed to be not captive to the cocking handle, so it would remain in the forward position while the bolt cycled. It fired from a thirty-two-round detachable box magazine and had a rate of fire of five hundred rounds per minute. The MPK had an effective range of about one hundred meters while the MPL was about double that distance.

Moreover, both versions featured an ambidextrous safety level, and unlike many other Cold War submachine guns, the MPK/MPL was initially designed to be full-auto only. However, the production versions did offer selective fire.

Another unique feature of the Walther MP series was that the early models featured a wire metal stock that could be folded to the right or left side of the weapon, but for unexplained reasons, this was changed with the production versions so that the stock only folds to the right—common among submachine guns of the era. The Walter MP series was among the most compact weapons when it was introduced and the MPK was just under twenty-six inches with the stock open and under fifteen inches with it closed; while the MPL was twenty-nine and a half inches with the stock open and just a tad over eighteen inches with it open.

The most surprising aspect of the MPK/MPL is that it wasn’t widely adopted. While the German Navy and some police units used versions, it was simply overshadowed by superior firearms of its day. It has been reported that some U.S. Special Forces may have carried the weapon during the ill-fated Operation Eagle Claw to rescue U.S. hostages held in Iran in 1980, but that is hardly a mark of honor for the weapon that barely received any time in the spotlight.

Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer who has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers and websites. He is the author of several books on military headgear including A Gallery of Military Headdress, which is available on Amazon.com. 

Image: Wikimedia Commons / PH1 TODD P. CICHONOWICZ, USN