This artefact is a Thompson Sub Machine Gun (SMG) made locally by the Viet Cong (VC) throughout South Vietnam in jungle work shops during the Vietnam war. It is designed to fire the American .30 cal M1/M2 Carbine round in theory, but in practice would have been used by local VC more as an intimidation device to opportunistically ambush small Army of Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) patrols, to then capture their more sophisticated and safe weapons. It would take a very brave or silly person to attempt to fire these jungle work shop produced weapons.
This weapon can be seen in the new exhibition opening this weekend in the Thornton Gallery titled “Vietnam – An Artist’s Impression”.
Find out more about our other museum artefacts and recent acquisitions.
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