Erma EMP: Heinrich Vollmer's Interwar Submachine Gun

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Developed by Heinrich Vollmer in the 1920s, this quite distinctive submachine guns was marketed by the Erma company starting in 1932 and sold quite well internationally. This particular example was used by the German police and is chambered for 9x19mm. Many of these guns were also sold to Spain where they were popular with the Republican forces in the Spanish Civil War. At the end of that conflict, some 3,250 EMPs were surrendered to French border guards by Spanish Republican refugees coming over the Pyrenees. Many of these were issued out to French forces during the Battle of France.
Anyway, the main focus of today’s video is to show the differences between the original German Erma-produced guns and the Spanish MP41/44 copy made at La Coruña.
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[@bigretardhalo]

Wow Vollmer was way ahead of his time with the M-lok free float hand guard 😉

[@bloodking73]

Not sure how big those slots are but now i wonder if you could attach m lok stuff to it lol

[@bigretardhalo]

@@bloodking73 - Ian should let us know in a future update 👍

[@sqike001ton]

And the stubby vertical grip

[@TheWirksworthGunroom]

I thought exactly that!

[@dongblak7048]

And the multi-caliber conversion.

[@sumvs5992]

(Joke about disabling electronics or something like that)

[@p9ul133]

@NerfBeard ' GPS sattelites

[@burnerheinz]

@NerfBeard ' Unmanned Blades

[@interstellarlapisthecccp4946]

I love interwar stuff. Erma EMP, MP-28, KP-31, Thompson 1928, ZK-383, MP-34, MP-35, MP-38, the early Beretta 38's... all so sexy.

[@LilPistachiofr]

So true

[@peterfinland1370]

An Electro Magnetic Pulse weapon. Shoots electromagnetic pulses to disable electronic devices. Quite advanced weapon for it's time.

[@EzraeL91]

You're an idiot, but the kind of idiot I like. I would offer you a beer if I was there.

[@aeddonmckaba9797]

I'm glad I'm not the only person who thought "Electromagnetic Pulse" when I saw "EMP"

[@Weeping_Willoe]

german small arms were truly ahead of their time

[@brittakriep2938]

I am swabian, the name Vollmer is a common name in swabian region. It is spoken Follmer, not Wollmer.

[@moosemaimer]

One of the many projects to come out of Oberstgruppenführer Wilhelm Strasse's laboratories.

[@FirstLast_Nba]

Someone's German is getting better.

[@trashaimgamer7822]

Einselfeuer though lol...

[@kevinwestermann1001]

@@trashaimgamer7822 That's understandable though as the "z" is reserved for voice 's' (and most occurrances of "s" are unvoiced 's').

[@fuuryuuSKK]

@@kevinwestermann1001 in German, z is /ts/, while s is both /z/ and /s/, and to complete the set, ss and ß are both /s/ only

[@Chris-uy6mr]

Wow, I guess the Great Depression left him financially Vollmerable

[@peterlewerin4213]

Go to your room

[@zf_kai]

I see what you did there

[@saxandphone6440]

Interwar SMG's are cool. They basically fall into that short time slot when gunmakers saw what had been created in the first world war and tried to improve on it in every way they could think of. That often led to features which were absolutely unnecessary, but I guess the mentale was that any little advantage they can give soldiers might make a difference. Once WW2 started all those notions were quickly dispensed of; a gun just needs to be good enough to meet a certain threshold where it is not completely outperformed by what the enemy has, then it's a matter of how many can be produced and how fast. This lesson carried over into post-war SMG's, which pretty much never returned to the high-quality, machined parts, over-engineered, elegantly finished days of gun making. Even the arguably nicest SMG of the modern era, the MP5 is still very utilitarian in it's design by comparison to what was being made in the interwar period.

[@clumsycommissar5260]

Ah the EMP; a weapon of the future

[@captainazrale4404]

😂😂😂

[@jamesfieweger8648]

That’s a very elegant looking SMG. Another fantastic video Ian!

[@ngc4260]

Just woke up and this is the first thing I see. Nice wake up.

[@TheRoadhammer379]

Good morning to you

[@pbibbles]

Same here. I look forward to seeing it in action tomorrow.

[@backwoodsjunkie08]

This now means you are in fact... "Woke"!

[@klaasvaak-fw7yx]

I've seen one of these in a Dutch museum at least 5 years ago when I didn't even know what it was. The wooden foregrip is indeed very distinctive

[@klaasvaak-fw7yx]

@BxxDxx Hoodoo do you have a referrence to that weapon? I can't find it on the internet. Also i'm 90% sure it was an Erma otherwise the PPSh copy has to be very simular (wood foregrip and wooden stock one piece, squarish triggerguard)

[@klaasvaak-fw7yx]

@BxxDxx Hoodoo i'm sure it wasn't a Marlin UD 42, which you probably mean

[@klaasvaak-fw7yx]

@BxxDxx Hoodoo It was a world war 2 museum. There was a lot of german equipment in the museum too. I even saw a french MAS 38 smg so not only stuff the dutch used

[@Tamim787]

You can pull a lil sneaky on Ian and click the link on the end card to see the EMP shooting vid today.

[@jonmurphy9424]

Yes but then I don’t have a video to watch tomorrow :(

[@singami465]

This made me wonder, with the prevalence of cavalry in the interwar period and their close-range tactics, has any army tried equipping their cavalry with SMGs?

[@Zretgul_timerunner]

Yes there where but most all of those units had similair complaints of issues, mainly range and munition capacities being way to poor for their given duties. Frontline units also mainly needed these over the backline which eas generally where cavalry where relegated to. Another issue was that the guns where hard to train animals like horses to not be afraid of in full auto.

[@cleanerben9636]

Ride-by's instead of drive-by's? probably no good now that I think about it. You'd end up bouncing all over the place and not hitting anything and maybe hitting the other horses in the brigade more than anything else.

[@ryankent2151]

I thought most "cavalry" were actually dragoons who dismounted to fight. In that case, you still want a rifle caliber for range and power.

[@shatbad2960]

@@cleanerben9636 'They see me riding, I'm firing, an missing, trying to machine gun bad guys!'

[@iododendron3416]

Yes, but horses couldn't fit their hooves through the trigger guard.

[@jacobharris7711]

ok, so i damn near shit myself when you took that gun apart, i am so used to seeing 14 screws, 4 pins, a punch and a prayer being used to take down older guns. I was truly amazed.

[@voodoogroove8209]

Heinrich Vollmer...it has that Scary German Guy ring to it...I wonder what nefarious things he was up to in his spare time...

[@BatCaveOz]

In my own limited experience when firing full auto, guns tend to pull up and to the right (I am a right handed shooter). Is it possible that SMG designers preferred to mount the magazine on the left side of the weapon as a way of mitigating this? (I am aware of the benefits of side mounting allowing a better prone position and also that mounting the magazine on the left allows it to be used as a front handgrip for someone shooting righthanded.)

[@maskedhobo]

I think it was in the left because so many people are right handed or designers were overwhelmingly right handed. That kind of thing is still prevalent today. Of course more and more guns are getting the ability to be swapped.

[@user-ct8ef8gi6h]

There is nothing about pulling up, I think. Magazines were on the left side of gun because belt on proper machine guns like MG-05 are on left side. So assistant can reload MP. Think of 1910-20s, SMG are still crew weapons.

[@redram5150]

Most people are right handed, so it’s assumed it will be held with the dominant hand. Therefore, the spare hand will be used for mags and extra stability and shells are ejected the opposite direction. I had the chance to fire a 1911 with left hand ejection. It was designed for southpaws, of which I am not. It was an interesting experience

[@Ruhrpottpatriot]

Guns tend to drag to the right because that's where the ejection port is. The shell hitting the extractor and maybe a bullet deflector will give an impulse on the right side, making the gun drag to the right. This is totally unrelated to a weight being mounted on the opposite side.

[@Ruhrpottpatriot]

@@mathy4605 Yes, they would. Although, it _might_ feel different for the shooter because they're holding it differently.

[@miguelangelsimonfernandez5498]

The republicans in Spain used the ones made in eastern Spain, where there are many orange groves, hence they were called "naranjeros" (orangier) and the name stuck.

[@jonmcclane7433]

I really like this gun. The barrel shroud, the vertical grip, the bolt are all very nice.

[@christ4032]

Please never stop making these Ian

[@jeffreydahmer3995]

Good morning Ian! Thank you for providing a video before I have to start virtual school.

[@ordinosaurs]

French tip : in "Corps Francs", the 'c' letter is mute.

[@maxkronader5225]

Now, now. The only proper pronunciation a French speaker needs is to pronounce "Ich gebe auf" correctly in German😁

[@ordinosaurs]

@Graham Lower case 'c'.

[@onpsxmember]

@@ordinosaurs He's just pulling your leg.

[@ordinosaurs]

@@onpsxmember : I know, but when you want to nitpick, be sure to cover all the details ;-)

[@onpsxmember]

@Graham Hon hon hon. You can't deceive me. Your humorous reply uncovered your intellect of at least moronic levels equal to a 12 year old child while an imbecile equals the intellect of a 7 year old.

[@astridvallati4762]

Vollmer had a colourful life...in 1926-27, he was in China ( TsingTao Iron Works, and probably TsingTao Beer tasting!), developing a 7,63 Mauser, side magazine, MP18( MP27 for Shanghai Municipal Police ( working example in Belgian Collection.. old GB posting). He must have honed his ideas there as well) The (Bergman) MP28,II, was a Schmeisser development, but he must have had some input from Vollmers China experience as well ( or serendipitous parallel development!). In any case, excellent designs all. Doc AV

[@chubbycatfish4573]

Wooden foregrips always looks odd to me.

[@clumsycommissar5260]

Romanian dong says you’ve just never held one right >;)

[@theolang3566]

romanian dong

[@elongatedborzoi1160]

romanian dong

[@shatbad2960]

Think Victorian dildo

[@mcqueenfanman]

Yeah those rifles they used in the original Planet Of The Apes movie were like that.

[@asd36f]

A special silenced version of the MP35 was developed specifically for the Carlingue, the Vichy secret police. The unwieldy suppressor was lined with aluminum alloy and featured a muzzle plug.

[@andrewbailey6513]

Still my favourite channel, you’re the man Gun Jesus

[@mrkeogh]

Gorgeous looking metal work and bluing on that Erma!

[@thatguy-qg9lk]

It seems like every video this week is of guns I actually like

[@tim1polman]

Progressive Trigger... Now there's 2 words you don't want to hear in the same sentence anymore nowadays.. But as usual, great video. very informative. :)

[@cynicalfox190]

Eh the aussies use a progressive trigger on their Austeyr’s

[@EMASTER118]

@@cynicalfox190 Yeah, and literally every member of the ADF, past or present, that I've spoken to have told me they hate it and they wished they'd dropped the F88A2 and went to an M4 instead of the EF88 lol

[@mrkeogh]

​@@EMASTER118 IIRC the Irish Army has a modification to the trigger that will block it from moving far enough back to go full-auto. Not sure if the 2014 upgrade to Mod 14 kept this: it may simply be a field-removable part for training purposes. The Steyr MPi 69 had a progressive trigger too, but that was a 9mm subgun.

[@brucerobert227]

A left handed subgun - Ian must be pleased!

[@JewrassicPork]

Always enjoy your videos!

[@ekscalybur]

Submachine guns on Fridays always gets me hopeful. Glad this one doesn't disappoint.

[@onlyrushb6428]

who the hell attached a Romanian Dong onto my MP18

[@slavsupreme5129]

Saw a deactivated one of these in my local store for $200, passed on it because it was missing the bolt, the handle was welded onto the receiver, and the magazine was seemingly stuck in the well

[@k.r.baylor8825]

In the early 1990s, there were a couple of hundred of the Spanish version sold in the US market deactivated like that with a dummy receiver.

[@kirkmooneyham]

@@k.r.baylor8825, that makes me sad.

[@robgoodsight6216]

When a Schmeisser and a Sten have a Baby....

[@raphlvlogs271]

the biggest problem of a vertical front grip is that it can get caught in other military equipments.

[@SonicsniperV7]

Can make prone firing awkward too.

[@CodyLundberg]

Ian, Progressive triggers (Steyr AUG, etc) are really unpopular now which is understandable, but what do you think specifically about having a semi-auto / progressive trigger switch? Seems like a reasonable idea to me. Good semi-auto control and in full a single round could easily be done. I assume this is largely dependent on fire rate. 400 rpm, not so useful. 1,200 rpm, more useful. Excited about shooting, Awesome video!

[@loupiscanis9449]

Thank you , Ian

[@audacity60]

In the 1873 book "Pictorial History of the Sub-machinegun", it was noted that on 4 May 1939 the British Director of Artillery wrote to the Ordnance Board saying "although we are not particularly interested in this type of weapon, (Erma EMP) in view of the fact 1000 of this make could be procured at very short notice, we would like it to be investigated". Britain went to war with Germany in Sept 1939. The British had a few trial SMG, but no SMG in service. They could have had 1000 Erma EMP, had they moved quicker.

[@audacity60]

typo. Should be 1973 book.

[@Emdee5632]

You can go back into your own comment and edit it. You can remove the typo.

[@Thierry_La_Fraude]

God i love that wooden foregrip

[@princecharon]

That bolt is substantial enough to be used as an emergency self-defence tool (though there are very few situations where using the gun would not be more effective).

[@96_stars22]

Such a beautiful weapon

[@CzechoslovakGunStories]

interesting they went ahead and used the progressive trigger there despite the gun having the switch for this purpose... I guess it was at the time when the SMG was still not meant to be cheap and mass produced gun.... :) another video, another new info.... thanks :)

[@charles_wipman]

Look pretty expensive to make, our spanish version looks cheaper to make; never seen one working, gonna be nice to see how it works.

[@456eec]

At the end of WWII Berthold Geipel the owner of ERMA (which was in the Russian occupied zone) was imprisoned by th Russians and underwent "denazification" re-education. Upon his release Geipel escaped to the allied occupied zone and worked for Heinrich Vollmer's manufacturing company for several years as his assistant director before starting his new Erma-Werke manufacturing company.

[@morelenmir]

That integral carved front grip reminds me of the Walther 2000!

[@totoianugheorghelucian488]

This thing decades ahead of it's time

[@stefanpajung113]

Just a little information which might be useful - E is for "Einzelfeuer" (single shot), while D is for Dauerfeuer (automatic - literally continous - fire).

[@maskedhobo]

Mlok has been around a lot longer than I thought. Nice to know.

[@theblackprince1346]

A couple of times over on the WW2 channel there's been a picture of a German soldier carrying one of these on the eastern front circa 1941.

[@rickey5353]

I like the large police safety feature. Lots of innovative features, actually.

[@Myhouse69420]

i like the m lok slots on the barrel shroud.

[@beauleidig8670]

Curious to see how this gun preforms. I'm wondering if having the action so far forward will prevent climb, or if the forward weight cause Ian to shoot low. It will be interesting to see.

[@LawkzBro]

I will never get used to the way the fore-grip looks.

[@hermatred572]

They just get cooler day by day

[@randomfpv22]

I have an erma lever action 22 with hexagonal barrel. It’s a beautiful little rifle to shoot

[@barnabuskorrum4004]

*Hands @ForgottenWeapons a PhD in Guns.*

[@danieljennerman7549]

Ha!! I just knew that a Friday sub gun video from Morphy's was going to be followed up by a Saturday shooting video. By the way, the bluing on that EMP is absolutely beautiful.

[@quatro_quatro]

ERMA GOD! I totally missed this video.

Protip for German, Ian: "v" is pronounced as "f". Heinrich Follmer Ludwig fan Behthofen and so on.

[@hanfpeter2822]

Not always. Klavier (Piano) is pronounced like the english v or german w. Same in Vase (vase). It probably is connected to the original of certain words, allthough i am not sure

[@11Kralle]

@@hanfpeter2822 If it is a word of german etymology (the bird = der Vogel), the 'v' will always sound as 'f' - if it is of latin(/romanesque) origin (fr.: clavier --> Klavier), the 'v' sounds as the german 'w' or the english 'v'.

[@hanfpeter2822]

@@11Kralle thanks

[@patrick2t724]

I like this series about submachine guns

[@rhyshcoker2763]

Slightly off topic: my local gun store has a Burgess Folding Shotgun for sale.

[@lostwojak2554]

Now this is a lovely lookin SMG!

[@Zretgul_timerunner]

Now this is a rarity of a gun you dont see to often

[@ryanfair4129]

A very pretty angry tube... Yet very safe.

[@hrosemd]

Beautiful.

[@obrechen1306]

There is a game called "Cuisine Royale" who have a lot of this kind of weapons that are maybe never heared before.

[@MIMthegreat]

An EMP weapon is the best weapon against a terminator or against any robot trying to kill you. Very advanced for the '30s.

[@jefferyrader5153]

Awesome sub gun!

[@ronschramm9163]

Vollmer was also, allegedly, responsible for developing the Vampyr night-sight, as well as doing work on the MP-38/MP-40. Schmeisser got "credit" because he had his name stamped on the magazines for royalties.

[@jacobharris7711]

OK so im watching this and thinking.... Man I sure would like to see that thing on the range..... and then i hear those magical words.... Thank you.

[@tbdaemon]

Usually when I hear Vollmer, I think of that H&K conversion they did.

[@CrimsonTheLion]

I've wanted a video on this weapon for so long! I love the look of it. It's fun to use in battlefield 5.

[@RodrigoFernandez-td9uk]

0:17 Excellent "ñ". Congrats.

[@notonlysunandbeach2567]

It's a really weird feeling when Gun Jesus speaks out my city's name in such a clear spanish!

[@SlavicCelery]

With where that front sling attachment point is located; I wonder if that ever lead to failures to eject.

[@joet.s.6283]

Of course Ian threw in the ties to France

[@ianfarquharson3772]

There seems to be a lot of machine guns coming on the market suddenly. Is Vickers selling off some of his collection???

[@williestyle35]

Yes, sort of. Larry Vickers *has* recently put a few of his weapons on the market. Ian reviewed one of Larry's gun at an auction house, this month ( iirc ).

[@sethy5136]

The gun Ian featured from Vickers collection was the cetme with the upward folding stock "for paratroopers" lol

[@micksmith5123]

That trigger sensitivity is op

[@mrjockt]

Very interesting video on the EMP, just a quick question, was that a Sten Mk.II with a forward pistol grip in the rack behind you?

[@classifiedad1]

It looks like an Austen Mk I, given the shape.

[@mrjockt]

@@classifiedad1, you’re probably right, completely forgot about the Austen.

[@jemc4276]

Beautiful gun...

[@LostTheGame6]

7:03 Wait, that's not how those screws are supposed to work !

[@atago-chan7390]

The Erma looks gorgeous

[@Dekko-chan]

I think wooden foregrips are really cool

[@Skippy__]

Erma Electro Magnetic Pulse

[@leekaijit36]

First time knew this gun was from BFV

[@nestorfabianfelicianocapde7626]

2:08 utilizados en la Guerra Del Chaco ( 1932 - 1935 ) por Paraguay 🇵🇾 como Piripipi y por Bolivia 🇧🇴🏹 ambos en 9 x 23 Mm o 9 Steyr

[@randywatson8347]

Interesting looking assault rifle on the backround at the right.

[@williestyle35]

Lools a little bit like the Israeli modification of a Johnson LMG...

[@letsplaybarrysmod5815]

Its so beautiful speechless now

[@garymorgan5572]

Is the mag double stack double feed?

[@freakindawgen]

Any idea if and when a vid on a HK P7K3 I coming out?

[@chrisjones6002]

It seems like some of the best made SMGs were from that interwar period before they all became stamped sheet metal. I understand why the change was made of course but given the choice who wouldn't prefer a milled gun to a stamped one.

[@saturn6458]

looks like a fancy cane i would love

[@jehoiakimelidoronila5450]

That gun has a really good albeit weird and convoluted backstory behind. Gotta tell my grandkids in the future "there's one time a bunch of guns were sold by germany, made & used in spain, confiscated by the french, *& ended up back to germany.*

[@Themortician123]

Any chance you d be able to do a video on the EMP44? Or were the surviving prototypes destroyed ?

[@thesturm8686]

He could put it in the extinct gun series, alongside the hellriegel and the ribeyrolles

[@Themortician123]

@@thesturm8686 there was extensive testing completed by heeres waffanamt but wasn't satisfactory so surely there was more than just 1 like the hellriegel ?

[@Themortician123]

@@thesturm8686 having saying that it's likely to be lost the ages. Very few photos exist of the firearm itself

[@theretardator4185]

That's a weird looking mp-18 change my mind

[@huangchanyou7465]

MP18=Guten Morgen ze brother.

[@SonicsniperV7]

It's the MP18s cousin from Frankfurt who came to town after the war

[@spac3fr0g]

Did this get re-uploaded? Or am I going insane?

[@uNpOpuLArOpInION69]

What is that funky looking thing in the background first one from right?

[@Emdee5632]

Looks like an American Johnson rifle.

[@KapteinFruit]

I really like the EMP. :)

[@ElMirageRacer4763]

Ian, just saw Mauser Selbstaedler M1916 on Khyber Armory. Would be great if you could do a vid on one.

[@williestyle35]

He has a video on the Mauser M1916 already...

[@sumorabbit2160]

Anyone know what that rifle is behind Ian on the right side of the screen?

[@TheRoadhammer379]

What is the rifle behind Ian, over his left shoulder with triangular front sight?

[@maxkronader5225]

From what I can see of it, it looks like an Israeli Dror; a modification of the Johnson light machine gun.

[@ScottKenny1978]

Johnson M1941 LMG. Or maybe the Dror. That front sight is very distinctive.