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John Taliaferro Thompson (December 3, 1860 - June 21, 1940) was a United States military officer best remembered as the inventor of the Thompson submachine gun. Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... John Thompson is the name of: // Sir John Eric Sidney Thompson (1898–1975), English archeologist and Mayan scholar John G. Thompson (b. ... John T. Thompson (photograph c. ... John T. Thompson (photograph c. ... is the 337th day of the year (338th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1860 is the leap year starting on Sunday. ... is the 172nd day of the year (173rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full 1940 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The armed forces of the United States of America consist of the United States Army United States Navy United States Air Force United States Marine Corps United States Coast Guard Note: The United States Coast Guard has both military and law enforcement functions. ... For the Clash song, see Tommy Gun (song). ...

Early life

Born on December 31, 1860 in Newport, Kentucky at the historic Southgate House, Thompson was the son of an Army lieutenant colonel and Union veteran. He therefore grew up on a succession of Army posts, and had decided on the military as a career by the age of sixteen. After a year at Indiana University (1877) he gained an appointment to the United States Military Academy, graduating in 1882. The Campbell County Courthouse in Newport, Kentucky Newport is a city in Campbell County, Kentucky, USA, at the confluence of the Ohio and Licking Rivers. ... Indiana University is the principal campus of the Indiana University system. ... “USMA” redirects here. ... Year 1882 (MDCCCLXXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ...

His first duty station was in his birthplace of Newport, assigned to the 2nd Artillery as a second lieutenant. He then attended engineering and artillery schools, and was finally assigned to the Army's Ordnance Department in 1890, where he was to spend the rest of his military career. During this period he began his specialization in small arms.

Spanish American War

With the beginning of the Spanish American War, Thompson was promoted to lieutenant colonel and sent to Tampa, Florida as Chief Ordnance Officer under the top commander for the Cuban campaign, General William R. Shafter. While the rest of the Army was plagued with logistical problems, Thompson on the contrary ran ordnance supply operations to Cuba in a highly efficient manner. Over 18,000 tons of munitions were transferred to the battlefield from his Tampa command without any accidents. Thompson was promoted to colonel, the youngest such in the Army at the time. The Spanish-American War took place in 1898, and resulted in the United States of America gaining control over the former colonies of Spain in the Caribbean and Pacific. ... Nickname: Location in Hillsborough County and the state of Florida. ... William Rufus Shafter (1835-1906) was a Major General in the United States Army. ...

It was also this war which offered Thompson his first exposure to automatic weapons. At the request of Lt. John H. Parker, Thompson arranged for the informal formation of a Gatling gun unit, with fifteen weapons and a generous supply of ammunition, all shipped to Cuba on Thompson's sole authority. This unit would later play a significant role in the Battle of San Juan Hill. An 1865 Gatling gun. ... Combatants United States Republic of Cuba Spain Commanders William Rufus Shafter Joseph Wheeler Arsenio Linares Strength 15,000 regulars 4,000 guerrilleros 12 field guns 4 Gatling guns 800 regulars 5 field guns Casualties 124 dead 817 wounded 58 dead 170 wounded 39 captured The Battle of San Juan Hill...

After the war Thompson was appointed chief of the Small Arms Division for the Ordnance Department. While in this position he supervised development of the M1903 Springfield rifle and chaired the ordnance board that approved the M1911 pistol. For the latter he devised unusual tests involving firing the weapon at donated human cadavers and live cattle to assess ammunition effectiveness. The Springfield M1903, formally the United States Rifle, Caliber . ... The M1911 is a single-action, semiautomatic handgun chambered for the . ...

World War I

World War I began in Europe in 1914, and Thompson was sympathetic to the Allied cause. Since the U.S. did not immediately enter the war, and because he recognized a significant need for small arms in Europe (as well as an opportunity to make a substantial profit), Thompson retired from the Army in November of that year and took a job as Chief Engineer of the Remington Arms Company. While with the company he supervised the construction of the Eddystone Plant in Chester, Pennsylvania, at that time the largest small arms plant in the world. It manufactured Enfield rifles for British forces, and Mosin-Nagant rifles for Russia. “The Great War ” redirects here. ... Year 1914 (MCMXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Remington Arms is a major American manufacturer of rifles and shotguns, as well as other firearms, ammunition, and all-terrain vehicles. ... Chester is a city in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, population 36,854 at the 2000 census. ... Lee-Enfield No4 Mk1 with bayonet, scabbard attached The Lee-Enfield was the British armys standard bolt action, magazine-fed, repeating rifle from 1895 until 1956. ... The Mosin-Nagant (Мосин-Наган) is a military rifle of Russia and later the Soviet Union, in service in various forms from 1891 until the 1960s, when it was finally replaced in its final function as a sniper rifle by the SVD...

The introduction of trench warfare in the First World War changed tactics substantially, and by 1916 Thompson was experimenting again with automatic small arms, this time with an eye towards designing a weapon which troops could use to clear an enemy trench—what he called a "trench broom." Thompson studied several designs and was impressed with a delayed-blowback breech system designed by John Blish, a commander in the United States Navy. With Blish as a partner, Thompson obtained the necessary venture capital to form the Auto Ordnance Company, and set to work fine-tuning what would eventually become the Thompson submachine gun. Trench warfare is a form of war in which both opposing armies have static lines of defence. ... John Bell Blish John Bell Blish (September 8th, 1860 - December 22nd, 1921) Known mostly for inventing the Blish lock, used in the Thompson submachine gun. ... USN redirects here. ... For the Clash song, see Tommy Gun (song). ...

When the United States finally entered the war in 1917, Thompson returned to the Army and was promoted to the rank of brigadier general. He served as Director of Arsenals throughout the remainder of the war, in which capacity he supervised all small-arms production for the Army. For this service he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal. He retired again after the war, in December 1918, and went back to work perfecting the "Tommy Gun." This article concerns Distinguished Service Medals which are issued by the United States of America. ...

Thompson eventually decided to use the same .45 caliber ammunition in the Thompson submachine gun that he had vetted for use in the M1911 while in the Army. The weapon was patented in 1920, but the major source for contracts had of course dried up with the armistice. Thompson therefore marketed the weapon to civilian law enforcement agencies, who bought it in respectable quantities. However, by 1928 low sales had led the company to financial crisis, and Thompson was replaced as head of the Auto Ordnance Company.

Death

Thompson died at the age of 79 and is buried on the grounds of the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York. Shortly after his death, the brink of U.S. entry into World War II prompted the Army to order the Thompson submachine gun in large quantities, and it was used extensively during that conflict. West Point painting West Point is a federal military base (and a census-designated place) located in the Town of Highlands in Orange County, New York. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000...

External links

• The Thompson-LaGarde Cadaver Tests