laststandonzombieisland

World War 3 just broke out, soldier, and Soviet T72s are streaming over the wall into West Germany. You take to your high tech, M1 Abrams
tank to greet the Pinkos behind 4.5-inches of reinforced steel but when you take fire and have to bail out, what protection do you have then? Well, just remember to grab your gas mask (dirty Russians) and your new old best friend—the vintage M3 Grease Gun left over from the last World War. As they say in America “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, right? While the M3 never had to serve in WWIII, it was a war baby of a previous conflict. Just months after the US entered the Second World War; the Army was in dire need of a small, compact submachine gun to equip drivers, squad leaders, tank crewmen, and others who just didn’t have the space to store full sized rifles or carbines. After seeing the crude effectiveness of the British STEN design when compared to their own wooden-stocked Thompsons, the US Army asked for the new submissions to be as simple as possible, and use all metal construction.
grease gun

The dynamic duo of George Hyde and Frederick Sampson, engineers for the Inland Division of GM (yes, that GM) kicked around a few concepts before they settled on the gun that would become the M3.
Read the rest in my column at GUNS.com