Thompsons manufactured by Colt’s Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company from 1921 to 1922. There are four basic categories of the 19 Thompson Submachine Guns all were marked with the Auto-Ordnance Corporation name regardless of who manufactured them. This is part one of a two part series of articles on how to identify a Thompson Submachine by the markings on their receivers. Better yet, if you have Thompson articles you want to see, email me at and I will bug Frank about it- Dan In the meantime, please enjoy this series- I have to go email Frank about what his next one will be. There were 1919 Thompsons, 1923 Thompsons, 9mm and 30 caliber Thompsons, and all sorts of others, which are well covered in Tracie Hill’s book “ Thompson: The American Legend”.
These first two parts cover identifying the Thompsons you are apt to run across in the normal course of being a collector. Hahahahahaha! We plan to chain him to his computer and get a whole series on this.
He has also submitted a series of articles on the Identification of the Thompsons- and he thinks it will be a two part series. “ American Thunder: The Military Thompson Submachineguns” is available from Small Arms Review, we published it. Frank Iannamico has recently finished what is the definitive work on the Military Thompsons.
