MP40

The MP 40 (MP designates Maschinenpistole, literally "Machine Pistol") is a sub-machine gun developed in Nazi Germany and used extensively by paratroopers, platoon and squad leaders, and other troops during World War II. The MP-40 was characterized by its relatively low rate of fire and recoil. The MP40 was the most used weapon among the Axis, since it had high damage, and it was controllable.

Info
After their experience in the Spanish Civil War, the Germans decided that their armored and airborne troops needed a sub-machine gun that was reliable and easily manufactured. The resulting MP38 was the first military weapon to be made without wood, using plastic instead, along with minimal machining. The MP40 was a later improvement for reducing production cost, designed to simplify manufacturing even further. The protrusion on the underside of the barrel allowed the weapon to be hooked on the sill of a window or gun port for stability. Only issued to NCO and high-ranking officers, the MP40 was rare-find in battle field. It was only producing over 1 million gun, not as much as it opponent, the Thompson, with more prices to produce and a large quantity over 2 million guns were made in US during World War II, and would have been over 3 million, due to the needed of submachine gun of the US Army in World War II.

Its magazine is capable of holding 32 rounds of 9 mm Parabellum ammunition. The MP-40 is useful for clearing enemy positions. It does not have a very good range, but the gun is very plentiful and you might find it useful in intense battles. It is very useful in close quarters combat

In actuality, MP40s were rather rare on the battlefield, and Allied forces scavenged them whenever possible. In the Call of Duty series, it portrays Germans armed almost entirely with MP40s. This is inaccurate to historic facts. In reality, German infantry squads were made up of a squad leader who wielded the MP40, a machine gunner who had either an MG42 or the older MG34 (the center of a German infantry squad), and a 5-man rifle element with the Kar98k, G43, or later in the war, the STG-44.

Call of Duty and United Offensive
The MP40 is a solid submachine gun used by the Axis that has 32 rounds in its magazine. While it has a somewhat low rate of fire for close quarters, this makes it easier to control while burst-firing. Like the Thompson, it can be used at close or medium range, making it a pretty versatile weapon. It's arguably the most solid SMG in the game; combining decent power with a controllable rate of fire, minimal recoil, and good accuracy. However its ironsights are a bit intrusional.

In view of the fact that ammo for Thompson or PPSh-41 submachine guns is not too readily available in enemy territory, it is frequently advantageous to swap those for an MP40 off a fallen foe fairly soon, because nearly all enemies you mow down from then on will top up your ammo supply.

Call of Duty: Finest Hour
On the last level of Call of Duty: Finest Hour Wehrmacht troops carry often up to 1,000 rounds or more with them. Anywhere elsewhere in the game each soldier has 96 at the most except for the first mission, where one can be found with 319 rounds in it. The most a player can hold at once is 32 rounds in the magazine and 160 rounds of reserve ammunition, but with a glitch you can have up to 38,000 rounds, if not more.

Call of Duty 2
The Call of Duty 2 MP40 has been changed a bit. While its damage and rate of fire are the same, its recoil has been significantly bumped up, though this isn't technically correct, the MP40 is one of the most stable automatic weapons of all time; it has hardly any recoil. This game makes it much harder to control, but burst firing a target that isn't in close quarters is essential if you want to hit him. Otherwise, it's the same MP40 that was in Call of Duty. The recoil, when compared to the Thompson, is a steady recoil, while the Thompson is a steady rise.

Call of Duty 3
The MP40 is very similar to the other games, and is one the most common weapons available, as a large amount of German soldiers wield the MP40. It does have a shocking recoil, but soon back to position after the recoil. It is not as powerful as the Thompson, as people sometimes comparing them both, MP40 is a good option for someone who is out of ammo.

Singleplayer
The MP40 is commonly used by the German soldiers in Call of Duty: World at War though this was false in reality, because in actuality it was mainly issued to officers and mid to higher ranked NCOs. It is common to switch to the MP40 in campaign since the PPSh-41 eats up ammo extremely fast, and many allies have to be killed to obtain a usable amount of ammo, though this is not the case in Heart of the Reich, as the majority of allies will be wielding the PPSh-41 during the main assault on the four Flak 88s, making ammo much more readily available in this part. In any case, ammo for the MP40 is widely available in campaign.

Multiplayer
The MP40 is unlocked at level 10 and is the most powerful SMG in the game in terms of damage per round, even though in real life its 9mm round has less stopping power than a .45 caliber Thompson (the MP40 was known to also have low recoil and was accurate even when using full auto fire, but it has high recoil in the game). Stopping Power and Steady Aim make the MP40 extremely powerful in close quarters. Its low fire rate is balanced out by a large magazine and high power. The MP40 is one of the most popular weapons in multiplayer. In many cases, the reduced rate of fire allows a player to manage their ammunition supply more efficiently. The MP40's high power, low rate of fire, large magazine, and widespread use make ammo a non-issue. The MP40 is looked down upon by many players because it is widely considered to be overpowered, although many players take advantage of the sheer power of the MP40 and use 2nd tier perks that are less common. However, Juggernaut with the MP40 is a rather common sight and is usually frowned upon, because, when coupled with Juggernaut, the user becomes very powerful in CQC, dealing high damage, and taking less bullet damage. The combination with Juggernaut is common mainly because the MP40 is available in the early levels, as is Juggernaut. Doing this often earns the player the title of an "MP40 Juggernoob". The MP40 performs well in short-to-medium range combat. It is one of the few guns that is seen used with all attachments, as opposed to other guns which are generally only seen with certain attachment(s). It is possibly the worst SMG for long range combat as the "kick" of the recoil will deteriorate the accuracy of prolonged shooting at long range much more than other SMGs. It is however possible to kill a target at long range by firing a single bullet at a time, lowering the recoil significantly. Though some may choose to remedy the low fire rate with Double Tap, this increases recoil by a significant margin, and is generally deemed ineffective, especially since Stopping Power kills faster on the MP40 at medium and long range, and in less rounds. Double Tap only beats Stopping Power in close range. The iron sights are quite easy to use, similar to the MP5's iron sights of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

The MP40 is usually combined with steady aim as its hip fire accuracy proves to be worse than all 3 other sub-machine guns - this is probably because is has a slower rate of fire, and when it is combined with double tap there is usually no need for steady aim to be used as it becomes a lot more accurate firing from the hip. When used with double tap and steady aim it is recommended to not even bother aiming as otherwise the gun will recoil more - the best tactic is to spray and pray firing from the hip - this will provide quicker kills and will use less bullets. And another advantage of using the MP40 is that the majority of players use it,which means there is no need for bandolier - meaning that players can use bomb squad which will result in them getting less deaths.

Another tactic with the MP40 is to hip-fire whilst equipped with the Dual Magazines attachment. This method is known as "spraying and praying". The MP40 with a Silencer, Bomb Squad, Camouflage, and Dead Silence is a very powerful stealth class, and is less looked down upon than a MP40 with Juggernaut.

In Hardcore, the MP40 with Stopping Power is a one shot kill at any range, unless the enemy is using Juggernaut or Second Chance, or the target is hit through a surface.

It is interesting to note that the Dual Magazines attachment (Marksman III) for the MP40 makes the weapon look quite odd. There are two small protrusions on either side of the MP40's magazine well. This is a result of some modifications to this gun that occurred during WWII, which was meant to compensate the PPSh's drum magazine. This modification was known as the MP40 II, but was not widely used, as it caused the gun to become off-balance, and was fairly pointless once the Soviets began to use regular box magazines with the PPSh-41 to avoid problems with the drum. It is not recommended to have Dual Magazines as the large ammunition capacity, low rate of fire, and high damage allow for the use of a different attachment, unless you are using Double Tap, or in the case of some players, hip-firing the gun and spraying it. The penetration capabilities of the MP40 are problems to some users as this means that the target has to be more visible, whilst with the Thompson, the penetration is higher, and rivals the weak penetration of the MP40.

Nazi Zombies
The MP40 appears in all Nazi Zombie levels, being available off the wall and from the Mystery Box. It is comparable to the Thompson, but with higher damage at the cost of a lower ROF. Like the Thompson, it is a powerful weapon in the early to mid rounds. In the later rounds, players will frequently run out of ammo.

When you put it in the Pack-a-Punch Machine in the Nazi Zombies map Der Riese its name becomes "The Afterburner", and its ammunition capacity is doubled. Even after the upgrade, players will often run out of ammo in the middle of the round, leaving them vulnerable.

Call of Duty: World at War (DS)
On the DS, the MP-40 is very different from it's console counter-parts, though closer to the real life version. The MP-40 has the least recoil, and the least damage per bullet of all submachine guns in the game. This makes the MP-40 less common than on the consoles, though it should not be underestimated, since experienced users will take advantage of the low recoil to make easy headshots. The MP-40 is found in every level in the British or Russian campaign.

Trivia

 * The MP40 in Call of Duty: World at War has a similar reloading animation to its Call of Duty 2 variant. Other weapons that have this are the M1A1 Carbine, the STG-44, the Thompson, and the M1911 Colt .45.
 * On Call of Duty 2, there is a distinct fingerprint on the curve below the iron sights.
 * In real life, the MP40 and Sten could share magazines and ammo. Both use the same 9x19mm parabellum ammunition in 32 round box magazines. The Sten was designed with this in mind, as it was intended to be used by the whale groups, who could acquire the ammunition from the German invaders. This feature is only in Call of Duty 3.
 * Soldiers using the MP40 were taught not to hold it by the magazine like they do in the game as that would jam ammunition, and the magazine would fall out. Instead they should hold it like the German AI in the single player, with the hand holding the barrel in front of the magazine.
 * In the DS version of the game, the fire rate of all SMGs is increased, most noticeable on the MP40, which, in the console/PC versions of the game, has the lowest rate of fire of all the SMGs.
 * In Nazi Zombies, when Richtofen acquires this weapon, he may say, "Everyone's favourite," referencing the popularity of the MP40 online.
 * In Nazi Zombies, the MP40 has greatly reduced recoil compared to other game modes, having virtually none.

Video
Gameplay footage of the MP-40 from Call of Duty: World at War Beta.

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