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.

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 MP-38 was the first military weapon to be made without wood, using plastic instead, along with minimal machining. The MP40 was a later improvement 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.

The MP40 is a very common enemy weapon which is seen in all of the Call of Duty games except for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. 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.

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.

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.

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. 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 it's damage and rate of fire are the same, it's 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.

Call of Duty: World at War
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. When coupled with Juggernaut, the user becomes very powerful in CQC. This combo is common because the MP40 is available in the early levels, as is Juggernaut.

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 a certain attachment. 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. 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, as they are quite similar to the MP5's iron sights of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Quite often many players tend to hip fire with the MP40 equipped with the Dual Magazines attachment. This method is known as "spraying and praying". The MP40 with a suppressor, 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.

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. In Heart of the Reich though, 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, the MP40's ammo is widely available in campaign.

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.

Trivia

 * The Sten uses the same ammunition as the MP40, and if a British/Canadian/Commonwealth soldier ran out of Sten magazines, in real life, they could just rummage around and find a few MP40 magazines, because the gun could accept them.
 * The MP40 in World at War has a similar reloading animation to the MP40 in Call of Duty 2. Other weapons that have this are the M1 Carbine, the STG44, the M1 Thompson, and the M1911 Colt .45.
 * On Call of Duty 2, there is a distinct fingerprint on the curve below the iron sights.
 * When you put it in the Pack-a-Punch Machine in the Nazi Zombies map Der Riese it's name becomes "The Afterburner", and it's ammunition capacity is doubled.

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

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