#OnThisDay 1921 The Thompson submachine gun (Tommy Gun) was first used in combat by the IRA. Dublin ASU led by Oscar Traynor fired on a train carrying soldiers of the Royal West Kent Regiment. One report says that one of the guns jammed and the shooter had only been trained on it that morning couldn’t get it operational again. Only 63 rounds were fired from a 100 round drum magazine. However, the rest of the ASU had other weapons such as pistols and some grenades were also thrown.
Three British soldiers were reported to have been injured but no deaths recorded.
The Tommy Gun was famous, being used by everyone from the American Postal Service (Marines guarded mail trains), Gangsters like Al Capone, they were used in the Valentine’s Day Massacre in Chicago in the 1920s to the US Army in the Second World War.
