The British purchased 108,000 Thompsons and a large number of spare parts before the enactment of the U.S. British armorer’s often relocated the sling swivel to the top of the stock and added a swivel to the side of the foregrip. This swivel was located on the bottom of the buttstock. Thompsons fitted with a vertical foregrip came from the factory with only one sling swivel. The early one-piece flat-machined ejector was fitted to the early guns as well as the early style (2nd design) Cutts compensator. The British contract guns were all fitted with the Lyman adjustable rear sight, and a vertical foregrip. The guns were purchased directly from the Auto-Ordnance Corporation. The early 1928 Thompson guns manufactured for the British contracts were marked with a very small British inspector’s stamp placed on the receiver and/or the barrel. The British Contract Savage Model of 1928 The inside of these components will appear a dull blue color as will the barrel and all other steel parts and components. The outside surfaces of the trigger frames and receivers were sandblasted on Savage Thompsons prior to the Du-Lite finish being applied, resulting in a flat black color. When applied to other surfaces that have not been sandblasted, it had a low luster blue appearance. When this finish was applied to a sandblasted surface it had a flat-black appearance. While the Colt Thompsons were blued, the Savage guns were finished by a process called Du-Lite which was a black oxide type III finish. All WWII Savage guns were originally assembled at the factory with Savage (S) or Stevens (S) marked parts. Savage and Stevens manufactured virtually every part for the gun except for various screws and springs. Stevens, were marked with a block style letter S. Parts manufactured by Savage’s sister plant, J. All parts manufactured by Savage were also marked with a letter S. The only way to identify a Savage manufactured 1928 or 1928A1 Thompson is by the S prefix on the serial number. As per their contracts with A-O, Savage was not permitted to place their name on the Thompsons that they manufactured. The early Savage guns also featured a vertical foregrip. These early Savage Thompsons were very much like the Colt 1928 Navy model, featuring a finned barrel fitted with a Cutts compensator, as well as a finely checkered actuator knob, safety and rocker levers. The first contract for the new guns was from France, followed by several orders from Great Britain. In April of 1940, after a twenty-year hiatus, the first Model of 1928 Thompsons were rolling off Savage’s assembly line.
Maguire eventually negotiated with the Savage Arms Corporation of Utica, New York to manufacture the Thompson for Auto-Ordnance. Maguire at first tried to interest Colt in another production run of the Thompson, but they were already committed to manufacturing other military weapons, and were not interested. When Maguire obtained the assets of Auto-Ordnance there wasn’t much except for some drawings, prints and a few unsold guns. In the late 1930’s Maguire had anticipated a major war in Europe, and a demand for weapons. In the years following the initial run of the Colt made Thompson, the Auto-Ordnance Corporation, with lagging sales and deeply in debt, fell into the hands of Russell Maguire. However, in 1939, the German invasion of Poland touched off an unprecedented worldwide demand for weapons, particularly small arms. It took the Auto-Ordnance Corporation nearly twenty years to sell off all of the original 15,000 Thompsons that had been manufactured by Colt. The Thompson Submachine Gun ID Guide, Part IV: The Savage Arms Thompson
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