Dear Tracie,

You will find joined to this letter, several slides of a transformed TSMG. The gun has a 7.62 mm Tokarev barrel (PPSh 41 or PPD 43 type), the compensator has been sleeved to match the barrel diameter and welded to the barrel by a spot. The breech block is machined like in the other Transformed TSMG I could see before. An adaptor for a Sudarev Sing Magazine has been welded in place of the original .45 magazine.

The left side of the receiver bears two numbers that I suppose to be a date, other 7,62 mm converted Thompson I know also have similar markings. If these number are the date of the transformation, I find surprising that all the six transformed TSMG I could examine are very late dated, mostly of the Vietnam war period. It could be either the date of conversion or the conversion could be older (perhaps at the end of the Chinese civil war). These obsolete guns could have been shipped later to communist Guerillas, like in Viet Nam and the date could be the date of registration by the north Vietnamese Army for example.

On the left side You can also seethe marking «S 45» in the same type of stamping as the original U.S. Marking. This marking looks rather original: do You know its meaning?

Friendly Yours.

LUC GUILLOU