m50 reising
The M50 Reising was a .45- caliber submachine gun initially developed for use by American police. Compared to its main competitor, the thompson_submachine_gun, the Reising boasted similar firepower, better accuracy, lower weight, better balance, and of course was quicker and cheaper to produce. After the attack on Pearl Harbor and faced with an insufficient supply of Thompsons, the Navy Department adopted the Reising into service with the Navy and Marine Corps at the end of 1941.
Unfortunately, the Reising soon proved itself to be a poor weapon. Many of its parts were hand-fitted at the factory, making maintenance difficult, and its overly-complicated closed-bolt design jammed frequently in combat conditions. During the fighting on Guadalcanal, the Marines quickly learned to despise the weapon, one unit even chucking their entire supply of Reisings into a nearby river rather than ever risk them being issued or grabbed in favor of a better weapon. The Reising was withdrawn from service by 1943, with existing weapons issued to guards on the home front, the OSS, or Lend-Lease.
The experience soured the Marine Corps so much on submachine guns, in fact, that instead of continuing to search for a Thompson replacement or adopting the m3_submachine_gun from the Army, the Marines instead simply ceased issuing new submachine guns for the remainder of the war, turning en masse instead to the m1_carbine to fill the roles of close-combat and rear-line weapon.
As a variant, the M55 Reising has a folding wire stock rather than a full wooden one, but is functionally the same weapon.