Weapons named after people

Big Bertha
Bowie knife
Colt
Derringer
Garand
Gatling
Mauser
Maxim
Thompson
Winchester
Smith and Wesson
Any others?

 

Smith Gun.
Lanchester.
Carl Gustav.
Fairbairn Sykes.
Anything named Vickers.
Martini-henry
Mills Bomb.

Sort of endless. Maybe more specifically named after an individual?

~A

 

Right. Good point. Individual....Also had never seen the Lanchester, thanks for that.

 

Well, there's the biggie....

...the CHURCHILL tank

 

Atomic Annie

M65 Atomic Cannon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Maybe we should limit to un motorized individual weapons named after actual people. ... Pretty big can of worms now I think about it.

 

you did open it...

 

There was the Lewis gun, the Browning Automatic Rifle (named for the company that developed it, which in turn was named after the founder...so...by default...), the Sten gun (IIRC, the Sten was named by combining the names of the two men who came up with it).

 

alright here's some others:

http://www.marlinfirearms.com/about/history.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remington_Arms
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beretta

 

Who can forget about the famous Gatling Gun?

 

I think we should rule out those named after the manufacturer or designer, otherwise the list gets too long, so I give you the Schmeisser aka MP40 as Herr Hugo Schmeisser had nothing to do with it's design. IIRC the EN in STEN is for Enfield, linke the one in BREN (Brno + Enfield) so it's a location, thought the ST could be Stirling (have to look it up).
And if we accept the Churchill we should include the KV and JS tanks, naming a military project after a political bigwhig is good insurance against having it killed. And of course most US tanks are nicknamed after US generals.

 

Yep - dead ones!

 

Boys Anti-Tank Rifle.
Luger.

 

You are close, the STEN name came out of names of the designers (R. V. Shepard and H. J. Turpin) and from the factory where they worked (Enfield arsenal). And if I'm not mistaken the magazine used in the MP was designed by Herr Schmeisser, and that name was stamped on the early magazines leading to the "mis-naming" in allied lingo.

 

Funny how German manufacturers failed to name a single weapon or weapon's system after Adolf Hitler, yet Bertha Krupp has TWO artillery pieces named after her. The first was for the Krupp built 420mm Siege piece. The second was bestowed by Parisians, suffering under a 75 mile long artillery barrage from the longest barrelled weapons ever manufactured. I forget the calibre, but the Paris Guns had ammunition that was numbered, due to excessive friction causing barrel wear, so each shell had to be slightly larger than the next in line.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this unique? To have both sides of a conflict bestow the same name on two different weapons systems, both with the same thing in mind, a large, loud woman whose bark was nearly as intimidating as her bite?

Also, lets see if we can tag the most ridiculous or inappropriate name ever attached to a weapon. My vote would go to an SOE issue pistol called "The Little Alright", a sleeved, wrist activated weapon for clandestine use.

 

The Brown Bess....Prove me wrong....Did I say that out loud...?

 

The Krupp "biggies" were usually called after family members, IIRC the WW1 420 was the Grosse Berta.
The "Paris Gun" was 210mm (new barrel) that increased to 240mm after 50 rounds and 260mm after 100, after 150 rounds the inner barrel became unusable !!!
Considering the 210 bore it was an incredible 170 calibers long, IIRC the Germans had nicknamed it Kaiser Whilhelm.
During WW2 a rather similar 210/196 was in serrvice called Lange Gustav. They also had a280/76 Schlanke Berta, a Theodor Bruno (240/35), Kurtz Bruno (280/40) a Lange Bruno 280/42 and Schewere Bruno (280/42), the final ones (280/56)was the Neue Bruno, I think the "Anzio BelIe" was a Neue. The 380mm were Sigfried. Wonder who Dora was , she doesn't appear in the family tree in the Manchester book on the Krupps.

 

IIRC, Dora was the name of the engineer's daughter who designed the barrel or something like that. I know she was the daughter of a main engineer, just don't recall engineer of what exactly.

 

guns : Berthier Lebel, Chauchat,

Planes : Junkers, Dornier, Messerschmitt, Saulnier Morane, Brequet, Dewoitine,

Tanks : Renault , Sherman, Mathilda

 

Heh...planes....don't forget the WW1 Fokker series....named for every little fokker who flew one.