Recently, a rare thing happened at our house. I was left alone in my paperwork archives to just browse through the layers of paper. This may seem trivial to many of you, but sometimes I get lucky enough to be able to enjoy my collection.

I found upon reading several folders of military paperwork awaiting to be properly filed several interesting tidbits of information. The following is an explanation of these documents.

Many collectors have come across trigger frames for the Thompson which had no visible serial number markings under where the buttstock attaches for both the M1928 and Ml Thompsons. Several persons have speculated that this was for spares for the military or reproductions made after WWII. Well according to TB ORD 141 (Technical Bulletin), the War Department issued the following requirement for the deletion of serial numbers from the frame. To summarize the bulletin the serial numbers on the trigger frames were confusing the troops in the field when they did not match the frame serial number. Which was not really surprising since if the Thompson went into Depot maintenance the Armorer would use what ever parts he had available to repair the gun and get it back into combat.