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| The STEN Submachine Gun Jan Hyrman The Second World War saw the final move from rifles to submachine guns, which certainly was very painful for the British Army of the late 1930's. The Thompson submachine guns were supplied by the United States in large quantities, yet they were a very expensive solution to the problem, even after the cost cuts and the simplification of production (see the article on the Tommy gun). The British Army, with its rapidly growing numbers of personnel, needed a weapon which would be easy and, above all, cheap to produce. A British copy of the German MP 28, the Lanchester submachine gun, was hastily put into production and issued to the troops just in time for the battle for France in 1940, but the gun had not one of the predicates needed. A simply built design, with some inspiration taken from the captured German submachine guns, was made by Major R.V. Sheffield and H.J. Turpin, who gave the gun its name, together with the factory producing it, Enfield (S - Sheffield, T - Turpin, EN - Enfield). Calibre was 9mm, the gun was 76.2cm long and weighed 3 kgs. It could fire 550 rounds per minute and was fed from 32-round magazines. The submachine gun consisted of just 47 parts and only two of them, the bolt and the barrel, were machined. First STEN guns were issued to the troops in 1941. Although some features had to be adjusted, it completely replaced the Thompson by June 1944. |
| The original Mk. I design, with flash hider, wooden furniture and folding handgrip, had a short life, cut by the Mk. II, which, in turn, was produced in tens of thousands and eventually reached a total of two million pieces, manufactured in Britain and Canada. It could be fitted with a silencer, making it the world's first submachine gun with such possibility. Large numbers were made for the special troops. The 1944 Mk. III was an even simpler design by the Lines Bros. toy company. It was probably the best version of the STEN, however, it was not produced in large numbers. The Mk. V was a special version for airborne units - it had a wooden butt and a pistol grip, a fore grip and a bayonet lug were added as well. The fact that the weapon was partly inspired by the German MP40 provided advantages as well as disadvantages. Due to the same caliber 9mm ammunition from its German counterpart could be used freely. On the other hand, the magazine, based on the same system, tended to jam, or alternatively, the weapon was prone to fire freely when dropped, which was the cause of many accidental wounds or even deaths. Despite the improvements made, it was not a very popular weapon among the troops. It was nicknamed the "Plumber's Nightmare" due to its resemblance to a piece of a pipe, however, though not being the most favoured weapon on the battlefield, it did provide the service it was made for. |