British Submachine Gun Overview: Lanchester, Sten, Sterling, and More!
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- Опубліковано 11 бер 2017
- Armament Research Services (ARES) is a specialist technical intelligence consultancy, offering expertise and analysis to a range of government and non-government entities in the arms and munitions field. For detailed photos of the guns in this video, don't miss the ARES companion blog post:
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Great Britain was one of the few countries that went into World War Two with virtually no submachine gun development. Not every country had an issued SMG by 1939, but virtually everyone had at least been working on experimental concepts - except the British. It was only with the outbreak of hostilities that the need for such a weapon suddenly became apparent and its acquisition became a military priority.
This was solved by acquiring and copying the German MP28/II, which was quickly followed by a simplification program that would lead to the MkI, MkI*, and ultimately MkII and MkIII Sten guns. The Stens were truly exception studies in simplification, getting down to a mere 5.5 man-hours of production time. Only after the threat of immediate German land invasion had subsided was the Sten allowed to become a little bit user-friendly, in the MkV guise.
At the end of WW2, the British were finally able to scrap the Sten (known to be a compromise gun all along) and replace it with something with more finesse. Tests were run on the MCEM series, on BSA guns, on interesting prototypes like the double-stack-magazine Vesely V42 - but it was George Patchett's much improved Sten which would be chosen and come to be known as the Sterling SMG (named after it's manufacturer).
A couple corrections to the video:
- The MP28 was designed by Schmeisser, not Bergmann.
- The MCEM-2 was designed by Polish engineer Lt. Jerzy Podsendkowski. The -2 version of the MCEM was completed during WW2; it was the -4 and -6 versions that were post-war.
- George Lanchester was chief engineer at Sterling and ran the Lanchester project, but was not actually the lead designer himself.
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My Grandpa loved his Lanchester. He was issued one in late 1940 and he looked after it like it was his child. Trouble was, the RN found out that he was only fourteen and sent him home. They weren't unkind about it, they understood his intentions.
Gramps waited six months and joined the RAF instead. Spent the rest of the war in Burma, first flying in Stringbags as a WAG, then on the ground, basically as ad hoc infantry. He and his mates _loved_ the M1 carbine. He said it was exactly what you needed in a jungle fight.
We lost Gramps to cancer twenty years ago. I have been able to live my life the way I chose to because of men like him. That's all.
Your gramps sounds like one tough SOB mad respect
Your grandpa sounds like a very hardy man. They dont make guys like that anymore
The French agreed with him in Vietnam.
Indeed
My dad carried a Thompson in N Africa Sicily and Italy.
when I was about 8 I was in a funeral and all my uncles and father were in ww2 and I asked how does a machine gun work . They said go and ask your grandmother . so I went to the kitchen where she was making sandwiches . I asked gran how does a machine gun work she said what type of machine gun Sten , Bren, tommy gun. I said Sten I wasn't that sure what a Sten was, she said oh they are really simple and explained how they work and in detail how you make them . she spent the war making them . whenever I see a Sten I think of her
Smart idea: don't ask the ones who clean them, ask the ones who made them.
Your grandmother was in the kitchen during a funeral?
..the Grand mother was preparing food for the mourners..
It is a custom in ltaly and some parts of Asia..
I used to love listening to my grandparents talking about the war.
They weren’t educated people but their knowledge of the machinery used on both sides was quite amazing to me as a boy
@@manfredrichthofen2494 i live in Chile, and once i was on a funeral on the countryside about 35 years ago, roads were pretty bad, and in a poor country almost nobody had a car, so all trips were made on backhorse or ox cart, some mourners came from as far as 60 kilometeres on horse riding that is about two days on a hilly landscape and even more on an ox cart, so as you can see funerals were long, about a week, more or less depending on wheater if it was summer or winter ( a corpse will rapidly deteriorate under higher temperatures). Countryside houses were big and kitchens were a separate building were the fire was (firetrucks were unavailable outside the cities) so a funeral was a big thing, many people gathering, and the kitchen was always delivering food and wine at anytime of the day or night with no less than four women preparing food for the mourners. Now with paved roads if you get coffee you are lucky.
MP40: Iconic high quality sumbachine gun
Thompson: Balanced and well known
PPSh41: Iconic and deadly smg fed by drum magazines
STEN: *A N G R Y S T I C K*
When tf did this blow up so much
Meme Trooper historical accuracy at its finest
The sten really is just an angry tube
PPSH41 FED BY A COPIED DRUM MAGASINE🤬🤬🤬
@@randomguy80 From Suomi, right?
@@virgofmadness1417 YEES
I was recently in Africa, and actually saw a soldier with a Sterling. There’s a Sterling still out there in service.
They're still in service with south asia as well; india, nepal, bangladesh, et cetera
India also still produces then
Guys, it's Stirling with an 'I'. The other one is the lolly.
@@Bashnja1 dunno about 'lolly' but definitely Sterling - [the gun]
@@9inchpp
Former lndian Prime Minister was cut down with one by her bodyguard when she was assassinated...
God bless 🙏 her soul
If I'm not mistaken, India still produces the Sterling under license.
The Sterling was so good it was also adopted by the Galactic Empire!
SonOfAldabarran the MCEM is the rebel blaster from a new hope.
I was about to point this out as well.
Really? I thought the BSA entry became the Rebel blaster. I looks very SW to me.
And they could hit anything with them either.
Who miss with every shot.
The Sterling is in fact an ancient design. It was first used a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away ........
Glad someone else noticed this
@Pierre LeDouche There's a video on Tested with Adam Savage making a DL-44, and the guy he's working on the model with talks about the bull-barrel Mauser they used for Han's hero prop, and how gun collectors hated Star Wars model-makers for buying up those rare guns just to cut the barrel down and stick the flash hider on for their prop blasters.
@@Doinstuffman Jesus, why not just mock up a more widely-available gun? Why go for rarity?
@@fuzzydunlop7928 George Lucas really loved the WW2 asthetic. so where ever he could, those elements were used. If you look at the escape from the Deathstar sequence in A New Hope it's almost frame to frame of a B-17 gunnery filmstrip. Unfortunately, it's probably way The Last Jedi has those excruciatingly slow bombers in the first act. Plus at that point Pinewood Studios had a ton of real surplus weapons they'd been using in all those mega-WW2 movies made in the 60's that they considered next to worthless. They even chopped up some functional stg-44s to arm the rebel troopers on Hoth.
@@syaondri Bombers during WW2 are actually death sentences, the US pretty much had everything, a good industrial capacity and enough people to police the entire world while they faithfully fight for the country they love.
So even in the impractical situations of fighting suicidal paper planes or literal kraut rocketships they will have enough bombers to do fatal damage
1:08
My goodnesh, we need a sub machine gun immediately.
said Sean Connery apparently..
*shub machine gun
He didn't get one in time, though - that's why he got riddled by a Thompson...
[unexpected British noises]
Tea brewing intensifies.
@@rajeshpaleth8664 He brought a pistol to a Tommy fight.
"we can make this cheaper and simpler"
Army: "Thats a fine bike pump, but we wanted a sub machine gun..."
Perfect
@Hitler Did Nothing Wrong first off u r actually evil because of your name and second off ur so toxic.
@Hitler Did Nothing Wrong Why should he, I don’t think somebody with a name like yours should be telling anybody anything, let alone what to do with there mouth.
Edit- This person’s name used to be “Hitler did nothing wrong”, thus this comment.
*Grease gun intensify*
@@2ndcomingofFritz REEEEEEEEEEEE USERNAME BAD REEEEEEEEEE I AM ANGRY REEEEEEEEE USERNAME BAD
"Britain were unusual at the time"
I live here
You ain't seen nothing yet
Sir Henners 🇬🇧R🇬🇧E🇬🇧P🇬🇧R🇬🇧E🇬🇧S🇬🇧E🇬🇧N🇬🇧T🇬🇧
Oi bruv eu got a loicense fer that comment
You mean the new brits or the old ones?
lmfao deserves top comment
lol the queen needs replacing with a submachine gun
rip billy read
"Mostly Safe...
Mostly accurate...
Mostly reliable...
...it was good enough to get by."
This is quite possibly the best review of a gun or any product that I have ever heard!!! lol
Also this slogan could work for just about anything from Harbor Freight Tools!
Yep well stens were so cheap and easy to build some of them were built in occupied territory in people's basement shops and car repair facilities by people who often didn't know what they were building. just being given a barrel or a stock and being told to make 200 or so by the time we meet next week
6:42
That's exactly how I want all my exes to think of me!
Haha good comment 👍
@@yyy-875 hahaha you’re not wrong!!
My auntie used to do braising and welding on Sten guns at the BSA in Birmingham during WW2.
so shes to blame?
@Beth Schroeder It is in U
It is in British English
I initially read "welding" as "wedding" and was very confused.
@@princetonburchill6130 Braising is what you do to meat , especially beef . Very tasty too.Brazing is what you do to join metals . Not as hot as welding or as strong but not so damaging to the articles either. It is definitely brazing. see herewww.ghinduction.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/GH-Brazing-Guide1.pdf
[at the beginning of WWII]
Germans: “ja, unsere mp40s sind die besten Waffen”
Americans: “our Thompson may be expensive and unnecessarily heavy, but it’ll put holes in anything (excluding anything as thick as 1930s car doors)”
Finns: *finka*
Australians: “ah we goh awr Owens”
French: “ah oui, nous avons Le MAS-38”
British: “Well, fuck”
Russians: Da, we have PPD-38s and PPD-40s, blyad'.
British: FUCKING TWAT
Italians: "Si! e abbiamo il nostra Beretta Modello Trentotto"
I never knew why people always thought Thompson’s were heavy. I rented one on my birthday about a year ago and I was actually surprised about the weight. It wasn’t too bad.
@@danielevans8910 Because they were heavy. Heavier than the M1 main battle rifle.
Plus the weight becomes more of an issue when you have to March with it for miles.
When the Brits need a new submachine gun design- they need only a man, a shed, and 20minutes. Hence the Sten.
capten slow will love that coment James May
Many of the world's biggest inventions came from British guys in his shed escaping from the weather/wife.
Grover Honestly, the British and sheds are an untold love story.
+burtlangoustine1, You've just reminded me, i havent checked out Colin Furze's channel for some time. ;)
Yeah well, in this case they needed only a man, a shed, 20 minutes and a 25 year old obsolete german design to work off of...
Very good video. A WW2 veteran I knew once told me of how dangerous the Sten was to your own side owing to wear on the charging handle. He had heard, though never seen it himself, that if a cocked weapon was dropped or received a heavy knock, the gun would go off. British soldiers, with the sense of humor that soldiers have, said that the best way to clear a room with a Sten was to cock the weapon and throw the gun in through the window!
One of my geology professors served in a remote weather station in WW2 and were issued a Sten gun. It was dropped and discharged, killing one of the lads. They buried the Sten with the victim.
@@roscothefirst4712 An old WW2 vet told me back in the 70's that a guy jumped a truck dropped his bren it went off and killed him.ps not in the same league as the MP40, nickname for the sten BLOWLAMP & STENCH-GUN they were barely a gun really.
LOL
Because loose spring handle?
Surplus Sten guns from WW2 are still being used in India by various paramilitary forces. Recently, one Railway policeman dropped one and a mother-son pair both got shot.
Most armies: actual SMGs
British army: *A N G E R Y S T I C K S*
"I say old boy, whip up a couple of submachine guns for me, there's a good chap."
In the 1st world war any officer who spoke with that accent was normally shot in the back when going over the top just to get rid of the upper class twits that we have to put up with even now.
@@pathfinder303 No they weren't. You obviously know little, and read little, about true WWI soldiers. Many respected and loved there officers, upper crust or not. The death rate for field officers (Lieutenants, Captains, Majors) was the highest. They shared the dangers and most lead from the front. 'Old Soldiers Never Die' is a great memoir that goes into some of high opinions the ordinary rank and file had for their good officers, yes many, of them high 'haughty taughty' accents.
big bez Not all officers spoke with rp.
@Ric O’shea I'm aware, I'm pushing 40. It's our British understatement and finding the business tiresome I was implying :)
@@pathfinder303 Somebody's been watching too much BBC class warfare indoctrination.......Siefast has it correct.
Best impression ever.
We joke, but later on he corrects his pronunciation of Birmingham - I always appreciate how aware Ian is of small things like that - doing his best to pronounce things correctly and just generally get shit right. That right there, along with the quality of production, factual information and *ahem* perfect impressions, is why this is one of the few gun channels I can stomach.
REMF Tacticool and one of the few gun channels there for a bit that didn't pronounce ambidextrous as "ambidextryous"
I'm not too experienced in firearms in general, but I always find Ian's videos fascinating. There's so many generic gun channels on youtube that are hosted by archetypal 'Muricah alpha bro' types, who just want to act macho and blow things up. Ian comes across as more of a humble teacher-someone with a genuine passion for world history and firearms technology.
REMF Tacticool one dislike! lol...who does this? hilarious
Absolutely, couldn't agree more.
I love Ian's British impression XD
"MY GOODNESS! WE NEED A SUB MACHINE GUN!"
I know, it was laughably awful. It is the strong foreign accent Americans have, they just can't be removed!
In the 60's I worked at the the old Velocette motorcycle factory in Brum (Birmingham) building bikes and also as road tester. I recall seeing in the main workshop section, halfway up one of the girder supports, was a Sten gun welded to it' a memento of one of the many items the factory had made during WW 2.
I lived (and still live) in West Bromwich, at the top of our estate there was a little press shop works, in the early 80's when I was a kid, it closed down, a sten gun stock I think, was part of the sign outside, they used to make gun bits in the war. lots of little workshops made bits all over the place.
Sten- when you find about the test 1 hour beafore it but still pass
My father was in the RAF during WW2 and he was trained to shoot the Sten, when firing full auto from the hip, by letting the magazine rest on the left for-arm and holding left hand ON TOP of the front grip with the left hand PALM DOWN.
The idea being that the left for-arm would support the magazine and stop its weight rolling the gun over leftwards.
The left hand on top of the forward grip could push down on the top of the gun palm down would stop the barrel rising when shooting a burst.
Ian -- could you PLEASE PLEASE DO A VIDEO TRYING THIS OUT?
Of course what lads were told in training and what was done on the battlefield are two different things (and my Old Man was in the RAF so didn’t have to fire the Sten in anger). But the theory makes sense to me.
As a kid he used to get really angry when watching war movies when he saw actors blasting away with Stens holding the magazines. He insisted that this was not allowed as it would rock the magazine to-and-fro when shooting and cause the flimsy magazines to miss-feed. He would get out of his arm chair and adopt the pose to show the correct way to shoot a Sten!!!!
Besst wishes
Huw Jones
I believe your father was correct. My dad told me the same. He was also RAF armourer, post war 1958-1970. (Second best shot (RAF) with a Sten, his mate was first best, sometime in the mid 60s if I remember rightly).
+1
@Léo Mutombo link has nothing to do with anything, get lost.
Quite correct. The sergeant would kick your ass if he saw you holding the magazine,as it was really quite flimsy,and if moved out of alignment would jam the gun.
My uncle told me the very same! Under and over.
I and every squaddie I've ever met who carried and used the Sterling loved it, it's one of the most underestimated sub-machine guns ever, it was lovely to use and absolutely reliable, on single shot you could regularly fill the bull from 200 metres, I can't praise it highly enough.
Agreed, my wife was equipped with SMG, she loved it. Shortly before she retired she had to take the awful SA80. She is 5 foot nothing in stocking feet so the Sterling suited her stature, besides she was a SSgt R.E. not infantry.
In basic training my most vivid memory was putting round after round into a 2" group at 100m, a corporal kneeling on my right saying "Rounds in the magazine" after each shot, I didn't much like carrying it on exercise though as the cocking handle either caught on cam nets, or dug in to your back.
+Chaps ive fired the Sterling at 100m. In my entire career in what is considered an elite teeth unit and then a unit which was REMF. Most units fired the Sterling on the 30m range. Theres no bull on the standard F11. If you could group 2" at 100m and all in the Bull at 200m you must have been the best 2 shots in the British forces. I was proud of a sub 2" shot at 100m with the SLR. I bow to youre martial excellence. Every squaddie I served with thought it was useless "teeth and Remf". I didn't I thought it an excellent arm for its role. But it wasn't a 100m plus precision arm.
200m is a long way away. I never fired mine at that range. If you want to go that far you need a rifle or a gpmg
@@andysykes5604 My point is it was a great little weapon and a pleasure to use especially, if you were in a land rover, where getting in and out with the SLR was a feat in itself and the MK1 SA80 was no better with its magazine likely to jump out at any time with no logical reason, also the sterling was more accurate than it had a right to be, even if you could hit someone with a 9mm pistol round at 200 metres the chances of stopping them are extremely remote.
I was in the Royal Engineers, bomb disposal, we were expected to be in trenches digging out live ordnance, the Sterling was my personal weapon short enough to be a handy defence, rather than lugging around the longer SLR which would have got in the way, it wasn't known for its accuracy, but easy to take apart and clean. I remember being on the ranges in South England in the driving rain, having to blow the rain out of the hole in the back sight! to have any chance of hitting the target.
"If it's not raining, it's not training"
@@AshleyPomeroyif it's not snowing, I am not going.......
The reserve unit I was with in the early 1980s used Sterling. The easiest weapon to qualify on and to maintain.
I honestly couldn´t hit a barn door with one compared to the SLR, and I even used to represent the Regiment in .22 shooting for over 4 years.
Yep my weapon to in the 80s.
"my goodness, we need a submachinegun immediately" Lol!!!
Nick Maclachlan always.
Yes the Sterling, or as most people know it, the E-11.
Kveldulf the War Ostrich must be a stormtrooper from star wars
Most people? The Sterling was known as the Sterling or SMG by the British.
The SMG was the primary personal weapon for Armour crews (MBT & CVR). A MBT crew could dismount their GPMGs.
When a MBT crew were dismounted and formed an Infantry section (2 crews per section) they would have 4 GPMGs, 8 SMGs.
Peter King
Wooooosh
Rechambered in 9mm plot.
We always called it the SMG when I carried one...
I really love when Ian pulls out an incredibly rare and valuable gun like it’s nothing
As a former infantryman I can appreciate side magazine or top magazine format as it allows you to get closer to the ground. Sticking your head up even just a little bit can be deadly. The battle of Long Tan, Vietnam, demonstrated this. Inches can mean the difference when faced with grazing fire. Get down, stay down. It was a mantra in my time.
really good point
Very informative indeed, and it filled in a few blanks for me too.
I fired the L2A3 quite a lot as a British Army CMT (Combat Medical Technician) and always found it very smooth indeed to fire. I also invented my own reloading method. Normally, you just grab the mag with one hand and stuff the rounds in with the other. That's fine for a mag or two, but the sharp edges on the mag lips do tend to start hurting your fingertips when you're loading mags for the whole troop at a time.
My method was to place the narrow side of the mag on the ground and put your foot on top of it so that the banana-shape brought the mag opening an inch of so off the ground and was firmly held by your bootsole. Then place your beret (or other receptacle) underneath the opening, tip a 50-box of NATO 9 rounds into it and proceed to load the mag with both hands. My "record" for loading 30 rounds stood at around eight seconds. It was not only much faster, but also, blessedly, spared your fingertips.
Anyway, thanks once again for uploading another hightly interesting video.
MsG
That's cool - was your technique written up and others trained in it? I'm guessing by what I've heard about the armed forces that no - they sadly didn't.
I honestly cannot visualize in my head what you would be doing to load those mags. You got a vide doing that?
@@alephkasai9384 Sorry, but I can't help with a video. I joined the British Army at the beginning of 1966 and "videos" weren't even invented.
The Smudge mag is oblong in shape and curved. You place the narrow side of the mag on the ground and place your foot on it near the bottom end to hold it in place. That brings the opening of the mag about two inches off the ground with the "rear surface" (as it were) facing downwards towards the ground. Then you just feed in the rounds with both hands.
Of course, the British Army is steeped in "tradition", so my method was only shared between the comrades in our immediate troop.
MsG
Please, tell me the one at 19:00 was nicknamed "the wanker".
"Sir, we got a new shipment of guns for the troops" - "Good, let those wankers be handed out some wankers!"
Britain: we need an smg as soon as possible
Some guy: I present the “angry tube”
Britain: perfect
*A N G E R Y Chube* 😂
I was discussing the Sten with an army sergeant years ago,and he told me that when firing the Sten as single shot you had to keep your thumb on the selector button,otherwise the vibration would cause the switch to slide through to automatic fire.
British soldiers were trained to hold the STEN by the handguard at the front. if you hold it by the magazine the recoil of the gun can bend the magazine and cause it to malfunction
burning newt also left handers cant hold on to the mag
but that doesn't matter cause it would only be fired right handed?
You mainly hold onto the magazine well and not the magazine itself. How they are trained to do it and what they did in the field are two very different things. If you look at many pictures of soldiers in the field with them they hold it by the magazine well
I think it's fair to say that training, and what soldiers actually did is a whole different matter. There are pictures of troops holding it by the magazine.
So yes, while it's technically incorrect and improper to hold it that way I bet a lot of people did.
that might work for the first magazine - after that I'm thinking all that metal will be so hot from the firing nobody's gonna hold it without heavy gloves. There's no choice but to hold this (all metal) gun by the mag well, that's why the Aussies added the front pistol grip to their Sten knock-off.
To add some perspective, General Motor's Guidelamp Division's M-3 "Grease Gun" was about $10.
That think was used even desert storm. How crazy is that?
@@17MrLeon jup. Met some ex-service members in the 2000´s who said the grease gun was by far their favourite SMG.
What would be the results of an impartial comparison between a Grease gun and a Sten?
Reliability, ease of use, accuracy, the important stuff.
And of course ease of manufacturing.
There must be some Commonwealth countries that used both?
Uncomparable. FGrease gun was simply perfect weapon and was in use until Desert Storm. Stengun on the other hand they could not wait till the end of the war to get rid of that gun.
Didn't the grease gun have ten cocking handles?
The knowledge this guy has is just mind blowing to me, dates, production runs even the designers and producers. New sub I'm gonna binge watch all day long thanks.
if i had a penny for every time i thought.... "My goodness... i need a sub-machine gun.. immediately!!" >_>
I'd have two pennies, which isn't a lot, but it's odd it happened twice.
>_>
Well done Ian, you have a unique talent to be able to synthesise so much information into a short space of time and communicate it in such a direct and non-egotistical way. Fascinating facts that a Thompson was 15 x the price of a Sten, extraordinary!
For the Star Wars fans out there like myself, you may recognize the Sterling submachine gun as the weapon that was used to make the E-11, the standard issue blaster rifle for the stormtroopers!
Only in its original specs the Stirling can actually hit a target..as opposed to the E11 blaster
As well as the DH-17!
The world: we need quality smgs
Germany: we gotcha
Britain: nahhh, we'll just make a metal tube and call it a day.
Funny but by the end of the war the Germans copied it ....
@@garwhittaker3743 Yup, from a strategic perspective, the Sten was the right gun at the right time. Good enough is usually good enough, which is something that German planners of WW2 completely failed to understand.
Same deal with the M3 Grease Gun. "Fuck these cool looking Thompsons, we'll take this ugly junk-looking gun because throwing bullets reliably is what counts in war".
Ian deserves an Oscar for his accurate British accent
Think I'm right in saying that the Sterling is still in production in India, or at least it was until recently. I've spoken to a number of British vets who can't speak highly enough of the Sterling, and (if they were non infantry) did everything in their power to hang on to theirs rather than going to the L85.
The Sten cost as little as 5 pence to manufacture.
For quite some time during the troubles, people allegedly made them in secrecy at a place called "Shorts Brothers". They did this presumably because of what was going on in Northern Ireland at the time; however i do not know much more on that point.
French Resistance fighters who used the STEN also began to weld a small plate in front of the ejector as allegedly, anyone whom was found to have a cut on their little finger would have been executed, because this was a telltale sign that they had used the STEN.
Also the way you held it is wrong. Holding it by the magazine adds stress and further increases the likelihood of a malfunction.
Got a question: why people hold the mag well with their palm up.
GenerationSmashed 8b659
"Quantity has a quality all it's own"
-Joseph Stalin
T-34 Be like.
@@kazmark_gl8652 T-34 is for aggravating the enemy into a panic because the swarm of armor never stops.
Soviet Blyatzkreig. Rush B to Berlin. Rush B to Britain. no stop comrade.
George Patchett was a brilliant motorcycle engine designer for the CZ company during the 1930's and also raced them for the company at the Isle of Man TT races and various events around Europe during that period. I have a picture of him sat on his CZ 350 OHV bevel gear driven camshaft racer prior to the 1933 IoM TT races, which he rode himself.
He was also the British Secret Service's man in Prague, despite the very public flamboyant and exciting lifestyle. George Patchett was a spy during the pre WW2 years.
His handler, Ian Fleming, based much of his James Bond character on George Patchett as they were close friends.
During the German annexation of Czechoslovakia, Patchett was the British agent who arranged for the escape of many Czech engineers from CZ to the UK, along with prototypes, blueprints and technical information.
The prototype Littlejohn squeeze bore adaptor was thrown, wrapped in sacking, by Patchett and Janacek (the inventor) over the back wall of the British embassy garden in Prague to prevent it falling into German hands. It was smuggled to the UK in diplomatic bags a few days later.
That's fascinating.
My Dad was not a fan of the Sten, he had become isolated from the main body and was being over-run when the Sten decided to jam! Fortunately,
help arrived, Dad survived and I'm here to write about it.
Jim Ball can't imagine my sten jammed while angry nazis with kar98s and mp40 rushing me. Good thing your dad survived
Alexander Challis
Why would a smaller, faster round doing more damage to armour be a surprise?
It could have been a surprise during WW2 when the u.s. were saying nothing smaller than a 30 cal in a rifle and 45 cal in a pistol was acceptable.
having extensive experience shooting the Sterling, Thompson and UZI, I can attest to its reliability. phenomenal reliability, soft shooting and control able gun!
Peter which uzi version?
There's my weapon. As an RAF Police Dog Handler 1983 - 88, I had a Browning SLP and the SMG ( as well as a Very Large and aggressive GSD ). Stock collapsed it slung easily out of the way. Short range / house clearing / prisoner handling ... it was fine and easy to use. But if a military vehicle hit a ' pig ' ( wild boar ) out in Germany you couldn't always despatch it humanely with the SMG. Its hairy hide was too tough and a skull of rock. Had to use the 7.62 SLR for that !
We have those wild hogs here in Texas too. They can get very big (200+ lbs) and pistol caliber guns don't do a lot
damn i love this type of knowledge, crazy that they were able to produce 500 sten guns within a shift
5.5 hours per gun, so probably two guns per shift (12hr shifts with some breaks for food in, coffee/tea out, and any work turnover at shift change), times 250 workers per shift and two shifts per day.
Doing 8hr shifts would have required 50% more workers. Good during the Depression to get people working, bad during a war when you need bodies at the front.
Holy crap, a sten mk1. This is why you run one of the best channels on UA-cam
And not just any Sten MkI; the very first Sten MkI. :)
Slight error Ian, in 1940 there was no Ministry of Defense (MoD) it was The War Office back then...
Vic Tuff and it hasnt been the royal army since the 1640s but he doesnt change
Production would have come under 'The Ministry of Supply'
Too many bureaucracies! :)
And that never changes! :-)
I DECLARE WAR ON YOU GOOD SIR!!!!
I first fired a Sten in 1960. It looked like a Mk2, but it had a full barrel shroud. We were taught to support the gun by holding the shroud with the left arm going under the magazine, never by holding the mag well. The RAF still had them in service in 1967 - at least overseas. I was stationed at RAF Salalah at the outbreak of the Omani war, and we had them there - along with Mk4 Lee Enfields. Both were replaced within a week of the beginning of the war - with Sterlings and SLRs. P.s the Sterling was supposed to be held in the same fashion as a Sten. As to it's ergonomics, who gives a fuck, in war you use what you have. P.P.s. It was discovered that the local airfield radar (an ACR7D) could spot mortar tubes being used by the insurgents. This experience was the genesis of the Cymbeline mortar spotting radar.
2:00
In Today's Value, I think it costs ~$150 USD for every Sten Gun made.
So, the Thompson would have probably been ~$3,000 USD in Today's Value.
Basically
Thompson or rtx 3090...
Choose wisely
@@yoriichitsugikuni6970 sorry, gotta go for the RTX 😢
Interesting follow-on, with these being declared obselete in '94, The Singapore Police Force was using these in the '80s and probably early '90s, before finally getting the MP5...
Wonder if the commandos used it as well, IF the commandos were formed at that time
It's Sunday morning, I've done the laundry, cleaned the house, what's on UA-cam? A new Forgotten Weapons vid, and it's about MY COUNTRY'S WEAPONS!
Is your washing machine in the kitchen?
Enemy Sub him gonna presume his is indeed in the kitchen. He's British after all.
+SubmarinerSix in the Utility room, that's where ours is.
Gregory Clark In the U.K. most people generally keep there washing machine and tumble dryer in the Kitchen, due to houses being smaller here
true, American houses are huge
My Dad's take on the Sten Mk2. Burma Jungle, Lushai Hills. 1942...end war. Fire from shoulder (with preferred left hand grip as you demonstrated). However : close quarters, you need maximum field of vision. You were extensively trained to, YES, fire instictively from the hip with the left (slightly overhand bearing down on the barrel just Infront of the magazine. This is not a myth. Constant, religious maintenance of weapon with special attention to the magazines orifice geometry. Dad, Sergeant, was RAF special Morse Group and had a Corporal. He traveled with a select Gurkha regiment. He loved the Gurkhas and spoke of them : "they were the best of the best" . And " I lost some very dear friends" . When Dad died in 2005, we went through all his papers and stuff. Quietly, without fuss he had been paying a small amount every month for years into The Gurkha Fund. Makes me cry. Great channel. 😊😊😊
As many noted the Sterling was costumed up to play the Galactic Empire's E-11 Blaster - which for whatever reason was amazingly inaccurate in the hands of the highly trained Imperial Stormtrooper.
But - I realized I had seen the BSA gun before - and low and behold it also had a starring role as the DH-17 Blaster issued to the Ill-fated Diplomatic Guard (or rebel scum) aboard the Alderranian consulate ship Tantive-IV.
Lucas Film was really good at taking real weapons and turning them into sci-fi guns like Han Solo's DL-44 made from a C-96 Broomhandle.
Also used for troop weapons on both sides of the war were the MG-34, an STG44, the WW1 Lewis Machine Gun, and others.
Lea's pistol was a Russian .22lr target pistol with a suppressor and wasn't really modified at all.
Boba Fett's blaster was a Webley & Scott flare gun with a 'muzzle shroud' and a scope added.
The Jawa gun was a Lee-Enfield with the ends cut down and the muzzle of a grenade launcher bolted on.
Basically every rifle and pistol used was a real gun that was modified to look sci-fi'ish. I personally believe that this made Star Wars guns something special - they just felt real compared to the plastic toys and flashlights used in Star Trek and other sci-fi's.
First time I ever saw a Stirling Patchett was in a movie based on an Alistair MacLean novel, "When Eight Bells Toll". It starred a very young Anthony Hopkins. My brother and I (10 and 13 y/o at the time) made crude copies using PVC pipe and various bits of wood. We also made a "toy" copy of the S&W M76 after seeing "The Omega Man", and a MAC-10 after "McQ" (the fake MAC used one of those realistic replica/prop P-38s as the base). My bro and I had the coolest guns when we played "army" with the other kids in the neighborhood =D
My brother later converted the toy Patchet to recreate a Star Wars blaster after THAT movie came out.
My dad made me a Bergmann like smg and also a MAC-10. Used to make various guns from Lego and tape them up to make them secure. I think there is a Patchett in that film they made after the war about Arnhem, Theirs is the Glory, I'm wondering if the photo he shows is actually from that, in production so to speak.
When I was at school, I made a wooden model of a Thompson 1928 AC. Quite tricky! I made the fins out of 2mm plywood, and threaded them onto the barrel. I made a working copy of the Lyman sight. It looked very convincing. I now have an Air-soft replica with a drum magazine. It fires single shot BB's
*Secretly loves the Sterling for style and cold war service*
Also the red caps running around arresting drunk squaddies with that thing yesss XD
IronLawl k
Sterling was a great weapon. When I served in the British army this, the L1A1, the Bren and GPMG were our main weapons. You didn’t mention that the sterling was also the stormtroopers blaster from the first Star Wars movies.
Richard Noon all goodweapons
Minor correction, the Sten Mk5 was issued with a wooden front grip. There’s plenty of reference photos that show it.
11:10 My younger self cried at that sound. Having been trained on the Swedish CG m/45B (Swedish K), making that sound when dissasembling meant you got to run 2 laps around the regiment grounds. Any more then 5 klicks would have you do that.
Propper way was to take an empty casing or the like and hold the plunger down while unscrewing, same in reverse when asembling.
Dunno if that is possible with the STEN types, but the sound is exactly the same and has me going "nooo, not the freaking run again!"
Yes, if you rotate the magwell down it disengages the ratchet. I use a thin piece of sheet metal to disengage the ratchet plunger on my swedish k.
A finger nail is enough but it will leave a jack. Luckily you don't take the barrel off that often, so nails have time to grow out. (talking about the m/45B)
Miner 2049er q
"My goodness we need a submachine gun, immediately" you should put that on your T shirts
I was using the sterling sub machine gun (aka the SMG) throughout my Army Career until 1986 and was surprise to see it appear the the star wars movie part IV A New Hope in about 1978 I later found the props dept had produced a plastic model based on the SMG it was obviously not the original SMG when you see the stars like Harrison Ford waving them around one handed you really couldn't have wave a real SMG around like that as they were too heavy even with the magazine removed!
The Sterling Gun is like the MP18 Bergmann's British nephew twice removed.
Ian, your impersonation of a British general was SPOT ON! LOL
Interesting stuff as per, BTW the Sterling was later adopted by the Empire after some modifications
Props to Ian for correcting himself on Birmingham
I concur and as a Brumie it refreshing to hear an American use the correct pronunciation!!
@@TheScaleModeller brummie [sigh]
There is one thing that I never could wrap my head around with Sten (and there is a possibility I even asked this question prior under different Sten video):
Was it really THAT cost-effective to drop any sort of handle or, if staying with elements already in MkII, keeping the magazine well so short? The horrible ergonomics of this gun and the enless issues with feeding due to people grabbing it by the magazine or slipping their hand off the mag well, tilting the magazine and causing it to mis-feed are something that became pretty much the integral part of "the Sten experience".
So was it really this damn important to cut down the mag well as much as possible? It could be an inch longer and it would have solve almost all the issues with feeding this gun had due to people instinctively grabbing it by the well or the magazine. It doesn't really seem like it makes that much of a difference in terms of material needed to make the gun or extend production time in any way (since it would be still part of a stamping), while it would be far more reliable to use due to such change.
What am I missing then?
I’m 9 months late but, I’m not sure 100% what you’re saying but you have to keep in mind this gun was just meant for soldiers and the army, it was also meant to arm resistance forces, it was a simple gun easy to use and it didn’t have a bottom mag as in a defensive urban environment such as London or so laying down would be beneficial so having a side mag was for the purpose of laying down
Same question. Simple and dirt cheap stamped metal handle could solve the problem.
To quote stalin "Quantity has a quality all its own."
It was good enough. Any modifications had to make it cheaper/faster to make.
The times, with Dunkirk, there was a scramble to arm anyone with a fast firing weapon. A .303 is a great bullet, with a great rifle, but climbing through a window with it would present problems. So any gun, that could kill the enemy, is still a gun
@@SA-ks3ex Even just having a longer well would solve it, since there would be just enough space to grab the well and not the mag. And they went through few "Marks" of it, while the problem was well-known from the start... and nothing was ever done with it. It's not even "good enough, keep making it". It's "well-known feeding issue that all the troops and even resistance forces report due to awful ergonomics".
One more inch of stamped steel. That's all that was needed.
Ian always produces great videos on historical firearms.Thank you Dude! Much appreciated!
I have heard that both the british and aussie SAS still use the suppressed Sterligs in limitid numbers.
I would not be surprised if they do.
there was a supressed weapon called the L34A1 used primarily by the SBS
There was also a Police Version in semi auto only.
imperial Stormtroopers also use them, while the rebels prefer the BSA one ;)
Sterling is still issued to Indian police and paramilitary, I fired one in my school days.
It's funny when you realize that a e-11 and a dh-17 from star wars are based on a Sterling and a bsa
fat festus They are SMG's in the Star Wars movies, with the butt folded.
I don't care what anyone tells you. Your British accent is SPOT ON!!!!
Lol. He does have a Scottish family name after all.
They've lived on the same island for centuries.
Ouch, my Aaarghhh voice in the head came out then from 1971 when you tapped the Sterling' magazine into it's click position. My arms instructor would have had me doing 5000 press-ups if I'd have done that hehehe.... it was always put in with your left hand fully around the magazine (near to the rounds end) and placed in firmly. I remember hoping at my next unit (after each posting) that my personal weapon would be a Sterling instead of the SLR ... much easier to qualify on hehe... I was in the Royal Corps of Signals and at a mobile unit on my last stretch but I got an SLR to lug around instead -- what a bugger!... I do appreciate the amount of time put into researching these weapons and some we've never heard of though, it's strange though that we always come back to the BullPup which was never adopted and Studler' influence.
Never quite understood why we did not ask the Russians to supply us with blueprints of their tanks and sub machine guns. On both counts they produced superior weapon systems. Some years ago I was speaking to two of my good friends, both former members of the German Airborne. I asked were there any allied pieces of kit they wish they had in their armoury. They answer was a definite, 'no!!!!' Troops need kit they are confident with.
Probably the best Sunday this year so far! Thanks Ian!
Nice video very informative,I was actually in service when the SMG was eventually phased out.I was actually initially trained on the SLR as well and saw Service with this for about 12 months prior to the SA80 making its appearance.
Have vivid memories on the ranges doing Wild Geese impersonations with the NCOs as we assaulted the pop ups berets slightly at a jaunty angle steaming obscenities to imaginary Krauts.
Skip forward maybe 2 years whilst serving in Northern Ireland we came across a haul of crude home made SMGs which were found in an illegal weapons hide.
One of our Blacksmiths(Engineers) was asked how long it would take him to replicate one of these?It took him less than a day to produce what was a very crude weapon on the surface but what was also a very effective method of laying down multiple rounds in quick succession.
So crude and so effective it was in fact he then had to make several more for his Senior Officers for their own private collections in the Armoury.
No safety ,just cock,point then spray.
Just thought I would share this.
Amazing. As an engineer I really like looking at the design changes and inspirations that inventors of the past we able to use. They also paved the path for future designs and thus the modern and hopefully post modern creations.
The L2A3, my personal weapon for 3 years. Can't fault it. 28 rounds, 1.5 inch grouping @ 25 yards. I loved it.
Blast 'em! Hay Ian little bit of trivia The Sterling was the bases for the stormtrooper blaster in the Starwars franchise.
And the BSA was the base for the Rebel equivalent.
I just was to say that, the conic front is very recognizable
Awesomeness. If only Ian could share our love of Star Wars...
actually the sterling was also the DH-17 pistol as well, they just gave it a different barrel housing based on the BSA. You can tell by the grip configuration and controls. Interesting fact, the DH-17s in A New Hope were cast props and couldn't actually fire. They did make a firing one for Empire Strikes Back but it wasn't used.
Obsidian Noxid I was really hoping he would mention it
Being British myself that wasn't to bad for an impression. However it's more like ' I say old chap, we need to have one of those bloody things'
More like, "I dare say, old boy, we raaather need one of those whatsits, hmm?"
@N Have you met a WW2 imperial army general?
@N I doubt many war veterans were toddlers, but i meant that the way people speak change a lot over time, so ww2 generals (who would be about 50 at the time) would speak very differently to anyone British around today.
@N sorry, but this is how the upper-classes did speak, and *many* still do. It's "RP" received-pronunciation, boarding-school English.
I work with mainly retired pilot-instructors/test-pilots , and I would say at least half of the older guys still talk like a 1930's movie. I hear phrases like "dear-boy" "golly!" and "old-chap" EVERY single day. certain-circles.
you'll get a kick out of this ua-cam.com/video/r_b1Y-Rl_Uo/v-deo.html
N Churchill was born in 1874 (19th century) so that’s probably why you’ve never met anyone that talks like that... because they all died in the 1960’s. Use your brain lad, that’s 19th century posh obviously nobody talks like that in the 21st century.
That small machine pistol still looks futuristic today , I carried a sterling for a while , and loved it.
Thanks Ian for doing this. I’m watching this while my mom is in the hospital. It helps me deal with that by giving me a mental break.
Well done for pronouncing 'Birmingham' properly. Fascinating insights as always.
Ian can you please do a video on the history of left hand military shooter it something of that sort? I've always been curious as to the history of how military dealt with left hand shooters being one and all. Did they have to adapt or were some of them forced to shoot right?
Most, if not all, armies up until very recently forced all shooters to shoot right handed. In Norway, where I served for a little over 3 years, they did not start to take in to consideration left handed shooters until the late 1990s.
S shan: the Sergeant screams att them until the do as the rest. Now the military can´t no that kind of stuff anymore. so some militarys weapons are changed, so left hand shooters don´t get hot brass in the face.
The British army still has not dealt with it even today. Even the latest variations of the SA80 are still right hand only. Grrr.
First they started adding deflectors so the brass would not hit your face and most modern assault rifles have ambidextrous controls (safety, charging handle).
In tight formation line infantry times and tactics it propably was advantagous to have everybody shoot with their right hand...
S Shan...I'm a lefty and I had to get a GI issue deflector for one of my M1 carbines. The brass would hit me in the forehead every time I would shoot. It would draw blood because the case would flip perfectly that the top of the brass would hit
The Stormtrooper's E-11 Blaster Rifle is literally a sterling with a sight.
Throw a scope and some stuff on it to make it look sci-fi and bam
An old Sherman tank sight, turned backwards.
And a Hobbs hour meter (that big square block) on the side. Well, not a Hobbs branded one, one of the European equivalents. If you look close you can see the eagle logo on the hour meters in the movies.
This is indeed a superb video: very informative but also entertaining. What a bunch of interesting and futuristic prototypes! Thanks Ian!
Very nice breakdown of the British SMG evolution. 👍✌
Well done Ian and thank you.
The last time I fired the Sterling was back in '06 & prior to that, all the way back in 1976.
Surprisingly accurate for a 1940's SMG design & I actually preferred it to the "sexier" H&K MP5.
Excellent clear description of the progress of the Sten and its rivals
*Thank you for posting all of your videos. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!*
I'm laughing to much at your "English" accent. Or should I say "Attempt" at one!
Love the show Ian. Thanks!
Got to fire a stirling smg when I was 15 in the cadets, that full auto grin never leaves!
What is the cadets, is that a UK deal?
@@johnbacon4997 in the UK back in the 80's there was the Combined Cadet Force (CCF) at my school and other schools, split into Air Cadets and Army Cadets. The Air Cadets still exist now in the UK and Canada, I have no idea about the CCF now though.
madcableguy - yep, my old school still has its CCF section. You made me grin as I remember getting yelled at for emptying the mag in one go :-)
Ian, Loved the overview of all the sub machine guns in the family before you go ahead and take a deeper look at each individual weapon. Keep up the good work 👍
about the Sten: "good enough to get by"; tell that to the guys who killed Heidrich
thats, why it´s always a good idea to carry some grenades
Was a satchel charge that fucked up Heydrichs day!
@Paul Fletcher Sten is unreliable,even today. Low velocity,and akin to a pea shooter. You need a high velocity 7.62 to make sure when a bullet hits,the dude goin down,n stayin down. Adrenaline is huge when a situation demands. The big old human body can take massive trauma,and the muthfucker will still charge,even after taking hits,less youze lucky.
@Paul Fletcher I have fired thousands of rounds out of this cheap and nasty pea shooter. And they are very prone to stoppages,and only go bang negligently,when handled by negligent shooters. About the only decent feature,is the safety catch.
I read accounts that the Sten guy didn't take safety off, rather the Sten jammed. In any case, if that one jammed that day, hundred of thousands others functionned fine during the whole world and even years after.
one of your most informative videos so far. very nicely done
I own a Sten MK II with the wire stock. Such a smooth shooting SMG. Love it!
Ian - thank you. I loves the TADA! moment when you talked about the EM2. I was a Royal Navy officer 1992-2007 so I saw the waning of the Sterling and eventually the Browning Hi Power and the waxing of the L85-A1/A2. I work as a military consultant now and your channel is fantastic and enjoyable CPD. : )
EM2 is so similar to the SA80, I tought bullprup rifles were a modern design, very cool weapon for its time
EM2 was absolutely cutting edge at the time.
Studler and US BuOrd absolutely fucked over small arms development for a good 40 years with the 7.62x51. 😠😠😠
Would love to see a similar video based around Australian submachine guns.
And Canadian too .
The M.O.D (Ministry of Defence) was not formed until 1st April 1964. In simplistic terms during WWII the respective departments were: The Admiralty, for the Royal Navy; the War Office, for the Army and the Air Ministry for the Royal Air Force.
Always enjoy your highly informative videos.
This is one of your best and most informative videos, Ian.
Absolutely LOVE your videos , such fascinating information!