The Sten — Meet the $10 Submachine Gun That Helped the Allies Win WW2

Britain produced nearly 5 million sten guns during World War Two.
Britain produced nearly 5 million Sten guns during World War Two.

“Nearly 5 million Stens were manufactured before the end of 1945.”

WITH A NAZI invasion of the United Kingdom all but certain in the summer of 1940, Prime Minister Winston Churchill famously vowed that Britons would fight the Axis on the beaches, landing grounds, fields, streets and hills of England. But to do so, the nation would need weapons… and lots of them — weapons like the Sten gun.

First dreamed up in the opening months of the war and rushed into production during the Battle of Britain, the Sten was a bargain-basement sub-machine gun that could be produced quickly and in great numbers.

An early variant of the sten gun.

The three-kilogram, all-metal weapon fired eight rounds per second from a horizontally-loaded, 32-round magazine. Cleverly chambered for German 9 mm pistol ammunition, the Sten was effective to about 100 meters (300 feet).

At the time, each Sten gun cost as little as £2 ($10) to produce – roughly equal to about $130 or £80 today. By comparison, the American M1A1 Thompson went for a staggering $200 per unit in 1940![1]

And while by October of 1940, Hitler had postponed his plans for a cross-channel invasion, Allied factories continued to crank out Stens by the thousands and would do so for the next five years. In fact, nearly five million Stens were manufactured before the end of 1945. The weapon would serve in every theatre and go on to become the most recognizable British small arm of the war. Here are some other facts about the venerable Sten.

The Sten gun was Britain's principle sub-machine gun of World War Two.
The Sten gun was Britain’s principal sub-machine gun of World War Two.

What’s In a Name?

“Sten” is actually an acronym for its inventors: Reginald Shepherd and Harold Turpin of the Royal Small Arms Factory of Enfield (Shepherd, Turpin and Enfield = “Sten”).

A factory worker shows off a new Sten gun. (Image source: WikiCommons)

The Simplest SMG

Made from cheap, stamped-metal parts and requiring only a bit of welding, a single Sten could be produced at a workbench by a semi-skilled labourer in few hours — a fully outfitted factory could produce hundreds of the weapons in a shift. Early variants of the gun were built with fewer than 50 parts. What’s more, Stens required almost no oiling, making them a snap to maintain in the field.

A British para charges forward with a Sten. (Image source: WikiCommons)
A British para charges forward with a Sten. (Image source: WikiCommons)

Ugly, But it Works (umm…. sort of)

Awkward and unsightly, the Sten’s all metal construction, from the tip of its stubby barrel to end of its skeleton butt stock, was a clear departure from the more elegant looking American Thompson SMG or the Royal Navy’s Lanchester (which itself was a direct copy of Germany’s First World War era MP-18 ‘machine pistol’). Even Germany’s entirely utilitarian looking MP-40 was considerably more handsome than the ungainly Sten. Despite this, the British public adored its homegrown submachine gun. Tommies on the other hand were less than enthusiastic about the weapon.

The shop floor of a British sten gun factory.

Performance Issues

In addition to being hard on the eyes, Stens were prone to jams, misfires and stoppages. The guns had an unfortunate tendency to blaze through an entire clip when dropped, jostled or even just set down carelessly. Surprisingly, Commonwealth troops eventually used this shortcoming to their advantage in combat. A squad of infantrymen could clear a room by simply tossing one or two loaded and cocked Stens through a door or window. The guns would discharge on impact and rattle away in every direction until empty.

Variants of the sten gun.

Many Versions

Although originally rushed into production under the designation “Mk. II Sten”, there were at least six different variants of the weapon produced during the war. These include a Canadian version of the Mk. II, an Australian edition known as the AuSten gun, as well as the more rugged and reliable Mk. V with an all-wooden stock and fore and aft pistol grips. Mk. Vs could also be fitted with a socket-style bayonet and featured a small angled mirror on the muzzle that enabled the user to peek around corners. A suppressed version was also manufactured as well as a super compact pistol-sized variant known as the Mk. IV.

A French guerrilla uses a Sten during the 1944 battle for Paris. (Image source: WikiCommons)
A French guerrilla uses a Sten during the 1944 battle for Paris. (Image source: WikiCommons)

DIY Stens

While tens of thousands of Stens were airdropped into Nazi-occupied Europe by the Allies, underground movements actually set up secret workshops to manufacture their own copies of the weapon. Danish, French and Norwegian partisans built hundreds of domestic duplicates, while the Polish engineered several improvised versions right under the Nazis’ noses.

The MP 3008, a late war Nazi knock-off of the British sten.
The MP 3008, a late war Nazi knock-off of the British Sten.

Hitler’s Sten Guns

It wasn’t just underground armies that built copies of the Sten. The Nazis were so impressed with the weapon, they built their own. In addition to producing 28,000 Mk. IIs for infiltration and espionage purposes, by the war’s end, armaments factories throughout the shrinking Third Reich turned out modified copies of the dirt-cheap SMG for Volkssturm formations. The MP 3008, as it was known, was virtually identical to the Mk II, save for a vertical magazine configuration.

An Israeli commando demonstrates the use of Sten gun. (Image source: WikiCommons)
An Israeli commando demonstrates the use of Sten gun. (Image source: WikiCommons)

Post War Stens

The British army continued to use the weapon into the 1960s, as did a number of other militaries the world over. Belgium, Israel, Jordan, India and Pakistan all either used British-built Stens or produced their own knock-offs for decades after the Second World War, as did Argentina, South Vietnam, South Africa and Indonesia. During the 1991 break up of Yugoslavia, Croatian nationalists manufactured a domestic Sten-inspired SMG known as the Pleter 91.

American Sten Guns

U.S. Special Forces carried suppressed Stens in South East Asia. During the 1980s, the Texas-based arms manufacturer known as International Ordnance based its ultra-cheap MP2 sub-machine gun on the old Sten design. During the same decade, an American gun enthusiast and entrepreneur by the name of William York began selling trigger-less Sten clones known as Sputter Guns. The weapons, which would fire off an entire magazine when the bolt was pulled back and released, were engineered to circumvent firearms laws that prevented civilians from owning automatic weapons. In 1985, Sputter Guns were outlawed.

The Gun the Soldiers Loved to Hate

As mentioned, the Sten had something of a chequered reputation with the troops, as this World War Two-era poem illustrates:

Ode to a Sten Gun

By Gunner. S.N. Teed

You wicked piece of vicious tin!
Call you a gun? Don’t make me grin. 


You’re just a bloated piece of pipe. 

You couldn’t hit a hunk of tripe.

But when you’re with me in the night,

I’ll tell you pal, you’re just alright!

Each day I wipe you free of dirt.
Your dratted corners tear my shirt.

I cuss at you and call you names. 

You’re much more trouble than my dames.

But boy, do I love to hear you yammer,
when you spit lead in a business manner.

You conceited pile of salvage junk,
I think this prowess talk is bunk. 


Yet, if I want a wall of lead thrown at some Jerry’s head,
it is to you I raise my hat.

You’re a damn good pal,
you silly gat!
(SOURCE: CanadianSoldiers.com)

 

SOURCES:
http://www.militaryfactory.com/smallarms/detail.asp?smallarms_id=68
http://world.guns.ru/smg/brit/sten-e.html
http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/smallarms/p/World-War-Ii-Sten.htm
http://www.canadiansoldiers.com/weapons/smgs/sten.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sten
http://www.canadiansoldiers.com/weapons/smgs/sten.htm
http://www.guns.com/2011/06/15/sten-and-deliver-the-cheap-and-gritty-mark-ii-sten-gun/

20 thoughts on “The Sten — Meet the $10 Submachine Gun That Helped the Allies Win WW2

  1. It should be noted, perhaps, that the Sten Mk IIS (S for “suppressor) was probably the most effective and widespread covert weapon of the war. Eyewitnesses describe the weapon as being extremely quiet, while still having the high volume of fire of the unsuppressed version.

  2. I was writing my own piece for point of display in the Conflict History and Remembrance Museum but yours is so awesome I would like to use yours – What say you ? We are a charity to educate and help ex service people .

  3. It’s curious that the production cost of a Sten would be compared to the Thompson instead of the much more similar Grease Gun. I realize that the point of the comment was emphasize how inexpensive they were to produce, but, apples to apples….

    1. Grease gun came only in 1943 (and still double the cost of the Sten). In 1939/40 an already bankrupt Britain was paying 20x the cost of the Sten for the Thompson, in hard currency, so as an import substitution it was a no-brainier.

    2. My dad, who was in WWII told me that he had read back then (1945ish) that the Grease Gun cost 19.00.

    3. I think the quoted price for the Thompson was probably for a 1928A1 Thompson. The USA simplified the design with the M1 and M1A Thompsons that were considerably cheaper. The Thompson however was still expensive even after they simplified it. This is why the Thompson was replaced with the M3 Grease Gun. The M3 remained in service with American Tank crews into the 1990’s.

  4. Despite the fact you are totally wrong about its reliability, How can you make up a blatantly false story like Brits throwing the gun into rooms to clear them out? you clearly need to do more research on the sten because you got so much of it wrong its amazing. I own three different sten guns and they function flawlessly even without lubrication and a fully loaded 32 round magazine. I am willing to bet you have never owned a sten or even shot one.

    1. I heard the room-clearing anecdote first hand from a veteran of the Liri Valley campaign.
      Here’s an account of the Sten’s unfortunate tendency to discharge from a 1994 issue of Canadian Legion magazine. The story comes from a veteran of the Korean War:
      “The shock of having his weapon fire without warning probably caused my comrade’s next problem. He dropped his gun. After the initial shot the weapon must have re-cocked itself, because when it hit the ground it recommenced firing. We could see by the muzzle flashes which way the weapon was pointing. Each time it fired, the recoil would spin the gun in a circle, faster and faster. It seemed that each round was headed directly at my feet; no doubt my partner thought the same.”

      1. Sounds like a very worn sear. Anyone who would drop a gun that fired unexpectedly probably shouldn’t have been carrying one in the first place. Yes, in semi-auto or full, firing cocks the gun. Always. That’s how they work. The worn sear would have let it fire again and again until empty. Most likely, had he kept a grip on his Sten, it would have only fired once. Gripping hands absorb a lot of the shock of firing. He just would have gotten laughed at by his buddies for a negligent discharge.

    2. Agree here, I have a Sten MkII that is very reliable. The Sten would only possibly fire a single round if dropped.and that is only if it wasn’t set on the safety notch. Funny, it cost $10 in 1941. I paid $600 for mine in 1992 and it is now worth $6000 as a legal Machine Gun in the USA. Not bad for the cheapest SMG ever.

  5. That American officer in the, “French guerilla battle of Paris 1944” photo looks a lot like Audie Murphy. And with the two French police in the background casually standing around, are you sure it’s not a still from a movie set?

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