Genius Or Junk?

Desperate for a Submachine Gun, Britain Built the Sten, but They Initially Created a Nightmare

- Chuck Taylor

It’s been said many times that desperate times call for desperate measures.

There is no event in history that illustrates the point better than the story of the STEN submachine gun. Born in the dark, early days of

World War II, it represents both the near-panic in Britain at the time and the tremendous ingenuity it fostered. Following is its story.

CRITICAL SITUATION

In 1940-41, Britain stood alone, facing the final ignominy of being invaded and conquered. All of continental Europe had fallen to the jackboots of Hitler’s legions. The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) had been surrounded and forced into an ever-shrinking pocket that finally contracted to a place called Dunkirk, where British forces were about to be driven into the sea.

The subsequent hasty evacuation had been nothing short of a miracle, with most of the BEF being saved, but at the expense of being forced to abandon nearly all of their weapons and equipment.

And as if this wasn’t enough, German air bombardments of the British homeland had virtually destroyed its small arms industry. The Brits could only look on helplessly as city after city where small arms were produced burned to the ground under the relentless bombing of Goering’s Luftwaffe.

In response, Prime Minister Winston Churchill said, “…we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”

The problem was that they had little to fight with. And it was in this atmosphere that the STEN was born.

THOMPSONS TOO COSTLY