The creation of Lieutenants Reginald Vernon Sheppherd and Harold John Turpin, the STEN submachine gun (its name a contraction of Sheppherd, Turpin and Enfield) began its life at the Royal Arms Factory at Enfield in June, 1941.
It was England's first attempt at a second- generation SMG and was eventually produced in five versions, or Marks, of which the Mark II was the most popular and prolific.
By 1943, STEN production reached 47,000 guns per week, and when the last STEN left the assembly line in 1945, more than 3,750,000 (and 34,000,000 32-round magazines) had been built. Additional manufacturers included Birming ham Small Arms (BSA), The Royal Ordnance Factory at Fazakerley and Long Branch Arsenal (Canada).
The STEN was born of the extreme shortage of weapons in Britain at the beginning of WWII. After the loss of virtually all of her small arms at Dunkirk, and facing invasion by German forces, the British government issued a call for a weapon that could be quickly and cheaply mass-produced in great numbers.
Such a weapon would of necessity require a minimum of machining and moving parts, many of which could be subcontracted to small shops outside the parent factory. At $10.99 per gun the STEN satisfied this need completely.
Initially supplied only to British troops, the STEN was condemned by many as being crude and unsafe, but the fact is that it fulfilled its mission completely and was no less safe than a dozen other SMG designs of the time. Its appearance offended traditionalists who quickly gave it unflattering nicknames like "The Stench Gun," "Pipefitter's Dream" and "The Lethal Mechanic's Lube Tube." The elite British Commandos even ignored a direct order from higher command and flatly refused to turn in their cherished M-1928 Thompsons for Mark II STEN guns.
More than 500,000 STENs were covertly sent to continental Europe via the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and British Special Operations Executive (SOE) and distributed widely to anti-Nazi partisans. After WWII ended , no attempt was made to recover these weapons, resulting in their legal and illegal proliferation throughout Europe, a situation that still exists today. By virtue of its widespread issue, STENs can also be found in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, where they were widely used in the 1956 Mau Mau uprising in Kenya.
The STEN's performance was such that it attracted the attention of U.S. Ordnance personnel, who began to realize that U.S . entry into WWII would require the production of a SMG that was cheaper, lighter and faster to produce than the venerable Thompson. Long traditional in its views on small arms, the following U.S. government report on the STEN illustrates a drastic change in attitude.
Guns of the STEN series were tested at Aberdeen Proving Grounds and were crit icized because of their unorthodox appearance. The STEN demonstrated, however, that an efficient submachine gun could be made at small unit cost and by rapid production line methods. Officers of the Small Arms Development Branch realized that in modern warfare there are other criteria than mere appearance.
They knew that huge numbers of weapons of this type would be required and directed all efforts toward the production of a gun which could be manufactured as easily, as swiftly, and as economically as the STEN.
Viewed realistically, the STEN is an adequate, if unspectacular, SMG. Its sights are awkward, its selector switch inconveniently placed and its safetya simple notch in the bolt handle track-a cause for concern to many.
However, it should be remembered that the STEN was developed during one of the most desperate periods in Britain's history, a time when the Nazis were expected to invade at any moment, when the skies were full of German bombers and the sea teemed with German submarines. It is said, and quite legitimately so, that desperate times breed desperate measures. So it was with the STEN.
However, we must also remember that history shows that in spite of its technical shortcomings, the STEN performed well in WWII, was produced by the millions and achieved worldwide proliferation and notoriety.
Moreover, along with the German MP-40, it was the gun that forced a lethargic United States to "get on the ball" and produce their own second-generation SMG.
