Hell Let Loose - the real British submachine guns 

My father was armed with Thompson. He joined the Royal Signals in December 1939 and did a grand tour of West Africa, South Africa, East Africa, North Africa, Sicily, Italy, France, Belgium, Netherlands and finished his extended travels in Hamburg in 1946. He said he was very fond of his Thompson. I was armed with a Stirling Mk4 in the 70/80s, I loved that weapon.

Would have loved to see more of the sten MkV. It truly looks like someone saw a Sten mk3 and thought, "Common, we can equip our boys with something a little fancier"

Thanks very much Richard and Matt.

MY grandfather used a STEN gun throughout his WWII service , he liked it said it was a basic killing machine that keep him alive.

I have 1 of the last 1907 bayonets ever produced. 1950s dated and RN marked for lanchester.

You know the Lanchester was meant for Royal Marines when it has a bayonet attached!

I own a Sten MKV in Luxembourg, all original. In my opinion, a brilliant gun. The biggest advantage: easily adjustable sights, excellent sights and sight picture. In my opinion a sub gun without adjustable sights is anything but ideal

Love the Lanchester. The Navy were clever to take that on

I can't help but love the Lanchester and the Thompson. I have a thing for blued steel and walnut.

The STEN definitely caused injuries. My father in law Sgt Herbert Bell SOE MM WWII (deceased) was telling us about when he jumped off a camel the STEN shot him in the foot. His boot felt "squishy and warm" he said and was afraid to take his boot off at first if I remember correctly. Mainly being in the sandy desert in Egypt somewhere, not in action at this particular time and preparing to go over to rescue some US nurses that crashed behind enemy lines, he put off looking into it. Luckily it was a graze and he went on into Europe helped by partisans and a Captain got the nurses out.

The climb of the thompson on full auto is the reason why most servicemen....particularly audie murphy,held the weapon at the front by the sling rather than the handguard...this gave more control ,preventing the climb

That 50 rd magazine is tell tale that it was not designed for grunts who had to hump it all around.

Great video, thanks for making this series. I’m glad to say that the developers of hell let loose have been hearing the criticisms and have announced that they’re gonna be reworking the British faction and there loadouts to be more accurate so if they follow through that should be good.

Thanks for your video. You both delivered on you promise. Very good history and information on the British SMG's of WW2. The live fire demonstration was a great surprise.

Good job on the video.

0:00-0:10 nicely controlled bursts!

That bayonet is hefty!

Thanks for making the videos 👍

Looking forward to hearing more on the 'Steampunk' Lanchester. Great video again chaps.

The MK 3 was the best one in this video. Thompson was like frankinstiens monster. The earlier version too with the cocking lever on the top.

I have not yet found a better machine gun than the Vickers.

Great demonstration fellows; thanks for this.

Oh yeah here it is😂😂❤❤❤ keep it up guys love the content

Dude the STEN was a legendary piece of work. Its an MP18 made for the brits and i love it. Plus, the vickers is like a Sub but bigger so technically this is still your area of expertise. STEN my beloved ❤

Great overview of the smgs used by the british; i hope to see the M1928 A1 with the drum magazine on the HLL someday, it's a 100% british weapon afaik.

Be good if you did some tests to iron out the truth and myth regarding dropping STENs.

Clever idea taking a ww2 game to then talk about the guns... nicely done!

Royal Marines with Lancasters and M1 Garands on the Korean Peninsula, setting explosives on a train bridge. Now that's a picture.

It's funny the bayonet on the SMG carried on until the sterling, since in the Indo-Pakistan wars you see militia groups armed with some weird bayonet thing at the end of the barrel.

"I don't mind ya toots, but my Tommy gun daint!'

The sten was used in North Africa it had a plus as it did not need oiling as much as the Thomson

Iv fired a semi auto Stirling once. The guy who owned said it was manufactured as a semi auto version.

Gun of this type that are only SEMI AUTO variants are still called CARBINES. A Carbine is a Shorter than standard issue Rifle (In a Rifle caliber) or it's a Rifle chambered for a Pistol Caliber.

Did see use in North Africa, as was stated navy use. Royal Navy Commandos had these issued, normally the beach masters bodyguard. Sometimes Thompsons as well.

Hey guys loved the vid, im not sure what game you talk about, but I kept wondering where is the "Owen" the little gun that could, Loved by the Brits in Malaya, or was it Borneo, fire from the hip this is your baby. I hope your not a bit biased because we did you at cricket,, lol

An interesting fact is that with the SMLE sword bayonet fixed the Lanchester is the same overall length as the SMLE without it. It would have been good for trench raiding if it had been invented in the First World War.

Other call them machine-pistols. And that what the Germans call the m18 and they were the ones that developed the machine-pistol. The Lanchester look like a clone between the Husqvarner/Tikkakoski M37/39 With a firing rate of 900 rounds/M in stacked `Coffin` magazines 58 rounds and the M18. Great video!!👍👍

Hi, i think that you should've compared the "grease gun" also next to the Thompson. Regards

Hello Vickers MG folks, I just noticed a submachine gun up for auction in NZ which purports to be a paratrooper version of the Lanchester. It has a folding fore grip, a rear pistol grip and also continues to mount the 1907 bayonet. I have never heard of such a thing before and cannot find any photographs of it elsewhere. Would you happen to know anything about this model? I would be happy to pass on the photo.

I'm still taken with the KP31 Suomi - are there other similar weapons that you can change the barrel on? Did the job it was needed for

I dont really hear it talked about much but it is true that paras used some Stirlings at Market Garden isnt it?

Lanchesters often ended up on the rear cabin of an FAA Fairey Fulmar to provide moral support to the TAG. So, hers my theory. British army have a competition prior to WWII to pick a machine carbine for general army use. They end up picking the two best ones, as it happens, the Suomi and the Berretta. They don’t want to buy the Barretta ‘cos Fascism so they order 25000 of the from the Finns (swapping them for hawker hurricanes) . However, uncle Joe visits Finland and the Fins need to keep their SMGs. Consequently, they end up equipping their infantry units with a lot of SMGs for no other reason than they have lots. This actually works very well. The Russians notice this and copy this development and have their units jammed with sub machine guns. Subsequently, the Germans also noticed this and copied it only they upgraded the weapon to be a bit like a rifle as well. Enter the assault rifle. So, basically, we invented the assault rifle!

I fucking love sten guns

They are called 'SUB' machine guns. Because they shoot a 'SUB' Caliber (A pistol Caliber) at a time when the previous Machine guns were all chambered in Rifle ammunition.

Could you get any closer to the target at the beginning? I an surprised you didn't use a rest to improve accuracy.

The Thompson seems to have been too expensive even for the Americans as they went a similar way with the M3.

i seem to remember a british ? smg with the magazine housing on top of the weapon instead of on the left side anyone know the name ?

I think the chap on forgotten weapons in his review of the lanchester said the wood furniture came from the Lee Enfield and by adding the bayonet made the weapon the same length as the SMLE.

Come on... The Lanchester is a 99% copy of the German MP 28/ll

When clearing the Sten or Lanchester surely its safer to simply remove the magazine before opening the bolt?

A couple of decades ago I was digging a drain at the side of my cottage and unearthed some steel pipes with flanges on them. I immediately lobbed them into my 'useful scrap' bucket and thought no more about them. Later on, I used them as legs for a satellite dish support, bolted to the wall. They look for all the world like buttstocks from the Mk2 Sten. Just sayin.... who knows who put them there and what the story was.

Was the Lanchester Machine-carbine/sub-machine gun ever actually used in active operations during WW2 or since by Royal Marine Commandos or other British or Commonwealth Commando groups? If anyone knows which unit or service branch did & when & where it had been utilized, then could you kindly let me know by a response to this YT thread! Thanks 🙏🏼

20:35 american faction got M1A1 version,which wasn't used by the brits.

But, no Owen Gun .... ? Australian machine carbine used by British troops in Malaya.....

Thought it was a machine gun!!!!

1970s veteran here and ive never heard them called a carbine they were always called an SMG.

Was the Lanchester used by the Royal Navy on land during the Malaysian emergency ?

This is basically why I can't get along with HLL since the British Army addition. For a game that prides itself on a realistic portrayal of WW2 history, it's weapon choices for the British forces were jarringly bad.

stens are cool........or hot

Bayonets on Submachine guns make more sense than it does Bayonets on Rifles to be honest. They are for closer range so it's logical. All Wars are still Fake though.

Putting a bayonet on a subgun seems dumb

Lanchester is the only ‘good’ rifle when it comes to British faction in game.

The Lanchester was only in use by the navy you know (FOR DEFENCE) Not Boarding or Assault. The army never used them. 4:26 : NO...There many crucial mechanical Differences: EG: This carbine is blowback operated from an open bolt and there are no actual RIFLES that have that system. All Rifles have a Locking Bolt and or Gas System (If the are semi auto or select fire) There has never been a blow back open bolt Rifle ever made. I think you two need to go and do some research on basic firearms and how they work.