Sten MkIII: A Children's Toy Company Makes SMGs

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Lines Brothers was a company in the UK that made sheet metal childrens' toys prior to the war. When production of the Sten guns began, Lines Bros was a parts subcontractor. Their engineers analyzed the design alongside the machinery the company had available and redesigned a version of the Sten that they could make very quickly and cheaply in-house, by replacing the tube receiver with a rolled and spot-welded piece of sheet steel. Their first order came in January 1942, to a whopping 500,000 guns, which were designated the MkIII.
The Sten MkII and MkIII were produced simultaneously, and Lines Brothers was the only producer of the MkIII. Ultimately they got three contracts, although the second one was cancelled before it was completed and the third was never begun. A total of 876,794 MkIII Stens were made by September 1943. Once submachine gun production caught up with British needs, the MkII was found to be the superior of the two designs and only it remained in production.
Many thanks to the Royal Armouries for allowing me to film and disassemble these submachine guns! The NFC collection there - perhaps the best military small arms collection in Western Europe - is available by appointment to researchers:
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You can browse the various Armouries collections online here:
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5 сен 2024

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Комментарии : 552

@mrbismarck 3 месяца назад

My Dad was stationed in Berlin in the early 50s and they paired him with an absolutely gigantic, lunatic Scotsman armed with a Sten MkIII to go out as part of the policing force. My Dad told me the Scotsman was "easily excitable" so they made him carry an empty magazine in the Sten. They had pictures of this ferocious looking bear holding what was secretly a completely unloaded Sten. When he came to my Dad's funeral I said to him "So, my Dad told me this story..." and he was quite gleeful about it. "Oh yeah. They were worried I'd shoot people."

@mattwoodard2535 2 месяца назад

This is the kind of story that must be saved for prosperity. Thank you for telling it. sm

@cameronhermann9400 2 месяца назад

Sounds like swell guys, both of um

@Conviction4696 2 месяца назад

I spot a fellow Bismarck enjoyer

@aicragej 3 месяца назад

All I can think of is the rumors of the Mattel M16's. The difference being that the Sten Mk III's were actually made by a toy company

@faeembrugh 3 месяца назад

Have you ever seen who made Garands and M1 carbines in WW2? International Harvester, Underwood Typewriters and Rock-Ola (better known for making jukeboxes!).

@AshleyPomeroy 3 месяца назад

With the M16 I think the key thing is that it had plastic components - that must have been jarring at a time when everything was made of wood and metal. The rumour is plausible because you could imagine Mattel being asked to make plastic handguards and stocks.

@-Zevin- 3 месяца назад

@@AshleyPomeroy Exactly, I always found the Matel thing plausible at least even if it's untrue for the reasons you stated, it would make sense that at that time nobody knew plastics better than a toy company, it's not like Magpul existed back then.

@sbreheny 3 месяца назад

@@AshleyPomeroy true, although the M16's plastic parts were phenolic resin and then later glass-filled nylon. No toy company was making toys out of those materials.

@BadMrJack 3 месяца назад

So were mg42’s.

@salvadorsempere1701 3 месяца назад

870.000 Stens, in a bit short that two years, by a former toy´s factory, are really impressive numbers.

@oleandreasbrkke5223 3 месяца назад

Yeah, mass production can be quite fascinating! I've worked in a few places where the production was quite streamlined, and to see the output of our collaborate work in a day was pretty remarkable. Takes a lot of specialised workers, not to mention tools and rigging, but once that is done and it's all one well oiled machine, you can just pump those products out with very little refuse. During the war, they would also have the benefit of extreme focus on one or very few products, so that helps as well.

@Skorpychan 3 месяца назад

Not really a 'former' toy factory. They went right back to toys after the war.

@steveredacted1394 3 месяца назад

@@Skorpychan I wonder if they made any toy Stens, might have led to some interesting mixups

@ROBERTNABORNEY 3 месяца назад

@@Skorpychan Making toy Stens, of course

@Toe_Merchant 2 месяца назад

So I guess converting civilian factories to military factories like in hoi4 is realistic

@Geroaergaroe 3 месяца назад

“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”

@Petestleger 2 месяца назад

Reminds me of something my dad said to me once: "anyone can make something complicated, it takes genius to make it simple."

@correctionguy7632 Месяц назад

@@Petestleger “An idiot admires complexity, a genius admires simplicity" -Terry A. Davis

@noahrombough2802 3 месяца назад

500 guns a shift, if you assume a ten hour shift, is 50 guns an hour. That's a new gun every 72 seconds. That's bloody terrifying

@stuartburton1167 3 месяца назад

If they were running 3 eight hour shifts a day that's even more impressive. As near as one a minute

@ROBERTNABORNEY 3 месяца назад

If you were German or Japanese

@andersjjensen 3 месяца назад

@@stuartburton1167 One a minute doesn't sound far fetched if the assembly has enough steps and each step is fully jigged. 5.5 man hours per gun 330 steps of one minute each.

@pd4165 3 месяца назад

They had at least four factories and roughly 7000 employees, even during wartime. After the war they were the worlds biggest toy manufacturer, owning Triang, Hornby, Meccano and the Sindy doll (weak, copycat, movie being released next year).

@noahrombough2802 3 месяца назад

@@pd4165 that certainly contextualises how they managed such a speedy statistic

@davidbarrass 3 месяца назад

Lines bros sold their toys under Tri-ang, as a child in the UK in the 60's I had many tri-ang toys, interesting to think that maybe the machine used to make my toy had once made stens

@reggiedixon2 3 месяца назад

Same, I had a pedal dumper truck

@51WCDodge 3 месяца назад

And toy trains!

@paulketchupwitheverything767 3 месяца назад

I live not far from the site of one of the old Lines Bros factories. I think the one where STENs were made. I can remember when the factory building still used to have a Tri-Ang sign on the roof. It doesn't feel that long ago that that the remaining buildings were demolished (well after the firm went), maybe late 1990s.

@samuelgarrod8327 3 месяца назад

I didn't remember the Lines name but I do remember Tri-ang. Had a backhoe and a bulldozer 😊

@andrewpease3688 3 месяца назад

Well made and strong

@Niinsa62 3 месяца назад

I read somewhere that when the engineers at Lines Brothers looked at the Sten design, they were a bit puzzled. Why was it so complicated? Is it okay if we simplify the design? Or is there some weapons design secret we don't understand? The British authorities were probably surprised. This was supposed to be the simplest possible submachine gun, and the toy people wondered why the design was so complicated! They could immediately see room for simplification, and how to add cheapness, and fastness of production! 😀

@glenstg 2 месяца назад

It's a bit like with the Germans designing the MP43 etc. They approached companies specialising in metal stamping to help with the design, they were not gun designers or manufacturers

@robertwarner5963 2 месяца назад

@@glenstg It all started with the World War I German MP18. Then Erma simplified the design with the MP38. Then Lanchester simplified the design for the Royal Navy. Then Mr. S. and Turpin further simplified it to make the Sten Mark I ... Sten Mark II and Sten Mark III was the simplest possible. The only way to simplify further is injection-molding polymer bits where temperature is not an issue (e.g. stock and trigger mechanism).

@antiochman8222 3 месяца назад

A true wunderwaffe. I imagine the look on the faces of the German engineers presented with this as an alternative to their complex designs. With only 5.5 hours labour in it I can’t imagine that this cost more than £100 to make at today’s prices.

@paulketchupwitheverything767 3 месяца назад

The Germans ended up using the Mk II as the basis of the MP 3008 in 1945 when they were in similarly desperate need of weapons.

@MandoWookie 3 месяца назад

@@paulketchupwitheverything767 Ironically because the Mk2 is much better suited for craft manufacturing under dire conditions than the stamped & faster to make Mk3. It doesn't require the same specialized heavy equipment stamping does.

@DFloyd84 3 месяца назад

German gun: intricate, complex precision engineering. British gun: TOOB.

@Lankythepyro 3 месяца назад

I understand through the whole length of the war the Germans were often impressed by how well the British "good enough" design doctrine competed against the intricate, meticulous, pinnacle of engineering they produced themselves.

@thenoblepoptart 3 месяца назад

@@Lankythepyro”pinnacle of engineering”, you mean retarded overdesigned bullshit that broke apart when facing of the enemy?

@zendell37 3 месяца назад

I love it when smart, competent, caring engineers take someone else's design and modify it just enough like this.

@davidk.8434 2 месяца назад

Concessions to implementation quality can be made AFTER the structure of an original implementation is mostly complete. Try changing scope then adding new features in software versus simplifying some existing system to simpler cases

@IceWolfLoki 3 месяца назад

"What if you're left handed?" You'd be given corrective measures to make you shoot right handed, the specific measure was being slapped on the back of the head by the drill sergeant until you shot it right handed.

@raygower1961 3 месяца назад

Some years ago I remember reading a price comparison of the various Sten flavours. As I recall, the simplified (war) Thompson was about $80 (£15 in money), the Lanchester 7 guineas (£7.35 in new money), Mk1 about 22 shillings (£1.10) and the last Mk3s 2 shilling 8d (about 13 pence). Lines Bros are better known to many of us under names like Tri-ang-Hornby (model trains), Scalectrix (toy electric racing cars), Dinky (more toy cars) and Meccano. All brands that are still with us, just not made by Lines who went bust in the 1970's :(

@johntucker3023 3 месяца назад

My father was a Time and Motion Engineer at Lines Bros at this time.

@MonkeyJedi99 3 месяца назад

Oh my gosh that is an AWESOME job title! A person with that job title gets to hang out with The Wizard of Light and Space and the Goddess of Wisdom and Warfare.

@P_RO_ 3 месяца назад

And was likely as hated by the production staff as most of the time-motion engineers still are. People are averse to changing how they do things even if the change improves the output.

@russbilzing5348 3 месяца назад

Therblig Management Consultant

@ROBERTNABORNEY 3 месяца назад

@@MonkeyJedi99 The official name for the profession is Industrial Engineer en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_engineering and it was a key component of the Scientific Management Movement en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_management

@Jreb1865 3 месяца назад

I worked in production at what was at one time the largest manufacturer of tires in the world. In general, the Time and Motion Engineering department was thought to be staffed with a group of nitwits...

@alluraambrose2978 3 месяца назад

But I am left handed, British officer: No you are not, problem solved

@Lankythepyro 3 месяца назад

Funny thing is that with the SA80 this doctrine of "left handed? No you're not!" Effectively continues to this day. The British have proven themselves hugely capable in this kind of "balls to the wall" desperation, but it seems they're not great at lifting their standard the rest of the time 😝

@ExpatriotSilencers 3 месяца назад

Typical British stupidity. Forcing the left handed, left eye dominant soldier to shoot right handed simply results in crap marksmanship.

@anangryhessian 3 месяца назад

Yeah I once met a guy who worked at a local gun shop who was also left handed but shoots right handed cause of his service in the UK military 😅

@ComissarYarrick 3 месяца назад

I mean, left-handed people can with training and practice adjust to do some things right handed. And there are also people who swich dominant hands depending of what they are doing. I know, I'm one of them 😅 .

@kevinoliver3083 3 месяца назад

It wouldn't be a problem for an officer. Corporals and sergeants would have 'explained' to the recruit that he was right-handed during basic training.

@defender1006 3 месяца назад

'You might be hard pressed', LOL, I can see what you did there, very British sense of humour!

@TomisaburoRMizugawa 3 месяца назад

There can't be such thing as Cadillac of Sten, it can only be Rolls Royce or Bentley ; -)

@WayStedYou 3 месяца назад

What about a Jaaaaaaaaag

@biffwellington1782 3 месяца назад

Nah, best your gonna get is the "Vauxhall" and "Rover" of Sten.

@AnimeSunglasses 3 месяца назад

@@biffwellington1782 Rover was too high class back then, that leaves Vauxhall!

@jameshealy4594 3 месяца назад

Otherwise it's just a sparkling smg

@AnimeSunglasses 3 месяца назад

@@jameshealy4594 OMG

@matthewspencer972 3 месяца назад

Earlier in the day, I was barred from commenting on this because it was "content created for kids!"

@TestTestGo 3 месяца назад

It is a toy factory after all

@pauliewalnuts240 3 месяца назад

RU-vids clever ai knows everything. "Toy company" = kids video obviously.

@liamholt5623 3 месяца назад

I noticed that the comments were turned off as well - are comments turned of for videos for kids?

@killzoneisa 3 месяца назад

@@liamholt5623 Yes they are.

@liamholt5623 3 месяца назад

@@killzoneisa I was not aware of this - thank you!

@Cats-TM 3 месяца назад

Nice, the Wikipedia page on Lines Bros suddenly gained this video as a source for "In World War II, Lines Brothers was a major manufacturer of the Sten submachine gun". (Also, yeah, that is basically the only time the Sten is mentioned on the article. The other time is essentially "toys were deemed nonessential by the government. So they switched the Sten production. After the war they switched back to toys.")

@centurian318 3 месяца назад

The trigger assembly on my Underwood (typewriter) M-1 carbine was made by Milton Bradley (BEB), for the IBM contract M-1 carbines.

@1969Risky 3 месяца назад

Ian, this has been a fascinating series about the Sten. Even reviving memories of my grandmother making them, training & using them. I hope you show other commonwealth versions of the Sten to show the differences.

@chanman819 3 месяца назад

The Sten MkIII is the answer to the question of someone looking at the MkII and asking "How can we get rid of threading entirely?" I could see the friction fit receiver cover becoming an issue with wear without some kind of mechanical fastener to secure it.

@5isalivegaming72 3 месяца назад

It's cheap and fast to replace, and or, it's a good enough gun to get yourself a better gun lmao What the liberator wanted to be in a fever dream.

@MR-FISH-12345 3 месяца назад

Love it. No lefties back then. And definitely no lefties now with the bloody SA80

@johngreen-sk4yk 3 месяца назад

I'm glad to say I own a mk3 sten 🙂. And sad to say as I live in the UK its deactivated 😢 ! Lol

@tommothedog 3 месяца назад

As we can see fron the video. Its a plumbers dream...

@johngreen-sk4yk 3 месяца назад

@tommothedog They are very crudely made, even the rib along the top isn't that straight on mine !

@ptonpc 3 месяца назад

Same.

@RedcoatT 3 месяца назад

So you own a gun that was made by a toy company, that has now been turned into a toy😉

@johngreen-sk4yk 3 месяца назад

@@RedcoatT That about sums it up 😁👍

@sidneycollins4777 3 месяца назад

If you step back from it, you begin to realize that during WWII all weapons had to designed for affordability and good-enough. Case in point: the magazines for the M1 carbine were a problem for later generations. When they asked WW2 veterans he how they dealt with the issue, their response was to simply discard the magazines after a week and get replacements. If you think about it, there was no need to make a resilient and long last magazine when you can simply make plenty of them, The Sten MK3 is that. It is affordable and good-enough.

@Zigfried207 27 дней назад

And in the conditions of active use in combat operations by poorly trained personnel, they will break, get lost and be destroyed in other ways in any case, so there is no point in making them reliable

@bighamster2 17 дней назад

@@Zigfried207Yeah, it just has to last long enough to be destroyed by other means - the same doctrine was applied to Soviet tanks. No point making a tank be reliable for years when it was very unlikely to last 6 months.

@BEF40 3 месяца назад

Excellent video, Ian. The MKIII STEN was actually the most common Sten in issue around Normandy. Look at any pictures of infantry and other units including MPs or drivers and the majority of Stens you will see, certainly June to August 1944, are MKIII. They are not the ‘only’ Stens in circulation as infantry and other units are also seen with MKII… but MKIII is the most common. MKV Stens seem to have been airborne only. Commandos, as you state, standardised on the Thompson (1928A1 in NW EUROPE) and did not usually use Stens at all. MKIIs seem to start becoming increasingly prevalent again from late 1944 into 1945. MKIIs, with the ability to break down into smaller parts, seem to have been preferred for dropping to Maquis and Partisans (supplying resistance and dropping by container). Again, however, I’ve seen MKIIIs which were dropped to Resistance in France.

@johnfisk811 3 месяца назад

They took their UK issued Stens with them as personal weapons. Later stores issuing them in the field were supplied with MkIIs. Italy and India got shipped MkIIs with the packing benefit.

@robertwarner5963 2 месяца назад

Plenty of photographs of Canadian soldiers in Normandy carrying Sten Mark III.

@tiny_tex 3 месяца назад

"sir, I'm left handed!" "no, you're not."

@pd4165 3 месяца назад

It's unpatriotic.

@shaidorsai4834 3 месяца назад

What I'd LOVE to see are the BARREL manufacturers of the Sten, and OTHER Old firearms. We don't see them very often, if ever.

@shinjiikari1021 3 месяца назад

i sure want this toy

@johntitor_ibm5100 3 месяца назад

Only if you're good.

@user-kr7yh8vw9m 3 месяца назад

I never knew one of the companies that produced the STEN was a toy company, thank you for providing us with this fun fact. No matter what variant you see, the STEN is undoubtedly a recognizable WW2 gun that would make an invaluable piece for the collection of a gun enthusiast.

@chuckflangemaster1325 3 месяца назад

Let today be the end of the sten handling debate. Cordite Christ has commanded the good word from HQ.

@richardsmith4794 3 месяца назад

offically Ian is “…gun Jesus.”

@richardsmith4794 3 месяца назад

+”…bringer of truth and enlightment.”

@hunterhillbaseball 3 месяца назад

This has been an amazing series of videos. Thank you so much

@matthewspencer972 3 месяца назад

This must have been the version of the STEN which George Orwell was writing about when he noted, with some approval, that it was designed to be thrown away and replaced when it wore out or was damaged. (He was in the Home Guard at one stage.) To a lot of people, this was a bad thing, rather than a good thing, but Orwell's combat experience had been in Catalonia where men's lives probably had less value (especially in the Bolshevik militias) than the guns they were using. And getting their old and indifferently-maintained rifles to work at all had probably taken more work than it took to make something like the MKIII STEN in the first place!

@johnfisk811 3 месяца назад

For the Home Guard with access to UK stores and the price of a MkIII it was indeed cheaper and easier to return a faulty MkIII and receive a new one in lieu. Ditto for magazines. Any ex soldier will understand the need to return a faulty item and not scrap it locally. To avoid potential naughty accounting and naughty people keeping enough bits to build their own item.

@matthewspencer972 3 месяца назад

@@johnfisk811 I also recall seeing a documentary around the 50th or 60th anniversary of the Home Guard being created, with a former member being handed a STEN to the range and shooting it really quite accurately: something many regular army soldiers would have deemed impossible. The MKII STEN, where people took the barrel on and off because they could, always had a little scratch on the trunion and the barrel, to indicate how they had been positioned relative to each other when the factory "zeroed" the sights with a bronze hammer or whatever it was they did. Either hardly anyone understood this, or hardly anyone could be arsed, but the barrel could be put back in any position and it probably was. Now, the man in the documentary started his demo for the camera by taking the STEN he had just been given by an MoD armourer, to pieces and reassembling it. I didn't notice at the time and he certainly didn't say so, but that was probably the moment when the scratches got lined up! With the MKIII (and the MKI*) STEN where you _couldn't take the barrel off,_ there was no way short of another hammer that the sights could get misaligned. So, although the intrinsic accuracy was supposedly not great (some people beg to differ) the MKIII may have done a better job of realising whatever that potential accuracy was. And Home Guards could have known any innocent civilians in the line of fire personally, so they might have used aimed single shots where the regulars would just have used full auto.

@robertwarner5963 2 месяца назад

Recent experiences in Ukraine tell us that rifles only last a few months in battle ... the exact opposite of rifles in peacetime armies being expected to last decades ... er ... the entire career of Private Blogins.

@matthewspencer972 2 месяца назад

@@robertwarner5963 Well, that is something that any toy manufacturer would have understood, far, far better than Holland & Holland or Purdey's!

@arizona-hunter6684 3 месяца назад

This is quite amazing, honestly I want one.

@handpaper6871 3 месяца назад

Off to the garage with you, then!

@ROBERTNABORNEY 3 месяца назад

@@handpaper6871 You mean, the shed

@CliSwe 3 месяца назад

Another top-quality video from an always reliable source. Ian is an excellent instructor: articulate and knowledgeable, but he makes the subject matter accessible and simple.

@slingerssecretlaboratory 3 месяца назад

The STEN was always one of my favorite smg. I admire its inexpensive and simple construction.

@robertsrobots6531 3 месяца назад

In the Churchill War Rooms museum in London there is (or was, when I visited a few years ago) a display case with a greatcoat of Churchill's and a Sten with the tubular stock and a canvas sling. The information card states that this Sten was presented to Winston Churchill by Lines Brothers.

@robertlinke2666 3 месяца назад

still, foir the "lesser gun" getting 800k+ produced on a tight budget and high speed is quite impressive. Lines really got their shit together there, and if they had the production cabailities, i wouldn't be surprised if they got a mk2 order as well

@DaveTex2375 3 месяца назад

Toy companies making SMGs just as the good Lord always intended.

@aaronleverton4221 3 месяца назад

When I was in primary school I had a friend who had a very accurate, kid-sized Sten. We were much into British war films and that really was the prize of the combined action collection. Now I wonder who made it.

@Zigfried207 27 дней назад

@@aaronleverton4221 Well, these guys from the video definitely *very well* knew how to make Sten properly, so it may be not coincidence

@davidt3563 3 месяца назад

Presenting the MK6! "Bruv, that's just a sling shot!?"

@samsum3738 2 месяца назад

The Mark V11 is a rock . ...Just a rock .

@xSilentVeterenx 3 месяца назад

Be sure to say hi to Jonathan while you're there Ian!

@couch_potato9355 3 месяца назад

Do you mean Johnaton Ferguson, Keeper of Firearms and Artillery at the Royal Armouries Museum in the UK, Which Houses a Collection of Thousands of Iconic Weapons from Throughout History?

@aaronleverton4221 3 месяца назад

@@couch_potato9355 Why, yes, I believe Jonathon Ferguson, Keeper of Firearms and Artillery at the Royal Armouries Museum in the UK, which houses a Collection of Thousands of Iconic Weapons from throughout History is just passing by.

@matthewspencer972 3 месяца назад

One additional attraction of the MKII STEN which Ian fails to mention is that because it dismantled so readily and into bits of modest length, it was an easy weapon to *hide* and that is probably the most important issue in a country under enemy occupation. This helps to explain why the French authorities never really tried to collect them all up, following the war: they were never going to succeed so there was more dignity in letting things slide a bit with the Marquis!

@christopherreed4723 3 месяца назад

Maquis. No "r". With an "r" it's a minor title of nobility. Although I'm certain there was a Marquis in the Maquis. Probably more than one. And probably a Duc as well (quack, quack!), but that doesn't really Comte.

@chrisbrace2204 3 месяца назад

@@christopherreed4723 probably not that he'd admit in case the republic gave him the regulation hair cut

@tiagomoraes_04 3 месяца назад

@@christopherreed4723😂

@Victor-hg1lo 3 месяца назад

He said it, look at last episode! He talk about the compact size of the MKll and the use by resistance fighters

@JeffEbe-te2xs 3 месяца назад

The French willingly gave up all firearms after the war Those who didn’t were tracked down as the British knew who they gave guns too

@SergeiMosin 5 дней назад

The loop stock version you had there has the bespoke Mk 3 charging handle. The T stock is using a Mk 2 handle, which is more common, better made, and somewhat easier to grip. It's one of those bits that most folks don't realize actually varied between models.

@geodkyt 3 месяца назад

One correction - the Sten MkV uses a slightly different bolt. They're one way compatible, AFAIK. (MkV works in a MkII or MkIII, but a MkII or MkIII bolt doesn't work in a MkV, IIRC)

@Kaboomf 3 месяца назад

And if we stretch it to include unofficial clandestine versions, there's a very small number of Norwegian communist reaistance Stens built on a smaller diameter tune receiver with a correspondinglu smaller bolt. Humourously, the reason for this is that the London-backed regular resistance was making so many standard MKII sten clones that they used up all available steel tubing of the correct diameter. The commies had to redesign to fit available materials, as they weren't in on the other resistance orgs supply lines.

@hashmagandy2012 3 месяца назад

Ian, thank you so much for this informative and entertaining video. I am by no means a gun enthusiast and only stumbled upon this video by accident but it is wonderful to learn a bit about my country’s military manufacturing history, particularly as we approach the 80th anniversary of D Day. 🇬🇧❤🇺🇸

@douglasgreen437 3 месяца назад

Say hello to my little toy..😂

@cartoonhead9222 3 месяца назад

This gun was an absolute beast on Return to Castle Wolfenstein.

@jeromethiel4323 3 месяца назад

That was my go to gun for a large portion of that game. It's crazy accurate, silent, and as long as you don't "spray and pray", doesn't overheat. I used to just rapidly tap the fire button on my mouse, so that it reinforced the "i am not shooting this full auto, it's semi-auto." And you almost never ran out of 9mm ammunition, because it was EVERYWHERE. The silent sniper was excellent, but almost useless for lack of ammunition.

@NightmareGbg 3 месяца назад

The issue with how you hold the Sten is the same for the M/45, people keep holding the mag on that one to. Love these vids, the Sten is a fascinating firearm.

@CaledonianMafia 3 месяца назад

8:13 back in the day they basically forced everyone to write with the right hand. The British Army also forces the right hand shooting on the L85 and L86. I can see how that would be awkward shooting for the left handed shooters amongst us. I'm ambidextrous but I tend to shoot with my right more than the left

@peterodonnell5820 3 месяца назад

I was in the British army in the 60's and 70's and I am partially left-handed. I don't know what that is called, I'm not ambidextrous but I do some tasks left-handed and some right-handed. In training we were told that it was better to use the SLR rifle right-handed but it could be used left-handed with care. The Sterling SMG however could only be used by a right-handed shooter. Fortunately for me I found looking down a gun sight is a right-handed thing so I was fine.

@johngibson3837 3 месяца назад

For me rifle left handed but pistols with the right

@samsum3738 2 месяца назад

I was born left handed and i was later ......Corrected . I truly was .

@PalKrammer 3 месяца назад

With so many Stens being manufactured, we should all have one.

@CipiRipi-in7df 3 месяца назад

Losses were also high. Remember those heroic defeats in Greece and Crete, or those humiliating defeats in Hong Kong and Singapore. Add to this the back-and-forth game in North Africa, then add huge piles of Sten sent by night all across Europe, from Norway to Greece and France, that gave German occupation armies a lot of headaches. And you notice that countless Sten simply vanished.

@workingguy6666 3 месяца назад

I would like to see a video (some other channel most likely) on where, and how, the Stens were used. They seem like great door-to-door fighting weapons, OK quick-assault weapons, but they seem like they wouldn't be the ticket for open area engagements at the distances that were being fought over.

@robertwarner5963 2 месяца назад

Submachine guns were strictly short-range weapons ... maximum 300 feet. They were invented during World War 1 for German trench-raiders. During WW2, SMGs served the same function and were often issued to any soldier whose primary job was not fighting: signallers, field engineers, drivers, tankers, artillerymen, etc.

@bholdr----0 3 месяца назад

I got a fever... And the only prescription, is more Sten Guns. Seriously, I've worked in small-scale, even bespoke manufacturing, and... Can you imagine getting an order like that, in wartime?

@robertsolomielke5134 3 месяца назад

TY Ian, The Thompson was a Cadillac , Sten....maybe a Morris ?

@pd4165 3 месяца назад

Yugo

@The_Modeling_Underdog 3 месяца назад

Austin 7

@hattyfarbuckle 3 месяца назад

"The Cadillac of Stens" is a phrase only a Cadillac lawyer could like...

@keithad6485 3 месяца назад

STEN III how the Brits took a cheap gun and made it cheaper, and with less features, though, it did cure the magazine holder droop a problem with the Mk II and V. Very interesting how the Brits developed the silenced Sten - standard supersonic ammo was used, but what is interesting is how the Brits designed the barrel with bleed holes to reduce the power of the burn rate so that by the time the projectile passed through the 8 inch barrel, and entered the sound suppressor, it was at subsonic speed! I have not heard of concept this being used on other silenced firearms. Canadian publisher - Collector Grade published an excellent book on the Sten Gun which I recommend for any one interested in the STEN. Follows the development, production and history of the Sten. I just read on the internet that Collector Grade is or has closed. Apparently the owner passed away.

@stanislavczebinski994 3 месяца назад

I think the difference between mkII and mkIII mirrors the base product of it's manufacturers. Singer made sewing machines. They were quite expensive - but lasted basically forever. Children's metal toys were back then what plastic toys are today. They were cheap - if broken, they would simply be replaced. That's clearly mirrored by the respective guns. A cheap gun you have is a lot better than a really good one you haven't. 500 pieces per shift is quite substancial. IDK how long those barrels lasted before being shot out - but replacing them at that point was clearly more efficient. And how close Britain was to losing the war around that time is often misunderstood today. They were very, very close. What saved them in the end was everybody in Britain did his part - and hitler shifting his interest towards the Soviet Union.

@CapitalRoach 3 месяца назад

I would love to have seen the faces of the first Maquis fighters to be handed a couple of bits of pipe welded together and told that this is their new weapon.

@pd4165 3 месяца назад

No, they got the nicer version. Imagine anyone's face when issued with a Mk 3, especially when they'd just ripped a lovely Thompson out of your arms.

@zoltannagy2920 3 месяца назад

Really interesting Sten comparison video Ian, THANK YOU !!!

@babalonkie 3 месяца назад

Soldier: "I am left handed sir" British Army: "Not for long" True Story.

@robertwarner5963 2 месяца назад

Sister Mary Elephant whacking him on the left hand every time he tired to pick up a pencil. ....paraphrasing comedian George Carlin

@MandoWookie 3 месяца назад

Personally, this is on an aesthetic level,always been my favorite Sten variant. Especially with the wire stock. Its also interesting now for me on a technical level too. It being an actual stamped gun(like the MP40 & M3) actually makes it a very different thing than the regular Sten. The other Sten MKs are super simplified, but still pretty conventionally produced guns. Like the PPSh or PPS43, which are mistaken for & lumped in with 'cheap stamped' SMGs when they actually aren't. Because the actual stamped guns require a level of industrial investment & development that far exceeds what was put into with emergency guns like the Sten. That a company was able to develop & produce in such short notice & volume is an impressive achievement. A little more development to fix its flaws & make it a little more serviceable could have paid off big dividends if the situation hadnt been so dire.

@cheesenoodles8316 3 месяца назад

Excellent coverage of Sten, I wanted a Mk2 as a kid,

@MrIlya007 2 месяца назад

Yeah, I remember this weapon. I checked the video game "Return to castle Wolfenstein (2001)" to see how the main character holds the Sten, amd he is doing it right like you showed!

@ohyeah2816 2 месяца назад

My dad was an armourer in WW2 and had to fix the issues with the Sten. He did see the aftermath of one going off accidentally and another going off in anger.

@AshleyPomeroy 3 месяца назад

I assume the whole "there are no left-handed soldiers" thing continues nowadays with the L85. It sounds almost quintessentially "British Army".

@SnoopReddogg 3 месяца назад

"Left handers as the spawn of the devil" Any British Army recruit instructor 1700-2024

@JLT0087 3 месяца назад

Absolutely sinister.

@scorpionlxvi 3 месяца назад

The la80 can be set up for wrong handed shooters

@ExpatriotSilencers 3 месяца назад

The MK3 was also cancelled because it had a serious problem with the barrel coming loose in the two stamped steel trunnions. The barrel would get loose and it could spin around when fired. There was no way to fix that problem, which rended the gun as junk. They actually went back to the MK2 and used up some of the remaining MK3 parts in MK2 production. A MK2 barrel with a step at the muzzle end is a repurposed MK3 barrel.

@johnfisk811 3 месяца назад

The MkIII was made cheaply enough that it had a design life and could be exchanged for a new one. As programmers say, it is a feature not a bug. The MkII was built to be repaired not replaced.

@ExpatriotSilencers 3 месяца назад

@@johnfisk811 It was enough of a problem that they dumped the Mk3 and went back to the Mk2.

@simonrook5743 3 месяца назад

The same grip was used for the Stirling, at least that’s what I was taught in the military.

@johnnyrocko2933 3 месяца назад

Wow. A simple machine shop and a little knowledge you could crank these out pretty easily.

@matthewspencer972 3 месяца назад

Even today. The technical package still circulates in certain circles but in the current legal climate it's not worth the risk and Skorpions seem to be widely available to the criminal fraternity, especially in Liverpool: possibly the only less discriminating close-quarter firearm than a STEN and one guaranteed to take the "professional" out of "hitman".

@ROBERTNABORNEY 3 месяца назад

I was done ALOT and in many odd places

@ROBERTNABORNEY 3 месяца назад

The only hard part is the magazines. That is one reason I laugh when her the Left saying, we'll collect all the firearms and problem solved. Not as long as you have basement and garage machine shops.

@pd4165 3 месяца назад

@@ROBERTNABORNEY Do 'the left' say they'll collect all the firearms? Do they really? Really? Or are you just a 'friend' of Lawrence Fox and his delusional brownshirts, that enjoy the idea that they're being persecuted all the time? And need to invent shit to get upset about. You've never been allowed automatic firearms in the UK - and the Firearms Act 1997 was introduced by a Conservative government, following the Dunblane massacre.

@keefymckeefface8330 3 месяца назад

@@ROBERTNABORNEY Gun control in UK isnt really a "left" v "right" thing. Current gun laws are result of an all-party kneejerk reaction driven largely by right and center wing press reaction following Dunblane. Its also worth noting- the UK had one mass casualty school shooting, then ended them by removing the easy supply of weapons- there has not been another.

@cypherfunc 3 месяца назад

Hearing about how many smgs were made (and how many civilian companies stepped up to make them) makes me really curious who made the truly gargantuan amount of ammo they would have needed.

@johnland7318 3 месяца назад

Ian's at the Royal Armories Museum, in Leeds. Hi from Leeds , Ian.

@tjmunros 2 месяца назад

Makes me proud to be British and a Production Engineer! “Yeah, we can simplify the manufacture, build more for less cost, at a faster rate” 🤷🏾‍♂️

@michaeldunn7716 2 месяца назад

So interesting! Thank you Ian. God bless all here!

@brianbarker2551 3 месяца назад

Wait, what happened to the Mark 4? It was a prototype only, apparently pistol-sized. A mini-Sten is a fearsome idea

@BaronFlyingClub 3 месяца назад

Brilliant. I had a Sten Mk 3.

@terracar2003 3 месяца назад

" That's a Non-issue because there are no left handed shooters in The British Army" ~Gun Jesus

@jankrusat2150 3 месяца назад

My demilled Mk2 also has the trigger mechanism cover with the simple indents for holding it in place, not the screws

@alastairmcmurray4873 2 месяца назад

Ian, I am researching the 15th Scottish division in Normandy and there are a lot of period videos and photos in the IWM online archive, in most the Stens in use in Normandy are Mk3 rather than mk2.

@JR9979 2 месяца назад

Mk3 stens also made it over to Canada. They freed up Lee Enfield rifles for the troops heading overseas when the military police were asked to turn in their rifles and rearm with pistols/revolvers and stens. Another use of the sten was by prison camp guards that had to watch German and Japanese prisoners of war in the camps we used to house them.

@LewpyDrewpy714 3 месяца назад

LoL. I totally forgot about this. Read about this in my twenties. The rabbit hole of the military industries will blow your mind.

@Maras-Baras 3 месяца назад

5:31 ok, that tickles my brain in a good way

@keenanmcbreen7073 3 месяца назад

Ruthless efficiency.

@1978garfield 3 месяца назад

The Sten is the ultimate low buck bullet hose IMHO.

@stuartmenziesfarrant 2 месяца назад

Ian, how about a video on the ‘Day of the Jackal’ custom sniper rifle? Has to be one of the coolest movie prop/guns out there!

@hattyfarbuckle 3 месяца назад

the thought of instructors having to teach the correct sight use on the ranges seems like a Monty Python sketch

@MichaelDolances 2 месяца назад

I’ve loved this series so far!

@andrewcoley6029 3 месяца назад

Great history and analysis

@41tl 3 месяца назад

I like these series on variants of the same gun.

@trapture 3 месяца назад

I rebuilt a Mk. III as a SBR Semi Auto. I really wished i had bought a Mk. II parts kit but it was significantly more expensive. During my SBR Paperwork i stated that i wanted to use Heavy Pop Rivets in the front trunion for barrel replacement

@BlakeyWayne 3 месяца назад

I've been an avid viewer for years. I love you and your content Ian. You should try dabbling in longer videos. I know you can't just pull content out of thin air but I do genuinely enjoy hearing you ramble about almost anything. Good luck sir!

@fjallaxd7355 2 месяца назад

Great video.

@tomwarner2468 3 месяца назад

The first mk 111 I saw was in a James bond movie! Had one of those too! Never figured out how to remake it .the receiver was demilled right near the port for the bolt! At the time they wanted $99 for parts kit ! It included everything along with the cut receiver ! I still believe the rivets hold barrel in place could've been ground and drilled out !

@MrDrboomstick 2 месяца назад

A toymaker mutters to himself as he paws over Sten designs. "Angrier" he says "...more tube-like".

@billyruffian1426 3 месяца назад

"Quantity has a quality of its own"

@samsum3738 2 месяца назад

Looking forward to the next Sten video .

@ExpatriotSilencers 3 месяца назад

I've been shooting my Sten left handed for several decades and it has never caused me any problems. Left handedness is a non-issue with a Sten.

@worldbiggestfan1 3 месяца назад

I was thinking where is Jonathan Fergusson, he is a keeper of firearms and artillery at the royal armouries museum

@kevdefender6976 14 часов назад

Handled a deactivated mk2 sten at Newark arms fair it felt good

@Emdee5632 3 месяца назад

So basically, had Lines Brothers Limited known that they were going to be the only producer of this proposed version of the Sten, they might have chosen for a slighty less cheap design with maybe a detachable barrel and still would have won the contract? Ending up producing far more Mark IIIs? Interesting.

@robertwarner5963 2 месяца назад

If Lines' management was smart, they would have built the exact same Sten Mark III but charged a bit more ... to improve profits.

@TheHorzabora 3 месяца назад

WW2 really shows us how… limited our production is today, given our struggles to supply the Ukraine, due to our lack of desire to convert to a total war scenario. It’s fascinating and scary. 870,000 guns inside two years are numbers that today seem incredible, particularly given how quickly the development was pushed through. You just don’t get that level of urgency and total dedication.

@lllordllloyd 3 месяца назад

Great stuff. I'm looking forward to the Mk V video, this gun is often seen in the hands of British troops postwar, paras in Suez, Palestine, Argylls in Aden, units in Malaya, and so on.

@blahorgaslisk7763 3 месяца назад

Never used a Sten, the closest I would say was the Sterling I was handed to use when I was given the insurgent role in a military training action. I liked the Sterling as it was significantly lighter than the SMG I usually carried.

@PaulFlude 3 месяца назад

I've heard it said somewhere that it would make the average person more accurate in the long run to shoot on the opposite side so as to hold the stock with the dominant hand.