MANUFACTURER – Royal Ordnance Factory, Fazakerley, Liverpool. Birmingham Small Arms Company, Shirley, West Midlands, Birmingham Small Arms Company, Tysley, England. Royal Ordnance Factory, Theale, England. Royal Small Arms Factory, Enfield, London, England. Long Branch, Ontario, Canada. Wellington, New Zealand.
STATUS – Obsolete
SERVICE – British Military and Commonwealth, Resistance Forces
The weapon that became the Mark II Sten gun came about from a request by the British Ministry of Defence for a more compact version of the Sten gun to make the design of greater use by the Airborne forces. The request was dated March 24, 1941, by 31 March, 1941, Harold Turpin had designed and built the first prototype of the new weapon. Turpin said that part of the reason for the quick delivery of the new design was that he took the work home and did most of the labor there. The new design could be easily taken down to a very compact size with the barrel being removed by unscrewing the barrel nut which was also the forward handguard. The magazine housing could be rotated straight down, in line with the trigger mechanism, which reduced the thickness of the weapon by half. This made the new weapon easier to carry broken down by airborne troops as well as making more of the weapons being able to be packed in airdrop containers.
Rotating the magazine housing would help seal off the ejection port from allowing dirt and debris to enter the action, though the cocking handle slot remained open. Though the rotated magazine housing made for a much slimmer thickness for the receiver, reducing the profile from 4 inches thick to 2 inches, the magazine could not be inserted and locked in place with the housing rotated downwards. The housing had to be rotated to face out the left side of the weapon where a spring-loaded plunger locked it in place and a magazine then could be loaded into position.
Observations of the troops working with the Mk I and Mk I* Stens resulted in another change in the new design. Most troops would hold on to the weapon with their firing hand and load, cock, and otherwise operate the gun with their left hand. With the magazine housing sticking out from the left side of the weapon, the use of the left hand for reloading and cocking the gun was a natural action. The safety slot of the Mk I and Mk I* Stens was on the bottom rear of the cocking handle slot. This was inconvenient and somewhat clumsy to operate with the left hand. On the new Sten, the slot was placed on the upper rear of the cocking slot, still requiring the cocking handle to be lifted up and allowed to go slightly forward to lock the weapon on safe.
Everything was examined with an eye to reducing the size and width of the new Sten. The cocking handle was shortened on the new gun and designated the Mark 2. The buttstock was also changed considerably from the curved stock used on the Mk I weapon. Initially, the new Sten had a very simple stock designated the No2 Mk 2 butt. The new stock was made up from several pieces all welded together. An abutment plate went on the rear of the receiver, where it was held in place by a protrusion on the back of the spring housing. A steel tube and a small shaped plate were welded on to the abutment plate. The small shaped piece was for the shooter to hold on to and it had a hole for the shooter’s finger. On the end of the tube was welded a vertical steel plate to act as a buttplate. A hole at the top and bottom of the buttplate helped lighten it as well as give a place for a sling to be tied off. This was the stock that was known to many as the “T” stock and it could be seen mounted on almost any of the Sten submachine gun series
The new weapon was designated the Sten Mk II and proved to be the most popular of the series. Out of the over 5 million various Stens that were produced, over 2 million of them were of the Mk II design. There were a number of small changes to the weapon over its production life. The most noticeable of these was the adoption of the No 3 Mk I stock which was made from a single piece of U-formed steel strip, shaped into the outline of a standard stock, and welded to an abutment plate. A later No 3 Mk 2 stock had the additional refinement of two spring clips that would allow a cleaning rod to be secured within the bottom channel of the stock.
The Mark II Sten was issued to British troops and allies in large numbers. It was a favorite among Airborne troops for its ability to be broken down and placed in a drop bag. It would also be carried strapped underneath the parachute harness of the troopers. It was also widely liked by Resistance Forces in Europe for concealability of the disassembled weapon as it was it parachuted to them in large numbers. The Sten could also utilize the German issue 9mm ammunition, which made resupply at least a little easier for fighters behind enemy lines.
