MANUFACTURER – Sterling Armament Company Limited, Dagenham, Essex, England
STATUS – Obsolescent
SERVICE – Previous front line service with British Military, Commonwealth, and allied countries, presently in secondary services with British and Commonwealth militaries. Also worldwide commercial sales as the Mark 4.
The British firearms designer, George W. Patchett, had worked for FN in Belgium prior to the war, where he initiated his interest in designing firearms. He went on to Czechoslovakia to study and design firearms there. Very shortly before World War II broke out, Winston Churchill himself ordered that Patchett be brought out of Czechoslovakia to England. Patchett’s wife in France was also exfiltrated to England. Patchett went on to work at the Sterling Armament Company who were manufacturing the Lanchester submachinegun. Patchett soon closely examined the Lanchester, as well as the Sten when it became available. He was of the opinion that he could improve on both designs.
In September, 1942, Patchett had his first firing prototype of a new weapon ready for examination. Many of the parts of his prototype came from excess Lanchester parts. These included the barrel, bolt, and magazine. The new Patchett could also use the common Sten magazine. The most notable characteristic of the new design was the pistol grip as well as the trigger mechanism, being at the center balance point of the weapon. The trigger mechanism also had a very easy to operate selector switch located just above the left side of the trigger where it could be operated with the shooter’s thumb. When the safety catch was on, it also locked the bolt in the forward or rear position to help prevent accidental discharges.
The Patchett bolt had also been changed from earlier designs, and received a patent. The bolt had helical ribs machined into the outside of the body. The ribs acted as longer bearing surfaces for the bolt to travel on in the receiver body. The shape of the ribs also helped keep the inside of the receiver smooth and clean by scraping the interior of the tube as the bolt travelled back and forth while cycling.
Though the Patchett prototype garnered some interest, it was not particularly well received. The prototype not only didn’t have real sights attached to it, there was no stock on the weapon. Hip firing the gun was interesting to the watchers, but in their opinion, it did not make for a proper military weapon.
As the war progressed, Patchett continued to improve his design. By the end of the war he had three more patents awarded for aspects of his weapon. The new design was produced in 1944 as a “pilot program” with only twenty made by April, 1944. These twenty weapons had finished sights, folding stocks, and a number of other improvements. They continued to use the Lanchester/Sten magazine and had a barrel adapted from the excess Lanchester barrels that Sterling had available. These tests proved the design well enough that another 100 weapons were ordered for troop trials. This meant that the new Patchett would see combat in World War II.
Though the Patchett was well received by the men who used it, there was not an immediate official order for any further weapons. In the immediate post-war years, Britain decided to fully examine a new submachinegun. Patchett received more patents for his weapon, including two for a new magazine. The magazine was a double-column double feed design with a curved body to match the stack of slightly tapered 9x19mm rounds. Additionally, the magazine follower was made from stamped metal and included two roller bearings that contacted the rounds. The new magazine was a tremendous improvement on the earlier Lanchester/Sten magazines, and gave the new weapon considerably smoother feeding.
During the post-war testing, the closest competition faced by the Patchett was the Sten Mk 5, The Patchett proved so superior that it was accepted for limited military service in September 1953. By August of 1954 the Patchett had become the L2A1 submachine gun. In February, 1955, the name of the Patchett had been changed to Sterling Submachine gun and it was officially adopted as the Gun, Sub-Machine, 9mm L2A2. Sterling continued to work on the design and started to market it worldwide at the Sterling Sub-Machine Gun, 9mm, Mk 4. In September, 1955, the Mk 4 was adopted as the L2A3 submachinegun and continued in British service until the late 1980s.
Probably the most public use of the Sterling submachine gun was seen in the Star Wars movie series starting in the 1970s. A number of Mk 4 Sterlings, both firing and non-firing, were dressed to become the Stormtrooper’s “Blastech E11.” A number of the props were live weapons converted to blank firing. A quick eye can see empty brass skipping along the floor in several of the scenes in “A New Hope.” Using blank firing weapons was intended to let the actor’s have a better feel for actually firing the props. The props used an American M38 tank scope for the optics, mounted backwards on a relatively flimsy mount. And there was a Hengstler industrial count box attached to the left side of the receiver, behind the 10 round magazine. Ribs were attached to some of the cooling holes along the top sides of the barrel. And some small cylinders were attached with electronic parts to the top of the magazine well.
To maintain a balance of power in the films, the Rebel Alliance’s DH-17 Blaster pistol was also based on a Sterling Mk 4
