![sten mk ii serial numbers sten mk ii serial numbers](https://l450v.alamy.com/450v/br5xbf/an-english-sten-mk-ii-submachine-gun-caliber-9-x-19-no-serial-number-br5xbf.jpg)
- Sten mk ii serial numbers serial number#
- Sten mk ii serial numbers full#
- Sten mk ii serial numbers series#
Its 9x19mm chambering also gave the Sten another overwhelming advantage - it used the same ammunition as the German Army’s own sub-machine guns, the MP38 and MP40, which was very convenient for Resistance groups, who could replenish their supply of cartridges from the enemy’s own ammunition pouches.Īs well as receiving complete weapons several resistance groups also arranged their own production facilities. The Cairo office of the SOE also found them particularly useful because they were fired without lubrication and thus did not attract dirt and other debris into the mechanism, unlike the more sophisticated Thompson SMG. SOE arranged for thousands of these weapons to be dropped to European resistance groups who valued them for their devastating firepower and simple construction, which made a Sten easy to both conceal and repair. By the end of WWII, approximately four million Stens had been manufactured by RSAF Enfield and its British and Canadian subsidiaries. Most notable was severely restricted accuracy, the effective range of the weapon being only 100m, although at anything below this distance it was frighteningly effective.Īccepted into service with British forces in 1941 as the 9mm STEN Machine Carbine, Mark 1, later developments centered around simplifying the manufacturing process and reducing costs even further, rather than improving performance, and these measures were so effective that a later variant, the MkIII, could be produced in five man-hours for just over £2. Unfortunately its austere design, together with the 9mm pistol ammunition for which it was chambered, brought its own disadvantages. The standard 32-round magazine then emptied in approximately three seconds on fully automatic, a selector button on the right of the frame giving a choice of automatic or semi-automatic fire.
Sten mk ii serial numbers full#
With Britain in such desperate need of weapons, cheapness and speed of manufacture were the designer’s main concerns, and they came up with a sub-machine gun whose assembly required only minor welding of simple parts stamped from sheet metal, with minimal machining for the bolt and main and trigger springs.Ĭhambered for Luger’s ubiquitous 9mm Parabellum cartridge, the Sten had a simple blow-back mechanism, operated by placing a full magazine in a slot at the left side of the receiver, drawing back the bolt until it was retained by the sear and pulling the trigger. It is difficult to reconcile such an apparent output with what appear to be eleven-and-a-half thousand mk.2s sold in a mere five or six years which would suggest over 2,000 a year were sold in that period.Produced after Dunkirk to replace the huge numbers of weapons lost during the evacuation, the Sten sub-machine gun was the brainchild of Major RV Shepherd OBE and Harold Turpin, its name composed of the initial letters of the inventors’ surnames and ‘EN’ from Enfield.
![sten mk ii serial numbers sten mk ii serial numbers](https://ctfirearmsauction.com/content/uploads/2020/06/sten-mkii-9mm-dlo-transferable-mg-48_2.jpg)
This would be a mk.3 three-and-a-half thousand over 13 years equates to an average production of 270 a year - admittedly in a period when letterpress was waning.
![sten mk ii serial numbers sten mk ii serial numbers](https://www.denix.es/en/catalogue/5978/p/denix-Sten-Mark-II--UK-1940.jpg)
Over on the British printing Society website it has been posted that number 3453 was invoiced April 1978 by Adana, Twickenham. Did they really manufacture over 11,000 mk.2s?
Sten mk ii serial numbers serial number#
I have a mk.2 serial number C11587, and a mk.3 serial number S3009 but no idea what dates they might be, nor of the significance of the initial letters. 1 and the mk.2 had two-part bases held together with tie-bolts the mk.3 had its base cast in one piece. The mk.1 had exposed roller-arm springs the mk.2 and the mk.3 had covers on the roller-arm springs.
![sten mk ii serial numbers sten mk ii serial numbers](https://i.imgur.com/j83i8jg.jpg)
Sten mk ii serial numbers series#
Bob Richardson “The Adana Connection” (British Printing Society Jubilee Series of Monographs, no.4), London: British Printing Society, 1997, states that the Adana eight-five mk.1 was introduced 1953, the mk.2 in 1959/60, and the mk.3 in 1965.