THE STEN GUN

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23748, 21 September 1942, Page 6

THE STEN GUN

MASS PRODUCTION IN ENGLAND LONDON, July 10. The best description of the new Sten gun, now being mass-produced in England, is .."p long-distance bayonet,” states a special correspondent of ‘‘The Times.”

The Sten—a portmanteau word concealing the inventors’ identities—has an effective range of about 200 yards. It is now being manufactured at some Royal Ordnance factories at a rate of tens of thousands a week, and its ultimate cost of production will be very low.

At one factory visited the Stens, which have been used wtth such success on commando raids, are assembled by women. They were quite new to the work when the factory opened about six months ago; now, at midsummer, they are moving as though they had been ‘‘on munitions” all their* lives. The group-leaders—distinguished by their blue bandeaux —are as efficient, the superintendent says, as any women he has known in the munitions industry. Brightest Passage Within, the factory is like so many others of its kind—grey-painted, manygirdered, severely .'functional. The brightest passages in the early life of a Sten seem to be in the welding shop, with its violet flames, showering gold sparks, and sudden white-hot flashes. One of the heavily-goggled workers here had been in the business only two days. None could call the birth of the Sten a dramatic affair. It is not. The gun itself is a most unspectacular weapon until its last minutes in the factory. Then it is tested on the range and a vicious stutter, as the bullets find the heart of the target, shows what it can do in the hands of a trained marksman. This stammer is heard all day. They are turning out Stens at the rate of one every few minutes. Lorries, specially fitted to take the new guns to the Army stores, wait outside the factory under military guard. Each of these sub-machine guns weighs six and three-quarter pounds unloaded. They are lighter than rifles and can be stowed away in the pockets of a battledress. When dismantled the Sten can be packed into a space of 16 inches by five by two. For street fighting the Sten is said to be ideal. It can be manipulated easily, as our commando troops have discovered in France.

Here are some plain facts about this gun (which lends itself easily to mass production): it can be fired as an automatic or used for single shot firing. A box type magazine, with a capacity of 32 rounds of 9 mm. ammunition is used—inserted into the left side of the carbine. Eight of these magazines are included in the standard issue of each gun. Finally, the Sten can be fired either from the shoulder along the sights or from the hip, and its firing rate is about 550 rounds a minute.

In all, there are 45 components. We saw them first spread out in jig-saw confusion. During the morning, as we passed along the throbbing aisles, the Sten was built gradually to its climax at the range, when a stream of bullets thudded into the sand and the completed weapon was pronounced efficient. , They were still firing as we left the factory. Already the tempo is rapid; soon it will be quicker still. The Sten is going to mean much to our armies—and in its production no time is being wasted. -