STEN Mk II Sub-machine Gun

STEN Mark II sub-machine gun. Tubular blackened steel construction receiver and the barrel is held to the body by a screw on jacket that is drilled with holes. The trigger box is made from folded sheet steel and it has a pressed curved steel skeleton butt. The magazine port is marked STEN Mk II with the serial number and SJ.ENG RTL. This weapon is complete with all parts and a magazine.

The STEN sub-machine gun is one of the weapons which has become synonymous with sub-machine guns all over the English speaking world and the title Sten was at one stage applied indiscriminately to any vaguely similar gun. The first models appeared in 1941 and were soon replaced with improved versions. It was designed to be cheap and easily made with little labour and with minimal tooling. By 1945 more than four million of various marks had been made after which production virtually stopped apart from maintenance spares. The Sten was supplied to all Commonwealth countries. Probably half a million Mark II Sten guns were sent to the underground movements in Occupied Europe during the Second World War, and little or no attempt was made to recover them after 1945. The STEN gun was never made with any great precision, nor with good materials, so remaining examples are likely to be well worn.