The STEN Gun - In The Movies
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- čas přidán 5. 12. 2021
- A brief overview of The Sten as featured in many war movies.
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Movies Featured:
Dr. No 1962
Where Eagles Dare 1968
Akira 1987
A Hill in Korea 1956
The Bridge on the River Kwai 1957
The Guns of Navarone 1961
The Longest Day 1962
How I won the War 1967
The Eagle has Landed 1976
Soldier of Orange 1977
A Bridge Too Far 1977
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me 1999
The Pianist 2002
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen 2003
Black Book 2006
Kokoda 2006
Female Agents 2008
Flame and Citron 2008
A Woman in Berlin 2008
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor 2008
Max Manus: Man of War 2008
The Army of Crime 2009
Captain America: The First Avenger 2011
City 44 - 2014
Allied 2016
Anthropoid 2016
Dunkirk 2017
The Man with the Iron Heart 2017
#guns #ww2 #warhistory
Sorry friends. Had to do a repost of this video. CZcams has some particular "family-friendly" rules, fair enough. However, tricky when making war reviews/videos.
Oh sorry about that.
But we get to watch and give a second thumbs up, so there is that.
My man Harold. Thanks so much for the support 🙏 . I'll have a fresh video out in a couple of days.
@@haroldellis9721 true 👍
Thank you as well my Korean Cookery friend 🙏
There is a story of Norwegian resistance fighters making Stens underneath the German Army headquarters and when asked why they chose to do it there, they replied it's the last place the Gestapo would look and we even got the German Army standing guard.
Norwegian made Stens, if any still exist, are prized by military weapons collectors.
@@ukrainiansniper5916 I think a few still does however sadly many were destroyed after the war.
I think a few exists in private ownership but not sure how many.
Same did polish as far as I remember
@@ukrainiansniper5916 According to records around 800 Norwegian made stens was made by a man called Bror With.
"Hilarant"!!!
The scene where Mini Me plays the piano from 1970’s Waterloo was such an amazing scene.
I got to shoot one full auto at a local indoor range here in Reno, NV. The bolt was so heavy there was no recoil. Very easy to keep on target and mag dump. Very cool.
Shot one in LV one year it was part of a WWII package consisting of the Sten, MP-40, StG-43, PPSh-41, Thompson and G-3 Grease Gun. Sidearm package consisted of M1911 .45 ACP, P-08, PPK P-38, Tokarev, Browning Hi-Power. It cost a pretty penny but worth it. Three days later I shot a mini gun and three heavy MGs including an MG 42, RPD and MA Deuce.
They have one at my range here in Poland, a mk.2 that they claim was used in the Warsaw Uprising. Whatever it's true provenance, it's such a joy to try it out. The old angry pipe.
dangerous weapon,it may blown your chin.
@@cabbartoynakbas200 Obviously, you haven't the slightest bit of experience with a Sten...
i went to vegas and went on one of those touristy gun range experience things. tour bus drove out over to arizona to the range. chose the sten as the first gun to shoot after signing the waiver, and one of the range guys said "just so you know, it might jam. these things were known to be unreliable." that time it managed to shoot 29 out of 30 or 32 rounds. was pretty fun to shoot though.
Yeah, the magazines were pretty notorious.
The Germans copied the Sten during the end, it was called the MP 3008. I remember the high command was critical of the sten for being so cheap but the German SF were impressed and recognised that it was simple, cheap and effective.
The Germans already had similar weapons like the Bergmann and Erma SMG's that they used before the MP40.
One small feature that it did better than the Sten that the magazine was straight down instead of sideways
You know your product is really good when the enemy actually love a reverse engineered version of it.
@@killercat5231 forgotten weapons is a good site for historical information, sure they mentioed it was the inspiration as well.
Two different ones. Early on, the Germans also made one that was an exact copy. The plan was to send English speaking soldiers in before an invasion of England. That never happened. The MP-3008 used MP-40 mags, almost identical to the Sten. Both mags were from the same patent from Hugo Schmeisser.
My grandfather used a STEN thought out his WWII service. He said it was a basic killing machine that kept him alive.
Experienced British soliders always told others to NOT grab the magazine, as doing so while shooting will cause it to insert bullets into the chamber either off-center or misaligned, effectively jamming the weapong after just a few shots.
Info for those who stopped at 5:25
So glad you included _Max Manus_ and _Flame & Citron._ Two excellent resistance films!
Max Manus may be the least well-known of those two, both are very well-made.
And of course after the war we got the Sterling submachine gun which was issued from 1953 and served until 1994.
Actually by 1942 the price of a Thompson was down to $70. But at $11 you could buy six Stens and have change.
One of the main problems with the early Sten was the spring was made of material which was to soft. This meant taking the spring out and stretching it back into shape. Knowing all the problems with the Sten, in the hands of a well-disciplined soldier, who knew how to avoid them, they were less of a liability as otherwise may be suggested. Interestingly, though not fitting tha magazine would have helped with accidental discharge troops decided to keep the magazine in place in case there was a sudden encounter with the enemy. This may have saved more lives by having the Sten ready then it may have cost through accidental discharge.
The Thompson M1A got down to $ 45/unit by 1944, but that same price could buy 3 M3 Grease Guns.
Great video. Yes, the STEN is vastly under rated. Dissembled, carried in a luggage bag for concealment until it got to its destination for use. A remarkable weapon. And what is a Britsh war film or a European resistance film without having at least one in the film.
Hooray, a video about the mighty Sten gun! Easy to manufacture, assemble, and operate. I really like the fact that so many of these were given to the resistance fighters in World War 2. Nice job.
“Operation Daybreak” was a Hollywood movie with Timothy Bottoms that showed the STEN in all it’s clandestine glory. A good shot showing the resistance team assembling the weapon just prior to the hit.
One of my all time fave films :-) thanks or mentioning
The STen was much easier to produce, than the Thompson or the MP-40. Eventually the American military figured it out, with the adoption of the M-3 Grease gun. Yes, the STen was much more preferred as it literally looked like a bunch of pipes. They even called it the "plumber's nightmare, when it was introduced.
This is the STEN's legacy. It was never going to be the best SMG, wasn't even designed to come close. It simply was designed at all stages to be easy on all levels; to produce, to use, to maintain etc. By the end of the war, every major nation was producing something similar if not a direct copy of the STEN. It didn't need to be as good as a Thompson, MP40 or PPSH. It just needed to be nearly as good but far, far cheaper. It manged this.
Just a shame they used the sten mag.
The Sten doesn’t hold a candle to the M3 Grease gun for reliability or drop safety.
@Craig the Scott True, when he said the Sten was reliable I questioned that. The gun maybe but the mag was horrible.
You can literally re upload videos and we’ll be here to support lol
Well hey I knew my man James was gonna throw me some support 🙏
@@JohnnyJohnsonEsq Always, brother!
Great subject and clip. The STEN would go on to almost resemble a 'proper' SMG with the Mark V which added a wooden stock, pistol grip, sights, foregrip in the early models circa 1944-1945 (Operation Market-Garden) but later removed/omitted, and a Bayonet Mount to take the earlier WWII Spike Socket Bayonet and Post 1945 the later Short Blade style Socket Bayonet (the exact name escapes me) as per what was fitted to the Lee-Enfield No 4 late war rifles, and as per footage from Korea, Malaya and the Suez Canal operation. If not for the Sterling SMG it may well have continued to serve beyond the mid-late 1950's.
A Pig stick.
Evidently my grandfather used one of these to kill 3 german infantry in one encouter, he was a loader for a tank crew in like 1939 - 1942 around then, they had stopped to refuel and rest after having helped take a small village or town, ( forgive the lack of explicit details I heard this story when I was a kid from my uncle and again when I was still a kid from my dad so...) anyways while they were stopped my grandfather was sitting on some stairs and he heard footsteps approaching from around the corner of the building. He thought they were friendlies so he got up to go see them, but when he rounded the corner it was actually 3 Germans, they all startled each other, but Grandpa levelled his Sten and emptied the whole magazine into the 3 of them from like 15- 20 feet before they could shoot him, evidently they were using bolt actions according to my Dad and Uncle. The whole incident really messed my Grandpa up cause none of them died quickly and some other guys from Grandpa's crew heard the shots and came and finished them all off in front of him. Grandpa would just stare out windows lost in his thoughts from time to time for the rest of his days and never really talked about the war with me or my siblings much and I can understand why. Still glad a weapon like the Sten exists otherwise my family might not be here today.
You made that up though.
7:12 That was my personal favorite scene from Waterloo.
Put there to make sure people are paying attention, maybe?
Mini Me and Dr. Evil were in Waterloo?
Not in the movies, but in young adult sci-fi. The Sten is the weapon re-introduced (as the wonder weapon of its time) in the post-apocalyptic "Sword of the Spirits" Trilogy by John Christopher (better known for the "Tripods" books).
Also Imperial storm troopers carry propped up Short Sterlings, an evolutionary decedent of the Sten.
Not to be picky, but the the Short Stirling was a WW2 bomber, the Sterling machine pistol was originally manufactured by Sterling Engineering in Dagenham.
Always annoys me when I see the Sten in movies being held by the magazine. This rarely, if ever happened.
I have a deact mrk 2 sten, it has the T stock as apposed to the skeleton stock, I also have the 1928 Thompson, the weight difference is incredible, I don't fancy having to lug the Thompson around, especially with the drum mag fitted, so bloody awkward to load & carry.
One issue that became quite common in early use, was known as Sten Gunners Finger....it was easy when holding the gun 'correctly', with your left hand wrapped around the front shroud over the barrel, to get the top joint of your little finger caught inside the ejection port/ chamber area. The result was the bolt could slam shut on your finger.....ouch!! You would no doubt also be burned by the hot propellant exhaust from a fired round. Being a simple blow back weapon, a lot of gas escapes out from the breach and ejection port. That famous photo of Winston Churchill using one, clearly shows just how close your finger can get to that ejection port. An ex soldier I met, described how, while on exercise in Germany, shortly after the war, a loaded sten which had been propped up against a vehicle, somehow was knocked over. It went off and stood up on its stock, rotating around in a circle as it proceeded to fire the whole magazine into the air, while everyone nearby dived for cover! How true that really is, I know not, but it does sound quite scary!! An amazingly successful weapon nonetheless, and so many soldiers and resistance fighters owe thier lives to its simple, cheap and prolific design. Great to see it in so many of those clips!! Many thanks.
2008 November a Sten Gun was used to defend the backside of the New Delhi Airport during the terrorist attack in Mumbai. I walked by the NSG Commandos with AK-47 guarding the entrance, and then checked the rear defenses. Where to my surprise, there as a Sten Gun. They held the high ground, with a clear field of fire across the tarmac. I am guessing they put they put that old weapon there just to buy time until the far more heavily armed commandos to get there. (My objective was to wait for my flight behind as many commandos as possible.)
The Sten is a fun light weight gun to shoot. I had one for several years and blew hundreds of rounds through it on full auto and single shot. Mine had good accuracy to about 50 yards and was a pleasure to shoot with its low recoil. The only negative was that it was a bit awkward to handle with the magazine sticking out the side as designed.
If I remember correctly in an interview with the actor Michael Caine he stated that his particular experiences with the STEN in Korea made him quite familiar with it's quite often issues. Ironic considering during his acting career he'd go on to use it a lot.
Check out Backyard Ballistics channel, showing the restoration and firing of a STEN found in Italy, possibly dropped by the Brits to the Italian resistance after 1943. Quite interesting.
Man, movies these days are terrible, but that one "Allied" from 2016 was amazing. Cool setting in North Africa, cool obscure subject matter, with the OSS and all... We need more movies like that.
Really underrated!!
Good stuff, well researched and no repeating BS stories about the STEN like other channels.
Much appreciated 🙏
The number of variants are rather interesting unto themselves, you can tell earlier production Canadian and British STEN’s apart based on the different stock shapes. Some later British Sten’s used the Canadian pattern stock. By 1944 some STEN patterns no longer locked like “plumbers abortions” and even had full wooden stocks and bayonet lugs.
It's cool that you put "Soldier of Orange" (1977) in it! Erik Hazelhoff-Roelzema was good friends with Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, better known as the scoundrel of orange.
FIne book, and if I remember correctly the movie stars Rutger Hauer.
I was lucky enough to meet Hazelhoff in Hawaii. I immediately read “Soldier of Orange” and was blown away by the guy’s whole life. I had no idea who I was talking to when I met him, though our brief conversation gave me a fleeting glimpse of his exploits.
@@jasonkrantz3643
It is the Netherlands' greatest WW2 hero! But Bestebreurtje was also a hero.
@@rolfagten857 The nederlanders’ exploits in WWII made me want to be Dutch. I’m not entirely joking.
I've never fired an MP-40, but our Swedish M/45 submachineguns had no select fire either, but we could fire them single shot.
Now I can only talk of the Sterling which is a more modern version of the Sten. In the Canadian military they would teach you a number of ways to fire the Sterling. If you had short arms and you fired from the hip, you could grasp the magazine in your left hand and fire in burst of three or four rounds each. Aiming from your lower left, as you discharged your rounds the sequential rounds would travel from your lower left to the upper right, the same direction as the discharged cartages would be discharged. In theory your first round would pass just to your lower left of the target and lets say the knee area of a person, the second round would maybe hit in the abdomen area, the third round would hit i the upper chest area and the fourth round would pass just of the upper shoulder area of your target. If you had normal length of arms, you probably be more comfortable and accurate grasping your shroud of the weapon in the palm of your hand with the palm facing down, then resting the magazine on your forearm of the same hand. This would give you more control and would help prevent from the weapon twisting as it fired. The preferred way was to aim as you would a rifle, but also aiming to your lower left and firing in burst of three or four. As this was most accurate and as before as the sequential rounds would travel from your lower left to your upper right. The sterling had a range of 200 yards but 150 would be a little for accurate, and the Sterling did have a problem of misfiring as did the Sten.
So refreshing to see your synopsis. Yep the Sten was Heath Robinson but it was cheap and did the job. Noboby uses an SMG more than 50 yds. Perfect for resistance assassinations/ambushes and house clearing.
ah yes, i love when dr evil showed up in the movie waterloo, one of my favorite scenes. 7:13
You did mention the problem of jams if holding the gun by the magazine. Many had issues with some magazines working and others not, so when you found a magazine that worked you kept it. I am unaware of any single fire STEN other than the suppressed only versions. The ergonomics of the early guns were poor, handgrip/stock. Another point for resistance fighters was the STEN was very easy to break down into parts making it easy to hide. ( you can accidentally disassemble it if you weren't careful)
The MP 40 added some safety features not on the MP38. One was with the bolt closed you could push in the cocking handle which locked the bolt closed so it would not fire if you dropped in on the butt, a problem with many open bolt sub guns.
The Thompson sub machinne gun was a 1928 design that was heavy, expensive and complex. Later in the war the M1A1 version was simpler and cheaper but was replaced with the M3, smaller, ugly, crude but it worked. The USA did not have a lot of interest in the sub machine gun. The Thompson was just there.
All Stens are select fire having a semi auto setting
Keep doing what you're doing. You're a great channel IMHO.
Thank you kindly 🙏
I have two transferable Stens, (Mk II, Mk IV), and a third being converted to a Sterling L2A3. Stens are fun and easy to shot, great for beginners. Any malfunctioning problems are almost always the magazine. Go through them and find any that won't work and sale them to another Sten own, they might in theirs. I've got 60+ mags that work in all of mine. Now let's take Thompsons...You never hear of them malfunctioning, period! 😉
Sten did not only use the same Parabellum bullets as MP40 but in fact the whole magazine was a copy of german design. As designed also for resistance use it was a neat idea, as those fit without reloading ammo into a dedicated mag.
Probably one of the smartest things that the Brits did was go with ammunition that you can get from the enemy.
@@gwine9087 the issiue was that 9mm parabellum was not manufactured in UK (don't remember if at all or in very limited quantities), so it couldn't be supplied to British army troops. In fact first stens were supplied with... Italian ammo (for Beretta) that was captured in meditteranean (they hijacked an Italian transport ship).
@@Mendoslaw_Upierdliwy OK. but they made millions of them and most were used by troops. So, where did they get the ammo? It could not have all come from the Italians.
@@gwine9087 they started mass production of 9mm in late 1941.
Not true, MP40 magazines won't function in a STEN, they are bigger in dimensions than the magazine well.
Fun fact - the Sten in 'Allied' has a custom elongated handguard as the actors complained about getting burned.
If they weren't careful, they could lose the end of their little finger if it migrated into the breech block.
@@gwine9087 I haven't done that myself, but I doubt you'd lose it. It would bloody hurt, mind!
@7:11 I really enjoyed Mini me's Cameo in Waterloo. Some of his best work. P.S. Love all your videos
You did a good job with the video. And Thankyou for pointing out that it should not be held by the magazine, like most actors do in movies. Interestingly, in the clips from The Eagle Has Landed, the German paratroopers disguised as British soldiers are just about the only ones holding it correctly. That may have been down to Michael Caine who served in the British army in Korea. I was a British para in the 1950s, and the uniform had not changed much since WW2. Though the Sten had grown a rather Luger like pistol grip and was called a Sterling. On single shot fire it was fairly accurate out to 100 yards. I actually won a prize at Bisley shooting with one.
The Sten was never as reliable as the Thompson but as you say it was cheap
All throughout the Stens life the magazines in particular gave trouble
One of the clips you used was the assassination of Heydrich
In that attempt their Sten guns jammed leaving them to use grenades mortality wounding Heydrich who died a few weeks later
The Grease Guns were also similar in that regard. Perhaps not as reliable as a Thompson, but they were compact, cheap, and were easier to maintain. There's a reason why US tank crews still used them up until the 90's. And both the Sten Guns and Grease Guns can still be seen today all over the Middle East and Africa, mainly being used by insurgents and militias.
The Thompson was not a good battlefield weapon very prone to failure if not constantly kept clean
It's known that they loaded the ammo backward
I love the dedication you put into your videos
7:11 Waterloo is such a great movie.
Lil gag on my part
I’ve finally got it! M97 trench gun!!! There’s one in The Thin Red Line
I carried a Sten pretty much daily for almost 20 years. I traded it for a C2 Sterling smg because I wasn't keen on the C2. On the mk. 2 Sten I drilled a hole in the receiver and put in a mk.5 bolt handle. I also replaced t T stock with a loop style and put on a spring clip finger saver in front of the ejection port. Not hardly ever a fail to feed or any other malfunctions in thousands of rounds even using cast bullets.
Thanks for sharing your experience. Love hearing from vets with real experience. 🙏
Its not a war experience but I used to lug a heavy toolkit in the city on a fast paced hit and run repair scenario. If I had a choice I would take the STEN as after a day on the move in a battle ( again not been there ) the weight of the Thompson would be a burden.
i accidentally ruined a sten gun back in 84 while shooting 3 different smg's, in my defense i told the instructor your gun sucks and didn't have to pay a dime
my dad in ww2 trained ground crew in the RAF to fire Stens, one guy using it had the sten jam and wound not stop firing till magazine was emptied, the guy nearly swung the gun round in panic and would have shot his own men but my Dad grabbed him before he did so!!!>>> I love your Vlogs they are level headed and informative Thank you Johnny [ p.s Johnny johnson was a WW" fighter ace and went on to fly the Sabre fighter in Korea, he wrote a great book called Full Circle, about fighter tactics
Thanks for sharing a family story. Always love hearing them.
As much as I love the Thompson the Sten just speaks to me.
As to cost and ease of manufacture, even the Americans realized early on that the Thompson though a marvel to shoot, was prohibitively expensive and difficult to make and service. Thus, by Dec 1942 the Guide Lamp division on General Motors produced the M3, and later the M3A1 submachinegun, or colloquially known as the Grease-gun at $13 dollars a copy. Though the base model was in .45 ACP (11.43×23 mm) it was readily available in 9×19mm Parabellum for covert ops, and even trailed version in .30 Carbine (7.62x33mm). It easily is adaptable for use with suppressors as the STEN.
We were taught to not hold it by the magazine but many did. This was due, in part, to when holding it by the barrel sleeve, one could wind up with their little finger in the breech block and lose part of it. It was also dangerous if you dropped it, butt first, as the spring could get suppressed and it could come off safety.
When I was taught to use a STen, I was told to put my hand over the sleeve, with the little finger at the mizzel end, so as not to loose the little pinkey.
it was a dangerous gun to use in general
The Sten was also an iconic weapon of the Independence War of Bangladesh where it was extensively used by the Mukti Bahini Guerrilas. It is not only featured prominently in Bangladeshi war movies and literature but also made it to the covers of various Western magazines at that time like Time and Newsweek. It was also famously used by the Mukti Bahini guerrilla fighter William AS Ouderland, a Dutch national in Bangladesh who was also a former member of the Dutch Underground Resistance movement during the Second World War.
I’ve just noticed I’m not subscribed, I’m surprised I love this channel
Welcome aboard!
There is a great commercial from the 80’s where Ernest P. Worrell has a mag dump ND with a STEN thinking it’s a cigarette lighter. It must find its way here! Great video, great SMG.
never shot a STEN before but i have held and fired the Arisaka, Kar-98, MP-40, Mosin Nagant, MG-34 and so one. When firing these weapons you kinda get you own comfortable way of holding and shooting them because everyone is different with strength, weight, height and all that. I, for all my years of watching, listening and studying WW2 never have even THOUGHT for a second the negetive effects of holding the STEN by the magazine because media from movies, TV and video games have show (for the most part) characters holding the sten by the mag. When you grazed over that it hit me "oh shit, no shit it would actually screw up the feeding of the rounds into the chamber!"
Just thought that was funny, small things like that just go over your head all the time.
Great video though, really interesting to see the in depth of such a classic, simple SMG is firearm history!
Warsaw 44 really is a good example for this weapon and others used by resistance while still staying true to what the Germans were armed with
Today in the morning watching my cell phone I find a recommended video of yours, now at 6:00 PM time in my country I am taking a marathon of your videos, because I found you again
The Sten worked very reliably as the English as with the Germans take pride with their designs and the Sten was meant to be throw away but its durability was quite good and it would fire on and on with few jams but there were some issues but few complaints and it was stamped and pined and you could remove the trigger housing and make repairs. The 9 mm bullet was super sonic so careful use of the silencer on single shot
and its accuracy was very good surprisingly and even the Germans streamlined the expensive Mp38 to the MP40 and it still worked the same but saved ton of manufacture time and resources. Anyone who has fired the Sten is reassured by how it operates and it looks shoddy but is solid and deadly and in room to room very effective on auto.
Scottish used as well funnily enough.
The assassins of SS General Heydrich used Sten guns which jammed at the crucial moment.
They had to use hand grenades to finish off Heydrich.
@@reynaldoflores4522 It was one sten gun and I have read that the stock was removed to hide it under a coat which stopped it working . Anyway the sten was reliable .
There's more errors in this post than it's possible to correct. Absolute trash.
Polish "Błyskawica" was an improved version of the Stean gun during II Great War, manufactured in Warsaw.
There is a closeup during the film, BRIDGE on the RIVER KWAI, where you can see the blank adaptor (set screw) inserted in the barrel.
Do you have anything on the Owens gun, an Australian designed gun that was more reliable than the Sten. When I was in the Australian Army I attended a Formal Dining in Night where Evelyn Owen was guest speaker.
Everyone has their opinions, but remember MANY bad people are no longer here because of the contribution these made not only to main army units but resistance units got full-auto capability MUCH earlier than expected!!!
What bad men?
@@alanrogs3990 The "People" illegally OCCUPYING their once-free Country. At least they were eventually thrown out, VIVE LA FRANCE!!!!!!!!!!🗼🗼🗼
@@TheSpritz0 I see I didn't know you were French. I was thinking you had specific names.
@@TheSpritz0 so all Germans were terrible people? My great grandfather would argue otherwise
@@modellingseb9304 Did he participate in the occupation of France?? I am not condemning all Germans, just those who illegally occupied foreign countries.
"Where Eagles dare" (1969) is a damn fine war movie, Richard Burton plays "Maj. John Smith-role" excellent.
+Rolf Agten. The STEN, however, is not used much in that film. Clint Eastwood & Co. use the MP40 throughout. The STEN only makes a brief appearance towards the end.
@@Clipgatherer Colonel Wyatt Turner in that Junker Ju52 scene, he was the best boy in the Abwehr!
The STen wasn't used, as they're all dressed as German Gebirgesjager, Alpen troops. All of their equipment and uniforms are all German. STens, would have made them look out of place.
@@paulwolf7562 They obviously would have.
BTW: When Smith (Burton) and Schaffer (Eastwood) are seen passing the sentry post before entering Werfen, they are chatting (quite) loudly in English. Wouldn’t that have made them look out of place?
@@paulwolf7562
Check out the final scene in the Junker JU52 again.
My grandad fought in Burma in WW2 as a quartermaster sergeant in the Royal Artillery.
His official small arm was a Sten, and one day on his way to the joint UK/US QM stores, he "lost" his Sten in the jungle and returned to his unit brandishing a brand new Thompson.
Great break down of a classic weapon.
7:11 my favourite scene of Waterloo
Oml you had. So much fun with the Austin Powers clips. I had to think way too hard at the Waterloo gag. Live the vids
I would really enjoy to see your take on another british little toob gun; The Sterling SMG.
One of those smg's that originated from and was used by the UK for a really long time but fairly unknowned. It could use some love and attention.
Great video!
The weapon was iconic and helped to win the war.
Some people may not know that it was assembled in 4 parts. Though the sights being fixed and welded made accuracy a pain, the barrel being only hand tightened to the receiver of the weapon added to the accuracy problems.
Combine that with the fact that if you grip the fore end by the heat shroud you obscure your front sight with your hand. It is amazing that the weapon was ever fielded.
At the time it was needed, it sure served to help turn the tide of battle and made yet another asset to those wanting to fight.
Mostly rubbish you invented.
@@snowflakemelter1172 agreed, obviously he never fired one let alone handled it
Much less common, but the Owen Gun from Australia pissed on the Sten for reliability and battle efficiency. The top-load magazine (See Bren) was ideal for jungle warfare and the sealed recoil system was pretty much immune to contamination. The Australians migrated from the Owen to the F1 without ever seriously using the Sten.
The Austen, a sten variant was also used in large quantities, however it was phased out after ww2.
Very underrated weapon. Stopgap as it were, it was brilliant.
1:18 Oh God why does that T-34-85 have a muzzle brake.... The only reason might be that they used a Yugoslavian Vozilo A, which is a beefed up T-34-85 with an armor layout similar to the IS-2/IS-4
Never thought i would see a clip from New Kids Turbo in a video about historical firearms 😂😂
Great video, as always
The magazine was often hold in WW2-movies.
As a kid it looked awesome.
I read an account of the Heinrich assassination (operation "Anthropoid") that explained the Stens malfunction as being the result of grass caught in the action.
Why/How grass? Apparently food was in short supply for the people of Prague so they took to keeping rabbits. It was common practice for people on the way to work to pick grass from wherever it could be found, to provide rabbit feed. Thus it was not uncommon to see people stuffing their bags and even briefcases with grass.
The operatives used this local habit to conceal the Stens in their bags and in order to thwart a cursory check if stopped.
Unfortunately the grass got into the actions, stopping the bolts full travel. As it was an open bolt/fixed firing pin design the weapon failed to fire.
I can only assume the weapons were carried cocked and on safe for speed of operation but this left the breech exposed to the grass.
I’d say the time and effort put into this video exceeds that put into making a stem by a good bit. Thanks again Johnny!
Thanks Logan!
Sten * darn auutocorrect
Anthropoid was fucking amazing
I’ve only shot a sten gun once but instantly fell in love! It’s a me thing as I know many hate this gun but I have a preference for low recoil smgs. The m3 grease gun is another favorite of mine.
They’re slow and not super accurate but cheap & fun to shoot
I saw that movie Kokada that you used a clip of. Made me glad I had to fight in a Desert and not a jungle.
For a few years I owned a transferable sten with a internal threaded bfa built by Tim LaFrance for the steambridge company.
"The Pen is mightier than the sword.
But...
The Sten is mightier than the Pen.
And....
The Bren is mightier than the Sten."
on the mp40 being hard to fire single shots with, I'm slightly surprised. It has such a slow/chugging rate of fire. A question for Ian McCullum (Forgotten Weapons) I guess.
I'd guess it's not overly hard. But perhaps not overly easy while in combat.
7:12 Oh wow, I must not have seen this version of Waterloo (1970). Must have been a special edition.
just a stupid gag on my part
great video many thanks
The Polish Błyskawica (Lightening) was modelled on the Sten in its ease of production, although with a magazine on the vertical rather than the horizontal.
The Polish did some of the hardest resistance fighting of any occupied nation
@@JohnnyJohnsonEsq The Ukrainians as well, the UPA was the most organized of the military formations. It had a professional officer corps and it developed an intricate chain of command. DeGaulle admired the UPA, he even stated that if his forces fought with the ferocity of the UPA not one German boot would have walked on French soil.
I am somewhere in that opening scene, running around as a 16 year old extra in "A bridge too far" near the town of Ede (Ginkelse heide). My acting career in a nutshell...😄
That's awesome! What a fun experience that would be
The way I read it, the problem was that the British Army was unreasonably picky in its demands for reliability and accuracy, used to issuing exacting specifications for its rifles and handguns. Equivalent accuracy and durability just wasn't possible with submachinegun technology of the period. Some other countries made overly complex and expensive smgs in the 1930s for the same reason, like Italy. Full scale war revealed the nead for something cheap and cheerful for everybody, once it became clear that millions would be needed and almost immediately. Conservatism among senior officers was a problem everyone had to overcome, not just the British, with older infantry generals devout in their faith in the firepower and effectiveness of riflemen alone and rifle regiments augmented by nothing other than a few heavy machine guns and a couple of batteries of artillery. Stalin had to intervene in a conference of Soviet generals debating tactical doctrine, to remind the champion of good old rifle divisions that whatever he thought of tanks, they'd already built 20,000 and they weren't going to be left in storage.
Near the end of WW2 , the Germans made a simplified copy/version of the Sten gun , which was named the MP 3008 or Gerät Neumünster one commenter remarked
The German MP28 was copied by the British to make the Lanchester , the Lanchester was simplified to make a Sten , the Sten was simplified by the Germans to make the MP3008 - it went full circle !!
Flame and Citron is one of my favorite WW2 films.
According to someone wielding one at a re-enactment event, the all-metal design meant the heat from firing passed through the whole weapon, which seemed likely.
Excellent resource for movie titles to watch.👍
Sten stands for "Stayin throughout the years"
I like it.
Not too shabby
Wheres the N?
@@MaxwellAerialPhotography he spelled stty 😂😂
Germany built replica models of the sten as last ditch weapons,; one being almost identical, another with a vertical magazine.
The mk 2 STEN is like an MG Midget. It's fun to drive with the top down when it runs, but you spend a lot of time tinkering to keep it and get it running.
Cool video, Johnny.
Churchill quotes "set Europe a blaze" referring to the Sten Gun.
The gun was even used by german sicherheitsdienst troops because of the shortage of weapons they captured the weapons of the resistance and used them by themselves. Greetz from the Netherlands 🇳🇱
the sten gun also appear in a movie of gene hackman and dan aykroid at the end i think