The British Bren and Sten guns: why?

They had Stens on the Eastern Front? Wild.

 

I think so. Might just be a myth. But they did have the same type of ammo. I believe the 9mm type. I could be wrong though. I also heard that many British soldiers, if they could, would get the MP40 anyway.

 

By war's end, most of the problems with the Sten (named, incidentally, after its designers Messrs. Shepherd & Turpin of the Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield) had b een overcome. The Mark V was quite a smart-looking weapon, with timber furniture, pistol grip and superior finish. This last point is important, as a lot of the accidents involving the weapon came about through hasty engineering: loose tolerances, poor welds, etc.
The Bren (adapted from the Czech ZB 26 designed in Brno, and also manufactured at Enfield), was an excellent weapon from day one. The distinctive curved magazine was a British design to accommodate the rimmed .303" cartridge. The original mag for the rimless 7.92mm round, was straight.
I never fired the Sten (the excellent Sterling was the SMG in my day), but I did fire both .303" & 7.62mm versions of the Bren - a lovely weapon. You felt safe firing it, because all gas stoppages could be IA'd at bipod level. Everything was quick-release, but robust. Change barrels? 5 seconds. Truth.

Cheers,
Klive.

 

"Britain did supply small arms to Russia, the ubiquitous 9mm Sten Submachine gun was supplied to Russian partisan troops."

From: Allied Technological Cooperation During WW2 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

I'm inclined to think that is something of a myth, I mean even in wartime there were very serious penalties for loosing your own weapon. I just can't picture your average Tom explaining to his CSM how he mislaid his rifle.

 

I once knew a vet who served in the Burma campaign. One story he told was of the time he lost his bren gun after a Bren carrier ran over it while he was digging a fox hole. He was still annoyed that the RSM fined him for the the 'careless' loss of his gun.

 

With the exceptions of the Sten and the peashooter .38 Enfield pistols, a military force today could do a lot worse than be equipped with WWII British arms. The reliable Vickers, the superb Bren, the wonderful Lee-Enfield (the best combat boltie ever made, IMHO), the rugged Webleys... old designs, maybe, but certainly not obsolete (especially the Bren.)

 

Not to mention the Browning 9mm, still issued today to the british army.

 

Can a left-handed soldier fire a Bren?

 

I actually fired a Sten in 1948 while training in the RA. We were told of two problems, one, it was over sensitive, one of us was told to hold at the port arms position, finger away from the trigger and a sgt would just tap it with his pace stick and it would fire at least two or three rounds. The second problem was, when firing, the little finger of the left hand, steadying the weapon just in front of the mag', could creep into the ejector slot and get hammered by the action. Ouch! We did nothing with the Bren, that had to wait till I joined the RAF, it was a beautiful weapon, I could hav eplayed with it all day!

Ken

 

Wondering if the thing "climbed." Pacific vets I've talked to knowing the way the Thompson climbed when fired riged their slings to be able to basically carry it in a semi- sideways position. Then when fired it helped move in a lateral way with its climb tendancy creating a sweeping firing arc.

 

Yes, but he can't use the sights....

 

There is no such thing as a left handed soldier, in training you learn to fire right handed regardless of your dextrosity.

 

Charles Whiting mentions this in "Paths of Death & Glory; The last days of the Third Reich", he recalls a visit by brass who noticed several troops carrying MP40's. Rather than spend ages looking it up the gist of it was;

Brass: "How are you finding those?"
Troop: "Fine sir."
Brass: "What about ammunition?"
Troop: "Plenty of it lying about all over the place sir."

cheers,

 

Dextrosity?

 

Thats whatever handed you are.

 

Thanks! I thought it might be the level of dextrose in your blood.

 

Za, from your link;

Is that correct?

 

Phew! Twenty-nine replies before the point was made about why soldiers held the magazine on the MkIII - they valued their little finger! The MkV's foregrip solved the problem.

Twitch's question about the Sten 'climbing': I've fired a blankfirer MkIII. If it's not held tightly against the recoil it 'climbs' up and to the right.

Steve W.

 

I hope it's a typo, otherwise somebody has serious development troubles. In any case that may be right, I know some teenagers who don't know how a shoelace works...