Stenguns were produced by the resistance in occupied Norway. The different parts were produced on seperate locations and most workers didn't know what they were making. Only obvious parts like the barrel had to be produced in absolute secret. I believe stenguns were produced in other occupied contries too.
I remember some time last century a member of the public found a live, fully loaded Sten gun in a public phone box along with a bag containing (I think) about £30,000. They reported it to the police. Perhaps for obvious reasons, the owner of the gun & money never came forward to collect them!
I have to admit, target shooting looks fun.
Couple of nice videos Stag. -{
One day I want to visit that indoor gun range in Las Vegas where you can fire practically any gun you can imagine. Remarkably, my wife fancies doing it too!
Stenguns were produced by the resistance in occupied Norway. The different parts were produced on seperate locations and most workers didn't know what they were making. Only obvious parts like the barrel had to be produced in absolute secret. I believe stenguns were produced in other occupied contries too.
Yes, Finland, Denmark, Poland, Norway and even Germany made copies of the Sten from scratch from reversed engineered MK II's. Norway, Finland and Denmark also made copies of the MKV. Obviously most came from Britain, and Canada made them too. These were dropped in their thousands to various resistance movements.
I think it was a Sterling that my Action Man had, with the shoulder stock. Alas, I lost - or swallowed - the magazine almost as soon as I got the figure but that didn't stop him from shooting everything that moved (in my mind, at least).
Yes, Finland... made copies of the Sten from scratch from reversed engineered MK II's. .... Finland...also made copies of the MKV...
You wouldn't happen to have a source reference for this one, would you? It would be greatly appreciated.
So far I have only been aware of Polish, German and French copies. In Finland (AFAIK) Sten was in service only as the MKIII that was purchased from Interarms after the war, in the '50s. Some 75000 guns were bought and refurbished and entered the service as 9.00 kp Sten II and 9.00 kp Sten III. Sten II and Sten III had different butstocks, but were otherwise the same weapon.
The only copied subgun that was manufactured in Finlan during ww2 was M-44 "Peltiheikki", which was a 9mm.pb copy of a Russian PPS43.
"I mean, she almost kills bond...with her ass."
-Mr Arlington Beech
Stenguns were produced by the resistance in occupied Norway. The different parts were produced on seperate locations and most workers didn't know what they were making. Only obvious parts like the barrel had to be produced in absolute secret. I believe stenguns were produced in other occupied contries too.
Yes, Finland, Denmark, Poland, Norway and even Germany made copies of the Sten from scratch from reversed engineered MK II's. Norway, Finland and Denmark also made copies of the MKV. Obviously most came from Britain, and Canada made them too. These were dropped in their thousands to various resistance movements.
I assume the German stens were not secretly made by the resistance, like they were in some occupied countries? I knew Germany used captured Stenguns. Otto Scorzeny (Commander of SS special forces) used a suppressed Stengun.
Part of Stengun made secretly in occupied Norway
German SS-soldiers with Stenguns
Asp9mmOver the Hills and Far Away.Posts: 7,483MI6 Agent
Yes, Finland... made copies of the Sten from scratch from reversed engineered MK II's. .... Finland...also made copies of the MKV...
You wouldn't happen to have a source reference for this one, would you? It would be greatly appreciated.
I know Finland made MKV's for sure, probably not MK IIs though. The IWM has two and I used to have one in my collection years back. I didn't know it was a Finland copy back then, as I thought it was something much rarer. It was confirmed later by the IWM and the owner of the worlds largest SOE collection that it was a Finnish copy made possibly after the war. In retrospect I should have kept it, but my collection is period specific.
You listed Germany as one of the countries that produced the Stengun. Was that the nazi regime making copies or (less likely) the underground resistance making them illegally?
You listed Germany as one of the countries that produced the Stengun. Was that the nazi regime making copies or (less likely) the underground resistance making them illegally?
It was the Nazi's.
.................................
Asp9mmOver the Hills and Far Away.Posts: 7,483MI6 Agent
Thanks. I I seem to remember the Norwegian Sten was slightly different from the proper Stenguns. I think the safety was on the other side, among other things.
I know Finland made MKV's for sure, probably not MK IIs though. The IWM has two and I used to have one in my collection years back. I didn't know it was a Finland copy back then, as I thought it was something much rarer. It was confirmed later by the IWM and the owner of the worlds largest SOE collection that it was a Finnish copy made possibly after the war. In retrospect I should have kept it, but my collection is period specific.
It is rare indeed: Here is a copy of a research made about arms manufacture in Finland from 1938 to 1945: file:///C:/Users/Omistaja/Downloads/47703-36409-1-PB.pdf
On the page 181 you'll find a table about small arms. It is in Finnish so I'll provide you with relevant translations:
ARMS MANUFACTURE IN FINLAND IN DURATION OF OUR WARS
1938 1939 1940 1941- 1942 1943 1944 1945 All. Attn.
1. 7,62-20 mm weapons
1.1. Kiv m/39 ................ 16000 12000 37646 18183 6500 90329 (rifle m39)
1.2. L-S pk/26 .............•. 3740 90 11 500 4341 (Lahti-Saloranta LMG)
1.3.7,62 kk/09-30 .......... 425 395 46 15 881 (Machine Gun/09-30 similar to British Vickers)
1.4. Yleiskk "Sampo" ..... 35 35 (LMG)
1.5. 9,00 kp/31 ja 44• ...... 5617 1979 4675 15512 17003 18865 15865 1 101 73900 10 398• (Suomi and Peltiheikki* Sub guns)
1.6. 9,00 L-35 pisto ......... 99 1593 1610 544 10 891 866 5613 (Lahti L-35 pistol)
1. 7. 20 p~tkiv /39 ............ 2 410 496 1000 170 2078 (20mm antitank rifle ”the Elephant Gun”)
There is no mention of Sten manufacture during the war in any of the documents that I have seen, so I'm curious about the source of this info. I don't doubt you, but I do have some reservations about IWM or their source for this, since Finnish war archives have no info on Stens prior 1950.
"I mean, she almost kills bond...with her ass."
-Mr Arlington Beech
As far as I know finnlan only used Th Suomi SMG during the Winter War an WW2. The Suomi is regarded by many as the best SMG in WWII, regardlessof the theatre. After WWII many countries used the Suomi, including Norwegian special forces.
Asp9mmOver the Hills and Far Away.Posts: 7,483MI6 Agent
Finland made them Post-WW2. They didn't make them during the war as far as I know.
I found the information about the Auxillary units during WWII interesting. What happened after the war? I have read some about the Stay Behind organisation here in Norway. Was there a Stay Behind network in the UK during the cold war?
Comments
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jt70ilN_PgU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKkKlWWmEbM
The acoustics of the range are as such that it perhaps doesn't give an accurate representation of the noise generated.
Couple of nice videos Stag. -{
One day I want to visit that indoor gun range in Las Vegas where you can fire practically any gun you can imagine. Remarkably, my wife fancies doing it too!
Yes, Finland, Denmark, Poland, Norway and even Germany made copies of the Sten from scratch from reversed engineered MK II's. Norway, Finland and Denmark also made copies of the MKV. Obviously most came from Britain, and Canada made them too. These were dropped in their thousands to various resistance movements.
Or a similar gun. ?
That's a Sterling. A great SMG that we used for many years.
Also used by Stormtroopers with a bit of T track and greeblies added.
You wouldn't happen to have a source reference for this one, would you? It would be greatly appreciated.
So far I have only been aware of Polish, German and French copies. In Finland (AFAIK) Sten was in service only as the MKIII that was purchased from Interarms after the war, in the '50s. Some 75000 guns were bought and refurbished and entered the service as 9.00 kp Sten II and 9.00 kp Sten III. Sten II and Sten III had different butstocks, but were otherwise the same weapon.
The only copied subgun that was manufactured in Finlan during ww2 was M-44 "Peltiheikki", which was a 9mm.pb copy of a Russian PPS43.
-Mr Arlington Beech
I assume the German stens were not secretly made by the resistance, like they were in some occupied countries? I knew Germany used captured Stenguns. Otto Scorzeny (Commander of SS special forces) used a suppressed Stengun.
Part of Stengun made secretly in occupied Norway
German SS-soldiers with Stenguns
I know Finland made MKV's for sure, probably not MK IIs though. The IWM has two and I used to have one in my collection years back. I didn't know it was a Finland copy back then, as I thought it was something much rarer. It was confirmed later by the IWM and the owner of the worlds largest SOE collection that it was a Finnish copy made possibly after the war. In retrospect I should have kept it, but my collection is period specific.
It was the Nazi's.
It's a copy of the MK V they have there.
It is rare indeed: Here is a copy of a research made about arms manufacture in Finland from 1938 to 1945: file:///C:/Users/Omistaja/Downloads/47703-36409-1-PB.pdf
On the page 181 you'll find a table about small arms. It is in Finnish so I'll provide you with relevant translations:
ARMS MANUFACTURE IN FINLAND IN DURATION OF OUR WARS
1938 1939 1940 1941- 1942 1943 1944 1945 All. Attn.
1. 7,62-20 mm weapons
1.1. Kiv m/39 ................ 16000 12000 37646 18183 6500 90329 (rifle m39)
1.2. L-S pk/26 .............•. 3740 90 11 500 4341 (Lahti-Saloranta LMG)
1.3.7,62 kk/09-30 .......... 425 395 46 15 881 (Machine Gun/09-30 similar to British Vickers)
1.4. Yleiskk "Sampo" ..... 35 35 (LMG)
1.5. 9,00 kp/31 ja 44• ...... 5617 1979 4675 15512 17003 18865 15865 1 101 73900 10 398• (Suomi and Peltiheikki* Sub guns)
1.6. 9,00 L-35 pisto ......... 99 1593 1610 544 10 891 866 5613 (Lahti L-35 pistol)
1. 7. 20 p~tkiv /39 ............ 2 410 496 1000 170 2078 (20mm antitank rifle ”the Elephant Gun”)
There is no mention of Sten manufacture during the war in any of the documents that I have seen, so I'm curious about the source of this info. I don't doubt you, but I do have some reservations about IWM or their source for this, since Finnish war archives have no info on Stens prior 1950.
-Mr Arlington Beech
-Mr Arlington Beech