Description
Original Item: Unissued, with markings and postwar dates. Constructed of khaki or brown webbing with brass fittings.
The Sterling submachine gun is a British sub machine gun. It was tested with the British Army in 1944–1945 as a replacement for the Sten. In 1944, the British General Staff issued a specification for a new submachine gun. It stated that the weapon should weigh no more than six pounds (2.7 kg), should fire 9×19mm Parabellum ammunition, have a rate of fire of no more than 500 rounds per minute and be sufficiently accurate to allow five consecutive shots (fired in semi-automatic mode) to be placed inside a one-foot-square target at a distance of 100 yd (91 m).
To meet the new requirement, George William Patchett, the chief designer at the Sterling Armaments Company of Dagenham, submitted a sample weapon of new design in early 1944.[1] The first Patchett prototype gun was similar to the Sten insofar as its cocking handle (and the slot it moved back and forth in) was placed in line of sight with the ejection port[2] though it was redesigned soon afterwards and moved up to a slightly offset position. The army quickly recognised the Patchett’s potential (i.e. significantly increased accuracy and reliability when compared with the Sten) and ordered 120 examples for trials. Towards the end of the Second World War, some of these trial samples…
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