Sten Mk II
 
One of the most famous, or for some perhaps infamous, weapon from WW2 wa the British Sten gun.  The situation in 1940 was really quite desperate, and the British Government was thinking of copying the German MP28, including the use of 9mm ammunition.  In January 1941 though an even simpler replacement was put forward, and demonstrated at the Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield Lock, following which it was quickly ordered into production.  Reliability, and simplicity of prodcution was the key.  It went through 5 marks, and the one we see here, the Mk II, was perhaps the most numerous.  Over 2 million of these were made, and just one factory was able to turn out 20,000 a week at one point, with a unit cost of £2.87! 
 
One of the modifications of the Mk II over the Mk I was the elimination of the folding foregrip and barrel jacket, replacing the jacket with a large perforated sleeve, which also doubled as the foregrip.  That is what you can see here in the photos below.  I remember my father's comments about having these, and they weren't too complementary.  At the end of the day though, they weren't designed to be well engineered examples of the gunsmith's art, they were intended to be simple and easy to produce in unskilled factories, and simple to maintain in the field.  This they were of course, and many were given to the likes of the French Resistance as well as our own troops.
 
For those wanting to get the details right, and indeed the colour, which is pretty much black, our thanks go to member Simon Titterington for this set of pictures of his Sten Mk 2, which you see here.