I've done a couple of articles on submachine guns recently - the one on the Thompson has been published in Dillon's Blue Press, and I expect the one on the Uzi to be published sometime in the future. I've been looking around for another to write about, and I decided on one that might not be so well known, yet was an efficient "generation 2 1/2" gun that served the needs of the British well after they phased out the Sten gun which had been in use since the WWII days.

The Sterling was developed as a much improved Sten by G.W. Patchett at the Sterling Engineering Co. in Dagenham, Essex, Britain, in the closing days of WWII. The gun in its earliest form was known as the Patchett Machine Carbine. Its most recent iteration was the L2A3 submachinegun. A silenced version was labeled as the L34A1.

Basically, it's a more sophisticated Sten, with a very improved 34-round 9mm magazine. Instead of a stamped or cast follower, the mag features double rollers to push the rounds into the feed path. It maintains the Sten's side-mounted feed system to allow the user to hug the ground a lot better. The collapsible stock is a bit cumbersome to deploy, but it makes the weapon a whole lot more compact when needed; a point appreciated by the paras.

Here's a picture of an L2A3:



If any of you have had personal experience with this gun or variations of it, I'd sure like to hear about anything you'd like to comment on!

John

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