peashooter85:TThe Lanchester Submachine Gun,In 1940, in the early years of World War II the British
peashooter85:TThe Lanchester Submachine Gun,In 1940, in the early years of World War II the British Royal Air Force decided it wanted it’s own submachine gun for air field defense. Since Britain was in the midst of war and the evacuation of Dunkirk had occurred not long ago, there really was not the time or resources to design and produce a new weapon. Thus designers decided to simply copy a tried and true design, a German submachine gun called the MP-28 designed by Hugo Schmeisser. Named after George Herbert Lanchester of the Stirling Armaments Company, the Lanchester was quite different from the Sten. Whereas the Sten was produced to be an economical weapon utilizing stamped sheet metal parts, the Lanchester was well made utilizing a carefully machined action and breech block. One feature of the Lanchester that stands out is its brass magazine housing. It also featured a bayonet mount and a heavy stock which utilizing shortened stocks from Lee Enfield bolt action rifles.The Lanchester used either 32 or 50 round detachable magazines and was chambered for 9mm Luger. They were produced in two models, the Mk.1 and the Mk.1*. The Mk1* was a simplified version of the Mk1, with simpler sights and lacking a selector switch (thus it was fully automatic only). Roughly 96,000 were produced, most of which were issued to the Royal Navy and Royal Canadian Navy. A number were also issued to the Royal Air Force as well. -- source link