The Real Home Guard

My old man hated the sten, he had many tales of it going off by accident and settled for twin colts instead. The only use his company had for it in Germany was to discharge the things into haystacks at night and get rid of the rats so they could get a decent nights kip.

Adrian

Been trying to track down some old OS maps of Sampford today without success, however I think that they are in the possesion of my ‘retired’ structural engineer in Lt Dunmow and I should be going round his house in the next few days so a raid will be on.

…which fits very nicely with the tale I was told by a former Home Guard of late nights on watch duty in a tin shed on top of the cliffs of North Kent.

I gather that you normally loaded the Sten magazine with one less round than it took to fill it, because filling it made it very likely to go off when dropped. Someone was practising filling and fitting the magazine in the dark, lost count, and managed to drop the thing butt-down. Result – it discharged the entire magazine through the roof of the shed deafening (and probably defaecating) everyone inside. Heaven only knows how anyone wasn’t killed.

I can’t help thinking it goes a long way to explaining why some units eg the Essex Regiment were using what they could pick up (ie MP42s and the like) in Germany at the bitter end – they worked!

Should I mention aircraft somewhere?

Adrian

The conversation in the Lock, Stock & 2 Smoking Barrels movie when the guy lets loose with the Bren gun inside that building is hilarious. Worth watching just for that bit alone.

As for Sten’s. Read once that the easiest way to clear an enemy trench was to **** (er, male chicken) the Sten & throw the entire gun into the opposing sides hole in the ground…

Although I never fired them in anger, from RAF training 40-odd years ago I remember that the Sten was a dangerous, horribly inaccurate weapon, whereas the Bren was superb, if heavy (and so was the Lee Enfield, especially during long parades, but I was and am only a little chap!)

Sten gun friendly fire?

Enjoyable programme – enthusiastic presenter/archaeologist.

The ‘mighty’ sten gun – do me a favour 😮 😮 😮
Hindsight of many sources I’ve met & read, thought they were crap.
Ain’t that why we dropped them on the French – (jam, jam & jam again). 😀

My 2nd ATC annual camp was to Waddington in 1963 and during the course of the week had a session at the firing butts. Weapons were were able to try included the sten gun.

We were warned that as it fired the sten pulled upwards and to the right. The butts were near the end of the runway which was also to our right. As I took my turn and pulled the trigger I watched, fascinated as the spurts in the bank of the butts moved up and to the right and over the top – just as a Vulcan was passing about to touch down! I often wonder about “friendly fire”

Roger Smith.

Channel 4 ‘Seelowe’

Enjoyable programme – enthusiastic presenter/archaeologist.

What a waste of concrete 😀

The ‘mighty’ sten gun – do me a favour 😮 😮 😮
Hindsight of many sources I’ve met & read, thought they were crap.
Ain’t that why we dropped them on the French – (jam, jam & jam again). 😀

One of my best mate’s Dad was a British Army ‘Bren’ gunner in W.W.2.

Having been told/related, by him, a true incident in which he himself was directly involved…..

At the end of hostilities (May/June ’45) whilst rounding up ‘werewolf’ suspects around the Lubeck area, his squad were detailed to break-in & enter a house containing 2 men the authorities wanted.
Very early morning – Six British squaddies attempted to break-in; & one guy used the butt of his Sten-gun to bash the door in……….wasn’t anywhere near the trigger, but the Sten went off nonetheless…………Result =

….One dead soldier (two bullets in Chest), one wounded sent to hospital & my mates ‘Bren’ gunner Dad had the top of his ear split open/bleeding as one bullet grazed past the right-hand side of his skull……(house entry cancelled).

Can’t understand why they featured the Sten on the programme…………
(as opposed to the Lee – Enfield 303, both in it’s (slightly) longer barelled, or S.M.L.E. guises, or the ‘Bren’ for that matter).

Given that it was blatantly concentrating on the ‘summer 1940/invasion/’Seelowe’ timespan – I fail to see why it was featured ?????

With my scant knowledge of firearms, I thought that the Sten was a cheap (nasty) copy of a German Kriegsmarine ‘Lanchester’……& didn’t appear in numbers until quite some time later……certainly never seen/heard of any B.E.F. ‘era’ squaddies using Stens.
Thought ‘ Home Guard’ used pitchforks & W.W.1 – S.M.L.E’s if (lucky) issued.
Rather like using Mk 14 Spit’s or 109 G/K’s in the Summer of 1940 :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
Any knowledgable types care to elaborate ??????

Yes – some fascinating stuff there – including film of decoy Hurricanes being erected in the field and also Carew Cheriton airfield in S Wales. I had not realised the previously derelict but totally unique Watch Office had been restored – does anyone know more about this?