Bushman IDW

Notes: This is a new SMG designed to be cheap and easy to manufacture. The weapon is made entirely of steel stampings. The Bushman also has an easily variable rate regulator and can vary its ROF from 100-1400 rpm with a simple switch. (Its factory-set ROF is 450, corresponding to the ROF of 5 listed below). There have been sales here and there to "undisclosed parties."

Merc 2000 Notes: This is a popular bodyguard weapon, particularly in its smaller incarnations.

(Note: These are typical ROF, but the Bushman can fire at any ROF from SA to 10.)

Notes: Civil Defence Supply (commonly known as CDS) is a company most often associated with the kind of products its name suggests – various (nonlethal) supplies and devices for civilians and police to use in survival, personal defense, and riot control situations. However, one of their lesser-known projects are modifications of already-existing weapons using the .224 BOZ round they invented – basically a 5.56mm NATO round in a necked-down 10mm Colt case, making it look like a sort of "short magnum" type of round. The MP5-224 is also essentially what it sounds like: a modified MP-5/10A2, with a fixed stock using a the Heckler & Koch S-E-3-F trigger group (allowing for semiautomatic, automatic, and 3-round burst fire), as well as the modification applied to FBI MP-5/10s that holds the bolt open after the magazine is emptied. Most of the modifications are to the magazines, chamber, and barrel, but the MP5/224 has the same dimensions and largely the same parts as a standard MP-5/10A2. It is unknown who is using the MP5/224, if anyone.

Twilight 2000 Notes: Few examples of the MP5/224 exist in the Twilight 2000 timeline (less than 40), and they are generally found only in England. (The personal bodyguards for the members of the Royal Family still in England are known to use them on occasion, as do the bodyguards for the Prime Minister.) Rounds generally have to be handloaded, though there is a government facility that makes small lots.

Notes: This is basically a British copy of the German MP-28, and is sometimes considered the "Rolls Royce of Submachineguns," due to the extremely high quality of construction. Unfortunately, that wasn’t what Great Britain needed in 1940; Britain needed weapons quick and cheap, and the Sten took the role that the Lanchester was supposed to fill. Produced only from June 1941 to October 1943, the Lanchester ended up mostly in the Royal Navy, and served officially until the early-1970s; however, a few were even used during Britain’s recapture of the Falkland Islands!

The Lanchester had accouterments such as brass fittings that could be highly polished, a bayonet lug, and fine beechwood stock similar to that of the SMLE’s stock. The stock had a brass buttplate, with a hinged portion enclosing a compartment for a cleaning kit. (Later production models used an alloy buttplate.) The bayonet lug is designed for the long British No. 1 sword-type bayonet. Sights consisted of a protected front post and a tangent rear flip type, adjustable for windage and elevation. Field-stripping and cleaning are said to be exceedingly simple and quick. The Lanchester was designed to be used with a long 50-round straight magazine, but the Sten magazine could also be used, and usually was, since the 50-round magazine was a bit clumsy. The Lanchester is of extremely robust construction; as one pair of firearms experts of the period said, "It was built like a battleship." Unfortunately, this also meant that the Lanchester was heavier than even most full-sized rifles of the period.

The original version, the Mk I, had a selective fire capability. It was soon decided that selective fire was unnecessary in a submachinegun, and the Lanchester was modified into the Mk I* version. Perhaps less than 200 of the original Mk I design with selective-fire capability were ever built. (For game purposes, the two versions are identical, as the Lanchester’s cyclic rate of fire is low enough for single shots to be squeezed off by a properly-trained shooter.)

Notes: This is an improved version of the Bushman IDW above. The ability to adjust the rate of fire has been removed, but an adjustable folding stock and a MIL-STD-1913 rail atop the receiver are fitted. There is only one caliber available, 9mm Parabellum, though several barrel lengths are available, ranging from machine pistol to carbine lengths. The Parker-Hale IDW is said to be popular with the bodyguard community.

Notes: After the Battle of Dunkirk, the British High Command faced a possible cross-Channel invasion of Britain by the Nazis, and a severe shortage of effective small arms for the troops that would need to be raised and the Home Guard that would need to be equipped. They needed an automatic weapon that was simple to use, maintain, and build. The answer was the Sten submachinegun (named for its designers and manufacturer, Shepard, Turpin, and Enfield Firearms). It was a simple design, stamped out of any grade of steel available. It’s a cheap, nasty-looking weapon, and troops hated it because of it’s sheer ugliness, but there is no doubt about it’s effectiveness in its intended role.

The first version was the Mark 1; this weapon had a metal skeleton butt (non-folding), a simple steel tube with the inner workings of the weapon, a side-feeding magazine, and simple spoon-shaped muzzle brake. There was also a folding wooden foregrip. About 100,000 Sten Mark 1’s were built.

The Sten Mark 2 was by far the most common Sten, with over 2 million being made in about three years of production. The front foregrip, indeed the entire front stock, was deleted. The skeleton stock was replaced with a simple steel tube with a very rudimentary thumb grip. The magazine housing could be disengaged and rotated through 90 degrees, for stowage during parachute drops.

The Sten Mark 2S is a silenced version of the Sten. It is basically a Sten Mark 2 with threaded muzzle for a silencer, and a short integral barrel. The loudest noise was the bolt moving back and forth. The drawback was that it was imperative that the Mark 2S be fired at no faster than the semiautomatic rate of fire; firing on automatic is possible, but the silencer will be destroyed before you can get through an entire magazine (with the silencer blowing off the end of the barrel eventually).

The Sten Mark 3 was a Mark 1 modified for ease of manufacture. The receiver and barrel jacket are in one piece, made out of a single sheet metal tube. The barrel is fixed, and cannot be removed, nor can the magazine housing. The Mark 3 also has a small projection in front of the ejection opening to stop the firer’s hand from straying over the muzzle of the weapon. This was done because Sten users were emphatically told to hold the barrel jacket with the off hand, and stop holding the magazine, since doing so tended to cause stoppages. The Mark 3 is the second most-commonly seen Sten.

The Mark 4 was an abbreviated version for paratroopers, sort of an assault pistol. It never went beyond the prototype phase, but is presented below as an interesting "what-if."

The Mark 5 was an attempt to "give the Sten some class." The finish on the metal is very well-done, and a wooden butt and pistol grip are fitted. The sights are adjustable, and a No. 4 rifle bayonet can be fitted. It unfortunately retained the magazine defects, and the troops were not fooled. It was also more expensive and takes longer to make.

The Mark 6 is a Mark 5 with the same silencer (and defects) as the Mark 2S.

Sometimes, you will still encounter the odd individual armed with a Sten, usually in some backwater or Third World country. Most of them, however, are in museums or the hands of collectors.

Notes: This weapon was until recently the standard submachinegun of British forces (it was replaced, mostly by the L-85A1 and A2 assault rifles, but also by the MP-5 series). It is still used by a number of armed forces, such as India (where it is still produced), and several African and Arab countries. It is an outgrowth of the Sten gun of World War 2, but is highly upgraded, and far more ergonomically-designed and reliable. It was designed during World War 2 (and then known as the Patchett Machine Carbine), and prototypes were used starting during the Arnhem airdrop in 1944, but it was not officially issued to troops until 1953. Like the Sten, it is a very easy and cheap-to-produce weapon.

The L-34A1 is a silenced version of the standard Sterling; it was not produced until after World War 2. It is very light for a silenced submachinegun of the era, and more importantly, very reliable, even when fired on automatic. It is also designed for standard ammunition, rather than special subsonic ammunition. It is still used by Argentina and Australia, and is held in reserve by Great Britain.

Twilight 2000 Notes: These weapons were still issued in large numbers to British forces during the Twilight War.

Merc 2000 Notes: As with many such weapons, the L-2A3 was sold in great quantities on the international market. The L-34A1 usually was not.