Sten Gun in World War II

Sten Gun in World War II The Sten submachine gun was a weapon developed for use by British and Commonwealth forces during World War II. It takes its name from the last names of its designers, Major Reginald V. Shepherd and Harold J. Turpin, and Enfield. Intended to be simple to build, the Sten was employed across all theaters of the conflict and was retained by many militaries for several decades after the war. The Sten also saw extensive use by resistance groups in Europe during the conflict and its easy to construct design permitted some to produce their own variations. Development During the early days of World War II, the British Army purchased large numbers of Thompson submachine guns from the United States under Lend-Lease. As American factories were operating at peacetime levels, they were unable to meet the British demand for the weapon. Following their defeat on the Continent and the Dunkirk Evacuation, the British Army found itself short on weapons with which to defend Britain. As sufficient numbers of Thompsons were unavailable, efforts moved forward to design a new submachine gun that could be built simply and cheaply. This new project was led by Major Reginald V. Shepherd, OBE of The Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, and Harold John Turpin of the Design Department of the Royal Small Arms Factory, Enfield. Drawing inspiration from the Royal Navys Lanchester submachine gun and the German MP40, the two men created the STEN. The weapons name was formed by using Shepherd and Turpins initials and combining them with EN for Enfield. The action for their new submachine gun was a blowback open bolt in which the movement of the bolt loaded and fired the round as well as re-cocked the weapon. Design Problems Due to the need to quickly manufacture the Sten, construction consisted of a variety of simple stamped parts and minimal welding. Some variants of the Sten could be produced in as few as five hours and contained only 47 parts. An austere weapon, the Sten consisted of a metal barrel with a metal loop or tube for a stock. Ammunition was contained in a 32-round magazine which extended horizontally from the gun. In an effort facilitate use of captured 9 mm German ammunition, the Stens magazine was a direct copy of one used by the MP40. This proved problematic as the German design utilized a double column, single feed system that led to frequent jamming. Further contributing to this issue was the long slot along the side of the Sten for the cocking knob which also allowed debris to enter the firing mechanism. Due to the speed of the weapons design and construction it contained only basic safety features. The lack of these led to the Sten having a high rate of accidental discharge when hit or dropped. Efforts were made in later variants to correct this problem and install additional safeties. Sten Gun Cartridge: 9 x 19mm ParabellumCapacity: 32-round detachable box magazineMuzzle Velocity: 1,198 ft./sec.Weight: approx. 7.1 lbs.Length: 29.9 in.Barrel Length: 7.7 in.Rate of Fire: 500-600 rounds per minuteSights: Fixed peep rear, post frontAction: Blowback-operated, open bolt Variants The Sten Mk I entered service in 1941 and possessed a flash hider, refined finish, and wooden foregrip and stock. Approximately 100,000 were produced before factories switched to the simpler Mk II. This type saw the elimination of the flash hider and hand grip, while possessing a removable barrel and shorter barrel sleeve. A rough weapon, over 2 million Sten Mk IIs were built making it the most numerous type. As the threat of invasion eased and production pressure relaxed, the Sten was upgraded and built to a higher quality. While the Mk III saw mechanical upgrades, the Mk V proved to be the definitive wartime model. Woman worker poses with finished Sten submachinegun, 1942. Library and Archives Canada Essentially a Mk II built to a higher quality, the Mk V included a wooden pistol grip, foregrip (some models), and stock as well as a bayonet mount. The weapons sights were also upgraded and its overall manufacture proved more reliable. A variant with an integral suppressor, dubbed the Mk VIS, was also built at the request of the Special Operation Executive. On par with the German MP40 and U.S. M3, the Sten suffered the same problem as its peers in that its use of 9 mm pistol ammunition severely restricted accuracy and limited its effective range to approximately 100 yards. An Effective Weapon Despite its issues, the Sten proved an effective weapon in the field as it dramatically increased the short-range firepower of any infantry unit. Its simplistic design also allowed it to fire without lubrication which reduced maintenance as well as made it ideal for campaigns in desert regions where oil could attract sand. Used extensively by British Commonwealth forces in Northern Africa and Northwest Europe, the Sten became one of the iconic British infantry weapons of the conflict. Both loved and hated by troops in the field, it earned the nicknames Stench Gun and Plumbers Nightmare. American officer and French partisan with a Sten crouch behind an auto during a street fight in a French city, 1944. National Archives and Records Administration The Stens basic construction and ease of repair made it ideal for use with Resistance forces in Europe. Thousands of Stens were dropped to Resistance units across occupied Europe. In some nations, such as Norway, Denmark, and Poland, domestic production of Stens began in clandestine workshops. In the final days of World War II, Germany adapted a modified version of the Sten, the MP 3008, for use with its Volkssturm militias. Following the war, the Sten was retained by the British Army until the 1960s when it was fully replaced by the Sterling SMG. Other Users Produced in large numbers, the Sten saw use around the world after World War II. The type was fielded by both sides of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Due to its simple construction, it was one of the few weapons that could be produced domestically by Israel at that time. The Sten was also fielded by both the Nationalists and Communists during the Chinese Civil War. One of the last large-scale combat uses of the Sten occurred during the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War. On a more notorious note, a Sten was used in the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984.

If-Then and If-Then-Else Conditional Statements in Java

If-Then and If-Then-Else Conditional Statements in Java The if-then and if-then-elseconditional statements let a Java program make simple decisions about what to do next. They work in the same logical way as we do when making decisions in real life. For example, when making a plan with a friend, you could say If Mike gets home before 5:00 PM, then well go out for an early dinner. When 5:00 PM arrives, the condition (i.e., Mike is home), which determines whether everyone goes out for an early dinner, will either be true or false. It works exactly the same in Java. The if-then Statement   Lets say part of a program were writing needs to calculate if the purchaser of a ticket is eligible for a childs discount. Anyone under the age of 16 gets a 10% discount on the ticket price. We can let our program make this decision by using an if-then statement: if (age 16) isChild true; In our program, an integer variable called age holds the age of the ticket purchaser. The condition (i.e., is the ticket purchaser under 16) is placed inside the brackets. If this condition is true, then the statement beneath the if statement is executed in this case a boolean variable isChild is set to true. The syntax follows the same pattern every time. The if keyword followed by a condition in brackets, with the statement to execute underneath: if (condition is true) execute this statement The key thing to remember is the condition must equate to a boolean value (i.e., true or false). Often, a Java program needs to execute more than one statement if a condition is true. This is achieved by using a block  (i.e., enclosing the statements in curly brackets): if (age 16)​{ isChild true; discount 10;} This form of the if-then statement is the most commonly used, and its  recommended to use curly brackets even when there is only one statement to execute. It improves the readability of the code and leads to fewer programming mistakes. Without the curly brackets, its easy to overlook the effect of the decision being made or to come back later and add another statement to execute but forget to also add the curly brackets. The if-then-else Statement The if-then statement can be extended to have statements that are executed when the condition is false. The if-then-else statement executes the first set of statements if the condition is true, otherwise, the second set of statements are executed: if (condition) { execute statement(s) if condition is true}else{ execute statement(s) if condition is false} In the ticket program,  lets say we need to make sure the discount is equal to 0 if the ticket purchaser is not a child: if (age 16){ isChild true; discount 10;}else{ discount 0;} The if-then-else statement also allows the nesting of if-then statements. This allows decisions to follow a path of conditions. For example, the ticket program might have several discounts. We might first test to see if the ticket purchaser is a child, then if theyre a pensioner, then if theyre a student and so on: if (age 16){ isChild true; discount 10;}else if (age 65){ isPensioner true; discount 15;}else if (isStudent true){ discount 5;} As you can see, the if-then-else statement pattern just repeats itself. If at any time the condition is true  , then the relevant statements are executed and any conditions beneath are not tested to see whether they are true or false. For example, if the age of the ticket purchaser is 67, then the highlighted statements are executed and the (isStudent true) condition is never tested and the program just continues on. There is something worth noting about the (isStudent true) condition. The condition is written to make it clear that were testing whether isStudent has a value of true, but because it is a boolean variable, we can actually write: else if (isStudent){ discount 5;} If this is confusing, the way to think about it is like this we know a condition is tested to be true or false. For integer variables like age, we have to write an expression that can be evaluated to true or false (e.g., age 12, age 35, etc..). However, boolean variables already evaluate to be true or false. We dont need to write an expression to prove it because if (isStudent) is already saying if isStudent is true... If you want to test that a boolean variable is false, just use the unary operator!. It inverts a boolean value, therefore if (!isStudent) is essentially saying if isStudent is false.