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The Mk.II Sten became the standard service SMG of the British Commonwealth forces during the war. Although the Mk.II Sten was even cruder and less reliable than its already very basic predecessor, it was nonetheless taken into service on account of its inexpensive cost and fast production rate. The new Mk.II was proposed to cut back the production cost significantly by removing the inessential features of the Mk.I. This first iteration was known as the Mk.I and incorporated wooden furniture, a hinged foregrip, and a flash hider these features were deemed to be inessential and in August 1941 a cheaper model, the Mk.II, was demonstrated at Pendine. The Army was quick to approve of the weapon and it was taken into service. In January 1941, the first prototype Stens were ready and were tested at Enfield on the 10th and Hythe on the 21st. This gun was subsequently named the "Sten", after Shepherd, Turpin, and Enfield.
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The Army became invested in a design being developed at RSAF Enfield, commissioned by the head of the Small Arms Group, Major Reginald Vernon Shepherd, and designed by draftsman Harold John Turpin. Initially, the Lanchester, a copy of the German MP28 was developed and was adopted by the Navy and Air Force, but was declined by the Army, who desired a cheaper gun.
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However, after the BEF's retreat from France in 1940, the Army realized that a cost-efficient, domestically-produced SMG was required to match the MP38's production rate. The British Ordnance Board proceeded to order quantities of Thompson guns from the United States. Worried that they would have no equivalent weapon to match the German SMG, the BEF hastily arranged field trials for several submachine guns, quickly settling on the Thompson submachine gun. In late 1939, shortly after the beginning of World War II, the British Expeditionary Force in France became concerned by reports that the Germans were arming their troops with large numbers of inexpensive MP38 submachine guns.