In 1940, with the Dunkirk evacuation completed, the Royal Air Force decided to adopt some form of submachine gun for airfield defense. With no time to spare for the development of a new weapon it was decided to adopt a direct copy of the GermanMP28, captured examples of which were at hand for examination. The period was so desperate that the British Admiralty decided to join with the RAF in adopting the new weapon, and played a key role in its design. By a series of convoluted events, the Admiralty alone actually adopted the Lanchester into service.
The British MP28 copy was given the general designation of Lanchester after George Lanchester who was charged with producing the weapon at the Sterling Armament Company, the same company that went on to produce the Sterling submachine gun that is presently the standard submachine gun of many nations.
The Lanchester was envisioned as a weapon that could be used for guarding prisoners and accompanying naval landing and assault parties. It was a very solid, extremely heavy submachine gun, in many ways the complete opposite of its direct contemporary, the Sten. The Lanchester had a heavy wooden butt and stock, a machined steel action and breech block, and a magazine housing made from a favorite naval construction material, solid brass. A few details typical for the era were added, such as a mounting on the muzzle for use of a long bladed British bayonet. The rifling differed from the German original in details to accommodate various lots of 9 mm ammunition then being acquired for service use. The Lanchester also used furniture from the Lee-Enfield SMLE.
Operation
The magazine for the Lanchester was straight and carried a useful, if quite heavy capacity of 50 9 mm cartridges. Stripping of cartridges into the magazine was aided by a catch on the top of the receiver. The very first model, the Lanchester Mk I, could fire either single shot or automatic. On the Lanchester Mk I* this was changed to full automatic fire only, and many Mk Is were converted to Mk I* standard at Royal Navy workshops.
Service
The Lanchester was a copy of a German design, but gave good service to the Royal Navy throughout the war and for some years after. The Lanchester was far heavier than the Sten and had a similar tendency to accidentally discharge if the gun was dropped or knocked on a hard object while cocked and loaded. The last examples left Royal Naval service in the 1960s and are now collector's items.
United Kingdom
