  the sten (or sten gun) was a family of british 9 mm submachine guns used extensively by british and commonwealth forces throughout world war ii and the korean war. they were notable for having a simple design and very low production cost making them effective insurgency weapons for resistance groups. sten is an acronym, from the names of the weapon's chief designers, major reginald v. shepherd and harold turpin, and en for enfield.not all sources agree. colonel shepherd discussing how it was named when he received an award from the board of the royal commission awards to inventors. lord cohen: "why was it called the sten?" colonel shepard: "it was called the sten by the then director general of artillery. the s was from my name, the t from mr. turpin who was my draughtsman and who did a very large amount of the design and the en was for england. that is the origin of the name, for which i accept no responsibility." in: {{cite book | last =laidler | first =peter | authorlink = | coauthors = | title =
9mm_Parabellum_firearms Insurgency_weapons Submachine_guns_of_the_United_Kingdom World_War_II_infantry_weapons_of_Australia World_War_II_infantry_weapons_of_China World_War_II_infantry_weapons_of_the_United_Kingdom World_War_II_submachine_guns