Polsten
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The Polsten was a low cost 20 mm autocannon developed from the Oerlikon gun. The Polsten was designed to be simple and much cheaper to build than the Oerlikon without reducing effectiveness. When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, the design team escaped to England and resumed work. The need for the Polsten was apparently mooted in June 1941. It went into service in March 1944 along side the Oerlikon. Where the Oerlikon used a drum magazine, the Polsten used a simpler box magazine with 30 rounds. It remained in service into the 1950s.
The Polsten was used as a substitute for the Oerlikon in the same roles, one of which was as an airborne unit anti-aircraft gun. It was used on a wheeled mounting that could be towed behind a jeep.
The Polsten gun was used for armoured vehicles equipped with anti-aircraft guns based on the Cromwell/Centaur tank.
The Polsten was also mounted on early models of the Centurion tank not coaxially with the main gun but in the left hand side of the turret.
The origin of the name is not entirely clear. Some sources suggest Poland and the "Sten Company" to give Pol-sten, though the Sten gun was not made by a Sten Company. Official (United Kingdom) sources indicate the name to have been a compound based on Poland and the Royal Small Arms Factory Enfield in the same manner as the Bren gun (Brno + Enfield) or Sten (Shephard, Turpin + Enfield); also to reflect the gun design being mostly Polish (and the magazine mostly Czech) and the 8 Polish engineers in the design department. The "Sten" ending may also have linked in with the idea of the gun as a cheaper and quicker to produce weapon just like that gun was.
[edit] See also
- Polski Sten, the actual Polish derivate of the Sten gun
| British Commonwealth artillery of World War II |
|---|
| Tank & anti-tank guns |
| QF 2 pounder | QF 6 pounder | OQF 75 mm (tank only) | QF 17 pounder | 77 mm HV (tank only) |
| Field, Medium and Heavy guns |
| QF 18 pounder | 3.7 inch Howitzer | 4.5 inch Howitzer | 25 pounder Gun-Howitzer Australian 25 pounder Short | QF 60 pounder Gun | 4.5 inch Medium Field Gun 5.5 inch Medium Gun | 6 inch Howitzer | 7.2 inch Howitzer | 8 inch Howitzer |
| Mountain guns |
| 3.7 Inch Mountain Howitzer |
| Anti-aircraft guns |
| 20 mm Polsten | 40 mm Bofors | QF 3 inch | QF 3.7 inch |
[edit] External link
- Postan, M. M., Hay, D. and Scott J.D. (1964). Design and Development of Weapons: Studies in Government and Industrial Organisation (History of the Second War World: United Kingdom Civil Series) London: HMSO & Longmans, Green & Co.
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