POTD: Germany Tried Making Sten Guns – The MP 3008
Sam.S 03.26.24
Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Facing critical material shortages in 1945, Germany sought cheaper Sten gun copies as last-ditch submachine guns. The first was the Gerät Potsdam, an exact Sten replica made by Mauser, with around 10,000 produced. In parallel, the further simplified MP 3008 (aka Volks-MP.3008) was developed by Ludwig Vorgrimmler. It dispensed with the Sten’s barrel shroud and side-mounted magazine for a vertical mag well. Other changes included a front sling loop and minor fire control tweaks.
Optimistically, over 1 million MP 3008s were ordered, though only around 3,000-5,000 were likely made by scattered small shops before Germany’s collapse. Build quality and materials grew increasingly crude, with wooden stocks replacing metal and myriad minor variations between makers. While desperate attempts at simple Sten clones, the MP 3008 represents Germany’s last, rapidly improvised submachine gun design in the closing stages of World War II.
“This is an extremely rare example of a late WWII German manufactured submachine gun that was a wartime copy of the British STEN MkII submachine gun. These were originally designed by the Mauser factory and subsequently manufactured by three unidentified companies with the wartime codes of “tvw, TJK and rde”, following the same basic war expedient methodology as used on the VK98 Rifles and VG series of “Volksturm” weapons and assault rifles. They were designed to provide a fully functional and efficient weapons using the remaining wartime manufacturing process available in the last days of the Third Reich. The design was based on captured British STEN submachine guns that used a simple stamped and welded tube receiver, with the stamped internal components mated to a fully machine bolt and barrel. The major difference between this weapon and the British SMG is the vertical magazine well ( to accommodate the MP40 magazines) and the permanently installed (pinned in) trigger components. It used a pinned in barrel, a fixed stamped front sight, a rudimentary rear peep sight on top of the rear receiver ring, and a standard push button selector. This example is fitted with a simple stamped “loop” type buttstock identical to the British STEN gun. The only markings on the complete weapon are stamped on the left rear side of the receiver ring which are “rde 45”, which is the (unidentifiable secret wartime code for the factory that produced the weapon, along with “45” for the year of manufacture. It is complete with one original blued “M.P.38 u.40″ marked submachine gun magazine.”
Lot 2619: German MP3008 Fully Automatic Class III/NFA C&R Registered – Very Rare Late World War II German MP3008 Fully Automatic Class III/NFA C&R Registered Submachine Gun. (n.d.-i). Rock Island Auction Company. photograph. Retrieved March 25, 2024, from https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/75/2619/german-mp3008-fully-automatic-class-iiinfa-cr-registered.
