Why This 'Rejected' British SMG Was Deadlier Than The Sten In SOE Hands

The Welgun was the British submachine gun that beat the Sten on accuracy, control, and rapid operation in official Ordnance Board trials, yet never reached the hands of SOE agents in occupied Europe. This is the full story of the rejected prototype built in secret at Station IX, Welwyn, and the single documented ambush where it killed three Germans on its opening burst.

In the summer of 1942, the Special Operations Executive needed a weapon the Sten could not be. Something compact enough to hide in a suitcase, safe enough to survive a parachute drop, accurate enough for resistance ambushes, and reliable enough to fire captured German 9mm ammunition without complaint. Engineers at The Frythe, a country house outside Welwyn in Hertfordshire, delivered exactly that. Designer F.T. Bridgeman, working with BSA's Eric Norman, produced a submachine gun with no cocking handle, a recoil spring wrapped around the barrel, a folding stock that collapsed the weapon to just 16.5 inches, and a proper pistol grip the Sten had always lacked.

In February 1943 at Pendine, the Welgun beat the Sten on accuracy, beat it on control, and beat it on rapid operation. The Ordnance Board recommended its ergonomics be adopted on every future British folding-stock SMG. The Royal Navy called it "singularly accurate, with a performance above any other tried on the range." Canadian generals requested working drawings. BSA was ready to build 5,000 per month. Then politics, cost, and timing killed it. Only about twelve prototypes were ever made.

This video covers the full rejection story, the engineering that made it revolutionary, Major Peter Kemp's one documented combat deployment in Albania, and why the Sterling submachine gun that replaced the Sten a decade later carried every Welgun feature the Ordnance Board had once praised.

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TOPICS COVERED
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→ Origin of the Welgun at SOE Station IX, Welwyn, Hertfordshire
→ F.T. Bridgeman and Eric Norman's unconventional design choices
→ The wrap-around barrel recoil spring that anticipated Uzi-era compactness
→ Full technical specifications and side-by-side data versus the Sten Mk II
→ The February 1943 Pendine trials and the Ordnance Board's verdict
→ Comparison with the German MP40, American M3 Grease Gun, and Thompson
→ Why BSA was ready to mass produce 5,000 units per month
→ Major Peter Kemp's Albanian ambush of summer 1943
→ The real reasons the Welgun was rejected despite winning on ergonomics
→ The Sterling connection and the Welgun's post-war vindication

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MAJOR RESEARCH SOURCES
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→ Boyce and Everett, SOE: The Scientific Secrets (Sutton Publishing, 2003)
→ Imperial War Museum catalogue, Welgun Mark 1, object 30029480
→ Royal Armouries National Firearms Centre collections, Leeds
→ Mark Murray-Flutter, Senior Curator of Firearms, Royal Armouries
→ Peter Kemp, No Colours or Crest (Cassell, 1958)
→ Pendine Proof and Experimental Establishment trial records, February and September 1943
→ The National Archives at Kew, SOE files HS 7/27, HS 7/28, HS 7/118
→ Jonathan Ferguson, Keeper of Firearms and Artillery, Royal Armouries
→ Historical Firearms and Forgotten Weapons research archives

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FURTHER READING
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→ SOE: The Scientific Secrets by Fredric Boyce and Douglas Everett
→ No Colours or Crest by Peter Kemp, the primary memoir account of the Albania mission
→ The Sten Machine Carbine by Peter Laidler, the standard reference on the Welgun's rival
→ The Guns of Dagenham by Peter Laidler and David Howroyd
→ Imperial War Museum online collection, Welgun entry, object 30029480
→ Royal Armouries Collections Online, National Firearms Centre entries
→ Arms and Armour journal, Volume 19, Number 1, for related SOE weapons research

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Welcome to British Small Arms. This channel is dedicated to the rifles, pistols, submachine guns, and prototypes of British small arms history, from the famous service weapons to the forgotten experimental designs. Every video is built on primary source research, archival records, and side-by-side technical comparison with the enemy and Allied equivalents. Subscribe for more deep-dive investigations into the guns Britain built, rejected, and forgot.

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