My Book on the Sterling is Out!

Really pleased to say that my first ever book is out today (29th November). I’ve written an instalment of Osprey’s Weapon series all about the British Sterling submachine gun! I’ve mentioned it a few times on here but I wrote it in the course of about a year and it is so exciting to finally see it out in the world! 

I tried to pack it with as much new research as I could spending a lot of time in archives and also listening to the Imperial War Museum’s brilliant audio interview collection to find out what the people who used it actually thought about the Sterling. 

The book covers every aspect of the Sterling’s history from its design and development through to the decade of gruelling testing it was put thought. The main chapter of the book digs deep into the experiences of the men who used the gun. It includes anecdotes about its performance in the field and I also used field reports, medal citations and interviews I personally conducted with veterans to try and bring the history to life. 

The book also discusses the Sterling’s influence around the world not just as a military weapon (over 1 million were made) but also its impact on popular culture as it found new fame on screen appearing in Bond films and most famously as the Imperial Stormtrooper’s E-11 blaster. I break down some of the parts that were added to the guns to give them the iconic Star Wars look. 

Writing it was a great experience, a lot of people were instrumental in helping me put it together. I am very excited to see it released, when I started Historical Firearms way back in 2013, I never thought that five years later I’d be writing books! Thanks everyone for reading the blog and I hope that if you come across my book on the Sterling you enjoy it. 

More about the book here, if you’d like a copy it should be available online and in shops worldwide and if you can’t find it let me know and I will do my best to get you a copy!

- Matt

Review: The Armalite AR-10: World’s Finest Battle Rifle - J. Putnam Evans (2016)

In 1955 the small Californian firearms company ArmaLite unveiled one of the most defining and influential rifles of the 20th century - the AR-10. Developed by a small team the rifle would see hard service in bitter colonial conflicts and provide the basis for the M16, one of the most iconic rifles of all time. Despite its importance there has been a gap in the literature available on the AR-10. Joseph Putnam Evan's new book 'The Armalite AR-10 - The World’s Finest Battle Rifle' aims to finally tell the important rifle's fascinating story.

Evans begins by introducing us to the main cast of characters who would be pivotal in the AR-10s development. We meet brothers-in-law George Sullivan and Charles Dorchester who were developing the Para-Sniper, which would become the AR-1, and later other lightweight small arms. Serendipity then brought the brothers-in-law into contact with Richard Boutelle, President of the Fairchild Engine and Aircraft Corporation, who would quickly begin funding the promising designs Sullivan and Dorchester were developing. The book is punctuated by a series of almost anecdotal stories one of these fascinating anecdotes describes the chance meeting of Sullivan and Eugene Stoner at the Topanga Canyon Shooting Range where the two men were testing their prototypes. Evans gives the reader some context by describing Stoner's early designs and the influence Melvin Johnson's (who also later joined ArmaLite) designs would have on him. The AR-10 of course utilises a rotating bolt inspired by Johnson's work. The book covers all of ArmaLites early designs from the AR-1 Para-Sniper, through to the AR-5 survival rifle and the AR-9 shotgun with some excellent accompanying colour photographs.

The AR-10s other key feature is its use of the direct impingement gas system, Evans not only explains Stoner's version of the system but also examines earlier firearms which used direct impingement such as the French Rossignol B1. Steadily and in impressive detail the book builds the history of the AR-10's development in its first three chapters before turning its attention to the marketing and the military testing of the rifle.

In 1957 a deal was made with the Dutch company Artillerie-Inrichtingen who would produce the AR-10 in Europe. The book devotes a chapter to extraordinary efforts of the legendary sales agent Sam Cummings ArmaLite's team of salesmen who demonstrated the weapon around the world from Cuba to Central America to Europe. While the AR-10 was enthusiastically received following many demonstrations, frustratingly for ArmaLite this translated into only a few contracts. The most notable of which were the Sudanese and Portuguese orders, however, it was these which saw the most service and provide the material for one of the book's most fascinating sections which looks at how the AR-10 actually performed in the field. Sadly the author was unable to find any surviving Sudanese veterans to discuss their use of the rifle during the Sudanese Civil War, however, he has brought together accounts of Portuguese use in operations in Angola, Mozambique and Guinea.

Evans does an excellent job bringing together the numerous different models, variations and small changes made to the AI manufactured guns for the various different contracts. Detailing everything from sling swivels and bayonets, to night sights and hand guards - just the sort of detail we've come to expect from a Collector Grade publication.Not only does the book have an extremely detailed contents section but, as is now standard with Collector Grade books, it also has an extensive index which is extremely useful for research purposes or just dipping into the topic.

The book concludes with a look at the proliferation of the AR-10 as a modern Designated Marksman Rifle adopted by several of NATOs leading members and a section which examines ArmaLite's later history including attempts to market the AR-16 and AR-18.

Evans has brought together an impressive range of contemporary images from promotional material, trials and publications along with excellent colour photographs of surviving examples of the various AR-10 variants. These images are a real highlight of the book with many of them previously unseen. Evans is an enthusiastic and genuine admirer of the AR-10 and his book is clearly a labour of love. While there may be an element of bias to his description of the AR-10 as "the greatest and most under-appreciated battle rifle ever devised" the evidence Evans has collected demonstrates it's certainly an epitaph the rifle deserves - and one which the men who used the rifle in action would certainly agree with.

Available from Collector Grade  

You can also read my interview with R. Blake Stevens, owner and editor of Collector Grade Publications, here. 

If you enjoy the content please consider supporting Historical Firearms through Patreon!