The Polsten was a low cost 20 mm autocannon developed from the Oerlikon gun in Poland. The Polsten was designed to be simple to build without reducing effectiveness. When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, the design team escaped to England and resumed work. It went into service early in 1944 along side the Oerlikon. Where the Oerlikon used a drum magazine, the Polsten used a simler box magazine with 30 rounds. It remained in service into the 1950s. The design of the Oerlikon 20mm cannon, by Reinhold Becker dates back to 1914, and is still in use today, after having been used extensively during the Second World War. ...

The Polsten was used as a subsitute for the Oerlikon in the same roles, one of which was as an airborne unit anti-aircraft gun. It ws 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/Centuar tank. The A27M Cruiser Tank VIII Cromwell was one of the most successful series of cruiser tanks fielded by Britain in World War II. It was the first tank in the British arsenal to combine a dual-purpose gun, high speed, and reasonable armour. ...

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 Centurion was the primary British Main Battle Tank of the immediate post-war era, and considered by many to be one of the best British tank designs of all time. ...

The origin of the name is not clear. Some sources suggest Poland and the "Sten Company" to give Pol-sten, though the Sten gun was not made by a Sten Company. Equally it may have been a compound based on Poland and Enfield in the same manner as the Bren gun (Brno + Enfield) or Sten (Shephard, Turpin + Enfield). 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. The Sten (or Sten gun) was a family of British, 9 mm submachine guns used heavily by the British Empire and Commonwealth forces throughout World War II and the Korean War. ... The Bren, usually called the Bren Gun was a series of machineguns adopted by Britain in the 1930s and used in various roles primarily into the 1980s. ...

External links

Airborne Polsten gun