CMS 003: Sub-machine Gun 9MM C1 aka SMG C1

CORRECTION FOR VIDEO at 5 minutes 28 seconds: About 1985 Canada started to phase out the SMG C1 in favour of the new C8 carbine. This process took several years.

The SMG C1 was Canada’s standard sub-machine gun from the late 1950s to about the late 1980s. It replaced the World War II 9mm Sten Gun MK.II and in turn was obsolete in 1985 as it actually was phased out starting about then, and the process took several years.

The design is a simplified version of the British Sterling sub-machine gun.

12 Service Battalion Museum is located at the Colonel N.C. Sherman Armoury, 5500 No. 4 Road, Richmond, British Columbia, CANADA. It is an official Canadian Armed Forces Museum, established in 1993. Our host unit has was renamed 39 Service Battalion in a Canadian Army reorganization, but the museum retained its original name.

The SMG C1 was short, handy and great for patrols and for soldiers carrying other loads such as a radio. The standard magazine would hold 30-rounds and there was also a smaller 10-round magazine for use in cramped quarters. The Sten Gun and SMG C1 were both chambered for the 9X19 mm, i.e. the standard “Luger 9mm Parabellum”.

They were blow-back operation as the only thing behind the cartridge as it fired was the weight of the bolt and the return spring. Both SMGs fired from the “open bolt” position, i.e. the bolt was released from its rear cocked position, picked up a cartridge from the magazine, chambered it and fired it. The firing pin is fixed on the face of the bolt. The SMG C1, like the Sten Mk. II, was selective fire, i.e. can fire “Repetition” (single shot) or full-automatic.

These sub-machine guns were especially handy for example in house clearing, patrolling, and operations dense bush such as a jungle. They were carried by drivers, radio operators and members of crew-served weapons. Many officers liked to carry these rather than a longer and heavier rifle, but the downside was that enemy snipers would look for important targets and someone carrying an SMG would catch their attention.

The SMG C1 was an improvement on the Sten Gun Mk. II in a number of ways.
• The SMG C1 was much safer due to the selector switch which could lock the bolt easily either forward or to the rear to prevent accidental movement of the bolt whichcould cause a discharge.
• Compactness. The Sten Gun Mk. II had a fixed butt stock, although it was occasionally fitted with a simple pistol grip. SMG C1 had a folding butt stock. Today there are faster and easier folding butt designs, but this was innovative in its day.
• Pistol grip under the centre of the weapon. This made the SMG C1 very comfortable and handy to carry and use.
• The magazine was double-stack design, so it could easily be loaded by hand, whereas the single-stack Sten Gun magazines required a loading tool.
• A bayonet was standard for the SMG C1 whereas the Sten Mk. II only has a few bayonets, as used by the British Airborne briefly in mid-WWII. Whether or not a bayonet was very useful on an SMG is another matter.
• The sling for the SMG C1 had a proper front fastening clip whereas the Sten used an odd, and in my experience insecure, spiral hook.
• The SMG C1 had built in finger guards.
• The sights were better on the SMG C1 than the simple Sten Mk. II sights.

I was trained on the Sten Gun Mk. II in 1969 but thereafter I was usually issued an SMG C1 or an FN C1A1.

Terminology - The terms I used for parts are generic and are not always the same "as per the manual".