Sten Mk III 9 mm sub machine gun used by National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters...

Sten Mk III 9 mm sub machine gun used by National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters (EOKA), Cyprus, 1955 (c). In the early 1950s the majority Greek-Cypriot population of Cyprus had been demanding Enosis, or union with Greece. In 1954 Britain ruled this out as it planned to transfer its Suez military headquarters to Cyprus. This led Colonel George Grivas’s EOKA (National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters) to begin a guerrilla campaign aimed at driving the British out. By mid-1956 there were 17,000 British servicemen in Cyprus assisting the police with the maintenance of security. The Mk 3 Sten was introduced in 1943 but produced in far fewer numbers than the Mk 2. Many Stens were supplied to guerrilla forces in Europe during World War Two (1939-1945), including Greece. This particular weapon used by EOKA insurgents is marked in Greek ‘LONTS’ but its meaning is not clear. It has a bullet hole in the barrel jacket sustained during its capture.