Every time I see it, I wonder why they couldn’t rotate the mag well to the bottom of the tube, rather than sticking it out sideways. The sideways mag seems more likely to get caught/snagged on something — just more tempting than it needs to be to Mr. Murphy and his law.
It was made that way to allow a lower profile on the
ground. The Sterling was much better but still quite
heavy, although that probably helped control some.
No mention of the infamous Sten dance.
Which could occur when dropped and the bolt came out
of detent and proceeded to spray rounds randomly.
M-3 was a much better version.
A number of British weapons used side or top feed magazines. It allows the gun to be fired closer to the ground. Helped keep the soldiers head from becoming a tempting target.
They CAN rotate the mag well. It functions as a dust cover in jump operations, but you cannot fire it.
The reason whey went with a horizontal mag feed is to get more prone and lower profile to shoot at. Pretty effective IMHO. The Bren gun did most of the dirty work. VERY accurate and reliable full auto.