Lanchester submachine guns for sale. Following the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940, the Royal Air Force decided it required a submachine gun for airfield defence. With no time available for usual research and development of a new weapon, it was decided to create a direct copy of the German MP 28.The British Admiralty decided to join with the RAF in adopting the new weapon, and played a key role in its design. Ultimately, it was within the Royal Navy that most of Lanchesters produced went into service. The British copy of the MP28 was given the general designation of Lanchester after George Herbert Lanchester who was charged with producing the weapon at the Sterling Armaments Company, the same company that produced the Sterling submachine gun. The Lanchester was envisioned as a weapon used for guarding prisoners and accompanying naval landing and assault parties. It was a very solid, well-made sub-machine gun of high quality materials, in many ways the complete opposite of its direct contemporary, the Sten.