havent seen the film yet, so cant comment on the quality of the sound effects, but....
the british commandos in wwii(as well as the s.a.s.) DID use thompson smg's rather than stens. at the begining of the war, the sten had not been developed and issued- the british military was in desperate need of smg's and the only nation in a position to provide them speedily was the u.s, hence the thompsons. at the time of the formation of the commandos the sten was starting to see widespread issue to the british army, and since the fledgling commandos were a new, upstart branch not considered quite kosher by many in the military establishment they recieved the tommy guns that were being phased out in the line divisions. kinda the same reason the famous s.a.s. jeeps had the vickers-k mg's- they were from the turrets of obsolete bomber aircraft and were being discarded once the r.a.f. started switching to (u.s. made) browning mg's.
from what i understand, the commandos found the thompsons more hard-hitting and reliable than the sten (often called the plumber's nightmare) and held onto them throughout the war- so the choice of weapons is accurate.
the commandos and s.a.s. also often used the colt 45 automatic pistol, as it shared ammo with the thompson, tho later in the war the 9mm browning hi-power also saw some use.
as far as the delisle and supressed sten, i dont think they had been developed at that point in the war, though the sten mk2-s was carried by royal marine canoeists on the cockleshell heroes raid in '42.
it does seem strange, but at first the commandos and s.a.s. were viewed with suspicion by much of the brass, who didnt consider such tactics honorable or 'sporting' and so these now elite forces had to take what they could get as far as weapons went.
hope this answers your question- there is alot of good research and reference matterial on the subject if you wish to look further into it.
cheers,
rob
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leontrotsky67
13 years ago
oh, almost forgot- the issue rifle of the s.a.s.in northern europe(spring '44 on) was the u.s m1 carbine and the m1a1 folding stock variant.
cheers,
rob
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ssb2121
13 years ago
Thanks for the history lesson. After I posted my comment I went Wikipedia surfing. Turns out the De Lisle wasn't used until later in the war. I can understand too using a .45 ACP over the 9MM (Thompson over Sten). Owning both calibers I know which one I'd rather use. Recently a lot of non-commissioned 1911s have made the way back into various operators holsters. They would trade the knockdown power of the .45 over the high capacity of the 9MM.
You'd think by WWII Britain would abandon the honor thing. The Americas won the Revolutionary War by hit and run tactics. It was stupid to face the British Army in an open battlefield on their terms. Then after the Blitz you'd think that they would do whatever was necessary to win. Guess Bomber Harris had the right idea, do to them what they did to us.
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