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In the early days of World War Two, Britain had a branch of the SIS for sabotage operations, called Section D. It became part of Special Operations Executive in 1940, but in the early days British operatives did not have the specialized weaponry that came later, like the Welrod or DeLisle. Instead, they simply had access to what was readily at hand - which included a good number of Luger pistols. Government appeals to buy back guns to use in the national defense resulted in many commercial-sale Luger pistols in government hands. With exposed barrels and German manufacturing provenance, these were easy to fit with silencers and use as deniable arms for sabotage agents on continental Europe.

Many thanks to the Royal Armouries for allowing me to film these for you! The NFC collection there - perhaps the best military small arms collection in Western Europe - is available by appointment to researchers:

https://royalarmouries.org/research/national-firearms-centre/

You can browse the various Armouries collections online here:

https://royalarmouries.org/collection/

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Silenced SOE Lugers: Setting Europe Aflame Before the Welrod (Ad-free)

In the early days of World War Two, Britain had a branch of the SIS for sabotage operations, called Section D. It became part of Special Operations Executive in 1940, but in the early days British operatives did not have the specialized weaponry that came later, like the Welrod or DeLisle. Instead, they simply had access to what was readily at hand - which included a good number of Luger pistols. Government appeals to buy back guns to use in the national defense resulted in many commercial-sale Luger pistols in government hands. With exposed barrels and German manufacturing provenance, these were easy to fit with silencers and use as deniable arms for sabotage agents on continental Europe. Many thanks to the Royal Armouries for allowing me to film these for you! The NFC collection there - perhaps the best military small arms collection in Western Europe - is available by appointment to researchers: https://royalarmouries.org/research/national-firearms-centre/ You can browse the various Armouries collections online here: https://royalarmouries.org/collection/ The best firearms reference books: https://www.headstamppublishing.com http://www.patreon.com/ForgottenWeapons http://www.floatplane.com/channel/ForgottenWeapons Cool Forgotten Weapons merch! http://shop.forgottenweapons.com

Comments

John Roy

Could the toggle action have been locked in some way? Similar to .22 pistols later in War

David T Klein

You are too polite. I believe the exact word you are looking for is "wacky, swinging-in-on-the-chandelier, cloak-and-dagger, play-pretend-for-Yale-grads"

Nuke Road Warrior

"Parachute in to shoot Hitler" ... Today we'd use a drone, a Tomahawk or rebuilt pager. As i suspect a few more IRCG members are about to find out.

Adrian Colwill

If subsonic ammunition was used would this mean the toggle action would have to be manually cycled?

Tom Briggman

Thanks much! That's way cool, makes me want a suppressor for my "shooter" Luger.

Guido S

so what christopher lee might have used. ok a pp would need a longer barrel again and beside the missing front sight that luger doesn't look odd at all. why not. could do worse.

Guido S

yeah and the story goes, if I heard it correct, that the mauser 98k sniper were never send because the brits thought adolf was doing a better job alive to end the war than dead. man that is a poor thinking about a person! and just funny as heck.

mark peterson

No comment on function? No Nielsen device so did it not need it or were they meant to not cycle?

mark peterson

OK that's fair. Thanks for replying

TEDSKI

as ever great insight into the sneaky beaks methods "Vairy interesting" Mr Mac

Trappes

A Lugers barrel does not tilt like a browning style pistol, it only recoils in a straight line, depending on the ammo, the added back pressure from the suppressor might be enough to offset the added mass.