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/
“(…)many commercial-sale Luger pistols in government hands(…)”
What about subsonic ammunition? Was it available commercially in 1930s? How well Parabellum-Pistole worked with said ammunition with and without silencer attached?