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History of weapons: gun Welrod, Designed around the muffler

History of weapons: gun Welrod, Designed around the muffler 9-mm silent pistol Welrod Mk. 1

Created in the bowels of the British Special Operations Directorate, Welrod's pistol would surely have made it into the James Bond films, if it had not been classified

The Special Operations Directorate - Special Operations Executive or SOE - was an intelligence service, established in the UK in 1940 year to carry out sabotage operations behind enemy lines. In a former hotel in the town of Welwyn, approximately at 32 km from London, SOE division based, called Station IX, specialized in the creation of weapons and special equipment.

History of weapons: gun Welrod, Designed around the muffler

Besides various bombs and detonators, there were constructed: Welbike - folding motorcycle, which was placed in a drop container with a diameter 38 cm, Welpen pistol, Welgun — 9 mm submachine gun and Welrod - pistol, silent assassination.

SOE developments, created in Welwyn, received code names using the first three letters of the city name. In the case of Welrod, added the word "rod" to "Welwyn", which translates as "rod" and at the same time serves as a slang designation for a pistol.

History of weapons: gun Welrod, Designed around the muffler

Welrod designed by Major Hugh Quentin Alleyn Reeves (Hugh Quentin Alleyne Reeves) in the second half 1942 of the year, when practice showed an urgent need for a silent and sufficiently long-range weapon.

The prototype of the pistol had a magazine integrated into the grip., thumb lever instead of a trigger and an awkward shutter grip, but in 1943 successfully tested, and SOE management decided to start production of a modified model - Welrod Mk. II.

History of weapons: gun Welrod, Designed around the muffler

Reeves' design could be called a silenced pistol, but it would be more correct to say, what is this gun, Designed around the muffler.

First of all, Reeves abandoned automation., because no matter how effective the muffler is, the bolt group created characteristic "mechanical" sounds, familiar to every shooter. To get rid of them, Reeves used a rolling shutter, which did not scatter the shells and, with a bit of skill, made it possible to reload the pistol completely silently.

It was more difficult to get rid of the flash and lower the volume of the shot.. SOE deliberately abandoned the simplest way - the use of subsonic ammunition. The Welrod owner shouldn't have had any supply issues, so the pistol was chambered for 7,65 мм Browning, widely used by German, Japanese and Italian military. Welrod later received a modification under 9 mm cartridge.

History of weapons: gun Welrod, Designed around the muffler

Welrod designed this way, so that it slows down the bullet of a regular cartridge. The gun got short 82 mm barrel with 16 (or 20 in other variants) ventilation holes, leading to the expansion chamber at the rear of the muffler barrel. This solution reduced the pressure in the barrel., and with it the muzzle velocity (210 m / s) so, that she did not reach the sound barrier.

In front of the muffler, a series of 14 metal partitions and three solid membranes. Initially, membranes were tried to be made of bronze and oil-impregnated leather., later used cork, but in the end we settled on rubber.

The first shot made a hole in the membranes, but it was getting big enough, so that the muffler becomes ineffective only after 10-15 shots - enough for a special operation, and after the muffler it was possible to disassemble and replace the membranes with new ones.

In February 1945 years already, the American Office of Strategic Services conducted a series of tests, in which Welrod ended up on 34 dB quieter than a control pistol of the same caliber with a comparable barrel length. The average volume of the shot was 73 dB. Still louder, than in a Hollywood movie, but better than most modern PBS.

History of weapons: gun Welrod, Designed around the muffler

The groove tells a lot about the purpose of this pistol., made in front of the muffler. It was supposed to make it easier to shoot at close range., with direct contact of the barrel with the target.

Another special constructive decision was dictated by the desire for conspiracy..

Welrod didn't have a pistol grip, but what can be mistaken for her, actually a shop from Colt 1903 Pocket Hammerless, tightened in a rubber casing, making it more grasping.

History of weapons: gun Welrod, Designed around the muffler

Without a magazine, the pistol looks more like a pipe or, as he was sometimes called, Bicycle Pump. He could well have gone through a superficial search., lost in a tool bag or, eg, car parts.

The pistol was produced in the strictest secrecy at the Birmingham Small Arms Company plant in Small Heath., Birmingham. During and after the war, about 14 000 such pistols, but there is very little reliable information about their application.

TO 1943 year, the British intelligence services were planning dozens of special operations behind enemy lines, including attempts on the life of SS and Gestapo officers.

Welrod was instrumental in these plans, however, to the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, head of the General Directorate of Imperial Security (Operation Anthropoid) Nazi Germany reacted by declaring a state of emergency and punitive operations, resulting in mass casualties among the civilian population.

The plan was put on the shelf, and high-profile murders from a silent pistol did not follow. The saboteurs took it into service, but was mainly used to remove sentries.

The pistol was effective at a distance of the order of 27 meters during the day and 18 meters at night. AND, looks like, proved its effectiveness until the end of the 20th century.

According to numerous testimonies, after World War II Welrod was used during the Korean War, Vietnam War, unrest in Northern Ireland, wars for the Falkland Islands and even during Operation Desert Storm.

At the same time, Welrod became a collectible. Its price at foreign auctions varies from 4 to 25 one thousand dollars, despite the fact that during World War II, Welrod alone cost the UK budget 15-25 dollars. Not bad for a trumpet-like old pistol.

/Igor Santry, kalashnikov.media/

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