The Welrod Assassin Gun: WWII’s Phantom Plinker Supressed Pistol
” Actually made before the MkI (dont ask), the MkII was the most common type of Welrod with some 14,000 produced. It was rather heavy for a weapon designed to be secreted away at 38-ounces and was
Welrod MK II could make use of captured German, Italian and Japanese ammunition.
slightly over a foot long. Chambered for .32ACP (7.65x17mm), the same caliber as many popular Italian, German, and Japanese pistols, the gun was stated to be able to fire a 72-grain Kynoch lead head at 920fps. Its single stack magazine held 8-shots.
The German military captured many of the weapons dropped to European Resistance groups and the MkII Welrod was often in these caches. The SS special operations groups led by Otto Skorzeny (called once the most dangerous man in Europe) are known to have carried the occasional Welrod. A number were given as reverse-Lend Lease to the US Navy who referred to them as “.32 Hand Firing Mechanism Mk.1 Mod 0″ to obscure its use as a weapon of special applications. Many of these later were passed on to the CIA.
A Black Hole of Information
The individual who invented the Welrod or even company that manufactured them is a matter of conjecture and is a question that has never been definitively answered. Even the name ‘Welrod’ has never been fully explained other than in urban legends that have found their way onto the Internet over the years. While small resolution diagrams abound, the full and correct set of manufacturer’s blue prints have seemingly never been declassified. Additionally, the guns were almost completely unmarked so they could be deniable if captured. It is thought that BSA made the Welrod production pistols, although this information is still classified. “
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