The silenced, concealable stripped back Welrod, with weapons and firearms expert, Jonathan Ferguson
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- Опубліковано 8 лют 2025
- Many of our followers will be familiar with the Welrod suppressed SOE pistol. But far less is known about it's minimalist cousin, the 'Sleeve Gun'. Made by BSA, the gun was introduced towards the Second World War's end as a single-shot, assassination weapon.
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To be clear, the 'Welwand' (we're not even sure that this was an official name) was a similar, purely experimental (we think!) concept but a different weapon entirely to the Sleeve Gun (Mk. I or II). You can see a 'Welwand' illustrated in Keith Melton's 'The Ultimate Spy Book'. It's slimmer, lighter, and suspended with an elastic shoulder strap. Over time many (including me before researching this video!) confused/conflated the two.
Hi Jonathan! First of all, thank you so much for your videos (these and the Gamespot ones too!) they are incredibly interesting and the way you explain things is really pleasant to listen to.
I just wanted to ask whether the reversed thread on the breach was done for a specific, mechanical reason here, or is it a question of threads not being standardised at the time? i.e. "righty tighty, lefty loosy"...as it were :)
Thanks!
@@pawelkaras7231 Thank you! 'lefty loosy' definitely was standardised by then, this opposite thread cocking piece is just so that you don't accidentally unscrew the breech when trying to cock the gun. I suppose it was more logical to make the breech thread 'righty' as that's how bolt actions work, and then the cocking piece 'lefty' to avoid unscrewing the breech piece.
@@JonathanFergusonRoyalArmouries Thank you! :)
Thanks for the information. I love filling my brain with stuff I'll never use but I don't care
A welwand huh. Hahaha
Man, they took the Wel out of Welrod. Now, it's just 'Rod'.
In rod we trust
That’s what she said. 😳
Haha… rod
A rod so hot you could lose your fingers getting it to shoot.
And so the man who looks after it must be the Rod Steward.
I'll get my coat...
This feels like British Forgotten Weapons, and I am all here for it.
The part with the camera up close is a huge step forward. All the interesting bits are finally clearly visible! Nice job! Looking forward for more!
Now all he needs is a distinctive, quirky pokey stick.
@@dbracer I'm sure Royal Armory has something unique in its collection that can do the job.
@@dbracer I see you are a man of culture as well.
@@Torque_Mk1 We'll have a rummage
Hints of Forgotten Weapons, in a very good way
"Is that a sleeve gun, or are you just anatomically confused to see me?"
OMG Jonathon is adorable I want to give him a big hug.
Thank you for the white gloves!! Can't tell you how much better this is!?😊
Can’t wait to see your reaction to when someone puts this in a game and it gets a telescopic sight and a bunch of charms hanging off it.
You could say I'm making a Welrod for my own back... (I'm so sorry).
.. and the Mexican Drug Baron Gold Engraving 😆
and it obviously needs a foregrip and maybe a stock
@@nudl3Zz 100 ROUNDS DUM MAG
@@nudl3Zz Having the foregrip attached, where should that be located at? Near the trigger?
The stock, may be detachable or fixed.
Having a telescopic sight, either it could be perpendicular to the trigger or not...
Obviously these parts expose more than conceal
The Royal armories facility in Leeds is amazing. Not an exaggeration. Several floors of militaria including Japanese and Chinese stuff. It blew me away, and I've been to other museums like Bovingdon and Duxford.
My dad was in the forces in the 1950's in Cyprus during the conflict there. He never really talked about it except one time when he said that his best friend there was Mr Welrod. He came home changed and became a pacifist and, of all things, a folk singer.
Most people who have seen war, especially soldiers, are very big fans of diplomacy.
Sounds like he was doing secret squirrel shit.
My German uncle's father was killed on the Russian Front.. post-war my uncle joined CND and is a pacifist.
@@john-paulsilke893 For those who have been there, war quickly loses its' romance
Fucking hell, I'd like to hear a few of his stories!
He's back ladies!
Amazing stuff!! The operatives in the SOE were so incredibly brave. I would hate to have had to use that sleeve gun for real.....that muzzle to trigger distance is just insane! One chance....one shot....adrenaline flowing....
heart pounding...... one slip.....and one finger less than you started the day with!! Followed no doubt by death or capture, torture and death. Terrifying. And yet those men and women were all volunteers.
If anyone out there has not been to Beaulieu, to the Motor Museum and Abbey, I thoroughly recommend a trip, as there is a small but very well presented exhibition in the grounds, which pays tribute to the SOE operatives who trained in the area and went on active service from there. Included are a few of the weapons they were issued with.
Another great video Jonathan; keep em coming!!
That firing pin is vary clever and well made
I think I definitely agree, I would not want to fumble with this thing in a high stress situation, especially since I get the shakes under pressure
Knew about it, you forgot to explain that the lanyard is to attach a strong elastic cord which is then attached to your upper arm/shoulder. So the weapon is between the elbow and the wrist when the arm is straight down. Make short strong swing, expanding the elastic and catch to get it. It was primarily intended to be used in a crowd such as a busy street and in the back of the target! Then release and it disappears up the sleeve and walk away.
Not for this gun. The method of carriage you're talking about was for the 'Welwand', not the Sleeve Gun. You can see the former illustrated (complete with elastic strap) in Melton's book 'The Ultimate Spy Book' p.181. It was a much slimmer, lighter design in .25 ACP.
@@JonathanFergusonRoyalArmouries, I stand corrected, the info I’m going on is from the danish resistance movement, and only saw a crude drawing and it was back in the early to mid 90s, and it was very hush, hush!
@@MyTv- The original "suspension" for the sleeve gun was a lanyard cord that went up the sleeve and ended in a leather tab that attached to a "braces button" that all men used to have on their trouser waist band. The tab when attached held the sleeve gun between the elbow and wrist. The mode of operation was to cup the hand and use the other hand to slip the tab off the button allowing the gun to drop into the shooting hand. The tab would end up about breast height under the jacket and which was easily reached after the gun had been fired to pull the barrel back into the sleeve. The hardest part is to reconnect the tab back onto the waist band with one hand, however I would imagine that men were more used to performing this task when wearing braces were commonplace. The Danish example is a local variation, and is not the original issue item. I suspect they had knowledge of both the sleeve gun and wand and did some swapping of techniques.
@@MyTv- Oh, interesting - well it's possible that the Sleeve Gun had an elastic lanyard, we just haven't found any evidence of it. The official Sleeve Gun trials documentation and catalogue entry don't mention one. Alternatively what you saw was referring to the Welwand. If you happen to come across the source, please do email us. It would be the only evidence of either gun actually seeing use, whereas the Welrod does have evidence of use.
@@JonathanFergusonRoyalArmouries Ill see what I can do it wasn’t yesterday! :)
Thank you. I've seen photos of the sleeve gun in books, but you demonstrated how it operated.
A long time ago I read in a book that Welrods could be disguised as bicycle air pumps so resistance fighters with them could hid them but I never could see how. I can see how that thing could be disguised as one fairly easily. Maybe that book was talking about the sleeve gun instead of the Welrod?
Possibly - there's a lot of confusion and very little concrete info on these guns, especially the Welwand (not this!).
Once you take the magazine out of the Welrod, it looks a lot more like a bicycle pump. The grip and magazine are one part, so it ends up looking basically like this one but with a bit of a lump on it.
An interesting little side path in the history of guns that are "beyond denial"....
Glad to see you back, refreshed and invigorated.
I must say this one was particularly interesting.
I'd love to see more videos if there's any further development of this idea in the collection. fabulously morbid little tube.
We have a couple more interesting Welrod variants we could cover, but the Sleeve Gun ends at this Mk. II. There's the separate Welwand but I think the only example (seen in 'The Ultimate Spy Book' p.181) is in the CMSM at Maldon (don't quote me on that though; it's been years since I went and I didn't then understand what I was looking at!).
Absolutely fascinating. Thank you for posting this.
Thanks for another intriguing video (and Facebook quiz).
Thank you. I'm always fascinated by different generations of wet work equipment
Great work, Jonathan!
Neat stuff! Of course, the range (or lack thereof) at which this would be effective raises the question of why not a dagger? Just as quiet and no trouble reloading.
Because with a dagger you'd been seen doing it; with the sleeve gun, in a crowd, you could get away before anyone realised what had happened.
Edged weapons require some skill and a lot of strength to use effectively. Guns like this are essentially guaranteed penetration daggers in terms of the damage they inflict. One guaranteed lethal-depth 'stab', basically.
It’s be so much fun just to walk through those isles and bask in the presence of peak engineering.
Great video as always, love learning the history on these unique and quite "odd" weapons
Thanks so much for the feedback :)
Super interesting concept. Great thing it survived to this day.
WOW!!! That's too cool!!
I've never seen one before.
Welcome back Jonathan! Another great video as always
Thank you! Congratulations on finding early access to this one :D
Would love a video of the SOE Sten suppressor, seen and handled one here in Norway.
What a way to go!
Now we have to see the Sten suppressor
Pop goes the sleeve gun. Classic.
Love learning about these old and unique firearms.
omg the shot sound from the background ,,took me by surprise. i thought the gun went off in his hand . 8:20
Why not as many views as normal? Also love the content im learning new stuff every week.
The UA-cam algorithm god is a fickle one :) The only logic I can ascribe is that guns that have appeared in video games easily take off, little-known stuff like this tends not to.
Congrats on the 200K
Chambered in .320 Kynoch. Nice. Will have to ask if they still have the tooling next time I'm there.
Loving the close up footage. Really enjoy these videos and when I am in the uk I will be visiting the armouries to see all you have. Thanks for sharing this content. Btw I think you said The Fryth ok, I used to live near there and that was how I heard it said on many occasions.
I use to stand for ages just looking at the SOE equipment at the Imperial War Museum.
I'm really intrigued to know if anyone was ever successfully assassinated with one of these, given how awkward they seem to be to operate. Also seems incredibly reliant on circumstance, as in being 3ft away from your target and alone.
We may never know, unfortunately. There are no reports of actual deployment, never mind usage.
@@JonathanFergusonRoyalArmouries after seeing how it fires, maybe someone made the executive decision that their operatives are more valuable with their fingers still intact
All I can tell you well rods are remarkable silent when fired, so if used well, we'll rods at least could have been quite usefull in the right hands.
A .32ACP firing solid slugs from a 3" barrel isn't going to be useful at killing a man unless you shoot him directly in the brain at point-blank range. The bullet is neither accurate or powerful enough for anything else. Unfortunately this is the same issue with the Welrod, except that you could presumably reload and finish the guy off a lot quicker if you didn't brain him with the first shot (assuming he hasn't immediately started thrashing around and screaming for his friends).
I strongly suspect the DeLisle was much more useful if you actually needed to silently kill somebody in WW2. .45ACP in an 8" barrel hits a lot harder and more accurately than .32ACP in a 3" barrel.
@@harveywallbanger3123 I respectfully disagree. Remember this was a weapon intended for use at close range. So .32ACP has enough energy to be lethal if fired centre mass, or a headshot. Basically hit the heart, lungs, liver and there's a high chance of a critical hit due to hypovolemia, ie blood loss. It's one of those things I've been curious about, so the choice of .32ACP vs the humble .22LR
Rest I guess would be down to training. So HVT and bodyguards may know the HVT's been shot, but not from where or by whom, it being a sneaky and easily concealable weapon. Training probably included the art of looking confused/shocked & totally innocent having just slotted your target. The DeLisle was more like a Val, and much less discrete.
Also curious whether some other rounds were evaluated. The UK used to use a 9mm(?) 'Rook' round, which was a fairly short rimfire cartridge in Rook guns intended for the quiet, and relatively safe elimination of pests. As a kid, I sometimes found fired rook rounds in our garden. That was originally an orchard before being developed, so presumably the catridges came from pest control there.
Love your content Jonathan, recommend your channels to everyone at the gun club. Got a 1945 BSA, superb condition, reluctant to use it these days.
Thank you. Interesting story.
Brilliant video once again
Big step up with sound and camera angles! Good job guys.
An excellent video and one I've waiting for ages to see. Many thanks!
I really enjoyed the closeup view. It would be amazing if you could incorporate those into every video. Excellent work!
amazing video, love this channel
excelente content! Thanks a lot!!
Super interesting video, thanks for showing us this.
Fascinating stuff. It would be so wonderful to hear examples of it being used as well. Surely after 75 years you can reveal example of it being use d
Excellent content very well presented. I have just subbed 👍
Great video
The channel “forgotten weapons” did a video with the only remaining Welrod mk1 in existence. I’m pretty sure he had help from a weapon museum that loaned it to him for the video
Reminds me of the GAT Air Pistols we used to shoot each other with while playing Soldiers or Spies as Kids back in the late 80s/Early 90s lol
I enjoyed this video, just as much as I enjoy all your videos John, and thanks for taking the time and effort to share them. But, always, when you film in this location, I find myself, looking so closely at the start, to what is on the racks behind you...lol. Thanks again for the share. Diolch yn fawr.
Really enjoying the channel so far, I was interested from your appearance on gamestops videos. All the quality comes from you though dude, your good at getting the info out there very clearly and I’m sure everyone really appreciates that. Hopefully this channel continues to grow!
To me, it almost looks like a contact weapon. You press the end of the gun to your target as you fire. Maybe to be used in a crowd with so sort of diversion. With the sound muffled by the suppressor and confusion caused by the diversion, perhaps the assassin would be able to slip away too.
Spy tech has always been an interest of mine. So just my 2 cents worth.
Cool!
hi, Jonathan !!!
good video ...
your scenography is a lot improved but
i would like suggest to you to put a red or green or Yellow tablecloth on the desk such that we can see better the details of guns ...
bye bye
Far cool!
I pretty much went to the Imperial War Museum for the sole reason of looking at their Welrod! This scares me more! I think the self inflicted wound possibility seems too great. But I suppose that’s a modern opinion against the ‘at all cost’ mentality of the SOE! Suppose we’re all thinking it, is there any proof of its use? I think you might have told us if there were?
I think we ended up editing out the bit where I said we don't have any evidence of its usage. Sadly, there is none! But with 150+ made I would imagine it must have been carried in anger at least once by someone.
Thanks for the reply! Some SEO stuff (think the correct name is ‘Gubbins’) went through Wallis and Wallis auction house earlier this year. Might be worth a nosey around their previous auction catalogues. Keep up the good work! Excellent video as always.
@@yorkshirejoinery2869 Oh bloody hell, we missed that! Not enough time in the day (in a good way). Thanks for letting me know.
@@yorkshirejoinery2869 Any relation to Grommit?
That has got me asking all sorts of questions Jonathan. Many years ago in my grandmother's attic I found a heavy steel tube that smelled of cordite, I'm talking early '50's here. I could make no sense of it but it looked like part of a weapon. My grandfather was deceased by then so I couldn't ask him, but he was poor bloody Infantry a Lancashire Fusilier and I can't believe he was ever part of any SOE type of organisation.
Could have been a perfect cover story,"I was just a foot soldier". After all, he would have been sworn to secrecy. Or not, and he was what he said he was. Just food for thought.
@@williamromine5715 hmm, I'm more inclined to think it was an attachment of some sort William. There were two ancient bayonets as well, the plug in barrel type so very old.
I know you had a minigun on the table on GameSpot video, but holy shit I didn't think you'd have an actual benemoth of an armory lol
Hats down to you, my man, you got an awesome channel. :D
Honestly think I should look into making one of these (as an NFA item of course)
1617 views and 795 likes? almost impossible. Don't we all love these concealed silenced gadgets.
the likes are concealed as well.
It's an acquired taste. Some people are fascinated by the weird and bizarre, others not so much. I'm in the later, I really have to wonder whether the resources and manpower put into such frivolity was worth it. A silenced pocket automatic could probably have done the job just as well and the number of times it was used was probably miniscule. Winston Churchill was a great man, but an amateur soldier, who greatly overestimated the worth of special operations forces and their toys like this.
its like a confetti tube but deadly
"he was standing to close to a jet engine and got sucked in"
Wow that escalated quickly!
I was just googling the Welrod yesterday!... What are the chances!
Interesting
The Welrod has been a successful assassination gun for many years... with it's cupped muzzle it could be pressed against the target in a crowded room and be clandestinely dispatched, also it could be used in the next room at a short distance from the target and not be heard... it could be used around a dozen times before having to be re-baffled. When the magazine is remove it could be hidden in plain sight in for example a tool box.
Jonathon Ferguson is 2022's version of Q from James Bond. Look, they keep this guy squirreled away in some huge British vault full of weapons and every time you see him he has some awesome kit to show off. Look at this thing, it's a silent sleeve gun! 200 of them floating around out there still he says. sleep tight i guess
Nice bit of kit. There are a lot of fake deacts out there but very well made copies. Originals are rare as hens teeth. It would be interesting to see how quite it really is. As for the concealed weapon it looks very similar to a human cattle killer, i am sure thy trained SOE agents proper training to operate these guns.
Different subject out of curiosity Does the Royal armouries hold a Blackard Bomber Spigot mortar.
Neat!📸
This is a really good representation of a silenced boomstick
Nice gun but how do you load/reload this, are you unscrewing this back part and inserting a round or are they "throwaway guns", that you can't reload ?
You don’t reload. You walk or cycle quietly away with the gun up your jacket sleeve.
Some serrations for a better grip would be nice. But that's an early production. Were there any changes on the later versions of the mechanism?
The next Assassins Creed game about to be lit
The "Wel" in "Welrod", "Welbike", "Welman" etc comes from Welwyn, the town nearest to The Frythe.
Which is pronounced more or less as you said, Jonathan.
Can do one on wild wild west James west sleeve gun device? That was on TV show of 1965?
I love it when you show me something I've never heard of! Familiar with the Welrod, but this is fascinating. Thanks, Jonathan!
That's a hard-core way to die - sucked into a jet engine intake. Can't have been nice for the people clearing up after, either...
Instant MacWelman - ground up and cooked in an instant. You provide the bun and condiments.
Another fascinating example of SOE equipment. I thought section 9 or MI9 was based in the V&A during the second wold war were these type of weapon's were developed.
Congratulations' on passing 200,000. All due to your excellent presentation.
Thanks Russell!
Jonathan was himself suppressed in some parts of this video.
Har har har!
Jokes aside, this was a really cool weapon.
Just curious: will you be doing videos on anything other than guns at any point? Or are they now the mainstay of the channel?
Was this oddball supposed to be in your sleeve when you fired it? Wouldn’t that burn your arm?
It's a single shot. Suppressors need multiple shots to get unbearably hot.
Are there any fully correctly dimentioned plans available somewhere or can anybody out there guide me on this ?? Thanks already !
1:05 Could be pronounced "the Fry", similar to how Randall Blythe's last name is pronounced "Bly," the "-the" could be silent. But, I wouldn't know.
Could well be! I really need to bottom this out.
I'd love to have been a mouse in the corner when they were designing these guns. "Hey, Jim? What can we make out of a steel tube?"
I wonder why they didn’t add some depressed grips to make the fingers of the user more naturally lock in place in a safe position? Also the trigger could have some sort of sideways sliding safety which would then enable the trigger itself to be designed in a less compromised way.
Does the striker hold a spare round?
I assume any operational models didn’t have any serial numbers, or had spurious serial numbers to confuse the enemy??
Does anyone have footage of these things firing?
Jonathan should add the sleeve gun to his book on bull pups
You'd think in operation the act of jamming that in someone's ribs would help both keep your fingers clear of the barrel snd help you push the trigger forwards
I'm amazed that they could not figure out an easier method for loading, cocking and firing.
Now there's something that will give every police officer in the world nightmares for weeks.
It’s even crazier if you think that it’s basically a bullpup
do you know of any situation where it was used?
Sadly not.
Probably a pipe dream, too precious an artifact to shoot but. . . I would like to see a “Mad Minute” shoot-off between this model of Welrod and a Brown Bess.