19The Small Arms Review - Vol. 5 No. 11 - August, 2002

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During the American Civil War,Abraham Lincoln approached the scien-tific community and asked their supportin the development of new weapon sys-tems. It was for this purpose that theAmerican Academy of Sciences was es-tablished. Subsequently, the National De-fense Council of World War I continuedefforts to work with the military in the de-velopment of military technology. As aconsequence of inadequate funding andleadership at the highest levels, the resultswere minimal.

Prior to our involvement in World WarII, the NDRC was established to comple-ment the research of the Army and Navyin “the development of the instrumentali-ties of war.” Eventually the NDRC was

OSS Silenced PistolText and photos

by Peter G. KokalisTo fully understand the development and history of the OSS

HiStandard silenced pistol a knowledge of two organizations is es-sential: the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC), underwhose auspices it was developed, and Office of Strategic Services(OSS), for whom it was developed.

Right: The Arms Tech Ltd. OSS Si-lenced Pistol, shown here with ablack Minox Model C spy camera,is a faithfully executed re-creationof a historically important clandes-tine weapon.

The OSS HiStandardModel HDM silencedpistol was, withoutdoubt, the most popu-lar and widely used ofall the OSS clandestineweapons systems.

20 The Small Arms Review - Vol. 5 No. 11 - August, 2002

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made a branch of the Of-fice of Scientific Researchand Development (OSRD).Throughout the war, theBritish - who had extensiveknowledge of the Germanarsenal and appropriatecountermeasures - cooper-ated with the NDRC andshared both research andexperience. The final orga-nizational structure of theNDRC included nineteendivisions and several spe-cial committees and panels.The divisions covered re-search in a wide range oftopic areas, including. Bal-listic research, Effects ofImpact and Explosion,Rocket Ordnance, Ord-nance Accessories, New Missiles, Subsur-face Warfare, Fire Control, Explosives,Chemistry, Absorbents and Aerosols,Chemical Engineering, Transportation,Electrical Communication, Radar, RadioCoordination, Optics and Camouflage,Physics, War Metallurgy and AppliedMathematics and Physics. Most mysteri-ous of all was Division 19, which covered“Miscellaneous Weapons.” Formed tosolve “special problems,” few of whichever came from the Army or Navy. Almostall of Division 19’s activities were devotedto the problems of the OSS and their Brit-ish counterparts.

Just six months after the United Statesentered World War II, the Office of Stra-tegic Services (OSS) was established on

13 June 1942. Under the leadership of Col.William J. “Wild Bill” Donovan, it was anoperating agency the U.S. Government un-der the control of the Joint Chiefs of Staffand intended to be of worldwide scope.Donovan, who had previously held an im-portant intelligence position and reporteddirectly to the president, quickly patternedOSS activities after those practiced by theBritish Special Operations Executive(SOE), with whom the OSS worked closelythroughout the duration of the war.Donovan envisioned two major roles forthe OSS: gathering intelligence and wag-ing clandestine warfare.

To execute this dual role, Donovancreated a number of branches with specifi-cally defined objectives. The Research and

Analysis Branch used the academic com-munity to devise strategy for invasions.The Morale Operations Branch generatedpropaganda using professional advertisingcopywriters and Hollywood screenwriters.The Labor Branch promoted subversiveactivity with labor unions in German-oc-cupied Europe. The Research and Devel-opment Branch, whose first director,Stanley P. Lovell, was taken from theNDRC staff, was in continual liaison withDivision 19 of the NDRC.

These latter branches supported thethree main functional branches of the OSS.They were Special Operations (clandestinewarfare), Secret Intelligence (worldwidegathering of intelligence through four geo-graphical desks), and Counterintelligence(X-2).

By October 1943 the Research andDevelopment Branch had evolved into fourdivisions. The Technical Division was re-sponsible for project liaison between boththe NDRC and British SOE. The Docu-mentation Division created all of the docu-ments required to protect an agent’s cover.The Camouflage Division was establishedto camouflage the personal accessories anddevices required for special operations.The Special Assistants Division provideditems for agents not within the purview ofthe other three divisions.

Items developed for the OSS, in ad-dition to the HiStandard Silenced Pistol in-cluded the Liberator (not originally an OSSweapon) .45 ACP single-shot pistol, the.22 caliber Stinger, the silenced .45 ACPM3 submachine gun, edged weapons to

OSS Silenced Pistol, disassembled.

You may purchase theOSS Patch only for$10.95 or the Hand-book on the Weaponfor only $24.95

OSS SUPPRESSEDHIGH STANDARDPISTOL

Only$2,495.00

The above price includes the OSS Patch and

Handbook on the Weapon

AT Ltd.

Arms Tech Ltd.5133 N. Central Ave.Phoenix, AZ 85012

(602)272-9045Fax (602)272-1922

Only alimitednumberwill bemade.

Re-manufacturedto exacting detail!

21The Small Arms Review - Vol. 5 No. 11 - August, 2002

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include the Stiletto and Smatchet, cross-bows, matchbox camera, lockpickingknife, suicide capsules, knockout dropsand sabotage equipment consisting of in-cendiary, demolition, contact firing, de-layed action firing and harassing devicesof many types.

One of the most successful and highlyregarded weapons ever developed for theOSS was the HiStandard Silenced Pistol.Surely a silenced firearm must rate as thehighest possible priority for any clandes-tine operative.

Very soon after the OSS was estab-lished, agents used a .22 LR Colt Woods-man equipped with an off-center soundsuppressor patterned after the Maxim. Theunit had a unique barrel extension in frontof the suppressor with a front sight bandthat permitted use of the pistol’s standardrear sight. The barrel extension purport-edly enhanced the weapon’s accuracy po-tential as well. The offset design permit-ted a larger suppressor for greatly im-proved reduction of the sound pressurelevel.

In addition, specimens of the originalMaxim sound suppressor were obtainedand tested. Both the Savage Arms Com-pany and the Sedgley Manufacturing Com-pany offered to produce them for the OSSas manufacture had been terminated in1926 as a consequence of federal legisla-tion restricting their use and further rein-forced by the National Firearms Act (NFA)of 1934. However, it was obvious thattechnology in this area had moved forwardand a completely new design was required.Thus on 27 October 1942 sent twelve pro-posals to the planning board of the NDRC,the first of which concerned the procure-ment of a weapon meeting the followingparameters: 1) silent, 2) no flash signature,3) a minimum muzzle velocity of 1,000fps, 4) preferably .50 caliber and 5) a re-loading of less than 30 seconds. A con-tract for this research was given to theWestern Electric Company in New Jersey.They were directed to develop a soundsuppressor with a) a sound pressure levellow enough to disguise the point of origina distance of 30 feet, b) minimum flashsignature, and adaptable to .45 ACP pis-tols, the .30 M1 Garand and Enfield rifles.

Three weeks after the contract wassigned on 6 April 1943, Western Electricdelivered a silenced Colt Woodsman to theOSS that was very little more than a copyof the Polish Kulikowski sound suppres-

sor. Tests at Aberdeen Proving Groundseveral months later comparing this unitwith prototypes of a sound-suppressed .45ACP pistol, .30 M1 Carbine and British.22 Welsilencer were not satisfactory. TheColt Woodsman would fire in the semiau-tomatic only with high velocity rounds.The noise level was also quite disturbing.Projectiles made of gold and tungsten werethen tested with a drop in the sound pres-sure level, but an increase in pressure toexcessive levels and an objectionable in-crease in slide clatter. Attempts to obtainlonger barrels for the .32 ACP and .380

ACP Colt “pocket” pistols were unsuccess-ful, as Colt could not provide them.

During this same time frame, design-ers at the Bell Telephone Laboratories de-veloped a sound suppressor attached to aHiStandard pistol. Tests on this designwere very positive and Bell TelephoneLaboratories was provided with a contractto silence 110 pistols of various makes.These included sixty six Colt Woodsmanand Match Target pistols and forty fourHiStandard pistols in Models A, B, D andE. Both short and long barreled types wereincluded in the testing. Deliveries com-

22 The Small Arms Review - Vol. 5 No. 11 - August, 2002

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menced in late October 1943. On 22 No-vember 1943, the OSS ProcurementBranch requested that the Ordnance De-partment award a contract to the High Stan-dard Manufacturing Company of NewHaven, Connecticut for 1,500 sound-sup-pressed caliber .22 LR Model H-D pistols(the U.S. Government designation for thispistol was HDM). Deliveries on this con-tract began 20 January 1944. The contractwas completed on 10 October 1944. Re-action to the pistol by agents in the fieldwas entirely favorable. One Thousandmore were ordered on 18 August 1944.That contract was completed by 10 Octo-ber 1944. Pistols completed in the firstcontract featured a blued finish while thoseof the second contract had a phosphate(“Parkerized”) finish. The suppressor tubehad a phosphate finish on both contracts.

In July 1944 someone noted that ac-cording to The Hague Accord Regulations(Article 23e) military personnel were notpermitted to employ small arms ammuni-tion with unjacketed lead bullets. GeneralDonovan ordered uniformed military per-sonnel to stop using the OSS silenced pis-tols until jacketed ammunition was devel-

oped and issued. Civilian personnel werepermitted to continue deploying with theweapon and most of the military person-nel either ignored or did not hear aboutthe order not to employ them. By 8 Febru-ary 1945 20,000 rounds of jacketed T-42.22 LR ammunition was made available.However, standard velocity Remingtonammunition with lead projectiles contin-ued to be issued and employed.

The HiStandard Model H-D .22 LRpistol is a conventional blowback-operatedtarget pistol very much reminiscent of theColt Woodsman. Its main componentgroups are: 1) the frame which forms thegrip and mounting required to receive thefixed barrel. It is machined to accept thetrigger mechanism and fitted with guidesfor the reciprocating slide. 2) The barrelis pinned to the frame. 3) The slide ex-tends rearward from the breech and holdsthe firing pin, extractor and recoil springassemblies. 4) The trigger group consistsof a pivoting trigger with a side bar con-necting it to the sear, together with the ap-propriate springs and plungers, and an ex-posed hammer attached to the mainspringand plunger. 5) A sheet-metal 10-round,

single-line, detachable, box-type maga-zine, which is interchangeable with that ofthe Colt Woodsman.

Pushing the magazine catch/release onthe butt of the frame permits the magazineto be withdrawn. A loaded magazine is in-serted and pushed in until it locks in place.Subsequently pulling the slide to the rearforces the hammer back and down whichcompresses the mainspring. The searcatches and holds the hammer back at fullcock. Releasing the slide allows the com-pressed recoil spring to drive the slide for-ward. The face of the slide is machined tostrip a round from the magazine and driveit into the chamber. The extractor, locatedon the right side of the breech face thensnaps over the cartridge case’s rim. Whenthe breech is completely in battery, the searbar, running from the trigger to the sear onthe left side of the frame, is brought intocontact with the sear.

When the trigger is pressed, it pivotsand causes the sear bar to release the searfrom the hammer. The mainspring thendrives the hammer forward to impingeupon the firing pin, which then passesthrough a hole in the breechface to strikethe rimfire primer and also compress thefiring pin spring. As this spring rebounds,it draws the firing pin back into the breech-block. Rearward thrust of the propellantgases forces the slide to the rear. The slidein turn rotates the hammer back to thecocked position and compresses the main-spring as the sear holds the hammer in thecocked position. The slide also depressesthe sear bar so that another shot cannot befired until the trigger is released and theslide is once again in the battery position.During the recoil stroke, the extractordraws the empty case rearward until itstrikes the ejector.

The pistol is equipped with a frame-mounted, manual thumb safety on the leftside. Rotating the serrated latch upwardboth blocks the sear and engages a notchin the slide to prevent its rearward move-ment.

The forward-sloping, fixed front sightblade is serrated on its rear face. The opensquare-notch rear sight is adjustable forboth elevation and windage zero. An in-dex line milled into the slide is used foralignment of the windage marks on the rearsight housing.

Overall length of the OSS HiStandardSilenced Pistol 13.815 inches. The weight,unloaded is 47 ounces. The barrel length,

Silenced HiStandard HDM Disassembly Procedures

Disassembly and reassembly of the HiStandard HDM pistol is not entirely straight-forward. First, remove the magazine and retract the slide to make certain the cham-ber is empty. With the slide fully to the rear, press down on the small, knurledplunger on top of the slide. This locks and compresses both the recoil spring and itsguide rod. Allow the slide to move forward under control until you can rotate thetakedown latch - on the right side of the frame and to the rear of the hold-openbutton - downward, while maintaining pressure on the plunger on top of the slide.Keep holding the latch down while you retract the slide completely to the rear andoff the frame.

Depress the spring-loaded rear detent on the barrel until it clears the suppressortube. Rotate the suppressor tube to the right until it has been removed from thebarrel. Withdraw the rear screen roll from the suppressor tube. The operator shouldattempt no further disassembly of this system. Clean and lubricate lightly.

Reassembly of the pistol is not possible unless the recoil spring and guide rodremain locked and under compression. If the recoil spring and guide rod slip out ofthe locked and compressed position, a small drift must be used to push them backinto their hole in the slide and then plunger pressed downward to make sure theystay locked in place.

Hold the hammer to the rear to clear the slide as the slide is placed on its cuts in theframe. Hold the hammer rearward again as you push the slide fully forward. Thiswill release the recoil spring and its guide rod. Retract the slide to insure that it’sfunctioning properly. Re-insert the suppressor’s rear screen roll. Push in the spring-loaded detent and thread the suppressor tube to the left until it’s fully seated againstthe frame.

23The Small Arms Review - Vol. 5 No. 11 - August, 2002

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including the chamber, is 6.75 inches Theheight of this pistol, with the magazine inplace, is 5 inches.

Overall length of the sound suppres-sor is 7.75 inches, including the 1/16-inchthick end cap rim. The suppressor tubescrews onto the barrel where it emergesfrom the frame, with detent locks on boththe barrel and forward end cap. The sup-pressor tube has an outside diameter of 1.0inch. The rear screen roll surrounding thebarrel is 4.37 inches in length and 0.795-inch in diameter. It is made of twenty-mesh,tin-plated bronze screen soldered into atightly wound tube. The front screen disksare made of thirty-mesh, tin-plated bronzeand include approximately 110 disks0.828-inch in diameter, with about twentyfive having a 0.410-inch hole so they canslip over the front of the barrel and the re-mainder having a 0.234-inch hole. Thereis a 1/16-inch thick brass washer betweenthe rear screen roll and the front diskscreens that is 0.828-inch in diameter witha 0.410-inch hole. The sound pressurelevel reduction of this sound suppressor isin excess of 20 dB. This is excellent per-formance for a silencer designed duringthis time frame, i.e., six decades ago.

Today, examples of this incrediblepiece of history are quite rare and thereare no more than a handful in private col-lections. Arms Tech Ltd. (Dept. SAR, 5133North Central Avenue, Phoenix, AZ85012; phone: 602-272-9045; fax: 602-272-1922; e-mail: armstech@qwest.net),already well known in the special opera-tions community for their special weap-ons and tactical equipment development,has recreated this famous pistol in a man-ner authentic in every detail. Arms TechLtd. can supply the entire OSS HiStandardSilenced Pistol package - currently in in-ventory and ready to ship after ATF trans-fer approval. The Arms Tech Ltd.remanufacture of the OSS Hi-StandardSilenced Pistol comes complete with amanual, copy of the original U.S. Govern-ment test report, replica OSS shoulder in-signia and cross-section line drawing of thepistol.

The specimen sent to SAR for test andevaluation was authentic in every detail.The left side of the slide was marked, “HI-STANDARD MODEL H-D MILITARY”and the entire pistol was provided with amilspec phosphate finish. The original,checkered, walnut grip panels were in ex-cellent condition. The trigger pull weight

on our test specimen was a very crisp 3pounds, which is undoubtedly a great deallighter than the pistols issued to the OSSin World War II.

Without doubt, the OSS Silenced Pis-tol was one of the most popular clandes-tine weapons ever issued to U.S. opera-tives. One more production run was madefor the CIA after World War II. These allhad a blued finish and did not have U.S.property markings. It was used through-out the war in Vietnam with considerableeffect. One of these pistols was found onFrancis Gary Powers when his U2 spyplane was shot down over Russia duringthe height of the Cold War. Arms Tech Ltd.Is to be highly commended for bringingback an incredibly fascinating piece of his-tory.

References:

Brunner, John W., 1994, OSS Weapons,Phillips Publications, P.O. Box 168,Williamstown, NJ 08094-0168, 206 p.,black and white illustrations.

Melton, H. Keith, 1991, OSS SpecialWeapons & Equipment - Spy Devices ofWWII, Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.,387 Park Avenue South, New York, NY10016, 128 p., black and white illustra-tions.

Melton, H. Keith, 1996, The Ultimate SpyBook, DK Publishing, Inc., 95 MadisonAvenue, New York, NY 10016, 176 p.,color and black and white illustrations.

Truby, J. David, 1972, Silencers, Snipers& Assassins - An Overview of Whisper-ing Death, Paladin Press, P.O. Box 1307,Boulder, CO 80302, 210 p., black andwhite illustrations.

TM-22-HIS, Technical, Operational andMaintenance Manual for .22 Caliber Pis-tol, Silenced Hi-Standard Model HDM,2000, Phoenix Publishing Group, 4123North Longview, Phoenix, AZ 85014, 55p., black and white illustrations.

OSS HiStandard Silenced Pistol Specifications:

Overall length: 13.815 inches.

Weight, unloaded: 47 ounces.

Barrel length (including chamber): 6.75 inches.

Height: 5 inches with magazine in place.

Magazine: 10-round, single-column, detachable box-type.

Suppressor specifications:

Overall length: 7.75 inches (including the 1/16-inch thick end cap rim). Suppres-sor tube screws onto the barrel where it emerges from the frame, with detent lockson both the barrel and forward end cap.

Diameter: 1-inch.

Interior suppressor dimensions: rear screen roll surrounding the barrel: 4.37inches in length and 0.795-inch in diameter; twenty-mesh, tin-plated bronze screensoldered into a tightly wound tube. Front screen disks made of thirty-mesh, tin-plated bronze and include approximately 110 disks 0.828-inch in diameter withabout 25 having a 0.410-inch hole so they can slip over the front of the barrel andthe remainder having a 0.234-inch hole. There is a 1/16-inch thick brass washerbetween the rear screen roll and the front disk screens that is 0.828-inch in diam-eter with a 0.410-inch hole.

Suppression: In excess of 20 dB.

T&E Summary: A faithfully executed re-creation of a historically important clan-destine weapon.