Regarding the previous post by NNTW:
I rather think that the Army would frown upon Enlisted Men carrying pistols openly UNLESS it was required by their duties.
That said, I have seen a LOT of little Belgian Brownings, Webley Metropolitans and so forth which were carried by our troops in pockets and hidden in clothing for use as last-ditch weapons if required. Talk to men who were overseas, even in War Two: this is where all those J.P. Sauer & Sohne pistols, piles of little .25 and .32 Ortgies, 1910 Mausers, a lot of PPKs and by far the majority of little Mauser WTPs came from: they were taken from prisoners acquired by the Canadians during the fighting. I worked for 3 years with a fellow who was an Oberscharfuhrer in the Waffen-SS; he told me that EVERYBODY he knew carried a pocket pistol while they were on the Russian Front.
It is a terrible thing that our current ill-conceived legislation makes no provision for the preservation of these very real and very important MILITARY pistols. They are just as much a part of the story as anything else.
BTW, NINETY percent of Waffen-SS prisoners never made it home from Russia. Nor did ANY of the 600 Canadians in German camps which were overrun by our glorious Soviet allies.... and no Canadian Government since 1945 has dared say a word. I guess that must be their thanks for serving their country.
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