De Lisle Silenced Commando Carbine

The De Lisle Silenced Commando Carbine was designed around an adapted MkIII Lee-Enfield action and stock. The De Lisle was chambered in .45ACP, accepting slightly modified .45 calibre Colt 1911 pistol magazines; rather than Lee Enfield’s standard 10-round .303 magazine. The key element of the De Lisle’s design was the 8.2 inch long integral barrel sound suppressor. The suppressor allowed propellant gas from the rifles .45 cartridge to bleed out of the barrel quieting the sound of the round leaving the muzzle.  

The weapon was developed by firearms enthusiast and engineer William Godfray de Lisle who worked for the Ministry of Aircraft Production. De Lisle had previously built an integral suppressor for his .22LR Browning SA, which he used to hunt small game. De Lisle’s neighbour Major Sir Malcolm Campbell, of the Office of Combined Operations, heard about the silenced hunting rifle and felt it could be a valuable clandestine weapon. Prototype development was completed by 1942, however, upon demonstrating the weapon a 9mm version was requested as this was the most commonly available rimless pistol cartridge available. When this was tested, however, the velocity of the 9mm round was too high and the suppressor was unable to reduce the prototype’s report sufficiently. 

The prototype development was completed by 1942. De Lisle suggested rechambering the carbine to fire the subsonic .45 ACP; this was found to be extremely quiet. The first .45 ACP carbine was made using a Thompson submachine gun barrel and the action from a Lee-Enfield. De Lisle and Campbell submitted the design and prototype to the Board of Ordnance for evaluation. Because the carbine was a project of the Office of Combined Operations production was fast tracked and a first batch were built at the Ford Motor Company’s Dagenham works. De Lisle applied for his patent in May 1943, but due to the weapon’s clandestine nature and importance it was not publically granted until after the war in July 1946.

De Lisle carbine with folding metal stock, an example is held by the SASC Collection (source)

The De Lisle proved to have improved accuracy over the STEN MkII(s), was marginally quieter, and the carbine’s bolt action was quieter than the cycling of the STEN’s bolt.  An order for 500 was placed with the Sterling Engineering Company with production beginning in the Summer of 1944. The carbine had a 7.45 inch barrel, 2 inches of which were placed inside the Lee-Enfield’s action. The bolt was therefore shortened and a new .45 ACP extractor was added; a new magazine housing was also developed to take Colt 1911 magazines. The suppressor tube was fashioned from steel and was made up of an initial expansion chamber followed by 10 or 13 baffles making up a continuous spiral which were aligned using two rods either side of the bullet channel (see patent diagrams below). Despite the order for 500 carbines just 130 were made before the order was cancelled in December 1945. The De Lisle was a niche weapon with relatively few required while the suppressed STENs also proved to be cheaper and easier to manufacture and better suited to more general issue for clandestine operations.  

Captain Robert Brown firing a Military Armament Corporation ‘Destroyer’ a 9mm carbine similar to the De Lisle carbine. (source: Silencers, Snipers & Assassins - Truby)

The majority of the De Lisle carbines had standard wooden stocks while Sterling also developed a version with a folding stock intended to be more compact for use by paratroops (see example above). Only two of these paratroop De Lisle’s were produced.

Despite the small number of carbines made they were used by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in Northern France prior to D-Day and were also used against the Japanese in the Far East. Accurate at up to 200 yards, with no muzzle flash and extremely quiet they were used to kill sentries during infiltration missions. It was in the 1950s during first the Korean Warand later the Malayan Emergency that the De Lisle saw renewed service. Deployed during the British Army’s counter-insurgency operations against Communist guerrillas in Malaya.

In 1970, the Military Armaments Corporation developed a 9mm carbine called the 'Destroyer’ inspired by the De Lisle, however, suppressed pistols and submachine guns proved more popular with special forces.

Sources:

Image Sources: 1 2 3 4

The De Lisle “Commando” carbine, Rifleman.org (source)

The British De Lisle Commando Carbine, Small Arms Review, F. Iannamico (source)

De Lisle Commando Carbine, IWM, (source)

Improvements in or relating to means for silencing firearms United Kingdom Patent 579168-A (source)

Modern Small Arms, F. Myatt (1978)

If you enjoy the content please consider supporting Historical Firearms through Patreon!