March 1943, Vicar’s Armstrong testing grounds, Newcastle upon Tine. Military observers stand 50 yards from a sandbag wall. A commando fires seven rounds at the target. Not one observer identifies the sound as gunfire. The bolt working louder than the shot itself. One witness describes it as similar to a pellet gun.

Another compares it to a door closing. The Dil Commando carbine had just demonstrated something no Allied weapon could match. Rifle accuracy at 200 yd. A report barely louder than conversation and stopping power that dropped targets instantly. The problem facing British special operations in 1942 was brutally simple. Centuries had to die silently.

Coastal raids demanded stealth. Behind enemy lines, a single gunshot meant mission failure, capture, execution. The well-rod pistol worked at contact distance 7 yd maximum. Beyond that, accuracy vanished. The silenced Sten fired 9mm ammunition at 1120 ft pers, supersonic, producing an audible crack no suppressor could eliminate.

 American silenced weapons used 22 long rifle. Effective at 50 ft, but lacking the power to guarantee instant incapacitation. What commandos needed was a rifle. What they got instead were pistols pretending to be enough. The wellrod could kill silently, but only if you pressed the muzzle against the target.

 15 ft away, accuracy became theoretical. 30 ft impossible. Seven rounds in a magazine meant one sentry per weapon, unless you could reload while the guard tower searched for you. The integral suppressor degraded after 10 to 15 shots. Rubber baffles broke down from heat and pressure. Each mission required fresh weapons or acceptance that the suppressor would fail mid- operation.

 The silenced Sten Mark IS offered capacity, 32 rounds, but created mechanical noise from its reciprocating bolt. Every shot cycled the action. Metal sliding on metal, springs compressing and releasing. The suppressor reduced muzzle blast to 89.5 dB, but the action noise defeated the purpose. Fire it on full automatic, and the suppressor baffles would fail within magazines.

 German centuries might not hear the shot, but they would hear the weapon. German forces faced the same problem, but never solved it. Experimental MP40 suppressors tested at Kumdorf in 1943 required special subsonic 9mm ammunition that was never standardized for production. Carabina 98 rifle suppressors existed but saw virtually no issue to combat units.

 The fundamental German failure was ammunition. Standard 9mm Parabellum and 7.92x 57 mm Mouser were supersonic. Physics dictated that supersonic bullets create sonic cracks that no suppressor can silence. Without subsonic ammunition in inventory, German suppressor development hidden in some mountable wall. Britain had an advantage.

 The British planners initially failed to recognize. American len provided Thompson submachine guns and cult 1911 pistols both chambered in 45 ACP. The cartridge was already in British supply chains. More critically, 45 ACP was inherently subsonic. 230 grain bullets at 830 ft pers. No sonic crack, no special ammunition required.

 Standard military ball ammunition worked perfectly. The solution existed in British armories. It simply needed someone to recognize it. William Godfrey Dil was born in South Africa in 1905. By age 16, he was experimenting with homemade suppressors, fashioning them from cocoa tins to quietly shoot rabbits with 22 rifles.

 He refined the concept over two decades, building progressively more effective designs. When war came, he joined the Ministry of Aircraft Production. His suppressor expertise remained unknown to military planners until meat rationing forced his hand. Delet built a silenced 22 Browning semi-automatic pistol for poaching small game on the Barkshire Downs, quietly dispatching rabbits for the table while technically breaking rationing laws.

Major Sir Malcolm Campbell saw the weapon. Campbell held world land and water speed records. More relevantly, he served in combined operations under Lord Louie Mountbatton. Campbell understood immediately what Deil had created. Not a poaching tool, an assassination weapon. Campbell brought Dil to combined operations headquarters.

 Early 1943, demonstrations proved the concept. Deil fired the weapon from the roof of the New Adelfi building in London, shooting into the river Tempames. Pedestrians on the embankment showed no reaction. Another test at Wilks Gunmakers near Piccadilli involved firing across the street at a chimney. Again, no one noticed.

 The Ministry of Aircraft Production released Dil for full-time weapons development. Dale initially tested 9 mm Parabellum, but it failed catastrophically. The cartridge produced 1120 ft pers velocity. Supersonic creating the crack that doomed the silenced Steen. 45 ACP solved everything. 830 ft pers, comfortably subsonic.

 230 grain bullets provided stopping power that 9 mm could not match. The ammunition was already in inventory through American weapons. No special procurement required. Dil selected the short magazine Leenfield Mark III action as his base. Proven, reliable, and readily available. The bolt action created no cycling noise. Manual operation meant the shooter controlled every sound.

 The suppressor design was revolutionary. 16 in long, integrated into the weapon as a permanent component. The barrel came from Thompson M1928 or M1 A1 submachine guns cut to 7 to 7.25 in of rifled length. Multiple vent holes drilled around the barrel circumference bled propellant gases into the suppressor before the bullet exited.

This ported barrel design reduced the high pressure gas column that normally produces a weapons report. The gases entered an expansion chamber where they cooled and slowed. 10 to 13 duralumin baffles arranged in a spiral forced gases to swirl transversely to the bullet’s path. This Archimedes screw configuration progressively reduced gas velocity.

 By the time gases exited the muzzle, they moved at near ambient pressure. Virtually no report. The counterboard muzzle prevented vacuum collapse. Normal suppressors create low pressure behind the bullet. When atmospheric pressure rushes back in, it produces an audible crack. Dial’s flared internal muzzle profile eliminated this entirely.

 Some versions included soundabsorbing materials between baffles, felt, rubber, or asbestos protected by thin brass sheets. The magazine wellaccepted modified Colm 1911 pistol magazines. Standard capacity was seven rounds. Extended magazines held 11. The receiver modifications included removing the charger bridge, shortening the bolt by several inches, and recessing the bolt face for rimless 45 ACP cartridges.

 The result weighed 7 lb 8 oz unloaded. Overall length 35.6 in, effective range 200 y, sound level 85.5 dB. If you’re finding this deep dive into British engineering interesting, subscribing helps the channel and ensures you do not miss the next one. Ford Dagenham produced 17 handmade prototypes in the factory tool room. Final assembly occurred in the manager’s ARP dugout.

 Dell worked full-time assisted by a foreman and craftsman from Holland and Holland and Baptian Company. Summer 1944, Sterling Engineering received a contract for 500 carbines, 450 standard M2 Commando models, and 50 airborne variants with folding metal stocks. The prototypes went immediately to British commandos for raids along occupied French coast late 1943.

 The first combat reports came back. Centuries died silently. German coastal garrisons never heard the shots. Burma provided the most detailed combat documentation. British snipers positioned themselves near roads behind Japanese lines. Ian Skeutton recorded this firsthand account. Snipers silently dispatched a Japanese soldier in each lorry that passed.

 The lorry would stop, but as no shot was heard, Japanese forces found it hard to believe they had been fired upon or from where. Two or three snipers working one road bagged three or four soldiers in each lorry. Japanese units could not identify the threat. Men died. No gunfire, no muzzle flash. The psychological effect was devastating.

 OSS Captain Mitchell Werebel used diles in Burma. His postwar testimony is precise. We worked a couple against centuries before raids and they were something else better than the stuff we were issued. Both our people and the British used them in Indina. Merryill’s marauders used them to terrorize and scare the Japanese at night and in ambush.

 Jedba teams, joint SOE and OSS, special operations units, also employed the weapon. American Jedba commander E. Michael Burke claimed two hits against fieldgrade Nazi officers early in 1944 using a dile left behind by anoe operative. The most detailed operator testimony comes from Major Dia Mack, First Battalion, Royal Scots Fuselers, Malayan Emergency.

 His diary entry from February 13, 1955. I and my platoon tried out a new weapon today. The Dil silent carbine. It was the first time I’ve ever seen a silent weapon fired, and it was rather uncanny. There was no bang whatsoever, just the click of the released firing pin, the whiz of the bullet, not heard normally, and the thump as the bullet hits the stop bank or body.

 In the jungle, most of the noises would be smothered and would pass unnoticed if not unheard. December 1950, FF training center demonstration. A dile carbine fired five rounds within 50 yards of the audience. Not one member realized that a rifle had been fired. The weapon achieved what modern suppressor designers still struggle to replicate, 85.5 dB.

 For comparison, modern suppressed handguns produce 117 to 140 dB. The Dil was 30 to 55 dB quieter than contemporary suppressed pistols, roughly the volume of a vacuum cleaner at close range. Compare this to Allied alternatives. The well-rod pistol achieved 73 dB, the quietest of all Allied silenced weapons, but effective range was 7 to 30 yards maximum.

 The weapon was designed for contact distance assassination. Place the muzzle against the target and fire. Beyond 15 ft, accuracy degraded catastrophically. The suppressor lasted 10 to 15 shots before rubber baffles failed. The Stenmark 2S produced 89.5 dB with moderate suppressor life if used on semi-automatic.

 Full automatic fire would destroy baffles within magazines. Effective range 100 m, but mechanical noise from the reciprocating bolt defeated stealth in close quarters. The high standard HDM impressed President Roosevelt during an Oval Office demonstration. Bill Donovan fired it and Roosevelt did not hear the shots. The .22 long rifle lacked stopping power.

Effective range 50 f feet. Suppressor life 150 to 250 rounds before degradation. The dile uniquely combined near wellrod quietness with rifle level range and stopping power. No other allied weapon achieved this. German forces never developed an equivalent. Their MP 40 suppressors remained experimental.

 Carabina 98 suppressors saw virtually no production. The ammunitions problem was insurmountable. Without standardized subsonic cartridges, German suppressors could reduce but never eliminate the sonic crack. British forces had 45 ACP readily available. Germany had nothing comparable. The Sterling engineering contract was terminated December 20, 1945.

 V-Rocket attacks destroyed much of Sterling’s records. The war’s end eliminated urgency. 106 carbines were completed against a contract for 500. The 50 planned airborne folding stock variants were cancelled. Only one to two prototypes were ever made. One surviving example resides at the small arms school core collection in Warinster. Total verified production approximately 130 to 150 units.

 This makes the dil among the rarest military small arms of World War II. Serial numbers observed as high as 209 may indicate internal numbering rather than total production. Postwar service continued through the Korean War 1950 to 1953. The Malayan emergency 1948 to 1960 saw extensive delissal use. General Gerald Templar photographed testfiring one in Peric Malaya in 1952.

Some carbines were reconditioned at Enfield specifically for Malayan service. Claims of SAS used during Northern Ireland troubles remain unsubstantiated. Modern reproductions come from US armament manufacturing at $6,500 and British manufacturer TWW Chambers at approximately $4,344. In the United States, any deliss requires dual NFA registration as both a shortbarreled rifle and a suppressor.

The engineering achievement stands apart eight decades later. Armament Research Services concludes the Delissell remains close to the zenith of quiet operation in a shoulder arm. The combination of inherently subsonic ammunition, integral suppressor with massive internal volume, ported barrel, and manual bolt action produced results modern weapons rarely match.

 The Heckler and Kok MP5SD and Russian AS Val show clear conceptual debt to Deil’s work. Mitchell Werebel, that OSS officer who used Ailles in Burma, developed the MAC destroyer carbine and other suppressed weapons for Vietnamera special forces, directly influenced by his wartime experience with the Dil British patent 579168 filed May 8, 1943 and granted July 25, 1946, remained classified throughout the war.

 The specifications describe improvements achieving gas exit at sufficiently low velocity as to produce very little or no sound engineering language for what operators experienced as near total silence. William Godfrey Deilele never received public recognition during his lifetime. His weapon was too classified, too specialized, produced in too few numbers for fame.

 But operators who used it knew the weapon that let you kill at two 100 yards while standing beside enemy soldiers who never heard a thing. March 1943. Vicers Armstrong testing grounds. Observers 50 yards from the firing line. Seven rounds fired. Not one observer identifies gunfire. The Dil Commando carbine proved what British engineering could achieve when unconventional thinking met urgent operational need.

 A school boy’s cocoa tin experiments became Britain’s most effective silent killing tool. Where Germany failed despite massive industrial resources. One British engineer with decades of amateur experimentation succeeded. Where American weapons sacrificed range for silence or silence for power, the dilivered both.

 130 weapons changed special operations forever. The centuries who died never heard the shot. Their comrades never identified the threat. British commandos completed missions that should have been impossible. That is what British engineering accomplished when it mattered most.