Made from 1942 - 1945, in the UK and Canada
Calibre - 9mm
Magazine capacity - 32 rds
Rate of fire - 540 rpm
Used by the British Army, RAF, Home Guard, Auxiliary Units and the SOE - Resistance units in Europe.
The Mk. 2 was initially produced to equip the airborne units but they were quickly made available to the nascent resistance movements that were forming in Europe, with over 2.6 million being made during the war. The barrel was removable and projected several inches out of the barrel sleeve, the shroud having three sets of three holes. The magazine housing on the Mk. 2 could be swung 90 degrees and the butt removed to help its storage in a container, being hidden when not in use or being worn underneath a parachute harness, although you'd have to watch for damage to the housing and make sure the magazine was aligned properly when returned to its normal position. A silenced version of the Mk, 2, the Mk. 2(S) was produced for clandestine operations and had a shortened barrel enclosed in an integral silencer, which was extremely effective, reducing the ambient noise to very low levels. Most seem to have been assembled at the Royal Small Arms Factory, Enfield. Contemporary manuals suggested using the Mk. 2(S) in semi-automatic mode as much as possible, as sustained automatic fire would shorten the service life of the silencer very quickly. Later on, a collar was added to the change lever to prevent them being fired on fully automatic. The versions made in the Long Branch factory in Ontario, Canada, generally had a skeleton stock rather than a strut stock.