How many soldiers did carry handguns?

I agree, I too like this thread. Kyrie brought up some good points and stated them well. I would however like to clarify a couple of things he said. The SS did receive arms and other equipment from the the Army long before 1943, as a matter of fact some of this support started as early as the mid 30's. The point that Kyrie makes on this is valid in sense that most of this support was with older arms and forced on the Army. This is why the SS used many captured arms and WWI era arms...not until 42/43 did they get true room at the feed trough. The second thing is the losses mentioned by Kyrie...on this too I agree, except to say that with almost every pistol lost there was a soldier attached! The Russians (no western allies) were in any position before late 44 or 45 to capture LARGE stocks of un-issued weapons.