RK,
Though we don't hear it often, the Luger does have some things going for it on reliability. The toggle lockup is actually pretty simple. If the breech closes, it's locked - no additional parts involved. You can see and reach the breechblock and both toggle links. If the breech doesn't close, you can slap the toggle down and develop a huge closing force in the last part of the motion.
The slide automatics hide their lockup parts inside. The tilt-barrel link and meshing grooves of the 1911, as well as the locking blocks and camming pins of the Beretta and P-38, have inaccessible voids where ice can form out of sight and out of reach.
I don't know beans about actual low-temperature experimental results, but I suppose the Finns got some, and perhaps weren't too disappointed.
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