I never saw nor heard of any such factory mag release. My guess would be that this was an amateur repair or perhaps a "field" repair (on the battlefield). Perhaps this could have been done to make it easier to release the mag.
Early P38s such as yours were known for their high quality and attention to detail compared to other arms esp later P38s. I highly doubt any P38 from any of the 3 manufacturers would have passed inspection with any such gizmo as a mag release.
Apparently the original somehow broke, and this was placed to make it functional again as a quick fix.
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Winchester 73, the TFL user that won the west
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