Lost World War II Pistol – FP45 Liberator

Am Shooting Journal ^ | 8/8/2018 | F Jardim

[w1n1]

Clandestine weapons like the World War II FP-45 pistol, later dubbed the Liberator by the Office of Strategic Services in 1944, have always intrigued me.
It remains the rarest of American martial handguns from the conflict, with original examples usually starting in the $1,500 range for rusty, damaged pieces and the best examples, with their impossibly rare waxed shipping boxes, bringing over $7,000.
Myths and misinformation hide the pistol’s real story; they weren’t wildly inaccurate junk guns that exploded after a few shots, and they were never tossed out of airplanes over occupied Europe en masse.

THE FP-45 PISTOL was inexpensive by design. Constructed mostly of welded, stamped sheet metal parts with a die-cast zinc cocking piece, each gun cost the federal government a bit over $2, boxed for delivery with 10 rounds of .45 ACP ammunition.
Only 5 inches long and weighing a pound, this single-shot pistol was conceived as an instrument of chaos in the darkest times of the war. The idea seems to have originated with a Polish military attaché in March of 1942.
His request for assistance with arming resistance fighters in Nazi-occupied areas was important enough that it reached the attention of the American assistant chief of staff for intelligence (G-2) of the War Department General Staff.

They recommended a light, simple, inexpensive, powerful handgun that could be dropped from aircraft – or other distribution methods they might contrive to suit the circumstances – to litter the countryside of occupied nations.
Once delivered in theater, these little handguns would subject the enemy’s garrison troops to great mental anguish because even though they would find some of the weapons, they would never know how many they didn't find. Read the rest of this FP45 Liberator story here.

[OldSmaj]

.... but they were never employed.

Probably not in the sense of using one for capturing a more effective weapon.

But with an estimated 300,000 or so put into "circulation", so to speak, I would assume they bolstered confidence for someone.

I have seen one in my lifetime of collecting, or attempting to collect.

Gun show in Kennesaw...5K price tag, no guarantee of it being real.

But it was fascinating.

It was probably authentic...as he had paperwork of a lot shipment and other documents, but it had never left the shores of these United States.

[Charles Martel]

They were never used. OSS had a million of them made, but never dropped them into France or anywhere else. Most of them ended up at the bottom of the ocean after WWII.

Had the war bogged down in Africa or Italy, many more of these pistols would've probably been delivered to resistance fighters. The way things worked out, other events simply overtook the need for the Liberator pistols. Fortunately.

[Delta 21]

Psychological warfare. The more motivated the enemy the less it works.

Still wouldnt want to take a shot from one.

[NTHockey]

Saw one at a local dealer for $1,500. It was in a glass case, so I couldn’t examine it.

[teeman8r]

oh i know... that is why i used the /sarc tag

[Big Red Badger]

The photo...
Is the Left pistol an Original?
The left appears to have a
Serial Number.
Reproduction Liberators
Cost a Grand.

[Big Red Badger]

Sorry!!!
The RIGHT has s/n.

[Celtic Conservative]

This was the gun you used to shoot a German soldier at point blank range and steal his weapons. THEN you were armed.

CC

[Maverick68]

Well, if your an unarmed citizen under the thumb of an occupying force that can kill you for looking at them wrong, this would be the greatest gun ever.

[DiogenesLamp]

I think Europe could use millions of them right now.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks w1n1.

[archy]

I always thought these were vastly over rated in terms of how effective they really were.

Possibly because you weren't on the other side. And, of course, a nighttime airdrop of a few hundred thousand of them into a contested area just before a major offensive action makes for a pretty effective diversion, whether an effective shot is fired from one or not.