The FP-45 pistol was a small and specialized but potentially
terrifying weapon. Technologically, it was simple: it fired just a
single .45 caliber bullet down an unrifled barrel. It was so cheap that
the United States could afford to manufacture hundreds of thousands of
them and airdrop them over Nazi-occupied territory. The plan was that
untrained civilians would use them to kill solitary German soldiers:
The pistols would be air dropped by the hundreds of
thousands into enemy occupied territory, where it was expected the
Germans would never be able to recover all of them. Useless as a
battlefield weapon, the issue of providing useful weapons to the enemy
was moot. On the other hand… as a weapon of terror in the hands of the
resistance, the Liberator might have had extraordinary value. A common
civilian, alone with a conquering German soldier, suddenly produces the
single shot .45 and drops the man in a surprise attack, afterwards
making off with the soldiers weapons. Now the German Army is down one
soldier, the resistance has one more battle rifle, and every other
German soldier has to wonder…. will he be next?
I say might have had, as the OSS never carried out the plan to any
degree. Aside from a few FP-45′s finding their way to the Philippine
resistance and perhaps China, the Liberators were not deployed as
expected. They languished in warehouses, and after the war… almost all
were destroyed.
At the link, you can find more pictures and a video of a Liberator being fired.
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