FP-45 Liberator
| FP-45 Liberator | |
|---|---|
The FP-45/M1942
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| Type | Single-shot pistol |
| Place of origin | United States |
| Service history | |
| In service | 1942–1945 |
| Used by | Dropped into occupied territories for use by insurgents |
| Wars | World War II |
| Production history | |
| Designer | George Hyde |
| Designed | May 1942 |
| Manufacturer | Guide Lamp Corporation of General Motors Corporation |
| Unit cost | $2.10 (1942) |
| Produced | June 1942 – August 1942 |
| No. built | 1,000,000 |
| Specifications | |
| Weight | 1 lb (450 g) |
| Length | 5.55 in (141 mm) |
| Barrel length | 4 in (100 mm) |
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| Cartridge | .45 ACP |
| Action | Single-shot |
| Muzzle velocity | 820 ft/s (250 m/s) |
| Effective firing range | 8 yd (7.3 m) |
| Feed system | Single-shot |
The FP-45 Liberator is a pistol manufactured by the United States military during World War II for use by resistance forces in occupied territories. The Liberator was never issued to American or other Allied troops and there are few documented instances of the weapon being used for its intended purpose; though the intended recipients, irregulars and resistance fighters, rarely kept detailed records due to the inherent risks if the records were captured by the enemy. Few FP-45 pistols were distributed as intended and most were destroyed by Allied forces after the war.
The concept was suggested by a Polish military attaché in March 1942. The project was assigned to the US Army Joint Psychological Warfare Committee and was designed for the United States Army two months later by George Hyde of the Inland Manufacturing Division of the General Motors Corporation in Dayton, Ohio. Production was undertaken by General Motors Guide Lamp Division to avoid conflicting priorities with Inland Division production of the M1 carbine. The army designated the weapon the Flare Projector Caliber .45 hence the designation FP-45. This was done to disguise the fact that a pistol was being mass-produced. The original engineering drawings label the barrel as "tube", the trigger as "yoke", the firing pin as "control rod", and the trigger guard as "spanner". The Guide Lamp Division plant in Anderson, Indiana assembled a million of these guns. The Liberator project took about six months from conception to the end of production with about 11 weeks of actual manufacturing time, done by 300 workers.
The FP-45 was a crude, single-shot pistol designed to be cheaply and quickly mass-produced. It had just 23 largely stamped and turned steel parts that were cheap and easy to manufacture. It fired a .45 caliber pistol cartridge from an unrifled barrel. Due to this limitation, it was intended for short range use, 1–4 yards (1–4 m). Its maximum effective range was only about 25 feet (8 m). At longer range, the bullet would begin to tumble and stray off course. The original delivered cost for the FP-45 was $2.10/unit, lending it the nickname "Woolworth pistol".
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