View source for FP-45 Liberator

{{About||the 3D printed pistol|Liberator (gun)|the shotgun|Winchester Liberator}}
{{Use American English|date=October 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2024}}
{{Infobox weapon
|name= FP-45 Liberator
| image=[[File:Pistol FP-45 02.jpg|250px]][[File:Pistol FP-45 01.jpg|250px]]
| image_size = 300
|caption=The FP-45/M1942
|origin= United States
|type= [[Single-shot]] [[handgun]], [[derringer]]
|is_ranged=yes
|service= 1942–1945
|used_by= Dropped into occupied territories for use by insurgents
|wars= [[World War II]]
|designer= [[George Hyde (gun designer)|George Hyde]]<ref name="nra">Bruce N. Canfield "Desperate Times: The Liberator Pistol" ''[[American Rifleman]]'' August 2012 pp.48-51&83-84</ref>
|design_date= May 1942<ref name="nra"/>
|manufacturer= Guide Lamp Division of [[General Motors]] Corporation<ref name="nra"/>
|unit_cost= $2.10 (1942)<ref name="nra"/> <br>($37.70 in 2022)
|production_date= June 1942 – August 1942<ref name="nra"/>
|number= 1,000,000
|variants=
|weight= {{convert|1|lb|g|abbr=on}}
|length= {{convert|5.55|in|mm|abbr=on}}
|part_length= {{convert|4|in|mm|abbr=on}}
|width=
|height=
|cartridge= [[.45 ACP]]
|action= Single-shot
|velocity= {{convert|820|ft/s|m/s|abbr=on}}
|range= {{convert|8|yd|m|abbr=on}}
|feed= Single-shot
|sights=
}}

The '''FP-45 Liberator''' is a [[handgun]] 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; this was compounded by the intended recipients{{snd}}irregulars and resistance fighters{{snd}}rarely keeping 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.<ref name="nra"/>

==Project history==
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 (gun designer)|George Hyde]] of the Inland Manufacturing Division of the [[General Motors|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]].<ref name="nra"/> 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 labeled the [[gun barrel|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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://usautoindustryworldwartwo.com/General%20Motors/guidelamp.htm|title=The U.S. / American Automobile Industry in World War Two / WWII|access-date=19 October 2016}}</ref> 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.

==Design==
[[File:FP-45 operating instructions.jpg|thumb|left|The operating instructions distributed with the FP-45]]
The FP-45 was a crude, [[single-shot]] pistol designed to be cheaply and quickly [[mass production|mass-produced]]. It had just 23 largely stamped and turned [[steel]] parts that were cheap and easy to manufacture. It fired the [[.45 ACP]] pistol [[cartridge (firearms)|cartridge]] from an [[rifling|unrifled]] barrel. Due to this limitation, it was intended for short-range use, {{convert|1|-|4|yd|m|abbr=out}}. Its maximum effective range was only about {{convert|25|ft|m|abbr=on}}. At longer range, the bullet would begin to tumble and stray off course. The original delivered cost for the FP-45 was USD$2.10/unit ({{Inflation|US|2.10|1942|fmt=eq}}{{Inflation/fn|US}}), lending it the nickname "Woolworth pistol".<ref name="Thompson2011">{{cite book|last=Thompson|first=Leroy|title=The Colt 1911 Pistol|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=61PDCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT87|date=3 May 2011|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-1-84908-836-7|page=87}}</ref> Five rounds of ammunition could be stored in the pistol grip.

==Wartime use==
The ''Liberator'' was shipped in a cardboard box with 10 rounds of .45 ACP ammunition, a wooden [[dowel]] to remove the empty cartridge case, and an instruction sheet in comic strip form<ref name="ESAA">{{cite book | last = Bishop | first = Chris | title = The Encyclopedia of Small Arms and Artillery | publisher = Grange Books | year = 2006 | isbn = 978-1-84013-910-5 | page =19}}</ref> showing how to load and fire the weapon. The ''Liberator'' was a crude and clumsy weapon, never intended for front-line service. It was originally intended as an [[insurgency weapon]] to be mass-dropped behind enemy lines to resistance fighters in occupied territory. A resistance fighter was to recover the gun, sneak up on an [[Axis powers|Axis]] occupier, kill or incapacitate him, and retrieve his weapons.

It was manufactured under the "FP" prefix and referred to in official documentation as a "[[Flare pistol]]".<ref>{{cite web|title=Weapon Trivia Wednesday: FP-45 Liberator|first=Alexander|last= Crown|url=http://www.breachbangclear.com/wtw-fp-45-liberator/|date=19 October 2016}}</ref> The pistol was valued as much for its [[psychological warfare]] effect as its actual field performance. It was believed that if vast quantities of these handguns could be delivered into Axis-occupied territory, it would have a devastating effect on the [[morale]] of occupying troops. The plan was to drop them in such great quantities that occupying forces could never capture or recover all of them. It was hoped that the thought of thousands of these unrecovered weapons potentially in the hands of the citizens of occupied countries would have a deleterious effect on enemy morale.<ref>Wolfgang Michel: ''Die Liberator Pistole FP-45: Partisanenwaffe und Instrument der psychologischen Kriegsführung''. {{ISBN|978-3-8370-9271-4}}</ref>

General [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]]'s staff never saw the practicality in mass dropping the ''Liberator'' over occupied Europe, and authorized distribution of fewer than 25,000 of the half million FP-45 pistols shipped to Great Britain for the French resistance. Generals [[Joseph Stilwell]] and [[Douglas MacArthur]] were similarly unenthusiastic about the other half of the pistols scheduled for shipment to the Pacific. The Army then turned 450,000 ''Liberators'' over to the [[Office of Strategic Services]] (OSS), which preferred to supply Resistance fighters in both theatres with more effective weapons whenever possible.

French use of the FP-45 remains undocumented, however, a first-hand account of an assassination with an FP-45 exists from German military policeman Niklaus Lange. He claimed that there were thousands in circulation in occupied France.<ref>{{Citation|last=Holger|first=Eckhertz|title=D Day through German eyes. Book 2|others=Ochlan, P. J.,, Brilliance Audio (Firm)|isbn=9781536609813|oclc=961270312}}</ref> The OSS did distribute a few to Greek resistance forces in 1944. Most of the pistols shipped to Britain were undistributed, and later dumped at sea or melted for scrap metal.<ref name="HoggWalter2004">{{cite book |last1=Hogg |first1=Ian |last2=Walter |first2=John |title=Pistols of the World |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=95VCuQEACAAJ |date=29 August 2004 |publisher=Krause Publications |isbn=9780873494601 |page=141 }}</ref>

One hundred thousand FP-45 pistols were shipped to China in 1943, but the number actually distributed remains unknown. A few were distributed to the Philippine [[Military history of the Philippines during World War II#The Philippine Commonwealth Army|Commonwealth Army]], [[Philippine Constabulary]], and resistance fighters.<ref name="nra"/><ref name="Richards">{{cite book|last=Richards|first=Lee|title=The Black Art: British Clandestine Psychological Warfare against the Third Reich|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kE_mfXt1VnYC&pg=PA47|publisher=Psywar|isbn=978-0-9542936-2-8|pages=47–48|year=2010}}</ref>

==See also==

*[[Deer gun]], a Liberator-style handgun tested during the [[Vietnam War]]
*[[Liberator (gun)|Liberator]], a 3D printed handgun (2013)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
{{Commons}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120210173717/http://www.justguns.com/handguns/fp-45-liberator.html The Liberator Pistol] at JustGuns.com
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120209041359/http://www.mouseguns.com/blast/libinst.jpg The Liberator instruction sheet]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20111011091658/http://vintageordnance.homestead.com/FP45_Firing.html Safe handling of Liberator pistols and modern replicas]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20121208205722/http://www.liberatorpistolbook.com/ ''The Liberator Pistol'', by Ralph Hagan]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CjndIiZyJo FP-45 Liberator Pistol] [[Forgotten Weapons]]

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Derringers]]
[[Category:Insurgency weapons]]
[[Category:World War II firearms of the United States]]
[[Category:Pistols of the United States]]
[[Category:Single-shot pistols]]
[[Category:Madison County, Indiana]]
[[Category:History of Dayton, Ohio]]
[[Category:General Motors]]
[[Category:.45 ACP firearms]]
[[Category:Weapons and ammunition introduced in 1942]]