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This pistol had its origins in the US Army Joint Psychological Committee and was designed for the United States Army in 1942 by the Inland Guide Lamp Manufacturing Division of the General Motors Corporation in Dayton, Ohio. The army designated the weapon the Flare Projector Caliber .45 hence the designation FP-45, which 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 nearly one million of these weapons. The Liberator project took about 6 months from conception to 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. The Liberator 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 the unrifled barrel, it was intended for very close ambush (1-4 m) its maximum effective range was only about 25 feet (less than 8 m). At longer range, the bullet would begin to tumble and stray off course. Because of the low quality, it was nicknamed the "Woolworth gun."
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 showing how to load and fire the weapon. Extra rounds of ammunition could be stored in the pistol grip.
After production, the Army turned the Liberators over to the OSS. A crude and clumsy weapon, the Liberator was 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 weapon, sneak up on an Axis occupier, kill or incapacitate him, and retrieve his weapons.
The weapon was valued as much for its psychological warfare effect as its actual field performance. It was believed that if vast quantities of these weapons could be delivered into Axis occupied territory; it would have a devastating effect on the morale of occupying troops. The plan was to drop the weapon in such great quantities that occupying forces could never capture or recover all the weapons. It was hoped that the thought of thousands of these un-recovered weapons potentially in the hands of the citizens of occupied countries would have a deleterious effect on enemy morale.
In reality, the OSS never saw the practicality in mass dropping the Liberator over occupied Europe, and only a handful were ever distributed. Only the Chinese and resistance forces and the Philippine Commonwealth military in the Philippines received the Liberator in any significant quantity. The Liberator was never issued to American or Allied troops and there is no documented instance of the weapon being used for their intended purpose.
The original delivered cost for the FP-45 was $2.40 ($32 in 2010 dollars). Today, the FP-45 liberator is a sought-after collector’s gun. A Liberator gun in good condition with the box and documentation can fetch as much as $4500.
.380jimlongley wrote:
From the sound on the video, it appears to be firing a .22 or something else low pressure.
If I post a video and files for making black powder from George Washington factory is that a violation of weapons laws? This a repeat of history and tech development. The European Kings did like the secrets to be in hands of the peasants. So, free of information is suppressed for good of the people.gthaustex wrote:The plans were pulled down, at least temporarily, from the website. It was downloaded around 100,000 times, prior to them doing so. Apparently, the State Dept. sent a letter out saying they were investigating if releasing the CAD files constituted a violation of weapons export laws...
B"HKeith B wrote:The whole issue with this is not that they could build one that lasts for repeated use, but it could be potentially be used one-time by an assassin or terrorist. I do see issues, but bottom line, if there is a will there is a way to get past security. You just have to find the vulnerability and exploit it.
There are thousands of mirrors already running. Good luck collecting all those horses and bringing them back to the barn.gthaustex wrote:The plans were pulled down, at least temporarily, from the website. It was downloaded around 100,000 times, prior to them doing so. Apparently, the State Dept. sent a letter out saying they were investigating if releasing the CAD files constituted a violation of weapons export laws...
RoyGBiv wrote:There are thousands of mirrors already running. Good luck collecting all those horses and bringing them back to the barn.gthaustex wrote:The plans were pulled down, at least temporarily, from the website. It was downloaded around 100,000 times, prior to them doing so. Apparently, the State Dept. sent a letter out saying they were investigating if releasing the CAD files constituted a violation of weapons export laws...
I look forward to seeing the youtube videos from China, Cuba and North Korea of newly armed Citizens.
They closed the barn door after the horse was out. That is why I pointed out that the files had already been downloaded 100,000 plus times, prior to action being taken. I also agree that once it is out on the Internet, it is there forever, somewhere. The UT law student at the middle of all this said as much in an interview on the radio earlier this morning. He felt that it was the public's right to know and have free info, as well as to have access to guns, per the 2nd Amendment. He said he wasn't really worried that he was not currently hosting the files, as they were out there somewhere....