FP-45 Liberator
| FP-45 Liberator | |
|---|---|
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| general information | |
| Military designation: | FP-45, Liberator |
| Developer / Manufacturer: | Guide Lamp Division of General Motors |
| Development year: | 1942 |
| Manufacturer country: | United States |
| Production time: | 1942 to? |
| Weapon Category: | gun |
| Furnishing | |
| Overall length: | 140 mm |
| Total height: | 117 mm |
| Weight: (unloaded) | 0.49 kg |
| Barrel length : | 100 mm |
| Technical specifications | |
| Caliber : | .45 ACP |
| Cadence : | 4 rounds / min |
| Fire types: | Single fire |
| Visor : | Rear sight and front sight |
| Charging principle: | Single loader |
| Lists on the subject | |
The FP-45 is a WWII weapon . She was also known as the Liberator (liberator). The abbreviation FP means Flare Projector ( light pistol ) and served as a cover name.
function
The pistol was used to be dropped over occupied Europe and Asia and to arm resistance fighters so that they could use the Liberator to obtain more effective weapons for the occupiers.
The Liberator pistol was dropped in a cardboard box containing ten .45 ACP cartridges . In addition, instructions in comic form were included, explaining the operation in twelve pictures and without writing. The weapon was designed to be built and distributed in extremely large numbers, cheaply and with the least amount of effort: the unit price was around two US dollars to manufacture and one million pieces were produced in just eleven weeks.
The successor to the Liberator pistol was the Deer Gun , which was used in the Vietnam War in the 1960s . Their appearance is similar to that of futuristic radiation guns from old science fiction films.
construction
The Liberator is a .45 caliber , single-shot pistol that was manufactured from stampings by the Guide Lamp Division of General Motors (USA). The weapon is kept very simple and has no rifled barrel, which means that it can only be used for the shortest possible shooting distances (barely eight meters). There is no ejector, so the empty cartridge case has to be pushed out with a pen, which can lead to reloading times of over ten seconds. Reloading turned out to be extremely laborious: the shooter had to pull the striker backwards until it clicked into place and then swing it out to the side. Then a plate with a recess for the firing pin had to be pulled up and the cartridge loaded. After the firing pin plate had been closed again and the hammer swiveled back into the starting position, the weapon was ready to fire. When the trigger was pulled, the hammer was pushed back briefly and then released, which triggered the shot. The entire pistol consists of only 23 individual parts that are held together with rivets . This connection was extremely unreliable because it was not designed for the forces involved: the shooter could not be sure whether the weapon would fire when the trigger was pulled or whether the gun would be torn apart by the burning of the propellant charge.
The weapon has a lockable cavity in the handle that can hold up to ten loose cartridges, but not a magazine in the conventional sense.
Web links
- FP-45 Liberator Operating Instructions (Comic) ( Memento from February 9, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
