The Secret One-Shot Pistol the Allies Dropped to the Resistance

The Secret One-Shot Pistol the Allies Dropped to the Resistance It weighed about one pound. It cost two dollars and ten cents. It came stamped out of sheet steel by a factory that had been building car headlights the month before. The United States made one million of them in a single summer, packed them in grease, and floated them down over occupied Europe and Asia for one job. How it actually worked: The Liberator was a single-shot forty-five caliber pistol stamped from sheet steel for about two dollars, built to arm resistance fighters behind the lines. General Motors' Guide Lamp headlight plant turned out one million of them in about eleven weeks, roughly one every seven seconds. To hide it, the Army called it a Flare Projector and labeled its parts on the drawings as a tube, a yoke and a control rod. The Army handed about 450,000 to the OSS, but commanders preferred the Sten, and fewer than 25,000 were ever cleared for occupied France. Its one documented use is a German policeman's account of an officer taken down at close range, the little pistol left on the floor. The secret file on FP-45 Liberator is pinned in the top comment. Subscribe for more forgotten weapons, and name the next one below. #WW2 #FP45Liberator #OSS #Resistance #ForgottenWeapons #SecretWeapons