Design of the FP-45 was highly utilitarian - downright crude some would say - and was characterized by its large, blocky pistol grip. The spring-loaded trigger sat along its front facing and was lightly protected by a curved wire trigger guard. The receiver was slab-sided with the short, smooth bore barrel protruding a short distance ahead, capped by a rudimentary sight post. Construction was largely of stamped metal. In all, the system weighed just 1lb, featured a length of 5.55 inches and a barrel measuring in at 4 inches. The weapon was chambered to fire a single-cartridge of .45 ACP at a muzzle velocity of 820 feet per second with ranges limited out to 8 meters.
The FP-45 operated from a simplistic twist-and-pull breechblock system. The breechblock was manually opened by the user to which a .45 ACP cartridge (the same cartridge utilized in the famous Colt M1911 semi-automatic pistol) was inserted and the breech manually closed. The weapon could now be fired as needed. Once the cartridge was spent, the operator opened the breech once again and forced the spent cartridge out of the chamber using any rod-like device (a wooden dowel rod was provided however) down the barrel. As a single-shot weapon, each cartridge for the FP-45 had to be manually inserted and extracted in like-fashion.
The FP-45 was by no means a frontline assault weapon. As it was meant for use by clandestine units, it was generally utilized (and intended) as an assassination tool. Its accuracy at short range was noted as good for the .45 ACP caliber cartridge - coupled with the generated muzzle velocity - played well in such operations. The barrel, being smooth bore in nature and thusly featuring no internal "rifling", meant that close range work was imperative and directly related to overall accuracy. The lack of rifling itself ensured that the weapon could be easily and quickly produced and assembled without much precision. However, the operator would need to ensure a "first-shot, first-kill" action for reloading of the FP-45 was nothing short of time consuming and awkward.
Despite its million-strong production examples, only a handful of FP-45s were ever actually placed into circulation. The mass airdrops across the European Theater were never realized by the OSS and it was insurgent forces across China and the Philippines in the Pacific Theater that ever recorded large-scale use of this interesting weapon. Allied forces were not known to have used the FP-45 outright, let alone having been issued the type. As can be expected, the rare little FP-45 - with all its accompanying documentation and packaging in good condition - can fetch top-dollar in today's collector market.
It is of note that the FP-45 Liberator concept was renewed by the CIA to an extent with the advent of the "Deer Gun" of 1964, intended for use by similar resistance forces during the early phases of the Vietnam War. The Deer Gun bore no similarities in design to the previous Liberator offering and was chambered for the 9x19 Parabellum cartridge. Similarly, the Deer Gun was developed and produced but never issued.
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