The FP-45 Pistol
The FP-45 was a very cheap and lightweight, single-shot, breech-loading handgun chambered in .45 ACP. Designed and produced in 1942, it was made almost entirely out of stamped parts. It had a 4", unrifled barrel and no way to automatically feed or eject a round. Each shot had to be extracted and reloaded manually, with "a stick or something" - to this end, the weapon came with a short 5" wooden dowel. The weapon was shipped in a wax-sealed cardboard box with 10 rounds of .45 ACP, its dowel, an anti-crush wood block, and illustrated instructions so that it could be dropped anywhere in the world without need of translation.The grip of the 1lb weapon doubled as a storage for additional cartridges; evidently you can fit all 10 within the grip (though I'd imagine removing even one would begin to result in stealth-betraying rattling). The cast-zinc cocking knob doubled as a safety of sorts - by rotating it 90 degrees out of alignment, you remove the firing pin from being in line with the cartridge completely. Once cocked, though, all bets are off, and this is probably easier than some other weapons to accidentally discharge.
The short, smooth barrel did not produce a fast or accurate projectile (maximum effective range was about 8 yards and that is pushing it; intended range was 0-4 yards) and it seems to habitually shoot high - something not helped by the fact that the production model's cocking knob completely obscured the sights. The weapon was, however, still slinging a .45 caliber round, and if you are close enough to hit the enemy, it can still kill. The light weight of the weapon and high energy of the round produce plenty of recoil - it hurts to shoot this thing.
While rated for 50 rounds at a minimum (test criteria done on randomly selected units), it seems like the variance in tolerances from unit to unit lead to head-space issues that, after a turn, lead to the weapon self-destructing after a while.
The FP-45 (code named the Flare Projector 45) was the result of a secret project that sought to figure out how to cheaply and effectively arm the resistance movements against the Germans (primarily) and the Japanese. It was secret enough that the weapon's operating parts weren't even called by their usual names - everything had a code word.
The plan was simple: Allied bombers would drop thousands of these over Europe, then Resistance operatives would procure these weapons and use them to murder occupying soldiers for the purpose of stealing their equipment. Then they would (ideally) pocket the pistol for the next guy, and bring back their spoils. It is a weapon with which to obtain a better weapon, and with which to raise the morale of generally unarmed partizans. It also damages the morale of the occupying forces, who now must be on constant guard for an increasingly armed citizenry.
The relative crudeness of this weapon was seen as an advantage - at no point would occupying forces be interested in fielding this weapon, as it was absolutely combat ineffective on the battlefield. Thus, misdropped or otherwise captured examples didn't arm the enemy.
One million of these were made by Guide Lamp in only 11 weeks with 300 workers, a testament to the ease of manufacturing them. Unit cost was $2.10 in 1942 - compare the approximate $15 price tag on the Colt M1911.
Unfortunately for the project, it seems to have gotten little real use in spite of a million having been made. Half of the stock sat in London for months, and by the time the UK decided to fully back resistance groups in Europe, production of cheap-enough carbines and sub-machine guns were already a reality - rendering this pistol obsolete. Some 25,000 FP-45s did seem to find their way into Europe, however, and (maybe) into the hands of the French Resistance, and later (definitely) the Greeks. About 10,000 were issued by OSS to the Chinese to resist the Japanese. Some 4,000 were taken to the Philippines and other South Pacific islands by General MacArthur for the same reason. Ultimately, little is known about how they actually found use in the conflict, if at all, as the nature of resistance movements don't lend themselves to documenting much.
Unused stock would be destroyed in some cases, or handed out as souvenirs in others. Some examples were sold in the US in mail order catalogs after the war, where the name "Liberator" became associated with it (vice the in-war nickname being "the Woolworth gun").
The FP-45 "Liberator" is an interesting bit of firearm history. It is a highly contextual weapon, designed and produced purely with the realities of the Second World War in mind, but which ultimately missed its opportunity to have any impact on how the war was conducted.
The Gun in GURPS
As with many of my previous firearm articles, I'll be making use of GURPS Terminal Ballistics, by way of +Douglas Cole's very handy calculator.
The weapon is TL7, and fires a 230 grain bullet from a 4" tube at about 730 - 750 fps, from what real world data I can find. That's actually a bit of a break-point there - up until 742 feet per second, the weapon seems to produce 1d+3. Once you pop over that, it begins to become 2d. The average over that range is 740 fps, which is still 1d+3. However, the calculator seems to think that 769 fps is possible (2d). Personally, I am erring on the side of 1d+3 - it will get you anywhere from 4 to 9 damage with equal frequency, giving it a bit of an unpredictable feel that I believe suits the weapon while never allowing it to do as well (or as poorly!) as the other .45 caliber weapons. If you disagree, by all means select 2d instead! Perhaps 1d+3 can be for weapons nearing the end of their life cycle, as the welds begin to break loose and gas pressure begins to be less reliable.
The weapon is inaccurate - it appears as if it shoots high (at least the modern reproductions do), there is no real sighting mechanism, and the (original) barrel has no rifling. Zeroing the weapon was apparently never done, or really even possible to perform. If you want to be very harsh, you could even delay the generic "Aim" bonus given even to Acc 0 weapons.
Range was somewhat fudged. Effective range is 8 yards, nominally. Beyond this, the bullet begins to yaw unpredictably. Even at 7 yards shooters run into problems, even with rifled barrel reproductions. I don't think this weapon will ever achieve a hit on anything that can be considered a 1/2D range, but I could be wrong. Even before you hit the 20 yard mark, the projectiles evidently are already keyholeing, which will kill your range.
Weight is a mere 1lb unloaded; 10 rounds of .45 ACP will weigh an additional .47lb.
Rate of Fire is basically irrelevant - it's a single shot pistol.
As a single shot pistol, it gets 1 shot. Reloading is more involved than most pistols as a result of having no extractor - it's actually rather more in line with early metallic cartridge revolvers than an automatic pistol. Of course the time is an estimate based on watching someone do it, but it should be pretty realistic. You can hold 10 rounds in the grip of the pistol; I'd imagine opening that up to retrieve them would add 3-4 seconds to reload time easily.
The small size of the weapon makes it easy to conceal and use in close quarters.
The weapon has considerable recoil, which is probably not a real issue because you've only got the one shot anyways.
Other Considerations
No add-ons, no accessories, or similar sundries to report on.You might equate this with the "Zip Gun" entry on GURPS High Tech p.92.
Safety - if you can call it that - is cumbersome enough that it wouldn't ever be a "free action" like most weapons. Surely putting it back into working order would just be a ready maneuver by itself.
You'd think maybe this would be less reliable than normal, but that doesn't appear to be the case; the production models seemed to be readily reliable shots. Perhaps, if you play using Slime, Sand, and Equipment Failure from B485 (or something like it) it would qualify for below-average HT due to the rather open nature of the weapon. Any attempts to fix the weapon, however, are almost assured to be at some form of a bonus!
Closing
An interesting weapon, in my opinion. Not very good at all, but interesting never the less. The idea would be tried again with the 1964 "Deer Gun" (which I examine here), which also didn't go anywhere. The idea with that one was the same - cheaply arming the Vietnamese resistance forces - but by the time it was ready for production, the war had ceased to be a clandestine thing. An early 3d printed firearm used "Liberator" as its namesake as well.I don't really have a specific use for this gun in any game I intend to run, though I had thought about using them as the model for "last ditch" weapons for Nod, or even something of regular use in the Militias. This is mostly just a cool thing. I'd had this kicking around in a draft form for some six or so months now, and a recent video by InRange of the team firing a reproduction one of these reminded me I needed to go finish it. Some people play WW2 GURPS, though, so perhaps they can find use for it (I don't know if it shows up in some 3rd edition supplement, I don't have any). A Resistance-based campaign of political intrigue, sabotage, and suchlike would actually be pretty neat sounding; this is the perfect weapon to start that out with!
Thanks for reading!
Cheers!
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