help me name a gun, please

[R. Schmitt]

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[R. Schmitt]

morepix

[R. Schmitt]

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[R. Schmitt]

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[R. Schmitt]

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[R. Schmitt]

I also own a Liberator and always thought that the original destination for them was to Europe but that did not happen. Another forum member informed me that most were sent to the Phillipines--1,000,000 produced and were used with limited success. Eventually most of them were disposed of "at sea". They were manufactured in Anderson, Indiana at the Guide Lamp division of Delco-Remy, a part of GM. Cost to produce was somewhat over a dollar each. The disposal "at sea" accounts for the rarity of them. The last value I saw was about 2K for the piece without the box and cartoon and 3K if everything was intact. I had often heard them referred to as the "OSS Liberator". Definitely an interesting piece. Tomt

I did some research and there is in fact no evidence that the Liberators were actually being dropped in France or wherever in Europe... the mysteries continue!

[Zapper]

I did some research and there is in fact no evidence that the Liberators were actually being dropped in France or wherever in Europe... the mysteries continue!

To make a long story VERY short:
For two main reasons the pistols were not dropped in occupied Europe (France).

The free french government in exile did not like the idea at all. The main reason was that they did not have any control over who actually received the arms. They were afraid that the weapons would be used against them by the french communists after the liberation.

There was not at all any capacity to transport the arms to France by air. This had very low priority compared to other tasks.

The arms were stuck in GB, hundreds of thousands were later shippet to India to be stored, a number of them ended up in China and the Philipines, but most of them were later either dumped at sea or melted down for the metal.

I read somewhere a few years ago that about 30.000 of these pistols were not accounted for.

[SurvivingPanzer]

Where does this evidence that they were not dropped into France come from? Assuming that everythign has been declassified, which I'm sure it has not.

[Zapper]

In the book "THE FP-45 LIBERATOR PISTOL 1942-1945" by Koch (an excellent book btw) this is discussed quite thoroughly.
I have to correct myself a little: what I meant to say was that the original plans to widely distribute the pistol in France (and other occupied European countries) were definitely cancelled. HOWEVER, there were probably shipped a small number of guns, but I don't have my books right here...

Koch's book is long out of print, but can be found:
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Sear...n=koch&y=0&x=0

[SurvivingPanzer]

Wow $195 for a book. So much knowledge for so less.