WW 1 shot Handgun - Dropped for residents to fight NAZIs
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MarshallDodge
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I think he is talking about the Liberator...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberator_pistol
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberator_pistol
jimmyraythomason
Member
Do you mean the "Liberator" in .45 acp? It was a single shot dropped by the Allies to the resistance fighters. It came with 10 rounds of .45 acp stored in the grip.
The Liberator was WWII, and was intended to be dropped to resistance fighters, as Jimmyray says. The idea was that it would be used to kill a German and get his weapon, then discard the little .45. It was one of those things that sounded like a good idea (it was taken from a fiction story), but in fact none were "dropped" and just about all were destroyed after the war. None were used in Europe as intended, but there are reports of maybe a couple used in the Pacific. After the war, some were used by Philippine police until they could get better guns, and a few made their way to China.
All in all, they were not worth the money or the time spent on them.
(FWIW, resistance fighters were routinely supplied with STEN guns, BREN guns, No. 4 rifles, and US carbines. STEN's were favored because the Germans were kind enough to bring ammo for them.)
Jim
All in all, they were not worth the money or the time spent on them.
(FWIW, resistance fighters were routinely supplied with STEN guns, BREN guns, No. 4 rifles, and US carbines. STEN's were favored because the Germans were kind enough to bring ammo for them.)
Jim
SDC
Member
They even made a few of these in two-shot versions, with a breech-block that slid side-to-side (two chambers in one breech-piece). They also brought the idea back during the Vietnam War, with the "Deer Gun", which was a screw-barrel 9mm single-shot pistol.
Thernlund
Member
Piece of history, and a symbol of how firearms mean freedom.
5 G's isn't surprising at all. Nor unwarranted.
-T.
"Liberators" would be a dime a dozen if almost all had not been dumped in the ocean after the war. Unfortunately, they never contributed anything in the fight for freedom. Another idea, like the famed Pedersen device, that sounded good when someone briefed the generals, but were really worthless, even if they had been deployed.
The Liberator idea came from a fiction story called "The Moon Is Down", by John Steinbeck. The idea of arming a populace worked in the story, but was not very plausible in real life. First, just dropping the guns (the myth was that they were "kicked out of airplanes") would have made a lot of holes in roofs, something not likely to endear the populace to the Allied cause.
Second, it is hard to envision the typical French housewife, on her way to market, finding one of those guns and suddenly becoming a vengeful Joan of Arc, killing Germans right and left. Not going to happen!
The real resistance was pretty well armed, both with local weapons and with arms and explosives dropped (by parachute) by the British. They took some from the Germans, of course, but not after shooting them with Liberators.
A real resistance hero, a Polish friend, now gone, told me his group took from a dead German motorcyclist a Thompson SMG. They tried it with the 30 rounds he had in the gun, then threw it in a lake, since no more ammo could be obtained.
Jim
The Liberator idea came from a fiction story called "The Moon Is Down", by John Steinbeck. The idea of arming a populace worked in the story, but was not very plausible in real life. First, just dropping the guns (the myth was that they were "kicked out of airplanes") would have made a lot of holes in roofs, something not likely to endear the populace to the Allied cause.
Second, it is hard to envision the typical French housewife, on her way to market, finding one of those guns and suddenly becoming a vengeful Joan of Arc, killing Germans right and left. Not going to happen!
The real resistance was pretty well armed, both with local weapons and with arms and explosives dropped (by parachute) by the British. They took some from the Germans, of course, but not after shooting them with Liberators.
A real resistance hero, a Polish friend, now gone, told me his group took from a dead German motorcyclist a Thompson SMG. They tried it with the 30 rounds he had in the gun, then threw it in a lake, since no more ammo could be obtained.
Jim
rcmodel
Member in memoriam
They hurt more on the shooting end then they probably did on the receiving end.
The one I fired years ago somehow halfway re-cocked the heavy striker (primer set-back?) just as the recoil begin to set the gun back hard in your hand.
Then the big striker snapped back foreword due to the recoil moving the gun to the rear sharply, and pinched the web of your thumb leaving a big blood-blister.
I shot two or three shots and had a sore hand for a week or two afterword.
I would say accuracy of the smoothbore barrel was plenty good enough to easily kill a sentry at 10 - 15 feet.
Word of advice if you ever get a chance to shoot one though.
Wear a leather glove!
rcmodel
The one I fired years ago somehow halfway re-cocked the heavy striker (primer set-back?) just as the recoil begin to set the gun back hard in your hand.
Then the big striker snapped back foreword due to the recoil moving the gun to the rear sharply, and pinched the web of your thumb leaving a big blood-blister.
I shot two or three shots and had a sore hand for a week or two afterword.
I would say accuracy of the smoothbore barrel was plenty good enough to easily kill a sentry at 10 - 15 feet.
Word of advice if you ever get a chance to shoot one though.
Wear a leather glove!
rcmodel
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