10 Ridiculous War Weapons You Won't Believe Were Developed

6. The FP-45 Liberator (USA, World War II)

Size doesn't matter but being able to hold more than one bullet at a time definitely does.

The FP-45 Liberator was a well-intentioned (as far as we know) but short-sighted attempt by the USA to aid European insurgents during the Second World War, building on a concept formulated by the Polish. These 1lb pistols designed for covert use were manufactured en-masse and dropped over Europe to be picked up by resistance fighters. It was a sound plan that was marred by just one drawback: the FP-45 Liberator was a pile of crap. One of the biggest flaws with this gun apart from its cripplingly low range of up to 25 feet was that it had the lowest bullet capacity possible. Although additional bullets could be stored in the handgrip, it could only hold one bullet at a time. And after that bullet was fired, the spent casing had to be removed by sticking a wooden dowel into the barrel and digging it out before a new bullet could be inserted. This thing was made in 1941 but it was closer to a flintlock than to a modern handgun. It was so poorly designed that it was quicker to manufacture one (seven seconds) than to reload it (ten seconds). The only way an FP-45 Liberator could be an asset is if you got a lucky shot that brought down a German soldier for long enough for you to steal his gun. Which was exactly the battle strategy the manufacturers had in mind. Instead of, you know, manufacturing a gun that would actually be useful in small skirmishes against a heavily armed occupying force. It's a testament to how useless these guns were that the majority of them were destroyed after the war without ever being used in combat.