By that time, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) became aware of the Liberator project and Col. William Donovan sought to have the remaining pistols transferred to the OSS. The Army notified the OSS that the 450,000 or so Liberator pistols not sent to Great Britain were in storage at Frankford Arsenal and would be destroyed to save storage space unless a use could be found for the guns. The OSS wanted them to arm irregular forces fighting the Japanese. On Jan. 21, 1943, an OSS officer wrote the following in a letter to a colleague: “To think that some brass hats want to sabotage half a million shootable firearms when people are fighting the Japs with jungle traps, poison and wire is … nothing short of criminal stupidity.” Most of the remaining Liberator pistols were eventually transferred to the OSS although it is reported that some within the Army were upset that OSS did not have to pay for the guns.

Actual use of the Liberator pistols is shrouded in uncertainty and many unproven, if not totally untrue, statements have been widely disseminated regarding them. They include assertions that the OSS was the entity that conceived the pistol when, in fact, it was the later recipient of the guns after the Army couldn’t decide what to do with them. Another widespread misconception is that large numbers of the guns were air-dropped into France during World War II. It has not been positively proven that any Liberator pistols were supplied to the French Resistance fighters, although it is possible that a small number may have been utilized. As events transpired, the Allies were able to supply the French resistance with much more effective arms, such as British Sten submachine guns and American M1 Carbines (just to name two), so the throw-away pistols simply weren’t needed. There were some Liberator pistols supplied by the OSS to Greek Resistance forces in 1944, but the actual number has not been confirmed and was likely rather nominal.

They saw more use in the Pacific and China-Burma-India (CBI) Theaters than the ETO. It is reported that as many as 100,000 of the guns were sent to China in late 1943 although the actual number used in hostile action is not known. A number were also supplied to Filipino guerilla units beginning in late 1943. Those guns were used against the Japanese out of necessity but, as intended, the Liberators were ditched when other, more effective, arms became available. It is impossible to accurately state how many FP-45s were employed in hostile action against enemy forces, but it is certain that only a relatively small fraction of the 1 million guns were actually used against the enemy.

After the war, the bulk of the FP-45s were destroyed—cut up for scrap metal or, more commonly, unopened boxes were dumped, by the thousands, into the ocean. While surviving Liberator pistols are somewhat uncommon, they are not exceedingly rare. Most examples seen today are not accompanied by the original boxing and accessories, which would add a significant premium if present. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) has given the Liberator pistol “Curio and Relic” status, which makes it as legal to own as any other cartridge handgun even though it has a smoothbore barrel. While some current owners have fired their Liberator pistols, this practice should be approached with caution as hidden corrosion or previous shooting could have possibly weakened the already flimsy guns. Newly made replicas of the Liberator pistol have appeared on the market in the last couple of years, and the manufacturer, Vintage Ordnance, also cautions against shooting the guns even though they are made of modern materials. In order to comply with current Federal firearm statutes, the newly made replica Liberator pistols have rifled barrels and are serially numbered and marked with the name of the manufacturer.

The noble idea behind the “two buck” pistol was to provide assistance to the brave individuals in occupied countries who wanted to fight back against the German and Japanese oppressors. Even though it turned out that the Liberator pistols saw only a modicum of actual combat use, the guns are interesting relics of World War II, and genuine examples are prized collectibles today.