sgt_G
05-23-2010, 11:40 AM
just a few paragraphs about two specific weapons used by the OSS and the SOE in WWII
the Welrod pistol:
It was used primarily by the British SOE but was also used by the American OSS. The Welrod, also known as the "Assassin's Pistol", was extremely quiet for a gun, producing a sound of around 73dB when fired. Examples were made in 9 mm Para and .32 ACP, with magazine of five and six rounds respectively. The Welrod took the form of a 1.25 inch diameter cylinder about 12 inches long. The rear of the cylinder contained the bolt, the middle the ported barrel and expansion chamber of the suppressor, and the front the baffles and wipes of the suppressor. There was a knurled knob at the rear that served as the bolt handle, and the magazine was also the grip. Removing the magazine/grip made the weapon easier to conceal.
The Welrod was provided with sights marked with fluorescent paint for use in low light conditions. Although it had a maximum range of 23 meters, it was intended for use far closer—up to point blank. The muzzle end of the gun was cut away so that it could be fired in direct contact with the target. This would reduce the sound levels even further, and removed the chance of missing.
The ported barrel of the Welrod served two purposes; it released the powder gases gradually into the rear of the suppressor, reducing the sound of firing, and it reduced the velocity of the bullet to subsonic speeds (especially important in the 9mm version since the standard 9mm loading is supersonic). The baffles and wipes that follow the barrel serve to further slow the gases of firing, releasing them over a long period of time and avoiding the sharp explosion that occurs when high pressure powder gases are suddenly released to the atmosphere.
The Welrod used a bolt-action design because it was simple, reliable, and quiet. The bolt-action has only the noise of the firing pin hitting the primer, and the bolt can be cycled quietly.
The Welrod was a "sanitized" weapon, meaning that it had no markings indicating its manufacturer or country of origin; all it was marked with was a serial number and some inscrutable symbols and letters. The Birmingham Small Arms Company confirmed that they manufactured some Welrod pistols, but that they put no markings at all on them, so any markings were likely added by the British military after delivery.
The Welrod was widely used in Denmark during World War II, and is reported to have been used during the Falklands War of 1982.
The name Welrod comes from the custom that all the clandestine equipment devised at Station IX in Welwyn had names starting with Wel, e.g, Welbike, Welman. A document was produced towards the end of World War II to ensure that the right persons were properly credited for their inventions at Station IX. This document reveals that the inventor of the Welrod was Major Hugh Reeves who was also responsible for the Sleevegun and several other important inventions.
http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/9852/welrod1202acd.jpg (http://img249.imageshack.us/i/welrod1202acd.jpg/)
The FP-45 Liberator
The pistol had its origins in the US Army Joint Psychological Committee and was designed for the United States Army in 1942 by the Inland Guide Lamp Manufacturing Division of the General Motors Corporation in Dayton, Ohio.The army designated the weapon the Flare Projector Caliber .45 hence the designation FP-45. This was done to disguise the fact that a pistol was being mass produced. The original engineering drawings label the barrel as "tube", the trigger as "yoke", the firing pin as "control rod", and the trigger guard as "spanner". The Guide Lamp Division plant in Anderson, Indiana assembled a millionof these weapons. The Liberator project took about 6 months from conception to end of production with about 11 weeks of actual manufacturing time, done by 300 workers.
The FP-45 was a crude, single-shot pistol designed to be cheaply and quickly mass produced. The Liberator had just 23 largely stamped and turned steel parts that were cheap and easy to manufacture. It fired a .45 caliber pistol cartridge from an unrifled barrel. Due to the unrifled barrel, maximum effective range was only about 25 feet (less than 8 m). At longer range, the bullet would begin to tumble and stray off course. Because of the low quality, it was nicknamed the "Woolworth gun."
The Liberator was shipped in a cardboard box with 10 rounds of .45 ACP ammunition, a wooden dowel to remove the empty cartridge case, and an instruction sheet in comic strip form showing how to load and fire the weapon. Extra rounds of ammunition could be stored in the pistol grip.
After production, the Army turned the Liberators over to the OSS. A crude and clumsy weapon, the Liberator was never intended for front line service. It was originally intended as an insurgency weapon to be mass dropped behind enemy lines to resistance fighters in occupied territory. A resistance fighter was to recover the weapon, sneak up on an Axis occupier, kill or incapacitate him, and retrieve his weapons.
The weapon was valued as much for its psychological warfare effect as its actual field performance. It was believed that if vast quantities of these weapons could be delivered into Axis occupied territory, it would have a devastating effect on the morale of occupying troops. The plan was to drop the weapon in such great quantities that occupying forces could never capture or recover all the weapons. It was hoped that the thought of thousands of these unrecovered weapons potentially in the hands of the citizens of occupied countries would have a deleterious effect on enemy morale.
In reality, the OSS never saw the practicality in mass dropping the Liberator over occupied Europe, and only a handful were ever distributed. Only the Chinese and resistance forces in the Philippines received the Liberator in any significant quantity. The Liberator was never issued to American or Allied troops and there is no documented instance of the weapon being used for their intended purpose.
The original delivered cost for the FP-45 was $2.40/unit ($26 in 2005). A Liberator in good condition today can fetch approximately $1200, with the original box bringing an additional $500, with an original extremely rare paper instruction sheet the value could exceed $2000 to a collector of rare World War II militaria. Fakes of these sheets exist, but authentic copies have a watermark that can be seen clearly, which is difficult to duplicate.
http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/835/m1942liberator2ab682.jpg (http://img689.imageshack.us/i/m1942liberator2ab682.jpg/)
the Welrod pistol:
It was used primarily by the British SOE but was also used by the American OSS. The Welrod, also known as the "Assassin's Pistol", was extremely quiet for a gun, producing a sound of around 73dB when fired. Examples were made in 9 mm Para and .32 ACP, with magazine of five and six rounds respectively. The Welrod took the form of a 1.25 inch diameter cylinder about 12 inches long. The rear of the cylinder contained the bolt, the middle the ported barrel and expansion chamber of the suppressor, and the front the baffles and wipes of the suppressor. There was a knurled knob at the rear that served as the bolt handle, and the magazine was also the grip. Removing the magazine/grip made the weapon easier to conceal.
The Welrod was provided with sights marked with fluorescent paint for use in low light conditions. Although it had a maximum range of 23 meters, it was intended for use far closer—up to point blank. The muzzle end of the gun was cut away so that it could be fired in direct contact with the target. This would reduce the sound levels even further, and removed the chance of missing.
The ported barrel of the Welrod served two purposes; it released the powder gases gradually into the rear of the suppressor, reducing the sound of firing, and it reduced the velocity of the bullet to subsonic speeds (especially important in the 9mm version since the standard 9mm loading is supersonic). The baffles and wipes that follow the barrel serve to further slow the gases of firing, releasing them over a long period of time and avoiding the sharp explosion that occurs when high pressure powder gases are suddenly released to the atmosphere.
The Welrod used a bolt-action design because it was simple, reliable, and quiet. The bolt-action has only the noise of the firing pin hitting the primer, and the bolt can be cycled quietly.
The Welrod was a "sanitized" weapon, meaning that it had no markings indicating its manufacturer or country of origin; all it was marked with was a serial number and some inscrutable symbols and letters. The Birmingham Small Arms Company confirmed that they manufactured some Welrod pistols, but that they put no markings at all on them, so any markings were likely added by the British military after delivery.
The Welrod was widely used in Denmark during World War II, and is reported to have been used during the Falklands War of 1982.
The name Welrod comes from the custom that all the clandestine equipment devised at Station IX in Welwyn had names starting with Wel, e.g, Welbike, Welman. A document was produced towards the end of World War II to ensure that the right persons were properly credited for their inventions at Station IX. This document reveals that the inventor of the Welrod was Major Hugh Reeves who was also responsible for the Sleevegun and several other important inventions.
http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/9852/welrod1202acd.jpg (http://img249.imageshack.us/i/welrod1202acd.jpg/)
The FP-45 Liberator
The pistol had its origins in the US Army Joint Psychological Committee and was designed for the United States Army in 1942 by the Inland Guide Lamp Manufacturing Division of the General Motors Corporation in Dayton, Ohio.The army designated the weapon the Flare Projector Caliber .45 hence the designation FP-45. This was done to disguise the fact that a pistol was being mass produced. The original engineering drawings label the barrel as "tube", the trigger as "yoke", the firing pin as "control rod", and the trigger guard as "spanner". The Guide Lamp Division plant in Anderson, Indiana assembled a millionof these weapons. The Liberator project took about 6 months from conception to end of production with about 11 weeks of actual manufacturing time, done by 300 workers.
The FP-45 was a crude, single-shot pistol designed to be cheaply and quickly mass produced. The Liberator had just 23 largely stamped and turned steel parts that were cheap and easy to manufacture. It fired a .45 caliber pistol cartridge from an unrifled barrel. Due to the unrifled barrel, maximum effective range was only about 25 feet (less than 8 m). At longer range, the bullet would begin to tumble and stray off course. Because of the low quality, it was nicknamed the "Woolworth gun."
The Liberator was shipped in a cardboard box with 10 rounds of .45 ACP ammunition, a wooden dowel to remove the empty cartridge case, and an instruction sheet in comic strip form showing how to load and fire the weapon. Extra rounds of ammunition could be stored in the pistol grip.
After production, the Army turned the Liberators over to the OSS. A crude and clumsy weapon, the Liberator was never intended for front line service. It was originally intended as an insurgency weapon to be mass dropped behind enemy lines to resistance fighters in occupied territory. A resistance fighter was to recover the weapon, sneak up on an Axis occupier, kill or incapacitate him, and retrieve his weapons.
The weapon was valued as much for its psychological warfare effect as its actual field performance. It was believed that if vast quantities of these weapons could be delivered into Axis occupied territory, it would have a devastating effect on the morale of occupying troops. The plan was to drop the weapon in such great quantities that occupying forces could never capture or recover all the weapons. It was hoped that the thought of thousands of these unrecovered weapons potentially in the hands of the citizens of occupied countries would have a deleterious effect on enemy morale.
In reality, the OSS never saw the practicality in mass dropping the Liberator over occupied Europe, and only a handful were ever distributed. Only the Chinese and resistance forces in the Philippines received the Liberator in any significant quantity. The Liberator was never issued to American or Allied troops and there is no documented instance of the weapon being used for their intended purpose.
The original delivered cost for the FP-45 was $2.40/unit ($26 in 2005). A Liberator in good condition today can fetch approximately $1200, with the original box bringing an additional $500, with an original extremely rare paper instruction sheet the value could exceed $2000 to a collector of rare World War II militaria. Fakes of these sheets exist, but authentic copies have a watermark that can be seen clearly, which is difficult to duplicate.
http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/835/m1942liberator2ab682.jpg (http://img689.imageshack.us/i/m1942liberator2ab682.jpg/)