The Incredible Worst Gun of WWII

The BrainFood Show

Cloud10

Education, History

4.9 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 13 May 2026

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

There are countless bizarre guns that have been created since humans began gunning, but few are as bad, or as famous and widely produced, as one in WWII produced with the hope of equipping insurgents against their German overlords. This is the story of the worst gun of WWII The Second World War was by far the deadliest and most destructive conflict in modern history in part as it saw the combat debut of dozens of legendary weapons, from the American M1 Garand (or Gare-und if you want to pronounce it like the original designer pronounced his name instead of how most say it today) - the first self-loading combat rifle to be issued as standard in any Army; to the Soviet PPSh-41 and PPS-43 - simple but reliable submachine guns greatly prized and feared for their blistering rate of fire; then there was the German Stg-44 Sturmgewehr, the ancestor of the modern assault rifle. But not all weapons developed during the conflict were so iconic or effective. Some were downright questionable, and none more so than the American FP-45 Liberator, an alarmingly crude single-shot, smoothbore pistol made entirely of cheap metal stampings. Yet despite looking like a cross between a children’s toy and a petty criminal’s homemade zip gun, a whopping one million Liberators were manufactured in only eleven weeks - a herculean feat of wartime production. Here now is the fascinating story of the Liberator, WWII’s strangest gun. Author: Gilles Messier Editor/Host: Daven Hiskey Producer: Samuel Avila Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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