WWW - Weird War Weapons

[Parthy]

In war, innovation can mean the difference between a glorious victory and a world shattering defeat. When research and development departments have the funding of a desperate nation behind them, and are faced with a long and brutal campaign, the ideas that are spawned can turn the tide of battle. It's inevitable that some of the wilder ideas would later seem ridiculous. Here are 10 of the most extreme, and odd, military weapons created in the 20th century:

War Dogs - Tank Busters​

The brutality of war can be reflected by the means with which it's fought. Anti tank dogs were a soviet creation, and said to have taken down over 300 German tanks during World War II. Dogs were taught to find food under tanks, and then starved before a battle. They would have bombs strapped to their backs, with levers that would trigger as soon as it hit the underside of a tank. When the lever snapped back, the dogs would explode, destroying the tank. The Germans eventually fought this tactic with flamethrowers, and a couple cases of dogs running amok away from battlefields was enough to cut back the program.

CorkScrew Tanks​

Corkscrew tanks didn't run on the typical caterpillar type treads, instead propelled by giant corkscrews. Just like an electric screwdriver pulls into a piece of wood, so these treads would cruise along the ground, regardless of terrain. Their travel was a bit erratic, and the tanks had to be too lightweight to be useful in combat.

Corner Kicking Guns​

When it comes to urban fighting, every corner can hide a group of enemy soldiers. Even the slightest advantage can win battles, so various weapons were designed to allow soldiers to see around corners, and fire around them behind the protection of a concrete wall.

 

[Parthy]

The Tsar tank was Russian built with two wheels 27 feet in diameter that pulled a much smaller set of wheels behind. Mounted with large and heavy guns, it was one of the few tanks that didn't have treads, and was designed to overrun any obstacle. The design was bulky and ill conceived for the reality of battle, and was quickly dropped.

Barrage balloons were strung up by the hundreds over cities during World War II. Like floating mines, they would make it difficult for low flying enemy aircraft to make devastating bombing runs by threatening to bring them down with their taut wires and incendiary devices.

With the scarcity of metal toward the end of World War II, Project Habbakuk was an attempt to create aircraft carriers out of pykrete, a mixture of ice and wood pulp. Thick enough to withstand enemy fire, and easily repaired, pykrete would enable the construction of large ships with the uses of minimal resources. The war was completed before any of these ships became a reality.

It's surprising a prototype of a bat bomb was ever even made, but it was. The idea was simple: place incendiary explosive devices on Mexican Free-Tailed Bats, lower their temperature inside a bomb so they hibernate in transit, and then release them over an enemy city to roost in the infrastructure below. At a specific time, all the bats would explode in a thousand fiery blazes, igniting fires across the city.

The Goliath tracked mine was a remote controlled anti tank mine that carried nearly 200 pounds of explosives and would be steered toward enemy troop or tank formations and detonated. These mines were created by the Germans and used throughout World War II, on all fronts, and were known as beetle tanks by Allied forces.

The flying jeep was created to fulfill a contract to create a lightweight helicopter that could be landed in any terrain. Several prototypes were created but they never went into full production. No matter how good it looked on paper, the flying jeep's goofy appearance gives a good indication of why such a flimsy hybrid would not do well in the heat of battle.

Flying aircraft carriers had a brief stint in the collective imagination of a wartime populace. Much like hoverpacks and flying cars, the idea never came to fruition, only to live on in steampunk style novels and shows. They would be easy to shoot down, consume inordinate amounts of fuel, and had few advantages to counter an extended list of cons.

 

[Parthy]

Incendiary hydrogen balloons

Fire balloons or balloon bombs where hydrogen balloons with a load varying from a 12 kg (26 lb) incendiary to one 15 kg (33 lb) antipersonnel bomb and four 5 kg (11 lb) incendiaries attached. They were launched by Japan during World War II, designed to wreak havoc on Canadian and American cities, forests, and farmlands. Launch sites were located on the east coast of the main Japanese island of Honshu.

Rat carcasses filled with plastic explosives

Exploding rats were a weapon developed by the British army in World War II for use against Germany. Rat carcasses were filled with plastic explosives, with the idea that when the rats were shovelled along with coal into boilers, they would explode, causing significant damage. However, the first shipment of carcasses was intercepted by the Germans, and the plan was dropped. The Germans exhibited the rats at top military schools, and conducted searches for further exploding rats.

pigeon-guided missile

During World War II, Project Pigeon (or Project Orcon, for "organic control") was American behaviorist B. F. Skinner's attempt to develop a pigeon-guided missile.

The control system involved a lens at the front of the missile projecting an image of the target to a screen inside, while a pigeon trained (by operant conditioning) to recognize the target pecked at it. As long as the pecks remained in the center of the screen, the missile would fly straight, but pecks off-center would cause the screen to tilt, which would then, via a connection to the missile's flight controls, cause the missile to change course. Three pigeons were to control the bomb's direction by majority rule.

Although skeptical of the idea, the National Defense Research Committee nevertheless contributed $25,000 to the research. However, Skinner's plans to use pigeons in Pelican missiles was apparently too radical for the military establishment; although he had some success with the training, he could not get his idea taken seriously. The program was cancelled on October 8, 1944, because the military believed that "further prosecution of this project would seriously delay others which in the minds of the Division have more immediate promise of combat application."

Project Orcon was revived in 1948 by the Navy and was finally canceled in 1953.

 

[Parthy]

Cat Bombs:
To sink German ships

One of the CIA's most bizarre Cold War efforts was Operation Acoustic Kitty. In declassified documents from the CIA's super-secret Science and Technology Directorate, it was revealed that some Cold-War-era cats were surgically altered to become sophisticated bugging devices. The idea was that the cats would eavesdrop on Soviet conversations from park benches, windowsills and garbage containers. The cat was meant to just stroll up to the sensitive conversations, completely unnoticed. The clandestine cat's electrical internals would then capture and relay the audio to awaiting agents.

The Poisoned Dart Bomb

Between 1941 and 1944, British scientists were working on a top secret project to developed a projectile bomb that released darts tipped with poison. A recently de-classified document entitled 'Research Into Use of Anthrax and Other Poisons for Biological Warfare' revealed that sewing machine needles would be used in the weapon and tipped with a lethal poison, which would probably be either anthrax or ricin.

According to a 1945 memo about the project, light darts could be used as the poison ensured slight penetration would be lethal and there was no need to hit vital organs. It also had the added advantage, according to the memo, of making it so that medical treatment would be unlikely to prevent the victim's death.

The bombs could carry 30,600 needles and if they hit, you were likely to be dead within half an hour. However the chances of hitting someone varied and while they would have had great effect against troops out in the open, they were virtually useless when there was any type of cover. This made them unlikely to cause mass damage frequently and therefore uneconomical and as a result, they never made it passed the planning stage.

 

[Parthy]

Nazi Belt Buckle Gun

 

[Parthy]

MACHINE GUN BACON

Really nice thinking...

 

[Parthy]

Six shot gun..

 

[Parthy]

How he lifts that?? :confused

 

[Parthy]

Helmet mounted display - F35

 

[Parthy]

GunKnife?? - KnifeGun??

 

[Parthy]

Old age Gun Battery..

 

[Parthy]

 

[Kunal Biswas]

Thats a 3 barrel mini-gun..

Nice thread..

 

[Parthy]

Xray - automatic

 

[Parthy]

 

[Parthy]

 

[Parthy]

 

[Parthy]

Really WEIRD!!!!

 

[Parthy]

All In One!!! Does this miss something???

 

[maomao]

Really WEIRD!!!!

I am ready to employ her as my bodyguard.