World War Two brought about some amazing advancements in military
technology. But for every effective new weapon, there were bound to be a
few duds. Here are six of the weirdest and WORST weapons of World War Two.
The Americans were known for their naval might with their reliance on
massive aircraft carriers, powerful battleships, and speedy cruisers.
One naval weapon that was anything but mighty, however, was the Mark 14 Torpedo.
The Mark 14 was developed in the 1930s to replace the World War One-era Mark 10 torpedo.
At a cost of nearly $10,000 a piece,
the Mark 14 was never live-fired tested, as the Navy couldn’t afford to do so.
And it cost them dearly.
The Mark 14 was overcome with issues the moment it hit the water.
First, a lack of depth control meant that Mark 14s routinely ran about three
meters deeper than intended, often missing their targets completely.
Additionally, Mark 14s were equipped with magnetic influence exploders to detect their target,
but the inaccuracy of these devices caused an estimated 10% to detonate
prematurely. And many torpedoes that did make contact with their targets never exploded at
all because of fragile firing pins, which often bend due to the speed of the torpedo.
The Mark 14's worst issue, though, was its tendency to circle back due to problems with
its gyro angle. This meant American submarines sometimes had to dodge their own torpedoes.
While it has never been confirmed,
the Mark 14 was likely what sank both the USS Gurion and USS Tullibee.
It was only after these incidents that the Navy finally re-evaluated and fixed the Mark 14,
which went on to be a much more reliable weapon after the war.
Before the Allied landings at Normandy, the British were searching for ways to
get through the Atlantic Wall – the coastal defenses and barriers erected by the Axis.
The Admiralty’s Directorate of Miscellaneous Weapon Development was tasked with developing a
weapon that could be launched from Allied landing crafts and would easily penetrate the wall.
Their solution: the Great Panjandrum
Resembling a large spool, the Great Panjandrum was a steel drum filled with explosives,
suspended between two wooden wheels. Cordite rockets attached to each wheel would propel
the device forward, allowing it to reach speeds of around 100 kilometers per hour,
and creating enough momentum to blow a hole in the wall.
While the design may have sounded good in theory,
the testing of the weapon proved disastrous at every turn.
The first iteration veered off course after several rockets failed. Testing the second
iteration, many of the rockets detached, sending spectators flying for cover.
The third iteration employed cables as a steering mechanism,
but the cables quickly snapped, causing an additional hazard.
Despite these issues, the researchers persevered.
At the final demonstration, however, the Panjandrum swerved wildly off course – straight
toward a line of high-ranking generals watching from a distance. After it almost plowed through
the generals, the project was scrapped and the Great Panjandrum never saw battle.
Germany was infamous for producing strange and experimental weapons during the war. None
exemplified this more than the Krummlauf. German for “curved barrel,” this aptly named barrel
attachment was designed to guide bullets around corners with the aid of a periscope. Development
began in 1943, and four varieties were ultimately made – a 30-degree version for infantry,
and a 90-degree one for tank mounted use – though only the 30-degree version was ever mass produced.
Krummlauf barrel attachments were designed
to fit the Sturmgewehr rifle – an otherwise standard assault rifle.
Unfortunately, the attachment made the rifles too impractical for the battlefield.
A neat idea in theory, but physics ensured the life of this barrel was short. Because of the
pressure applied to the curved barrel each time a round was fired through it,
the barrels could only endure 160 to 300 rounds.
Additionally, the curve would cause bullets to shatter inside the barrel,
spitting the fragments out like shotgun pellets. The designers tried to fix this
by adding venting holes to the barrel, with little success. This meant that,
as a rifle, it proved very ineffective, as it couldn't be fired from any meaningful distance.
Even so, the idea of a curved barrel fascinated other military powers,
and both the Soviets and the Americans tried to replicate it, with similar results.
Another brainchild of German engineers was the V-2 rocket – the world’s first ballistic
missile. Otherwise known as the Vengeance Weapon Two, it was designed by a team led
by Werhner Von Braun, a German scientist who would go on to be a rocket pioneer at NASA.
The V-2 was incredible in all technical aspects.
Fourteen meters long, and weighing between 12,700 and 13,200 kilograms, the V-2 became
the first rocket to reach space in June 1944, when it rose to an altitude of 175 kilometers.
Traveling at supersonic speed, without an audible warning, these rockets seemed promising to the
Germans, who were increasingly desperate for a wonder weapon as the war dragged on. In September
1944, over 3,000 V-2s were launched against Allied troops in Britain, Belgium, and France.
Overall, the attacks killed around 9,000 civilians and military personnel,
at an average of less than three deaths per rocket launched. This was by no means effective, as the
cost to create a V-2 rocket was astronomical, especially for an already-struggling economy.
Though the exact cost is unknown, some sources claim it was around 500 million US dollars
in 1940. As historian Steven Zaloga notes, “The entire seven month V-2 missile campaign
delivered less high explosive on all the targeted cities than a single large RAF raid on Germany.”
While the V-2 was an impressive technological feat that would
go on to revolutionize rocketry and space travel,
pouring the time and money into building it proved a bad military decision for the Germans.
While the Germans were developing ballistic missiles,
the Japanese were toying around with another long range weapon – .
The Fu-Go was conceived in the 1930s but not introduced
until 1942 as a retaliatory measure after the American raid on Tokyo.
The Fu-Go was a low tech solution to long range weaponry. After months of design,
the Imperial Japanese Army’s Number Nine Research Laboratory prototyped a balloon
six meters in length that could fly at 7,600 meters for about 30 hours.
Constructed with five layers of washi paper glued together with potato paste,
these balloons were strapped with five kilogram timed incendiary devices that
would detonate at the end of their flight. The balloons were specially
designed to be launched from Japan and reach the continental US using the jet stream currents.
Over the course of several months, the Japanese launched 9,300 Fu-Go Balloons toward the US,
with only 300 reaching land. However, issues with the detonators meant that
many of these never exploded, and those that did caused no real damage or loss of life.
The only exception was on the 5th of May 1945, when one balloon killed six civilians – a woman
and five children – after they found it in a national forest and disturbed it, causing it
to detonate. These were the only fatalities in the continental US during the entire war.
In 1945, the Japanese abandoned the project, accepting it as a massive failure.
Perhaps the most controversial of all the worst weapons were the Soviet’s anti-tank
dogs. The program began in the 1930s, with the Red Army devising ways for canines to deliver
live explosives to enemy tanks. But when the dogs failed to leave the bombs correctly, the Soviets
conceived a simpler, crueler tactic – strap bombs to the dogs to detonate on impact with the tanks.
The Soviets trained German Shepherds by placing food under tanks. The dogs were
strapped with 10 to 12 kilograms of explosives that would detonate
as they crawled under the tanks. In training, they were remarkably accurate,
and toward the end of 1941, the first group of dogs was deployed to the front.
Once on the battlefield, several issues emerged. First,
while the dogs were trained using Soviet diesel tanks; Germans used gasoline tanks,
and the difference in scent confused the dogs. Additionally, the stressful
atmosphere of the battlefield caused many dogs to run away, or run back toward their handlers.
Of the first 30 dogs, only four managed to detonate near tanks.
Six turned back and exploded near their handlers, killing and injuring them.
Others ran away or were shot before they could reach their targets. Plus the Germans quickly
realized the Soviet's plan and were instructed to shoot any dog on the battlefield as a precaution.
Overall, the anti-tank dogs had some success on the battlefield,
though the exact number of tanks they destroyed is unclear. The Soviets often claim upwards of 300,
but many believe this number to be propaganda.
After 1942, the program declined as dogs were deployed elsewhere for mine-sniffing tasks,
but the Soviets didn’t fully abandon the program until 1996.
The Japanese and the US also experimented with anti-tank dogs, though both without much luck.
While some of the weapons we discussed in this video eventually went on to be successful or
lead to revolutionary technology, during the war they were costly,
ineffective, and crude. But what do you think? Which one of these
weapons was the absolute worst? Did we miss any? Let us know in the comments.