Explosive poop bombs? Homemade flamethrowers? World War II weapons straight from Fallout 4?
These are the ten most badass and surprising improvised weapons ever used in combat.
Our first weapon was created due to a combination of necessity and ingenuity. It was the middle of
World War 2, and Hitler was finding he had made a critical mistake. The Nazi leader had invaded
Russia, and the frozen climate was proving his undoing. Adding to his woes? The incredibly
skilled Russian snipers, who seemed to be picking off his men left and right. But one man, Vasily
Zaytsev, was a one-man killing machine. He killed over four hundred German soldiers during the war,
and he seemed to have a uniquely deadly gun - even taking out German tanks with frightening accuracy.
What was his secret?
Zaytsev’s gun wasn’t a standard sniper rifle, which couldn’t pierce tank armor. And it wasn’t
a standard anti-tank weapon, which would have been impossible to carry as a sniper. He had
created his own, even deadlier weapon. He took the scope off a sniper rifle and
attached it to a PTRS-41 anti-material rifle, thus combining the power of the latter with
the accuracy of the former. A simple fix, but one that changed the face of combat in the war.
It was one of the many feats that earned him the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
But not all improvised weapons of war are
so precise. Sometimes you just need an earth-shattering kaboom.
It was 1948, and the new state of Israel was fighting a war on multiple fronts. They needed
firepower, but with most of the world staying out of the fray, they didn’t have anyone who could
supply them with weapons. So they made their own - out of humble oil barrels, filled with explosive
payloads like fertilizer and diesel. They’re simply loaded onto airplanes and pushed out,
delivering a massive explosion when they hit the ground. But they have to be timed carefully -
these low-tech bombs need to have their fuse lit at the right moment so they don’t explode early.
They’re powerful, brutal - and controversial.
While the explosion is usually a powerful one, they can be enhanced using shrapnel or chemicals
designed to wreak more havoc on the ground. Wartime regulations have since changed to regulate
these weapons, but that hasn’t stopped them from being used. In fact, they’re currently a weapon of
choice in the brutal Syrian civil war, where the regime of Bashar Al-Assad has faced international
condemnation for using massive barrel bombs - often two in the same location - to devastate
rebel sites and often kill the people who come to tend to the wounded from the first bomb.
Although dispensing justice from the air is always safer. Sometimes,
you need to get up-close and personal.
The First World War was brutal. Soldiers often found themselves battling for their lives in
dirty, gas-filled trenches where there was bad visibility and they only had seconds to
defend themselves if they were set upon by enemy soldiers. Guns were useless in this situation,
as you’d have just as much chance of hitting one of your fellow soldiers in the crossfire.
Supplies were also low - so some French soldiers took to fashioning themselves small,
portable stabbing weapons out of converted knives and other tools.
And all it took was two simple items.
First, you took a steel stake. Then, you attached a sharp point to it from another weapon,
using an open flame to heat the stake until it was able to be bent. Carefully,
twist the stake until it becomes a makeshift handle that serves as both a weapon and a
steel knuckle-guard. The weapon was later evolved into more complicated
ones that could be easily hidden in a soldier’s clothes and pulled out at a
second’s notice to stab the enemy in the neck. Sometimes, a low-tech solution is the best one.
This next weapon is a bit less personal but gives new meaning to the term “Fire in the hole!”.
Need to deliver an explosive payload but don’t have the technology for a rocket launcher?
Soldiers have been making improvised mortars since the sixteenth century, and all it takes
is a hole in the ground and some explosive material. You dig a simple pit in the ground,
fill it with explosives - originally the simple black powder that was used
to load cannons - and whatever payload you want to have sent at the enemy. You
then create a fuse or trigger that can be set off from afar, and thar she blows!
It’s one of the more complicated weapons on this list - but it delivers.
Originally it was lit only with a “Sausage” of cloth covered with pitch and filled with black
powder, but that was unreliable and could go off too early. Soldier Samuel Zimmerman developed
the first “prototype” of this makeshift weapon in 1573, this version made it easier to detonate the
explosives packed at the bottom of the hole. The Fougasse has been used by many desperate soldiers
ever since. The ammo was initially rocks, designed to serve as a mass catapult, but since then it’s
been advanced to fire shells and flammable liquid that can deliver a deadlier payload to
the enemy. It remains a popular choice because hey - all you need to get started is a shovel.
Improvised weapons are nothing new - but they’ve become more inventive.
War is hell, something highlighted by the brutality of the Syrian Civil War. The
conflict between Bashar Al-Assad’s regime and the collection of rebel forces has been asymmetrical,
with the rebels often having to resort to fighting with whatever they can find - or make.
Desperation breeds ingenuity but no one would predict that this would manifest
itself in the form of a cannon. The Jahannam, or Hell Cannon, was first sighted in 2012 and
was made by the Free Syrian Army from local manufacturing plants. They didn’t look like
much at first sight - but they packed an explosive payload.
And they’ve only been getting better since.
The first Hell Cannon was composed of a cannon barrel of around three feet,
mounted on wheels, and loaded with a muzzle. But this is a low-tech device - not only does
the cannon have to be loaded with explosive powder like cannons from centuries past,
but it has to be towed around like a kid’s rocking horse. The projectile is just as
low-tech - a gas cylinder loaded with explosives and shrapnel and attached to a metal tube.
While it’s a simple device made from scrap, it works well enough for several
variants to be made - including one that fires four projectiles at the same time!
Now let’s turn the clock back to World War II,
when an outgunned army found a similarly low tech and fiery solution.
The Nazis had occupied Poland, but the Polish resistance wasn’t giving up. In 1944,
the Warsaw Uprising saw the Polish Home Army rise up to oppose the Nazi occupation - and
they were packing flamethrowers! The K-Pattern Flamethrower was a homemade device that required
soldiers to get up close and personal to deliver some fiery death - with the risk
of wearing the explosive device on their backs. It consisted of two connected steel
fuel tanks and a compressed air bottle, holding a mix of diesel fuel and gasoline.
And it was attached to a powerful delivery system - even if it didn’t look like it.
The rubber fuel hose attached to the tank led to a fuel gun, which would be connected to a
mesh basket wrapped by a flaming rope. When when the fuel touched the flame,
a powerful blaze would emerge from the gun, and it was hot and strong enough to be useful against
armored Nazi vehicles. It was one of the most effective do-it-yourself weapons ever used in war,
but it had its weak points. The range got shorter as more bursts were released,
and it was decidedly low-tech - when people were done with the weapon,
they had to extinguish it manually by pressing a tin can onto the rope.
And it wasn’t the only time the Polish resistance delivered with limited resources.
One of the biggest challenges of the Polish resistance was that years of Nazi occupation
had stripped them of many of their resources - and that left them with
few weapons that could keep up with Nazi firepower. This was probably by design,
but it didn’t stop them from thinking outside the box. In 1942, an engineer named Waclaw Zawrotny
came up with a design for a low-cost machine gun that would allow them to compete with the larger
army - one that could be made for cheap in small workshops, staying under the radar of the Nazis.
It was successful - more than anyone expected.
The design was based on existing submachine guns,
but it was put together in some unconventional ways. Instead of being bolted and welded together,
it was put together with screws and thread. Despite these flaws,
it was reliable and surprisingly hardy, and was designed to use the same bullets
as the German MP40 - so they could reload by picking up any stray ammunition they found.
Suddenly the Germans were facing guns with the same firepower of their own. The Polish army was
so pleased with the design that it became the only home built weapon to be put into mass production.
Now let’s turn back the clock to a time when even bolted
together sub-machine guns were too advanced.
During the Samurai era of Japan, being a warrior came with many privileges. To differentiate the
general populace from the warriors, rules were put in place to limit civilian possession of
weapons. The traditional weapons of the Samurai were illegal for commoners, but that didn’t stop
them from fighting back. The farmers of Okinawa took the scythes they used to clear their crops
and turned them on the oppressive Samurai - creating a whole martial arts style based
around the use of simple weapons like the scythe, or Kama. Many Samurai didn’t know what hit them.
It would become a common, low-cost weapon - one that stood the test of time.
The war scythe would show up again through history as an easy way for people to fight
back - or take the war to the upper classes. It became commonly known as a peasant weapon,
one that became a symbol of the Russian revolution. But its biggest display of its
power was in the Polish January 1863 uprising, when a large group of soldiers named “Scythemen”
took to the battlefield armed with sharp reaping blades on poles. These longer-range weapons
took their enemies by surprise, although the heavy weapons were slow and exhausting to use.
On the opposite end of the spectrum,
when war gets too advanced, what do you do if you lack military hardware? You make it.
Tanks are the ultimate weapon of modern warfare, letting armies deliver mighty payloads and a
steady stream of gunfire from behind a powerful, armored vehicle that can run right over enemy
barricades. But what about when you’re the underdog and you don’t have military hardware?
That was the case for the rebels in the Syrian civil war - which made it all the
more surprising when they showed up with a tank of their own. The Sham II cut an imposing figure,
and its turret-mounted machine gun delivered some heavy fire.
But behind this tank was a surprising secret.
Where did the rebels get a tank? They didn’t - they made it by putting the armor plating on top
of the chassis of a standard automobile. The machine gun was powerful and controlled from
within - but it was hooked up to an unconventional control device, a video game controller. Maybe
it’s the rebel leader’s gamer nephew’s chance to shine. While the Sham II doesn’t have the
same power or endurance as a standard tank, it’s certainly easier to put together on short notice.
But sometimes, all it takes for a quantum leap in weapons
technology is a little ingenuity - and a tin can.
It was World War I, and Australian William Charles Scurry was a humble private in the
Gallipoli campaign. Things weren’t going well, and the decision was made to evacuate the peninsula.
The troops had to get out of there safely - but this would make them sitting ducks as soon as
the enemy knew they were no longer firing. Scurry and his friend “Bunty” Lawrence had
an idea - a gun that fired itself. But how to make a non-automatic rifle act like one?
It was a low-tech solution to a high-tech problem.
They took a rifle and attached it to a device made of two corned beef tins. Water would drip
from the top tin to the bottom tin, which was attached to the trigger of the rifle.
When the tin reached a certain weight, it would pull the trigger and fire a shot. It wasn’t an
accurate weapon and never hit a target, but what it did do was make the Turkish soldiers think that
the area was still defended. Scurry received the Distinguished Conduct Medal for his device and
went on to a long career in the military, but he would always be remembered for his tin-can gun.
Want to know about some other weapons of war that didn’t work out so well?
Check out “Weirdest World War 2 Weapons You Never Heard Of” or watch this video instead!