30 Weird Weapons from History

‘An aircraft carrier made from ice in WWII’
30 Weird Weapons from History
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There’s a near-koan in the world of engineering, both amateur and professional: “It’s not stupid if it works.” Apply this to a field like warfare where success is genuinely a life-or-death situation, and it rings even more true. Which explains why, in search of weaponry, some wildly strange armaments have been cooked up.

This collection of replies from an AskReddit thread features some of history’s weirdest weapons. From the unwieldy to the downright magical, these might not have made it to the battlefield, but they claimed territory in trivia repositories forever. After all, who knows? Maybe exploding bats would have won World War II, if given the chance.

TrumanB-12 . 10y ago The German ww2 Kugelpanzer To this day no one fully knows why it exists.
TheFleetmaster . 10y ago the .45 liberator pistol! I believe that they were one time use and made for the resistance effort in WWII Europe .
MattsWorldoWonders . 10y ago The Davy Crocket nuclear recoilless rifle. It couldn't shoot far enough to keep from harming its own crew.
BigD1970 . 10y ago I have another one. The (http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/seryj221221/3800 9428/706224/706224 900.jpg) a two man light tank designed to peer over walls and hedges.
Scrappy_Larue . 10y ago The scorpion pot. A clay pot filled with scorpions thrown into the enemy's cave. Technically the first WMD.
lammyselfnow . 10y ago The U.S. government attempted to make a gay bomb. So there's that.
the_alabaster_llama . 10y ago This was a weapon designed near the end of WWII that consisted of a bomb casing filled with bats that each had a bomb strapped to them. It would be dropped over a city and when the casing opened, the bats would fly out and seek shelter in attics or other places, and the bombs would explode. However, the atom bomb was invented just after it, so it was rendered useless.
Pdino 10y ago I remember hearing about this in my audio class. There was a weapon that I'm pretty sure the Soviets tried to make that used low frequency sound waves to literally kill people from the inside out. Like the sound waves would cause a ton of internal bleeding and just tear up their insides. It ended up not working out because sound doesn't travel like a bullet, and the soldiers operating it would end up dying as well. It would just be impractical, really.
DanTheTerrible 10y ago The British made an anti-tank weapon called the sticky bomb. This was basically a bottle of nitroglycerin coated with a thick sticky glue. The idea was a soldier would get close to an enemy tank and slap the bomb against it, then run like hell trying to get out of the blast radius. Testing showed the glue stuck much better to a soldier's uniform than a tank, particularly if the tank was coated with mud or dust which was frequently the case in the field. The thing was pretty clearly more dangerous to the user than the
Halafax . 10y ago . Edited 10y ago my tank is fight had a lot of weird ww2 weapons projects that didn't quite get off the ground. While not a weapon, my favorite was the German helicopter backpack for assault troops. Nothing like strapping a spinning blade and heavy engine to the back of a guy on rough terrain with a gun in his hands.
SteakAndNihilism 10y ago The Wasp Knife is pretty much exactly as cool and deadly as it is utterly impractical. It's a knife with a compressed gas canister in the handle and a small hole in the tip of the blade that shoots out the gas. So you stab something and then push a button so the stabbed subject explodes. This is one of those things that seems like it would only be a good idea in a video game where you need to do lots more health damage. But here's the actual train of thought that led to its invention:
TANK GoredonTheDestroyer . 10y ago CATAPULT The German Bachem Ba 349 Natter rocket- powered interceptor, a VTOL (Vertical-takeoff and landing) aircraft equipped with a fuckton of rockets in it's nose that was designed to murder the fuck outta B-17s and B-24s. It only flew powered once, and the pilot died.
zahrul3 . 10y ago Russia tried to use dogs to blow up tanks. Unfortunately the dogs couldn't tell which tank was Russian or not, resulting in many friendly fire deaths
let_them_burn 10y ago Edited 10y ago During WWII, Japan attacked the United States with balloon. Bombs were attached to large balloons and set loose from Japan, with the hope that the air currents would carry them to the continental US. Of all the balloons released (it was a large number), only a handful made it. Some were discovered, unexploded, in the Pacific Northwest. One did go off, and If I remember correctly, it killed a man who was out in the countryside having a picnic with his family.
CitizenTed O 10y ago The Northrop YB-49 Flying_ g Wing. To our modern eyes, with the B-2 Stealth bomber almost commonplace, it may not seem too weird. But in 1948, this thing was ultra- weird.
Tsquare43 . 10y ago An Aircraft Carrier made from ice in WWII https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project Habakkuk
Soupismoney . 10y ago During WWII, the US developed a pigeon- guided bomb. This was before GPS was a thing.
10y ago There's a type of Indian Tulwar (a type of sword) called the Tears of the Wounded (or sometimes Tears of Allah). Example_photo It comes in various forms, but it basically has a channel along the blade, inside which sit small steel ball bearings. As far as I know, the purpose of the balls is debated. Some say it's just decorative. Others say it's meant to add weight to the cut (the bearings will slide towards the end of the blade as you swing).
Spear99 10y ago AIR-2 Genie. An unguided air to air nuclear missile designed to stop Russian nuclear bombers from flying over the North Pole and nuking the United States during the Cold War. The idea was simple. A jet would fly out directly towards the incoming bombers. Fire the missile in the general direction of the bombers once he was 6 miles out then do an abrupt about face and fly home as fast as possible. The missile would detonate once it reached 6 miles, eradicating the incoming bombers. Never used though.
RangerSequoia1 . 10y ago Back in the middle ages chicken feathers would be put in a container covered in holes and burning coals would be put in with the feathers. These would be thrown over walls and would irritate the eyes and respiratory system. Basically an early tear gas.
TheGatesofLogic 10y ago . Edited 10y ago (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davy_Crockett _(nuclear device). Ever wanted a Fallout style Fat Man launcher? The US army designed built and deployed exactly the weapon you're looking for, a nuclear RPG launcher!
AnAngryBadgr . 10y ago The Chakram. Very strange weapon. Hard to use and the risk of self injury is pretty big.
apleima2 10y ago In the civil war the south experimented with double barrel cannons. The idea was to weld a heavy chain to 2 cannon balls, load one in each gun, and fire away. In theory the cannons would cause the chain to pull tight between the cannon balls and mow down entire rows of enemy troops. In practice the cannons never fired simultaneously, causing one ball to shoot out, whip around, and take out the crew firing the weapon
mattreyu . 10y ago A Hwacha, developed in Korea. It could shoot 200 arrows at a time that were loaded with gunpowder
EnteringSectorReddit . 10y ago Tsar Tank. Have no idea how they even think of this ridiculous design. Big ass wheels, two engines from German zeppelin and complete failure in tests.
Remount_Kings_Troop_ 10y ago Vespa 150 TAP - AKA Bazooka Vespa - A Vespa that carries a 75mm anti-armor cannon. Ideal for traffic jams and rude drivers.
dastard82 . 10y ago The Puckle Gun, it fired two types of ammo. The round bullets were for Christian enemies, while the second bullet was a square shaped one meant for non-Christian enemies.
. 10y ago A ballistic knife. It's like someone couldn't decide if they preferred stabbing people or shooting people, so they just decided to shoot a knife at them.
frachris87 10y ago War Pigs - pigs covered in pitch, tar, or oil, then set ablaze and sent in the direction of the enemy. They made an excellent countermeasure against War Elephants, as the sight and sound of screaming, burning pigs caused Dumbo and Friends to panic, break ranks, and scatter.
thehonestyfish . 10y ago The Panjandrum. It never quite worked properly, but it was a spinning drum covered in rockets that was meant to skip across the water and up the beach on D-Day, leading the charge ahead of the landing troops.

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