Oh God why did you invent that?!

magick

Looking at world war 2, well any war, what in your personal opinion, was the worst weapon, or dangerous weapon to operate, or something just pain crazy you have to ask what the designer was smoking when they invented it?!

For me it would be 1 the German Natter, a bit mad, wooden rocket powered death glider.

The "Baka" (single seat suicide aircraft) from Japan

the American Helldiver, worst dive bomber ever.

the Russian T-35, Super Heavy scrap tank, 11 crew, poor design,and worse preformance

Mark

As a direct answer to the title: Velcro. Yes I know it's useful and probaly revolutionary in some way I'm too low-brow to get but I just ....can't.....stand...it. *shudder*

Now this bad baby gets my vote as it scares the hot cock out of me.

The 80-cm K (E), for all its size and weight, to say nothing of its 'overkill' firepower, went into action on only one occasion. It was originally intended to smash through the extensive Maginot Line forts but when the campaign in the West took place in 1940 the 80-cm K (E) was still in the Krupp workshops at Essen and, in any event, the German army bypassed the Maginot Line altogether. Thus when the 80-cm equipment had completed its gun proofing trials at Hillersleben and its service acceptance trials at Rugenwalde there was nothing for the gun and its crew to do. To justify the labour and effort of getting the huge gun and its entourage into action, the potential target had to justify all the bother involved, and there were no really large fortification lines left in Europe for the gun to tackle. The two major fortification systems, the Sudetenland defences and the Maginot Line, were both in German hands and it seemed that the 80-cm K (E), or 'schwere Gustav' (heavy Gustav) as it became known, was redundant even before it had fired an aggressive shot.

Cue the Germans looking all over the gaff for a target in order for propanganda purposes and to justify building that BEAST.

As for the worst weapon....well, Nagasaki and Hiroshima say it all really.

Capt'n Midnight

I'll try to dig up the details later - but some us subs were equiped with an nuclear torpedo - it's lethal radius was geater than it' range.

magick

Hats off to ww2for making someof the weirdest weapons, though i saw on the discovery channel a few days ago, during the Cold War, The Americans tried to build a nuclear powered bomber, not the best idea if it was flying other bombers of that type and got shot up!

Manach

Wasn't there a German rifle with the barrel bent at a 90 degree angle for shooting around corners?

Barry Aldwell

Originally posted by Manach
Wasn't there a German rifle with the barrel bent at a 90 degree angle for shooting around corners?

I believe the STG44 could be fitted with a bent barrel and mirror arangement, with various angles being available, up to 60 degrees (I think)

Capt'n Midnight

The nuclear bomber - the idea was it would patrol just outside soviet airspace ready to the order to divert.

But I like the story of where the Idea came from. US spies found out that the Russians were going to develop them, a massive effort was made to make a Nuclear Powered Bomber (NPB)
Feb 1955 , Weapons System WS-125A with a B52 bombload and unlimited range and endurance. After a lot of R&D they concluded that it would not work. Russian spies found out this and reported back. - The Russians never had a NPB program, they just wanted to see if it was possible so they let the Americans do all the work first.

Note: the other project from Feb 1955 the CPB chemically powered bomber WS-110A which called for the payload of a B52 at B58 speed produced the XB-70 Valkyrie "the great white bird", which the MIG 25 was designed to intercept. At the time it was the worlds heaviest plane, the fastest, the most powerful, the most costly and only just missed being the longest and having the longest range.

Oh yeah the British Hand grenade of WWII the Mills Bomb had a range greater than the average soilder could throw - you had to dive for cover when you used it... (this is why German ones had wooden handles )

Capt'n Midnight

Update by 1961 the US had spent $1Bn on two engine prototypes and the worlds largest hanger to hold it..

Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, Idaho Falls