Most Unusual Weapon/Weapon System of WW II?

[AbsntMndedProf]

A.K.Matov posted:

"However, you knew this was coming, they fed the dogs under SOVIET tanks, not German tanks. So when they were deployed, they ignored the German tanks - must smell different - and headed for the nearest Soviet armored formation. Understand the resulting Soviet tank losses kind of ended that project."

Perhaps they were using German Shepards?

Eric Maietta

[AbsntMndedProf]

Thanks for the picture files, Kanon Fodder! That's the beast!

Eric Maietta

[Karnaaj]

Ahhh, it's been a while since last I read the forms, and now there's yet another "weird-***" thread to contribute to. <G>

Bat bombs - there's a book out about the project - BAT BOMB World War II's Other Secret Weapon, ISBN 0-292-70790-8.

"Iceberg" carriers - yup. The mix of sawdust and ice, called (as I recall) "Pykrete". "Geoffrey Pyke, presented the idea of constructing "berg-ships" - up to 4,000 feet long, 600 feet wide and 130 feet in depth – that could be made cheaply, and in great numbers, from ice. The ships would be insulated and cooled, made practically invulnerable to bombs or torpedoes." Tested a model in a Canadian lake in the summer of '43, where (with refrigeration on-board) it didn't appreciably melt.

And finally, "bullet deflectors": I have right behind me <G> a 1975 issue of MILITARY MODELER, with *lots* of pix and data on the M2/M2A1 tank - 37 mm, and *6* .30-cal MGs. (Two forward, ala aircraft MGs, and 4 barbette/sponson-mounts covering the corners.) On the rear fenders are square chunks of sheet metal (armour, one would hope <G>) that would deflect the rear guns' fire downwards as/after it crossed the trenches. (Relating to a path thread, the pictures were shot during those Louisiana manevers of '41...)

Now, if only I still had the issue that had the scratchbuilt T95, with many pix and details of the dual-track mechanism, including the *detatchable* outer tracks that were locked together and towed for road-width purposes...

[Belisarius]

Concrete aircraft?

[panda124c]

Originally posted by Possum
What about
The Soviet "Dog" Anti-tank mine (Trained dog with explosives strapped to it)
The American "House Bat" Homing incndiary Bomb (A trained bat with an incndiary grenade attached, never actually used, as they couldn't overcome the problems of the bats waking up prior to release, and refusing to leave the bombing aircraft.)
The American "Homig Pigeon" Anti Carrier Glide Bomb ( A trained homig pigeon piloting a 2000 Lb glide bomb, again never saw action as the pigeons where found to be unable to tell the difference between a Japanese CV and an American CV, or a Japanese ship from an American ship come to that.)
The Japanese remote Bombing balloon ( a balloon loaded with incndiary bombs with a very long fuse, and released 1000's of miles upwind of continental USA. Was at least credited with starting some forest fires in washington state in 1944)
or on a sader note. The Italian MG that carefully oiled and then re-inserted spent cartriges back into the magazeen as they where fired! Leaving the poor gunner's mate to have to then manually strip all the well oiled and slippery empties out of the magazeen before he could refill it with fresh ammo.

The dogs had the same problem as the pigeons, the Bats actually worked burned down a town in the US (I know, it was a US weapon). There was also a bullet deflector for the M3 'Grease Gun' a curved extention (90 degrees) fitted to the barrel.

I think the English hold the record for the most 'creative' solutions, the Flying Tank (could not get it to land upright all the time) for 'leaping' over tank traps.

[panda124c]

Originally posted by Bing
[B
Can you imagine taking off and having the heat from the jet engine exhaust - which is no small thing as you will know if you've been around one in operaiton - melt the runway behind you?

Bing [/B]

Comrad you WILL take off you will not turn around and return to the hanger.

[panda124c]

Originally posted by Oxtane
Info came straight out of the June/July issue of "World War II" magazine. Don't have the magazine right in front of me but I just read the article last night.

Guy that designed the "Bat Bombs" was a zoologist who was impacted by Pearl Harbor and decided to put his two cents worth designing a "weapon" for the US military against Japan.

If you want issue # and page #s I will gladly get them for you when I get home

There is also a book out on the subject, don't remember the name.

[Oxtane]

I need to correct my previous information about the Bat Bomb. The guy who came up with the idea was not a zoologist but ...get this... a dentist! Talk about putting anther kink in an already weird idea! LOL

[Belisarius]

V-2 designers, eat your heart out! Prepare to face the dreaded....

BAT BOMB!

btw, does FO's use a Batphone™ to call them in?
Do they travel in Batmobiles™?
Are the drivers called "Robin"?
Are the boms carried in a Batwing™?



Batman™ is a trademark of DC Comics™ yada yada yada

[Oxtane]

Pilot - "Batadier this is the pilot. We are approaching our target suggest you prepare your bats"
Batadier - "Target in site"
Pilot - "Batadier you have the plane"
Batadier - "BATS AWWWAYYYYYYY!!!"
.......flap flap flap.......flutter flutter flutter........

[john g]

Originally posted by pbear


I think the English hold the record for the most 'creative' solutions, the Flying Tank (could not get it to land upright all the time) for 'leaping' over tank traps.

Not to mention Panjandrum, or the steam guns which were fitted to ships to fire hand grenades up in the air against attacking aircraft which worked like a giant paintball gun.
thanks, John.

[AmmoSgt]

I'm not sure what what the offical name for these napalm armed bats was .. but the "BatBomb" was the nick name for the SWOD Mk13 GlideBomb ( SWOD stands for Special Weapon Ordnance Device).. I had the pleasure of refurbishing several SWOD Mk13 airframes and guidance packges during my aprenticeship as a weapons technician.
Mk13 was the 2000 lb Bomb version , I didn't get to work on any of the 1000 lb versions and I can't remember what their Mk designation was , MK12's I think. They were radar guided , sort of. they had a small radar in the nose that swept back and forth horizonally ( this replaced the pigeon that was the guidance system in the earliest version) the pigeon version relied on a pigeon that was trained to peck at the image of a ship ( peck on picture of a ship , get grain) the guidance system worked , on the pigeon version , by trying to keep the pecking in the center of the screen , off center pecks caused the control surfaces to change the direction of glide, to point the weapon at the ship, and center the ship in the small TV screen. The pigeon version actually flew better that the radar version. The radar version tended to fly with a side to side "waddle and swoop " as the control surfaces attempted to align themselves with the constant back and forth horizontal sweep of the radar . This effect had a benifit, as they were very hard to shoot down . The interface between the radar and the control surfaces came in two version , as with many wartime weapons , company and businesses that would never be involved with producing weapons in peace time , got contracts to make things they would never have considered making if it had not been for the war. In this case , the two companies involved were MIT , the university , and the Plumbers Union No XXX I forget the exact number. The airframe itself was plywood and I do not know the contractor. We did not use the WW2 era radars for the project I was on . The 2 Interface control packages were very different .. the MIT version had about 10,000 electrial contacts and could not be restored to a functioning condition , The Plumber's Union version had only 12 contacts and was peunatically operated and were very easy to restore to a functioning condition , ( go figure) . The first tests were done under the cover and guise of these being "Target Drones" and were dropped against US Navy ships with inert concrete warheads, the "waddle effect" prevented the AA gunners from shooting them down and the first two dropped actually hit the target ship and did some damage , but fortunately did not cause casualities. Subsequent tests were done against unarmed and unmaned hulks, The targets had to be metal and of ship sized dimesions due to the fact that the radar sweep had to have a constant contact ( ie have a target wide enough to fill a certain amount of the radar sweep to get a"lock on" ) . The ammount of sweep was adjustable , allowing some target size selection, but basically any metal mass large enough to fill the required percentage of sweep fill would be locked on to. 12 of each 2000 Lb version were tested and all 24 hit the target hulk. The only combat usage in WW2 was in the Pacific against a Japanese ancorage/ harbor ajacent to a captured British Oil Refinery ( I forget where) , while none were shot down , AA did cause several to lose lock and go into search mode ( unfortunately Oil Refinery's tend to be rather large metal masses ) the whole reason the weapons were used was so that the refinery would NOT be damaged , oh well, it was a good idea at the time.
In the early 60's ,18 of these weapons were brought out of moth balls refurbished and retrofited with what would become known as the Standard ARM Guidance package and were all sucsessfully dropped at China Lake , providing a proof of concept of the ARM Guidance System.

[AbsntMndedProf]

PBear posted:

"The dogs had the same problem as the pigeons, the Bats actually worked burned down a town in the US (I know, it was a US weapon)."


Ah, there's a hot time in the old town tonight!

Eric Maietta

[sven]

Originally posted by AbsntMndedProf
I recall reading in one of the Aberdeen Proving Ground's 'Tank Data' series about an MG designed for German AFVs with a curved barrel to allow it to fire around corners! They even had a picture of one, as I remember.

Eric Maietta

Yup. The United States also had one for the M3 greasegun...

[Stahlhelm]

The comment about the curved barrel for the greasegun reminded me of a story I once heard.
Grease guns were amongst the crew weapons originally issued to M1 Abrams crews. Why you would use such an old weapon I don't know but I guess personal weapons for tank crews are low on the Defence Departments procurement list.
The M3s were particularly unpopular because if you were doing your watch sitting in the turret hatches, the long magazine prevented you from depressing the gun enough to shoot at anyone close to the tank.

[chief]

Ammo Sgt: Your statements on the MK12 Bat Bomb are all on target. (no pun intended). I was a Bat operator in a Navy Patrol Squadron in the early 50's. We used them as anti-submarine weapons. The idea was to make radar contact on a surfaced (recharging) sub...hopefully the sub would not dive since we were not in visual sight. At approx 35 miles out and 10K ft we could launch and turn away from the intended target, giving them a false sense of security. The weapon was at that time guided by Radar to the target and was very accurate, a later model using a crude TV rcvr/transmitter was later utilized and also effective. They went out of service in the late 50's.

[ZeroAntipop]

Grease gun. . .you mean they had guns that shot grease at people. Would not a M1 Carbine be much better?

[V-man]

Originally posted by ZeroAntipop
Grease gun. . .you mean they had guns that shot grease at people. Would not a M1 Carbine be much better?

The M-3 Submachinegun closely resembled an automotive tool for greasing machinery. It was nicknamed the "Grease Gun" for this.
It was a .45 caliber, magazine fed light automatic weapon.

[AmmoSgt]

Chief actually they went out of service in 1967, LOL, thats when mine were dropped at China Lake . I know what you mean though , actual operational service and not as test beds LOL, The footnote in History that made this such a sweet thing for me , and since this is so close to memorial day , is my Dad was old time VP himself , check this link. http://www.navalair.org/flightlog/moreinfo.asp?UID=197 , An old Silver Eagle with a low number, shoulda seen his face when I told him what our test bed was. He flew private until he was in his late 70's Passed a couple of years back from bone cancer. He about did it all .. started in Tin Cans , as you see in his record DD-405 Rowan , Neutralty Patrol , convoys to Murmansk, and escorted Brits around the the Tip of Africa to the Far East then VP-54 BlackCats at Guadacanal.. switched to fighters F4U and F8F's for Korea, then Inteligence Recon in what most folks know as a DC-4 and then up flying P2V's out of Kodiak. Finished up flying the Naval version of the B-26 Invader .( Yes Virginia, the Navy had B-26 Invaders) I have sat in the cockpit.

[kevsharr]

How about the Japanese "Flea"bomb,no they did'nt have explosives tied to their back's but were infected with either typhus or typhoid fever loaded into a bomb and dropped over cities I believe it was actually used over China.As an interesting aside the man in charge of the Japanese Bio-chemical research facility at Harbin in Manchuria [where not only the weapon above was developed but also where allied pow's were subjected to lethal testing of a wide variety of biological agent's]was being activly persued by the soviet's and the chinese for war crimes was granted asilum here in the U.S to help with our biochemical research,interesting....To you a hero is somekind of weird sandwich...Oddball