The Worst Weapons in History
Fire
Balloons
A Japanese surprise attach sought to wreak havoc in
the United States with ballooned explosives. In theory, the balloons (over
nine-thousand of them) would ride the jet stream for a few days before
releasing a payloads of explosives across America. In reality very few balloons
are estimated to have made it to the United States and only six deaths resulted
from the attack, all from one balloon. Many more were found detonated.
Sword
Pistol
The idea is simple enough: take the beloved concept
of the bayonet and transfer it to the pistol, making it what would amount to a
dagger. But the firing mechanism in early models was easily upset, so swinging
the pistol itself could cause it to misfire, leaving you exposed given how long
it took to reload (assuming you didn't shoot yourself).
Semple
Tank
New Zealand's first tank design was born of
desperation, and sadly the impressive look left much to be desired in terms of
actual function. At its core it was a tractor, giving it little speed compared
to other tanks. The armor was flimsy and easily pierced by standard firearms.
Finally, the guns themselves were in fixed positions.
2.7mm
Kolibri
This German pistol was made for self-defense, not war
(and in fact production of the weapon stopped on when WWI broke out). Known now
for being the world's smallest pistol, it fired six rounds with no recoil.
Unfortunately the bullets themselves were incapable of causing much more than a
slight sting.
Type
94 Nambu
The Imperial Japanese Army favored this light-weight
pistol at first, especially pilots. But the unique design, which featured the
sear bar on the outside, meant it could misfire very, very easily, so much so
that urban legends persist of soldiers using this defect to their advantage for
surprise attacks.
Panjandrum
The Axis get a lot of flak for the bizarre nature of
their experimental weapons, but few compare to British DMWD. The Panjandrum was
a rocket-propelled exploding cart. In essence, fire wheels. It never saw combat
use, however, because the rockets used to move the wheels often detached and
exploded.
Krummlauf
This World War II rifle attachment was designed to
fire around corners without exposing the soldier using it. Ignoring the obvious
issues with with physics of curving a bullet in such a way (the bullet would
shatter before exiting the barrel) the barrel itself would break after only a
few hundred rounds were fired.
2B1
Oka
An impressive looking piece of artillery from the
Soviet Union, the 2B1 Oka has some obvious design issues that kept it from
achieving battlefield-ready status. First, due to the difficult loading process
it could only fire one round every three minutes or so. Second (and perhaps
more concerning) was the twenty-meter barrel, which made the whole piece a
nightmare to move.
Grossflammenwerfer
One of WWI Germany's attempt to make a flamethrower,
this unit was likely to make its users its only casualties. The weight of the
device meant that a group of three or more had to carry it. However, it was
incredibly delicate and prone to explosion at even mild shocks. Given its size,
this wasn't hard for enemy troops to achieve. However, rough movement could set
it off too.
FP-45
Liberator
This single-shot pistol was designed by the Allies to
be airdropped into Nazi-occupied areas of Europe to aid resistance fighters.
Generals saw little use for it and as a result distribution was cut to just
over twenty-thousand units. Though records of its use don't exist and its
effectiveness is nil, the strategy of airdropping simple arms to guerrilla
fighters was continued by the United States.
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