Most Stupid Weapon of WWII

As in the most successful silent pistol of it's time? Not sure it was a stupid weapon, it did the job.

 

Actually i was asking for information. Should have put it more clearly.

 

Perhaps you Brits would care to comment on the 2in anti-aircraft rocket that was designed to foul propellers with a long wire. Hmm, I don't know, maybe this weapon belongs on the other thread with the most ingenious weapons of the war. You decide.:flag_uk:

 

Oops, sorry Joe, my mistake. Well, Wikipedia has a faily good article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welrod

Hopefully someone can add more.

As for the rockets, I'd vote ingenious (apart from the Bethnal Green fire thing) but I know very little about them. Seems like a smart idea and it did work.

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/britain_and_rocket_technology.htm

 

Just one thing wrong about that article-it says it was used in Medal of honor games (whitch is true), but says nothing abou it's use in soldiers, heros of WW2!!
but thanks anyway.

 

Well, in the absence of a large number of AA guns it was better than nothing, and in only known low level bombing raid on a Fighter Command airfield during the Battle of Britain it did pluck a German bomber out of the sky and damage another.
My view, not really a war winning weapon, but not a stupid idea.

 

Not so much an error as an omission I guess. Here are some interesting pics of it:

http://www.gunsworld.com/world/welrod_us.html

May warrant it's own thread?

 

Those look pretty effective and easy to hide. What made them stupid ?

 

Yes, I ask the same question... Why stupid?

 

Nobody is calling them stupid

 

I think it was more of an info request. Anyhow, back to the point.

 

Few should argue that since this thing was NOT intended as a suicide bomb that it was a stupid idea.

 

Pardon my ignorance, but if this wasn't a suicide bomb then what was it?

 

Is this the test version flown by Hanna Reitsch? If it is then surely it isn't stupid as it was used as a test platform, allowing important information on the flight dynamics of the aircraft. It gave enogh data to deal with the stability and guidanceproblems the aircraft faced.

 

I've heard of the piloted V-1 before. I think Hitler was disgusted by the Idea and gave it to the Japanese. I think.
On the subject, in 1945 German pilots where orderd to crash into the Rhine Bridges to stop the Allied crossings. Most disobeyed.

 

http://avia.russian.ee/air/germany/fi-103.php

Everything that I've read on this thing says that the pilot was supposed to bail out after puting it into a dive aimed at the selected target. Needless to say, all but a few fanatics were "hip" to the idea. Thus, I'd consider it a stupid weapon. Just imagine trying to bail out of this thing with a pulse jet behind your head while in a steep dive.

 

How about the Dora railgun? I have no idea how many resources it took to design, fabricate, test and deploy the monster. Then they only shot 48 rounds. Pretty stupid!

More here:

http://www.hpwt.de/2Weltkrieg/Dorae.htm

 

I don't know if it's a weapon, but it was pretty stupid.
I have some pictures somewhere of Japanese soldiers crawling along the ground (in China I think) with what looks like a Spartan shield on top of them. A turtle shell made out of steel.
That thing had to be heavy to be effective.
On the bright side, you could probably take a nap in safety when you got tired.
Which would be every 50-100 feet.

 

I have several names that come to my mind:

-The 1945 Luftwaffe Kamikaze on the east front(only delayed the war for 24 hours and costs many lives + aircrafts )
-The Mistel (one airrcraft put on top of the fuslelage of another)
-The Maginot line; it was hardly used, cost a fortune and the spare dmoney could have build hundreds of aircrafts, tanks and change a lot of things
-The Biber submarine which turned its user into a manned torpedo with very little chance to survive.