Most Stupid Weapon of WWII

I might be able to top all youse guys.

In the book "Dirty little secrets of World war 2", James Dunnigan describes one Japanese desperation anti-tank "weapon" they used at least once, late in the war.
A hole was dug in the ground and a japanese soldier ordered into the hole. He was equipped with one artillery shell and one hammer. When an American tank drove over his hole, he was supposed to strike the shell with the hammer.

Perhaps they got the idea from captured Bugs bunny cartoons?

 

You know I hate to say this but the notion of dogs being able to recognise the tanks of different nations under different conditions seems a bit far-fetched. I think it much more likely that they simply assumed there would be food under 'tanks' and friendly tanks were generally nearer than the enemy.

 

According to one manual I've seen, Soviet dogs were trained in Komsomol to differentiate between vehicles painted in Panzergrau and 4B0 green.

 

Komsomol as in the soviet Hitler Youth?

 

Boyscoutsky

 

Dogs, Cats, Mice, Rats, & Rabbits have poor color vision and see mostly grays, with some blues & yellows.
The "Bull" thing with the red cape/color is a myth. Stone color blind they are, they see movement and think it's you. They just don't like you, not the color red.
On the other hand;
Excellent color vision belongs to Bee's & Butterfly's which extends into the ultraviolet, or so they say. I've never asked one.

 

Colorblind? No, no, no

That reminds me of a Rhodesian friend of mine who had a German shepherd named Kaiser.

Everytime a member of the indigenous population used to pass by his compound, he straddeled his dogs head and whispered, Kaffer, Kaffer and the dog went - GRRRRRRRRR

Regards
Kruska

 

Yeah, I used to go up to people (at the house) and grab them and push/pull them, when "Scout" was nearby and say, wimperingly ...
"He's hurting me, He's hurting me !"
Scout would/will instantly take on all comers.
Ah yes ... verbal commands ... they work well.

sic-em

 

A chap I met once worked in a zoo and had the same relationship with a young tiger. I wouldn't mess with him at work!

 

I will also say that bees are attracted to propane for some reason, and must have a keen sense of smell. My camper has a tank on it and the fitting when in use has a small leak (nothing dangerous and it is out doors used only for cooking). It invariably attracts bees.

 

Watch out for bees with a strange volume attached to their backs and a stick poking out!

 

Actually, it's quite possible for dogs to recognise different tanks due to the type of engine. Their listening sense is quite developed and they can easily differentiate between diesel and petrol engines. Also, Russian tanks were louder than the German ones so there you have another reason for dogs to choose them.
Now, how they managed to make dogs get near a loud scary noise, beats me. My dog couldn't stand loud noises. She would always scurry and hide under the kitchen table as soon as fireworks started



Cheers...

 

My uncle had a beagle who could tell Shostakovich from Karl-Heinz Stockhausen.

 

This "tank" was german designed they actually tryed to bulid this but they did not have the resorses to complet it so they were stuck with one of the big guns and they converted it to a costal battarie.


1000 tons with two 280 mm guns and one 128 mm gun

 

"One such turret was supposedly built before the project was canceled, although documentation of its whereabouts is missing. It is rumored that the prototype turret was used as a coastal gun emplacement in occupied Norway, but it now appears this turret was actually built to the specifications of the Gneisenau class and was unconnected to the Ratte Program."

Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"In December of 1942, Krupp created new design of 1500 ton tank - P 1500. It frontal armor would be 250mm thick and it would be armed with 800mm super heavy mortar "Dora" type and possibly two 150mm artillery pieces. P 1500 would be powered by two or four submarine diesel engines. In early 1943, Albert Speer cancelled both projects. P 1000 turret ended up at coastal defence battery (Batterie Oerlander) near Trondheim, Norway."

http://www.achtungpanzer.com/p-10001500-pzkpfw-ixx.htm

 

My vote goes to the Dora/Gustav 800mm monster guns, something like the tallboy bomb would have done the same job in a much more efficient way. You would also need a reliable 4 engined bomber to carry it but this was not beyond German capabilities even if the He 177 was a bad troublesome design. A a makeshift solution like the He 111Z could have also possibly worked. Both Gustav and my hypotetical bomber would need local air superiority to operate but the Germans were unlikely to attack the Maginot forts (the Gustav's intended job) without it.

 

I think Wikipedia could be wrong here.

The Gneisenau used triple 11" turrets, not doubles, as far as I am aware.

I'm at a loss to figure out what the role of the Ratte was meant to be. Only the 128mm gun would have been any use against tanks, and that was not mounted in a turret so it could only fire forward. What were the twin 11"/280mm turret guns supposed to do? They would not have been able to track quickly enough to attack tanks.

The Ratte was to have 8 x 37mm AA guns behind the turret, but these would only have been effective against low-level aircraft. The tank itself would possibly have been big and slow enough to be attacked by high altitude bombers.

The only feasible role I can see for this machine would be as a mobile land-based heavy gun battery. Like a railway gun but without the railway.

 

At least this one worked, at the Sevastopol siege. Whether it was cost-effective or not is another matter

 

Yup it battered the sevastopolian defenses to ruin. I don't know if we can call them stupid. They worked as they were intended, to counter heavy fortifications.


As for the tall boy, well, a Lancaster was needed to deploy a tallboy and the Germans had nothing comparable to it in their arsenal.

The P-1000 is one of the most absurd things the Germans could've come up with. As a counter for tanks however, the Ratte could've simply used it's weight to crush them.



Cheers...