Most useless weapon of the 20th Century

serious weapons.

Come on lads, I'm always serious!Anyone who has had experience of an officer with a map knows how dangerious that can be.How long ago was it that the Royal Marines invaded Spain and the officer in charge thought they were invading Giberalter!?
Do you realise that I am actually old enough to remember the German rifle that could shoot round corners!It did work but the barrels didn't last long!Giberalter??Try Gibraltar!!!(incidentally, anyone watching "Das Boot"
who has read the book should listen to the words compared with the subtitles when they speak of how narrow the Straits are)
Let us not forget, life is not all about muzzel velocities and statistics!!
(Unless you are in a turret)

 

??????
why do you need enemies if you have your own mates against you? :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

how about the baloon bomb made by the japs by the thousands and only a few reached the states?

 

I think the relative failure of the Baloon bomb was more a question of execution rather than concept. Besides lets face it any idiot can design a weapon that merely doesn't work to make up that is truely more dangerous to its own side, well that takes something special.

 

I knew the Sten would cause controversy...
I did not say useless, just dangerous!

On to safer ground.

The Balloon bomb actually could well have worked - their main aim was to create forest fires. Most of the balloons did fall in forests. However, they were sent off in 'damp' seasons (ie: not summer). Have you ever tried to set fire to a damp tree? Very tricky.

If the balloon bomb campaign had been kept going over summer, it may well have been a success.

 

I agree with the officer with a map being the most dangerous for your own side.
As for bad weapons, how about the Chauchat machinegun?


:lol:

 

What's so bad about this weapon? Looks like an odd design for an MG, but nothing particularly useless...

Tankpark, you may well be right about the most dangerous thing in warfare, but a map is far from useless I'd say. Dangerous, but not useless. It can be good...

 

That MG was hopeless.
If I remember rightly it was designed in (and for) WW1.

It kept stopping.

 

dangerous

I did not say that a map was dangerous,only the officer attached to it!
The MOST useful thing that the British Army had (I don't know about the others cos I wasn't in them)was a sense of humour! (closely followed by the ability to make tea((I won't say brew up cos it confuses people)) under most difficult conditions).For any who do not realise it, many of my comments are tongue in cheek so please don't take them too seriously!

 

useless? dangerous??

Once again Roel you are absolutely correct!Of course a map is not useless, neither was a propaganda leaflet when you needed one! mind you, the shiny ones were not popular.!!
Incidentally, have you had a discussion on propaganda leaflets?

 

I don't remember any, now that you mention it... Good one, thanks for suggesting it.

Morale is the most important thing on any battlefield. If good morale comes from a sense of humour and a cup of tea, then what else do you need? Go Brits!

 

The septics to laugh about.

 

septic/

Ah, that's what's meant by a "septic tank"

 

My entry in this category are the Japanese seaplane carrying submarines. These behemoths were intended to carry a disassembled seaplane in a watertight hangar on the casing to the West Coast of the United States, surface, assemble the seaplane, then send it off to bomb its target. Aside from the near impossibility of avoiding the American coastal patrols long enought to put the plane together, even if they had managed it, the seaplane didn't carry anything resembling an effective bombload, making for a wasted trip, even assuming that it wasn't immediately shot down by the large number of fighters stationed at the coastal bases. This entire sub class (yes, they built more than one) was a total waste ot time, money, resources, and manpower.

 

useless weapons

concerning the Chauchat lmg- It was workable? in 8mm Lebel(Ithink) round but was hideous when in WW1 it was converted into 30/06 for Us forces.It either jammed or tried to tear itself to shreds as the new round was about twice the pressure and stress.also concerning the Japanese balloons they did work and diverted large amounts of American time & energy and they only carried explosive and incindeary loads. consider if they had carried Unit 731 tried and developed biological weapons - goodbye West coast of the US and Canada

 

Whoa Corp, I think we have a winner. These subs-with-planes were absolutely useless!

 

Not at all - a spotter plane is very useful for any marine craft without radar. Witness the German 'helicopter' on later U-Boats...

 

The U.S. (for reasons I don't know) called it the Shosho. The magazine was open on one side, an open invitation to dirt and the main reason why it jammed repeatedly. The production quality was so poor that none of the parts were interchangeable from weapon to weapon, including spare parts. It's easy to see why the French willingly gave it away to U.S. troops.

 

:-?


:lol: :lol: :lol:

Christian

 

Shosho was after the french pronunciation of chauchat. In spanish that meaning had other connotations :lol:

After all it was suffered.. er, used, by the republicans in the spanish civil war. When nationals captured them, they went directly to the nearest junkyard.