View Full Version : Japanese Death Ray and other WWII weird weapons
I was watching the History Channel and it was talking about the Japanese trying to build a Death Ray with Microwaves. I would like too know more about these kind of weird weapons by the Axis powers.:book:
Alexanderofmacedon
04-22-2006, 05:54
I watched the begining of the same show where they were showing some weird German weapons. The Germans were trying to build some sort of aircraft that would fly into space, then drop a bomb on a country in the United States, which would be full of radioactive particles, ultimatly killing thousands. The plane would then fly from outerspace into the atmosphere into Germany.
:laugh4: :inquisitive:
discovery1
04-22-2006, 06:27
Sanger Bomber it was to be called. They had lots of weird stuff. I think they even had a scheme to make tornados to take out planes......
One of the more sane, sort of, ideas wasto equip a Komet with lightsensitive cells on its wings and mortars at the base of the top of the wing. The Komet was to fly under a bomber. The plane's shadow would be detected by the cells, which would trigger the mortars to fire.
Everyone loves luft46 (http://www.luft46.com/)
cegorach
04-22-2006, 08:58
I just loved the sonic weapon the Germans produced - it was the size of a train and in the end after months of preparation and using massive resources it finally was able to kill someone - provided it was standing about 100 meters before it - no wonder they lost the war :laugh4:
Watchman
04-22-2006, 15:04
And then there was that one absolutely humongous railway gun they actually built and even used (to shell Sevastopol a bit, I seem to recall). "Siegfried" or something. Made the infamous WW1 Pariskanone look sane and sensible. Certainly a credit to the abilities of German engineers, but in practice a massive waste of resources and effort.
Mind you, the Germans were also able to field-test crude ATGMs at the very end of the war so there was actually some wheat amongst all the chaff too.
I was watching the History Channel and it was talking about the Japanese trying to build a Death Ray with Microwaves. I would like too know more about these kind of weird weapons by the Axis powers.:book:
The Brits tried that one to.
The leaders of state asked Sir Robert Watson-Watt if it was possible to build a microwave type of death ray.
When this seemed impossible Watson said something like ”This is impossible, but how do you feel about radar?”.:idea2:
ShadesPanther
04-22-2006, 18:26
The Germans invented a few amazing things.
They developed a SAM called the butterfly (I think they also had a rival version by another geroup of scientists)
They developed "Smart bombs" guided by remote control (Which sank a transport ship IIRC)
They also had air-air missiles (crude but would work well against bombers)
And that's just a few of the things they developed
discovery1
04-22-2006, 18:52
The SAM was called 'Wat'erfall
'Wasserfall'
http://www.luft46.com/missile/wasserfl.html
What about those iceburg aircraft carries the brits thought about?
discovery1
04-22-2006, 19:19
https://img528.imageshack.us/img528/6938/mrh1849gg.jpg
Lovely wouldn't it be?
Horten's Ho XVIIIb Amerika Bomber (http://www.luft46.com/horten/ho18b.html) That particular image was made by Marek Rys.
edyzmedieval
04-22-2006, 23:03
It looks morbid. I mean, it reminds you of the struggle of the Germans....
Morbid.:skull:
One of the things I found scary about Sänger's proposed antipodal bomber was the weapon it was meant to carry. A 1000-5000 kg high explosive bomb wrapped with a covering of highly radioactive silica. It would explode in the atmosphere and then disperse the radioactive dust over a wide area. This bomb wasn't designed to destroy installations. It was designed to kill everyone within miles of the target, slowly and painfully. The first "dirty" bomb. Very scary stuff. England should be very glad that this stuff didn't make it out of the design stage before the war ended.
Another futuristic German system which almost made it to the battlefield was the Vampyr infrared system. Amazing stuff. It was a 20 years ahead of its time night vision system which could have been mounted on infantry weapons and tank sights and bomber sights.
Evil_Maniac From Mars
04-23-2006, 03:27
They developed "Smart bombs" guided by remote control (Which sank a transport ship IIRC)
More then a transport ship. Fritz X missiles alone destroyed one Italian Navy flagship as it was going to surrender, and seriously damaged another. They were also a huge menace to shipping around Malta. Only the Operation Husky stopped them.
The Brits tried that one to.
The leaders of state asked Sir Robert Watson-Watt if it was possible to build a microwave type of death ray.
When this seemed impossible Watson said something like ”This is impossible, but how do you feel about radar?”.:idea2:
The Japanese did create a death ray that could fry rabbits and maybe humans the Japanese didnt record it but they said that they believe they probably did. But for the death ray too work you had to be a couple of meters away from it.:hanged:
Uesugi Kenshin
04-23-2006, 23:55
Actually from what I heard the German ASM's were made obsolete by more extensive AA emplacements on ships. They were just too slow and easy to shoot down from what I read at the new Smithsonian hangar in DC. The newer ones that never reached production were a different story though I think...
Watchman
04-24-2006, 00:04
That's Die Reich for you: the Red Army is already trying the handle on the front door, and they keep developing sci-fi weapons...
I sometimes wonder if that tendency to stubbornly stick to such peculiar distractions was in fact a way of escaping the increasingly bleak reality. And I was just reminded of that one weird-ass Japanese propaganda drawing, where an unbelievable ludicrous giant robot (it seemed to have at least one cannon projecting from the bottom of its right foot...) is going Godzilla on some city and the caption reads "The Science Warrior attacks New York".
Talk about denial.
Well, I've also read the... well, whatever the German naval HQ was called was busily making arrangements over the publication of a book on the history of the German navy - when Red Army was already almost on the front lawn.
People apparently get a bit funny under stress.
Avicenna
04-24-2006, 08:05
About the Red Army, the Soviets tried to find a way to control the weather in the Cold War, to slow down any allied advance by bogging their armour down with rain and snow.
Watchman
04-24-2006, 13:14
I think that's called "ecological warfare" or something. Both sides actually put quite a bit of research into it, if only because it'd have made a pretty interesting sabotage weapon. I know the US also spent a lot on energy on psychic research (clairvoyants to locate Soviet subs and so on) and at least at one point on African witch doctors (although that may have had more to do with their social importance in the context of yet another ugly third-world war by proxy), and the Soviets had no shortage of similar kooky projects.
But hey, they were kind of deadlocked and scared to death of each other. Grasping at straws in such a situation is only natural.
The Soviets actually not only tried but claimed that they had in fact managed to perfect a number of psykokinesis warriors. Of course they never got further than bending spoons. Makes one wonder a bit.
ShadesPanther
04-25-2006, 23:13
The Soviets and the Americans also put alot of research into a Nuclear powered Plane.
Seems very strange now but to them Nuclear power was the next gen clean fuel source.
The Soviets and the Americans also put alot of research into a Nuclear powered Plane.
Seems very strange now but to them Nuclear power was the next gen clean fuel source.
Saw a program on that...
The Americans actually knew that it was not very healthy and tried to put up a lead devider, but that sort of ruined the idea, especially when tried tried to use the closed system approach (that doesn't pollute).
The Soviets on the other hand didn't care about either and actually made a nuclear plane fly once.
In the end the only practical solution was a pilotless selfpropelled nuclear bomb, sort of like a cruise missile. That was sort of cool as the reactor would at the same time be the warhead and the open system would also be polluting the approaches to the target. Nasty weapon... and happy it was never realized. But still sort of cool.
King Kurt
04-26-2006, 11:40
I even remember seeing that the Americans looked into developing a nuclear Anti tank missle - now that is a sledgehammer to crack a nut!!
Watchman
04-26-2006, 12:04
And then there was the "Davy Crockett" nuke mortar. Must've been fun getting assigned to one of those...
I've incidentally read the Soviets were also quite willing to trade expediency for speed of deployement with their early nuke subs, with the funny side effect they had to set up special hospitals for the steady stream of irradiated sailors. But then, didn't the Americans also run "clinical tests" on fallout radiation effects by walking an infantry unit into a test-site Ground Zero right after the shockwave had passed ?
Oh yeah, and apparently major West German bridges were built with curious hollows in their bases. These were meant for nuclear mines, to give advancing WP tank colums a taste of a whole new degree of Scorched Earth...
Fun stuff. The more I read about it the creepier it gets.
And then there was the "Davy Crockett" nuke mortar. Must've been fun getting assigned to one of those...
Heard about that one... Got canned quite fast, didn't it? But interesting weapon nonetheless.
But then, didn't the Americans also run "clinical tests" on fallout radiation effects by walking an infantry unit into a test-site Ground Zero right after the shockwave had passed ?
Don't know about the Americans, but I certainly know that the Soviets did it. They sent about an armoured divsion on maneuvers inside the nasty area just after a testblast (as a sort of extra bonus for the scientists I guess). They wanted to prove to themselves (and later the public) that the armed forces were not at risk from nuclear bombs... well the public would still be at risk, wouldn't they?:dizzy2:
Oh yeah, and apparently major West German bridges were built with curious hollows in their bases. These were meant for nuclear mines, to give advancing WP tank colums a taste of a whole new degree of Scorched Earth...
Fun stuff. The more I read about it the creepier it gets.
One word... GAH!
discovery1
04-26-2006, 21:25
Heard about that one... Got canned quite fast, didn't it? But interesting weapon nonetheless.
NO! /big smile
The system was deployed with U.S. Army from 1961 to 1971, and over 2,100 were produced. (http://3ad.com/history/cold.war/nuclear.pages/weapons.pages/davy.crockett.htm)
https://img173.imageshack.us/img173/6728/davycrockettmontage6kg.jpg
Looks good doesn't it?
That should pretty much create the breach in the enemy lines shouldn't it...
Well, it isn't all that different from the various nuclear artillery shells. It isn't as if this is a portable weapon, which would have made it nasty.
Would have been cool with a Starship Troopers bazooka.:laugh4:
discovery1
04-26-2006, 21:52
I believe its main purpose was to smash armored spearheads, not breach lines. And I believe it was actually most mobile, capable of being mounted on a special jeep.
The155 millimeter version, which became the standard issue, had a maximum range of 2.49 miles and could be fired from either a ground tripod mount or from a specially designed jeep mount.
Not that big of a warhead though, 'only' .18 KT. Too small I think to make a large enough hole in their lines. I think. Anyone here familiar with the damage caused by a nuclear blast, and how it increases/decrease with distance and yield?
180 tons isn't all that much, but the crew of the weapon would very much need to lie down not be unlucky and get hit by flying debris.
Would be a perfect weapon against an infantry division on the move.
[EDIT]Heh... just considered the fact that I just made a division a tactical unit by simply applying this weapon.
Uesugi Kenshin
04-26-2006, 22:50
I read up about this a while ago and here are a few facts I remember. It is a recoilless rifle, so it could be fired from a jeep iirc. The radius of the harmful radiation is larger than its range, so the crew would have to not only hull down (in a trench or something and fire remote controlled I guess, this is from a pic I saw of one firing), but also deal with the radiation. That's all I remember, but I think there is a good wiki article on it if you want more.
Its purpose was solely to stop any massive Russian armored advance in Europe, much the same as our tactical nuke artillery batteries. Although the nuke mortar was eliminated; we still had manned nuke artillery units up until the 1980's, even. A buddy of mine from high school was an Army captain and took command of a nuke battery in Germany in the early 1980's. He used to joke about hoping that intel was good enough to catch any Russian move quick enough for them to deploy and fire before they got too close and the blast radius was bigger than than the target range.
Its purpose was solely to stop any massive Russian armored advance in Europe, much the same as our tactical nuke artillery batteries. Although the nuke mortar was eliminated; we still had manned nuke artillery units up until the 1980's, even. A buddy of mine from high school was an Army captain and took command of a nuke battery in Germany in the early 1980's. He used to joke about hoping that intel was good enough to catch any Russian move quick enough for them to deploy and fire before they got too close and the blast radius was bigger than than the target range.
A factual correction if you don't mind the weapons were in the arsenal and being trained on through the 1980's, and well into 1990. Sometime in 1990-91 timeframe was when they were removed from the active inventory. I am sure they are slowly being destroyed somewhere.
Now my favorite weapon actually comes from the British, (If I remember correctly that is) it was a rifle designed to shoot around corners without exposing the rifleman to enemy fire. A weird looking weapon.
A factual correction if you don't mind the weapons were in the arsenal and being trained on through the 1980's, and well into 1990. Sometime in 1990-91 timeframe was when they were removed from the active inventory. I am sure they are slowly being destroyed somewhere.
Now my favorite weapon actually comes from the British, (If I remember correctly that is) it was a rifle designed to shoot around corners without exposing the rifleman to enemy fire. A weird looking weapon.
If I remember right I think that was the Germans with the MP-40 I think. They used it to shoot around corners and out of a German tank The Elephant I think it was called. I think thats what you are talking about.:2thumbsup:
If I remember right I think that was the Germans with the MP-40 I think. They used it to shoot around corners and out of a German tank The Elephant I think it was called. I think thats what you are talking about.:2thumbsup:
Yep it most likely was the German model that I remembered, but didn't the British have something similiar?
I do know that the British had a whole bunch of really neat clandstine operation equipment. That might be why I think it was of British design.
Once again, I have to mention my all-time favoriet -- the Russian dog mine.
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v489/Lemurmania/dog_mines.jpg
discovery1
04-27-2006, 05:27
Didn't that not work because they were train with Russian tanks, so when in battle they ran to Russian tanks?
Talking of animals,the US in WWII tried to use bats as a weapon. They strapped naplam to hybernating bats, and dropped them from bombers. They hoped that during the fall they would wake up from hybernation and fly under the eves of Japanese buildings ...
Didn't that not work because they were train with Russian tanks, so when in battle they ran to Russian tanks?
Partially... There are enough German accounts of dog attacking them, but in general they managed to kill the dogs before they reached any tanks. And of course a starved dog is not stupid, it won't be running into a noisy battle just like that. So hat was also part of the failure.
Problems:
Dogs run towards Russian tanks/tractors if they are around.
Dogs son't like the noisy of a battle, they preferto either hide or run away.
Too easy to kill when they do run towards the German tanks. The bomb needed to be fairly strong so it limited the dog's speed and agility.
English assassin
04-27-2006, 17:06
I do know that the British had a whole bunch of really neat clandstine operation equipment. That might be why I think it was of British design.
Obviously there was something about this that really appealed to the British character. You have to respect a people who can invent an exploding Buddha (its that sense of humour again...) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/486391.stm
Talking of animals,the US in WWII tried to use bats as a weapon. They strapped naplam to hybernating bats, and dropped them from bombers. They hoped that during the fall they would wake up from hybernation and fly under the eves of Japanese buildings ...
The problem was that during a field test the wind shifted so all bats ended up flying into the testbase's HQ. Similarly, dolphin experiments had to be abandoned because the dolphin saboteurs prefered to place charges under allied ships instead of enemy ones. Still, I only have these stories from hearsay, so they might be wrong.
It didn't work, because during testing the bats didn't wake up from hybernation, so they ended up giving up the idea.
Instead they did tests into the bats use of sound, and they discovered sonar :idea2:
doc_bean
04-28-2006, 11:59
I know the US also spent a lot on energy on psychic research (clairvoyants to locate Soviet subs and so on) and at least at one point on African witch doctors (although that may have had more to do with their social importance in the context of yet another ugly third-world war by proxy), and the Soviets had no shortage of similar kooky projects.
I've heard (rumors ?) the US still has a few projects running involving supernatural research. :help:
hmm I've heard similar stuff doc, so are they or not ???
ShadesPanther
04-28-2006, 16:32
I think they've always been fascinated with controlling the weather or earthquakes. But we probably won't know until this information is released in a possibly long time.
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