the kapesh was an odd looking weapon but turned out to be an extremely effective weapon against both chariots and armored infantry.
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the kapesh was an odd looking weapon but turned out to be an extremely effective weapon against both chariots and armored infantry.
Some african throwing weapons look very weird to the modern eye. Kind of like antlers... I'll try to find a link.
I have heard about an African sicklesword, much like the one the Druids in RTW uses.
It was used in conjunction with a large hideshield, and its principal purpose was to get behind the raised shield and cut at the forearm of the opponent. And it should be rather good at that.
Looks strange, but seems to be a good counter to shields.
Air:
My vote goes for the F9 Sparrowhawk/Dirigible team -- whacky idea that almost worked.
Sea:
My vote goes to the Surcouf, a french sub that mounted 2 203mm guns in a massive turret.
Land:
Many contenders, but I do have to go for the incendiary pig. The whole Idea of using a pig in such a fashion is simply starkers.
BTW, have any of you ever sent a full stack of those into custom battle, I've always wanted to try it but......
There's a great story about a K-class captain saying 'My end's diving Number One, what the hell's your end doing during test submersion. Truly terrible submarines.Quote:
Originally Posted by English assassin
I'd like to mention the Pykrete carriers that we considered building towards the end of WWII, as well as the V3-a gigantic gun constructed in France by the Nazis, powered by a series of detonations along its length. If it had ever been fired, it would have burst.
I remember reading about a key-cum-pistol that nineteenth century jailers used to use. That's pretty weird too.
I'd like to mention the Pykrete carriers
Posts #22 & #24 ~;)
I've written some threads in other military forums about all kinds of odd WW2 stuff but unfortunately they have been lost. A brief recap from what I can remember off the top of my head:
The Germans produced a device to allow some weapons shoot around corners. It was pretty much a curved tube that attached to the end of some rifles that would angle the bullet around in an arc. Not many were made and they were mainly used to allow tank commanders to hit enemies who were hiding alongside the tank. They came in various degrees of curvature which I believe included 15o, 30o, 45o and 60o. They wore out very quickly due to stress on the barrel. Pictures and more info: http://collections.iwm.org.uk/server/show/ConWebDoc.988
German mousewheel style recon tank. A single person tank that was essentially a giant armored ball with a slit to allow the driver to see. It was designed to move over almost any terrain with ease.
German mine roller tank that essentially a PkII raised above the ground on ridiculously thick treads. It rolled through minefields and exploded mines beneth its treads, which were so massive as to be unaffected by the devices. See far bottom left picture on this page: http://www.tankmuseum.ru/p6.html
American Skeleton tank - Unusual idea explored after WWI. The idea was to make a tank that was mostly empty air so that enemy fire would go through it without hitting anything. I don't need to explain why this project never got very far.
http://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/U...eletonTank.jpg
The New Zealand Bob Semple Tank - The worst tank every built. Rather than explain why, just read the first entry on this page: http://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/n...ewzealand.html
The French FCM F1. Ridiculously large tank that would have outclassed even the German Tiger with a 120mm main gun... yet it was designed in 1940 and only failed to be built due to the German invasion.
http://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/france/Fra-FCMF1.jpg
Multiturret tanks - Many examples, but some got a bit extreme in the interwar years. I believe the Soviet T35 had something like 5-7 independently moving turrets and the Germans had a 5 turreted tank as well.
Rheintochter R I - Yep, a SAM missile made by the Germans in WW2.
http://luddite.net/dori/albums/airspace/IMG_0101.jpg
That's only a small part of the stuff I posted, but that's all I can remember off the top of my head.
Whilst not magically turning it into a battlefield master, a bit of history from the NZ viewpoint in 1940 will explain the reason for this beast:Quote:
The New Zealand Bob Semple Tank - The worst tank every built. Rather than explain why, just read the first entry on this page:
Due to the nature of the dateline, NZ declared war before the Mother Country on 3 September 1939.
We had the bulk of our 2 NZ expeditionary force (1 NZEF was to WWI) in Egypt by late Feb 1940.
NZ is almost exactly on the other side of the planet from the UK.
Colonial defence was concentrated on places like Singapore & India.
In 1940 our navy was busy doing stuff like helping sink the Graf Spee.
Japan was expanding southward fast.
Several ships were sunk in NZ coastal waters by German mines & commerce raiders that year.
NZ was (& remains) a largely agricultural country with very limited industrial capacity.
The US didn't join the war till nearly 2 years later.
In that context you can understand how a few tractors with some armour & machine guns sounded like a pretty good idea.
http://www.lonesentry.com/articles/maus/
The german maus, a very large super heavy tank, never saw action though.
*Slaps forehead* DOH!!! It was so obvious... Yet we all seemed to forget it. We couldn't see the tree for the forest.Quote:
Originally Posted by faisal
According to the radio documentary about corrugated iron which I just heard, that is actually corrugated iron that is armouring the Bob Semple...
Landkreuzer P-1000 "Ratte", which didn´t even make it to prototype status, though I´d like to have seen one.~D
Saw something on the History Channel recently about the US trying to produce flying saucer technology back in the cold war era. After several failed prototypes they got craft to hover low over the ground, though grass and sand caused problems (getting into the air intakes). They also had problems with stability and control as they tried to get it higher and were thinking it would need to be spinning to work. Then funding was cut before it got any further.
Ajax
Rock & Roll was a weird weapon of the Cold War :thrasher:
Elk cavalry. No, seriously. Carolus XI of Sweden (reigned in late 1700s, and generally considered the most competent ruler of the dynasty as both his dad and son were bit of war maniacs) seriously liked the animals, and had a lot of them roaming around the vast woodlands of his kingdom (Swedish rulers long found them useful royal gifts to the rulers of less arboreal lands). He eventually hatched the idea of using the big, fast critters as cavalry mounts and, being the king, went and set up a test unit. Neither the animals nor the soldiers proved very cooperative (and the somewhat hunchbacked physique of the elks didn't help at all); after several incidents of broken bones and zero progress the project was quietly dropped.