The Unknown Weapons of World War 2

         World War 2 was known for its mass destruction of countries and people, massacres, strategic bombings, deaths from starvation or disease, the use of nuclear weapons, and so many more dangerous things. With the war, innovation was driven to its peak, as vehicles like tanks, u-boats, and aircraft were commonly used in the war, but it also sparked many weapons to be created that were unknown, weird, and dangerous, used on both sides of the war. With military engineers setting their sights of creating technology that could potentially give their side the advantage, many different weapons were put onto the battlefield while others were never deployed. In this blog, I'll showcase some of the weapons I found that were the most interesting to me.

      The first one that I found, which is very sad was the usage of dogs as weapons of war. Used as a soviet weapon, they used dogs as a mobile explosive, attaching mines that they would detonate when the dogs were in the right position. Mainly used against anti-tank maneuver, they were initially planning to have the dogs carry the explosives with their mouths, and drop them under the tanks, but saw that it would be easier if they just blew the dog up. They would starve the dogs, forcing them to search for food, which would be strategically placed under tanks. While this idea did help destroy Nazi tanks, many dogs became confused on the battlefield, running back to their trainers where they would blow their own Russian troops, or be shot on sight. 

      A more man-made actual weapon, the V-3 was the third interaction of the superguns that the Hilter used to bombard and destroy enemy cities. Designed to bombard London from France across the English Channel, it was supposed to fire 300-600 nine-foot-long dart-shaped shells every hour through a 416-foot tube to accelerate its projection. Hilter planned to produce more than 50 of these guns, but after initial tests that failed to reach the distance of the English Channel, and Allies' raids destroying many of these guns before a single projectile could be fired.

 Another interesting weapon which was used to breach Hitler's Atlantic Wall, the Panjandrum was a cylindrical device that contained two rocket-propelled wheels, ten feet in diameter, joined by a cylinder filled with explosives. Designed by the British, it would be launched from a landing craft and accelerate up the beach to blow a hole in the wall or any other concrete obstacles in its path. However, tests were horrible as the rockets attached to the wheels often failed or detached themselves, making it fly everywhere except where it was supposed to. Sadly, it was never modified after these tests, and never saw the action of the battlefield.

     In the war, hundreds of weapons were drawn-up or created, but the majority of them never past trials or showed poor results in action. Only big named weapons known today made lasting impact into the war.
  
https://www.businessinsider.com/the-5-most-bizarre-weapons-of-world-war-ii-2015-7
https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/second-world-war-weapons-that-failed
https://io9.gizmodo.com/11-jaw-dropping-weapons-from-world-war-ii-you-probably-511010752
https://allthatsinteresting.com/strangest-weapons-world-war-ii