Special weapons?

[Penitent]

I was reading about all sorts of amazing things they came up with in world war 2 the other day. Pole-grenades, sticky bombs and kamikaze tank-hunting dogs with mines strapped to their backs!

Yes, Britain came up with a grenade that could stick to tanks through virtue of a sticky outer shell, the only problem being it could stick to their hand instead. And the japanese came up with the idea of attaching grenades to the end of very long poles, the problem being that they had to pull the pin off the grenade when it was 6 metres away.

But the russians take gold, suicide dogs! They trained dogs to think there was food under tanks, then cleverly placed mines on their backs. In their first real test against the german armour the russians made an unfortunate error though, they trained the dogs to think there was food under russian tanks... Sent a whole armoured company into retreat or something apparently.

So, what zany experimental weapons did the americans and germans come up with, what went wrong with them, and how could they be used as a unit for company of heroes? :p

[Maximus Decimus]

Yes, Britain came up with a grenade that could stick to tanks through virtue of a sticky outer shell, the only problem being it could stick to their hand instead. And the japanese came up with the idea of attaching grenades to the end of very long poles, the problem being that they had to pull the pin off the grenade when it was 6 metres away

lol!! well for CoH you could have a string attached to the pin.. but I think it would be rather cheesy. The sticky bombs are feasible. When activated it should have a chance of sticking to the soldier where by him and his unit recieve damage from the blast when it goes off.

Regarding suicide dogs, thats horrible

[Penitent]

Going OT here, but this confuses me; Why, in the same breath, do people laugh at the misfortune of humans, and then mellow out on the following reference to animal cruelty?

[Maximus Decimus]

I didn't mean to offend anyone, I was being rather light mannered about the entire ordeal.

[Penitent]

I didn't find it offensive, just an interesting observation that many people react like that.

[n0z3k1ll3r]

So, what zany experimental weapons did the americans and germans come up with, what went wrong with them, and how could they be used as a unit for company of heroes?Well the German's invented the Goliath tank, a very very small remote controlled tank that drove under other tanks then blew up.

[No Surrender]

That's just the tip of the ice berg. There was a Soviet experiment involving monkeys, jet packs and grenades for tank hunting...

I doubt any of these weapons will make it into the game thought. They just weren't practical enough to be used.

[n0z3k1ll3r]

The Goliath is in Forgotten Hope on a few maps.

[Scribble]

Actually: the soviet use of the exploding dogs was rather effective. It had a notable effect on german moral and was effective enough that the nazi's shot every dog they came across.

[Ammon Ra]

And thus the russians used cats, but since they utterly suck and are untrainable, well, the program went poof. quite literaly ;) Yes poor people and dogs...:'(

THe british created the "funnies" , a series of tanks purpose built for specific purposes. i.e. the uk flame tank, the de-miner, the tank that could move over mines and not trigger them, and other various interesting things.

[IcecreamLtDan]

The Americans did experiment with the use of pigeons and bats to carry small incendiary bombs and as a sort of guided bomb.

[Noir]

Hhhhmmmm...

How about just HVAP/APCR ammo for tanks? :\

[Scribble]

Yup: there was a full scale program to use pigeons as the control crentre of 'cruise missiles'.... genious :D

[CrazyThumbs]

The Germans had the Maus and the E-100 tank series, but neither of them saw service. these tanks were huge
http://pedg.org/panzer/public/website/pz7.htm#maus the Maus
hmm can't find ipicks of the E-100

[n0z3k1ll3r]

The Americans did experiment with the use of pigeons and bats to carry small incendiary bombs and as a sort of guided bomb.Ah the infamous Bat Bombs. Pity they all got out in the hangar...

Didn't one Maus actually see action? The other was captured semi built by the Russian advance, I know that, and its in a museum in Moscow if I recall correctly.

[CrazyThumbs]

I heard all the Maus tanks were blown up by the Germans before the Russians could take the factory, and i'm prett ysure none of them saw action.

[KON Air]

IIRC there were two Prototype Maus tank. One of did had field tests, probably fired a shot or two and destroyed by Germans, I guess other one was never built completely, that is in Moscow now.

[The Collector]

Special weapons? At best, offthemap artillery. Nebelwerfers would be nice...

[Sandwichwarrior]

I read somewhere that the Germans did use one of the Maus prototypes but the company had to abbandon it because it was too heavy to cross a bridge. they ended up blowing it up rather than letting the russians get it.

As for your special weapons...

The british had all sorts of wierd tank variants. (saw a picture of one with big robotic arms for ripping up trees and buildings)

Americans built "amphibs" not a big deal now but pretty crazy at the time. Not to mention hundreds of funky experimental aircraft.

And the Germans had Jets + Crazy Huge Guns/Tanks

The Panzer IV was built by Volkswagon :hippy:
Get happy

[ÜberJumper]

The germans had teleoperated anti-ship glide bombs.

[Cailet]

Those worked pretty damn well they did.

[pinkyclown]

The americans made a tanke that could swim in to shor but on D DAY all but 2 sank

[Sandwichwarrior]

well the tanks were underpowered and probably should never have been taken out in open water. but the Amtrack (Amphibious Tractor) was a resonding sucess and is the basis for most modern APCs.

[White_13oy]

I remember reading this book, somehting on the line of Weapons of World War II or Secret weapons... Anyway is said the German scientist experimanted with a super freezing cannon, where it would litteraly throw - degree temps out onato the battlefiled freezing everything it touched. the was also the Baer "Bear" tank which was supposed to be massive. has anyone noticed the Germans liked naming tanks after animals.

oh and on the subject of the bats used by the Americans they used bats with incenerary devises against Japan because Japanese build were made of paper and wood. but it didnt really work because when the bats got up in the air they got all dis-orriented becasue they were to high up. ala the planes altatude.