{"id":3463,"date":"2018-06-30T08:00:29","date_gmt":"2018-06-30T08:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schoolshistory.org.uk\/topics\/?p=3463"},"modified":"2018-06-29T21:45:16","modified_gmt":"2018-06-29T21:45:16","slug":"weird-weapons-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schoolshistory.org.uk\/topics\/weird-weapons-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Weird Weapons Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week we began a series of posts about weird and bizzare weapons that have been used around the world at various points in time. Here\u2019s the next installment of Weird Weapons.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Gauntlet Dagger<\/strong><\/p>\n

At first glance you might think that the Gauntlet Dagger below, is a nasty bit of kit from the late Middle Ages<\/a>. You\u2019d be wrong, it\u2019s from the First World War<\/a>!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

It\u2019s intended for close quarters, hand to hand combat. I can\u2019t say that I\u2019m shocked that it didn\u2019t catch on too much!<\/p>\n

German Trench Club<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"German<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s often forgotten that there was a lot of hand to hand fighting in The First World War. Far too much emphasis on the machine gun and artillery in my opinion. Trench Raids were conducted by all sides in the war. They were designed to gather intelligence, capture prisoners or to take out one specific target. The raids would invariably result in close quarters fighting in which use of firearms could endanger your own comrades. As a reslt Clubs such as the German one above were often carried by raiding parties.<\/p>\n

The Flaming Pig<\/strong><\/p>\n

Really.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"pig\"<\/p>\n

In 266BC the Greek City of Megara was under assault by the Macedonians. As the Macedonian forces got closer to Megara the defenders launched an attack of their fearsome new weapon. Flaming Pigs. The pigs were coated in resin, herded in the direction of the Macedonians and then set alight. The Pigs charged the Macedonian line causing fire and totally disrupting the assault. Of course the use of the Flaming Pig had it\u2019s drawbacks: how do you aim a burning pig? They can, and often did, run in the wrong direction resulting in burning your own soldiers.<\/p>\n

Keeping with the animal theme \u2013 The Bat Bomb<\/strong><\/p>\n

This one never made it to the battlefield but was in the late stages of testing at the end of the Second World War. The idea was first mooted to the military by Lytle Adams. He proposed to place small timed explosive devices on bats which could then be dropped out of planes over Japanese Cities. The bats would naturally go and find somewhere to rest \u2013 ie Japanese buildings and then kerboom, and incendiary device would go off. The idea was adopted in 1942 and President Roosevelt asked for it to be tested. After several failed test runs the marines managed a successful raid on a mock village. However the Atomic Bombs were dropped shortly afterwards and the Bat Bomb was no longer needed,<\/p>\n

\"Bat<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

You will notice that the bomb is quite large when considering the size of the bat. this was perfectly possible as the bat can carry weights well above their own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week we began a series of posts about weird and bizzare weapons that have been used around the world at various points in time. Here\u2019s the next installment of Weird Weapons. The Gauntlet Dagger At first glance you might think that the Gauntlet Dagger below, is a nasty bit of kit from the late… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3665,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t