The Second World War witnessed the introduction of hundreds of cutting-edge and often bizarre weapons, many of which became quite famous. But there were plenty of others that never got the same kind of notoriety. Here are 11 weapons from WWII you probably never knew existed. Before we get started, it's worth noting that all of the weapons listed here were put into action during the war. There were a ton of crazy and highly conceptual weapons that were considered, but never deployed. These ones, on the other hand, were actually put to use. Like the V1 cruise missile and the V2 rocket that preceded it, the Vergeltungswaffe 3 Cannon was another so-called Nazi "vengeance weapon." It was a massive super gun built directly into a hill and capable of firing artillery shells across the English Channel from France to London. The V3 operated according to a multi-charge principle in which secondary propellant charges were fired to progressively accelerate the projectile as it moved along the barrel of the cannon. During trials in May 1944, the V3 achieved a range of up to 55 miles, and tests in July 1944 saw shells reach a distance of 58 miles . Of the two V3s built, only the secondary gun saw action. From January 11 to February 22, 1945, some 183 rounds were fired. It's target was the recently liberated city of Luxembourg. But it proved to be largely ineffectual; of the 142 rounds that landed, the V3 took the lives of only 10 people, wounding another 35. Speaking of big guns — and the Nazis clearly had a thing for big guns — these two 31.5-inch caliber German cannons were absolute behemoths. And in fact, they are the largest cannons the world has ever seen. Each of them had to be transported in several pieces, assembled, and then mounted on a prepared emplacement — a procedure that required around 4,000 men! The Nazis deployed an entire anti-aircraft regiment to protect them, along with special troops to guard against partisan attacks. Of the two, only Gustav was put into active service. It fired 42 shots during the 1942 siege of Sebastopol — and the penetrative power of its huge shells, each weighing 11,000 pounds , was enough to destroy an ammunitions dump protected by 100 feet of rock. There were plans to equip it with rocket-propelled shells that could reach targets as far as 90 miles (145 km) away. Weapons expert Alexander Ludeke refers to them as "technological masterpieces" but says they were "basically a waste of materials, technological expertise, and manpower." After the fall of France, Winston Churchill vowed to "set Europe ablaze." To that end, British secret agents were equipped with an assortment of disguised explosive devices that would have made even James Bond jealous — bombs that were made to look like soap, shoes, bottles of chianti, bicycle pumps, suitcases — and even rats. As the Russians were being overwhelmed on the Eastern Front by the Wehrmacht, the Red Army took to desperate measures — including the use of the so-called anti-tank dog. Initially, these dogs were trained to carry a bomb to a specific target, release the device with its teeth, and then return to its operator. Unfortunately, it was nearly impossible to get the dogs to do this, so the Soviets relied on much simpler strategy: just blow up the dog. Looking to refine the power of the Kamikaze attack, the Japanese introduced the Ohka in September 1944 — a large piloted bomb. A lot of a material in here will be "news" to people. As much as we've seen about World War II, here is information about weapons that I'll bet almost all of us had not heard of before, mainly because they were never employed. Some were really good ideas and some were too far out....but all were interesting. These were all from the Allied side in the war. Pyke was one of those eccentric scientists who had a very intriguing idea that countryman Winston Churchill thought could work. When the allies were losing the North Atlantic seas to the Germans, with many boats being sunk, Pyke came up with the idea of a gigantic ship made out of ice! It would be unsinkable and enable the Allies to neutralize the Germans in that area. This episode details the good and bad points of the idea. The program then shows us several different kinds of weird tanks, some of which worked and some which just couldn't go straight but scary-looking machines. We also see the "Flail Tank" which was used against mines. We see some humongous sized bombs that were built; we see "bouncing bombs," the beginning of napalm, ideas about using pigeons as weapons and even poisonous snakes. Maybe the weirdest idea was to strap little bombs onto a million bats and let them loose on Japan! Many of the ideas presented back then and analyzed on this show turn out to be more practical than they sound. Some of them were almost used but something better came along and they were not needed This is a fascinating documentary, especially for World War II buffs who think they've seen it all.

• published: 15 Jul 2014
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