5 Strange Weapons That Somehow Worked

[@Sideprojects]

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[@geneard639]

um. I think the strangest effective weapon I ever heard of was bats strapped with thermal charges with a timed fuse. Sounds stupid, wickedly effective in WWII for setting random numerous fires....all on US Soil during the testing of it, never used and I still wonder why.

[@EggsOverSleazy]

War Pigs, also a great Black Sabbath song.

[@travisinthetrunk]

In the field, the pigs are burning. As the elephant starts turning.

[@TravisTalbot-c7j]

Thanks captian obvious

[@j4s0n39]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/gWTFZ4Z9pLNpmqMsi=GYD-GQLsAlyg8OA3

[@DMJoeBing]

🤘 Yes! Though I do prefer the Walpurgis lyrics, the irony of the War Pigs anti-warmonger lyrics are not lost on me when looking at...weapons of war called War Pigs.

[@888johnmac]

lol , came to the comments looking for this .. thanks

[@robertgarrett5009]

Standing down wind from a nuclear blast would make you get irradiated as wind blows down wind, not upwind.😅

[@markwalker4485]

You noticed that also.

[@joelfarris]

Depends on which way you Sail Away, Sail Away, Sail Away!

[@hughcrandall254]

Thanks what I was thinking. Unless it works differently in Britain.

[@sam1812seal]

@@hughcrandall254same in U.K. Definitely want to be upwind of noxious and hazardous wind carried nastiness. Downwind if you’re creeping up on something you don’t want to smell you.

[@Travenspear8]

“Radiation, everybody.”

[@TrungNguyen-e6e]

The lunge mine was actually used to reasonable effectiveness by the Viet Minh against French forces in the first Indochina War, so much so that a soldier using it has become one of the symbols of our spirit of independence at all cost. As a matter of fact, the picture of the soldier holding the lunge mine in the video was that of a Vietnamese fighter in the battle of Hanoi. This weapon was especially effective in urban engagement in cities like Hanoi, since the narrow streets and building density means that a soldier can spring out practically right next to a tank and detonate his lunge mine before its escort can react. Of course, it is often a suicide attack, and units often hold live funerals for the soldier carrying out the attack. And believe it or not, patriotic ferver was so high that such duty was considered an honor, and people actually volunteered for the job.

[@benx6264]

if you're going to mention the Japanese lunge mine you should have also mentioned the British "Grenade, Hand, Anti-Tank No. 74", aka the "sticky bomb". Exactly what it sounds like. It had 1.25 lbs of explosive in a spherical case that was covered with an adhesive. The adhesive surface was protected by a light metal case. There was a straight wooden handle, rather like a German "potato masher " grenade. When the user pulled a pin on the handle, the casing would fall away and expose the sticky sphere. Pulling another pin armed the bomb and the user could then either throw the bomb or attempt to slap it onto the side of an enemy vehicle. Letting go of the handle released a lever that would activate a five-second fuse.

[@BrianSkinny-n5f]

I THINK Simon has covered this one before. I know I have heard of this explosive before, not a bad idea I gotta admit lol.

[@jim.franklin]

The globe was glass and the handle was "Bakerlite" not wooden. They made over 2.5 million of the bloody things. The Germans countered them in 1943 with a system called Zimmerit, which prevented the grenade attaching to the tank. There was also a reasonable chance that the "sticky" would stick to the uniform of the operator with several thousand accounts of the operator being killed by the grenade - great idea, shit execution.

[@philstothard8333]

Zimmerite had no effect on adhesive grenades, it was intended to prevent magnetic ​grenades adhering to the steel hull @@jim.franklin

[@jim.franklin]

@@philstothard8333 Not according to the Imperial War Museum

[@joelee2371]

​​@@jim.franklin"bakerlite" is correctly spelled "Bakelite" and was an invention Dr Baekland in the early part of the 20th Century. It was highly successful and is still in very common use, as it is both easily moldable and machinable, and VERY highly temperature and chemical resistant, and seems to last forever, and is a very good electrical insulator. You will find it in the handles of light switches, and of pots and pans, knives, etc, and many, many other things. Dr Baekland seems to have checked all the boxes, and Bakelite is truly one of the wonders of the 20th century.

[@Matticus289]

Imagine how delicious the battlefield smelled after scaring off the elephants

[@shanewallace1126]

Not good if it smells anything like burning off the hair of the hide off a wild pig...nasty! 🙃

[@ddoherty5956]

You haven't shovelled much 🐷💩🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@peterstadlmaier3107]

"I like the smell of bacon in the morning! It smells like ... victory!"

[@akizeta]

The bazooka was _not_ a recoilless rifle, since it wasn't _rifled._ Rifling is the grooves down the barrel that makes the rounds spin. The bazooka was just a plain tube, as you can see from the picture you put up at 8:42. You said you wanted to be pedantic.

[@MegaMons123]

so a clean bore rifle is not a rifle?

[@akizeta]

@@MegaMons123 That's right. That's why the M60 tank's 105mm M68 gun is rifled and the M1 _Abrams_ tank has a 120mm smoothbore.

[@ProbablyNotLegit]

So it was a recoilless shotgun under UK law and thus if the projectile is made to be less than 2" diameter, you can technically own one with a shotgun license lmao

[@peterstadlmaier3107]

"Most recoilless weapons are guns, of which many have smoothbore barrels. The term ‘recoilless rifle’ is frequently-but erroneously-used to denote this type of weapons system, whereas it is actually a sub-set of a larger whole" [Small Arms Survey - Research Notes No.55]

[@vendasch666]

It was recoilles firearm.

[@seanmalloy7249]

The Seventy Maxims of Highly Effective Mercenaries #43: If it's stupid and it works, it's still stupid, and you're lucky. The segment on the Davy Crockett reminds me of the jokes about the nuclear hand grenade the US was putatively developing. It would blow a hole in the ground a hundred yards across, but they were having a devil of a time testing it, because you could only throw it about forty feet. With regard to early rapid-fire weapons, I would direct you to the Kalthoff repeating flintlock, which was actually used in combat in 1659; it was a 30-shot weapon that would be reloaded -- including re-priming the action -- by rotating the trigger guard forward and back, allowing for another shot in less than five seconds (there is a Forgotten Weapons video on the subject of this firearm with more detail). Unfortunately, it was far to complicated to build to be a viable choice for a regular infantry weapon, so it faded into history, although it shows that the 30-round magazine capacity that appears to be standard for assault rifles has an unusually long history.

[@EK14MeV]

💡💡💡💡 The video producer somewhat bungled the lethality of the Davy Crockett launch system’s atomic warheads. It was flux of NEUTRONS that was very lethal in the design to take out Soviet troops inside armored tanks and armored troop carriers. The neutrons could easily penetrate the armor and end the troops in minutes. The neutron spread was much greater than the blast damage. Yet whether the 10 or 100 tons versions yields, that’s a lot of damage too. The design was to stop a massive onslaught of Soviet armor through the Fulda Valley that bridges the former E and W Germany with these radiological bursts.

[@akizeta]

Actually, it was the gamma and X-ray radiation. The neutron flux was only about 10% of the total radiation flux. Small nukes produce a greater radiation flux in proportion than larger nukes, as the atmosphere absorbs radiation at a fixed rate of half per ~40 metres. In large nukes this means that the prompt radiation effects are overwhelmed by the thermal effects of the atmosphere absorbing the radiation. With smaller weapon yields, less radiation is absorbed to make the fireball. The first neutron radiation-enhanced warhead was deployed on the _Sprint_ ABM missile, which is a weapon worth an episode all by itself. (If there hasn't been one already.)

[@EK14MeV]

@ No. X-rays and gamma rays don’t go far in atmosphere, and are ineffective with quick kills of armored vehicle personnel. Recall that bone stops lots of X-rays. They also don’t go far beyond the fireball at lower altitude in denser air, since X-rays produce most of fireball heating. Gamma rays produce relatively low biological absorption which is why alpha, beta, and gamma rays have different scales of bodily absorption, with gamma the lowest rate by far. The actual weapon nuclear reaction is microseconds in duration. Gamma rays require persistent exposure to produce harm, which why 10 millirems were the acceptable exposure limit during atmospheric testing. It’s NEUTRONS that the most lethal by far. They also move the farthest from ground zero, easily penetrate tank armor, and cause ready damage to tissues inside tanks.

[@akizeta]

@@EK14MeV But the _Davy Crockett's_ W54 is a very low-yield warhead, so the fireball and concussion are very much smaller than the area the radiation affects. Half of 1 MeV gamma rays are stopped by 88 metres of air. That's a constant rate, regardless of the yield of the warhead. _Tsar Bomba_ didn't have much of a radiation effect because the fireball was 8 kilometres across, so the gamma radiation was halved 45-ish times before it even reached the radius of the fireball. Conversely, the W54's fireball was only 18 metres across (as per Simon), so only ~1% of the gamma was absorbed in that radius. You could survive the blast and heat of the _Davy Crockett_ only to get a lethal dose of gamma and X-ray, whereas most modern warheads will incinerate you without the radiation having as much affect. You don't need to invoke neutron radiation for the W54, gamma and X-ray would have done the job just fine. Go visit the Nukemap site and experiment with the _Davy Crockett_ warhead, and others, and note the size of the radiation rings compared to concussion and thermal radii for the different yields.

[@EK14MeV]

@akizeta You're restating my arguments.

[@akizeta]

@@EK14MeV No, I'm saying that the radiation wasn't from neutrons, as you emphatically stated in your initial comment. And by implication the W54 wasn't an enhanced radiation weapon; the radiation was simply the result of the physics of a very small yield nuclear weapon.

[@AlexanderSchreiber]

Slight correction, Rule 43: If it's stupid and it works, it's still stupid and you're lucky.

[@petiertje]

That lantern shield looks like a more lethal variant of riot gear. A line of 4-7 guards with those shield can easily hold off an angry group of 'rascals' of the day I imagine. That would be my first thought by just looking at it.

[@nuclearmedicineman6270]

I'd assume the utility of warpigs was discovered by accident; someone just happened to be out setting pigs on fire, as people are wont to do, and one of them happened to run towards a nearby elephant causing it to panic.

[@coltringcoltring7448]

Did the Davy Crockett come with a pack of Nuka Cola?

[@johngeorge9714]

Fatman right?

[@TomFarrell-p9z]

I'm suprised you didn't cover the old plastique explosive between two lithium batteries trick. Hezbolla fell for it two times in one week!

[@peter-radiantpipes2800]

Didn’t they just replace one of the lithium batters with explosives? There’s a vid of them doing it. Def worked though!

[@urgardista]

That's not how it worked. It was much more clever. No visually detectable explosives. They used those pagers and radios for several months. Nobody detected it.

[@Raz0rking]

Operation Grim Beeper is spy movie stuff

[@NicholasSnow-c4e]

They basically did yeah. The explosive plus the lithium flare = relatively large fireball explosion. ​@@peter-radiantpipes2800

[@oliverlaw02]

@@peter-radiantpipes2800 Yes, the Israeli terrorist pager attack, blew off the face of a 9-year-old girl its youngest victim out of 300 people.

[@beauthestdane]

After the war pigs have done their job you have bacon... Win Win.

[@matthewcox7985]

And ham, pork chops, spare ribs...

[@wittsullivan8130]

John Moses Browning's dad, John Browning, was also a famous gunsmith in his day, mostly making high quality hunting rifles, but he also built some harmonica guns. They required close tolerances so you wouldn't have multiple chambers going off at once. There were also flintlocks that had multiple breeches where you would fire a round, slide the lock back a notch to a fresh charge and ball, prime the pan, fire that, and then repeat up to six or so times. There were also "automatic" and "semi-automatic" flintlock rifles and pistols that had a revolving cylinder. The shooter would cock the hammer, the cylinderf would rotate and line up a charge and ball with the bore, a powder measure would prime the pan during the motion of the cock (which held the flint). The user would fire and pull back the cock which primed the pan and rotated the cylinder to the next shot. Later models were simplified so the operator would have to rotate the cylinder by hand but the pan was still charged by a powder measure when the cock was pulled back. And then the guns were simplified even more where the user had to charge the pan like a regular flintlock after he manually rotated the cylinder. The pistols like this are VERY scarce, less than two dozen left in the world at best guess. Samuel Colt bought the patent for them in the UK and destroyed it so he could claim he invented the revolver. He sought out those earlier pistols and destroyed them.

[@echomande4395]

I'm missing such contraptions as the turret gun. This is effectively a black powder revolver, but the chambers are in a horizontal disk instead of a cylinder. One of the chambers was pointed forward and the others in various other directions, including back at the operator. Some of the british WWII Home Guard creations should probably also go here. The Blacker Bombard and the sticky bomb (formally Grenade, Hand, Anti-Tank No. 74; an antitank grenade covered in glue) come to mind.

[@88porpoise]

The Blacker Bombard probably would be excluded by the working part. As far as I can tell it was pretty well recognized as being useless militarily, but Churchill forced through its adoption to boost morale. It would eventually lead to the PIAT however.

[@ignitionfrn2223]

0:25 - Chapter 1 - War pigs 2:55 - Mid roll ads 4:15 - Back to the video 5:30 - Chapter 2 - Lantern shield 8:10 - Chapter 3 - The nuclear bazooka 12:40 - Chapter 4 - Ye olde fast firing guns 16:00 - Chapter 5 - Lunge mine

[@cousinfester4621]

That jet was ejecting flares, not chaff. There is a big difference.

[@kirknay]

In aviation, most flare boxes also include chaff among the ejected contents.

[@williamwood5947]

Exploding chaff, HOLY CRAP!!!

[@blkspade23]

The clip was flares, the purpose is the same either way. Not getting hit by a missile of some description. At an early enough period of time or with certain planes, you couldn't be sure which was coming.

[@patrickw9520]

​@@kirknayyup, some use dual purpose countermeasure charges. Some missiles have dual mode terminal phase guidance 💁‍♂️

[@bobdadnaila7708]

Jets typically deploy both chaff (confuses radar guided weapons) and flares (confuses infrared guided weapons) oftentimes employing BOTH regardless of the threat presented.

[@state_song_xprt]

14:18 while the volley gun dates back to the 15th century, that particular image is of a French Mitrilluse, which didn't come around until the later half of the 19th century

[@chrisforsyth8323]

Poor Montigny gets no respect...

[@Pootycat8359]

One clever "weird weapon" that would have been effective, at least under certain circumstances, is described in Maj.-Gen. Julian Hatcher's "Hatcher's Notebook." It consisted of a powerful motor with a disk attached, and a hopper that dropped 1/2 in. steel balls onto the spinning disk. The balls would achieve a velocity similar to that of a .45 ACP round, and be released. It had a very high rate of fire, and was intended for use in the trenches of WWI. It was rejected for service, I think, because its accuracy was poor, and its range & penetration much less than that of bullets from a machinegun. It might have been effective against massed attacks at close range, such as what the Germans experienced on Russian Front in WWII.

[@lairdcummings9092]

It was actually built, using steam to drive the disk. It was an utter failure. Ineffective in all respects, in every use case they could imagine. Heavy, bulky, dependant on external power sources, slow to spin up to useable velocity, and completely inaccurate. So, no.

[@Pootycat8359]

@@lairdcummings9092 What I know about it comes from Hatcher's book. He didn't have much to say, beyond its principle of operation. And I read about it, over four decades ago, so maybe I've forgotten some of what he said. As for accuracy, it would certainly have been a "spray" kind of weapon, kind of like grape-shot from a muzzle-loading cannon, or sweeping fire, from the hip, with a SMG.

[@芦白龙]

"Come on in and take my Shittt!!" This is the best intro for a sponsor, I was laughing so much 🤣

[@2ndTooth]

The Davey Crockett was used as a major part of the plot in the game Metal Gear Solid 3. The game starts out with a American soldier defecting to the Soviet Union with a Davey Crockett and they use it by name. Your character is tasked with finding the nuke and defector at the start of the game.

[@philiphumphrey1548]

Multi barreled guns similar to the pepper box are still in use. The A10 Warthog ground attack aircraft uses a rotary autocannon. The advantage of multiple barrels is a faster fire rate and it means that any individual barrel fires fewer bullets/shells in the given time, reducing the risk of overheating.

[@josephhargrove4319]

"Wallace and Grommit-esque contraptions" Have Wallace and Grommit now replaced Rube Goldberg as the progenitors of strange, fascinating, but ultimately useless, ineffectual mechanical solutions? richard --

[@Panzermech]

12:39 When discussing the Davey Crockett weapons system it's just best "suspend disbelief", like in a bad sci-fi movie and ignore radiation.

[@dcsteve7869]

I love the argument that "the founders couldn't have imagined rapid fire weapons when they wrote the 2nd amendment" yet the same founders actually considered using the Belton repeating flintlock rifle during the Revolutionary War and the Lorenzoni had a "large capacity magazine" of 30 rounds decades before the Revolutionary war

[@philiphumphrey1548]

With the elephants, a simpler method was to use archers (or bolt throwers which were giant crossbows). The arrows didn't kill the beasts but hurt/annoyed them enough to drive them mad and start them running amok among their own troops.

[@Karagianis]

10:56 You got that the wrong way round, down wind means the wind is blowing "down" from the bomb to where you are. It's like upstream and downstream on a river, up is against the flow, down is moving with it. Also the biggest problem with the Davey Crockett wasn't so much irradiating the crew so much as the fact it was a SUPPORT WEAPON. Meaning you'd have to have friendly troops IN FRONT OF IT, between the crew and the enemy army. Given the short range, and need to not drop it on your own front line the whole system would need to be dangerously close to the front lines. You were not going to be able to fire this thing from a position where you didn't have to worry about things like snipers, or even just mortar teams killing the crew of hitting the ammo around the weapon irradiating everyone in the surrounding area.

[@frankfedison5203]

Love the Monty Python falsetto: "Wait....is that an explosive on a stick?!" 😂😂😂

[@foxglow6798]

Actually some of the best coverage of the Davy Crockett I’ve seen. Well done Simon.

[@jeffmccrea9347]

The Davie C. Rockett system would be immediately fatal to someone standing behind it.

[@joebarnett6903]

Ngl, 2 weapons I hoped to see mentioned where the flintlock axe (used by Polish cavalry for roughly 200yrs so it definitely had some serious merit and was a real life gunblade) and the kaltoff rifle (basically history's first ever repeating firearm)

[@Samson-h6l]

Technically the Kaltoff Repeater was not a rifle (smooth bore)

[@TommyH-b2w]

​@@Samson-h6l agreed. That said, itll deff cause a minimum of a very bad day

[@Harrington2323]

A lot of ancient weapons in use by common soldiers were reforged for more "modern" weapons. The weapons that survived to this day were often the best weapons used by nobels or royals or stuff that was a trophy. Another thing is that "armys" in wartime often consisted of a small core of professional soldiers and the rest were conscripted peasants that had to provide their own weapons or got some really cheap stuff just good enough not breaking even before battle. It´s the same problem with old buildings. The stone were often used multiple times or used as foundation for the next building. One of the most important findings of all times was the Rosetta Stone. A stone inscripted with a decree in three languages later used to translate "forgotten" languages. This stone was found by soldiers during building works in a fortress.

[@Andrew-n9g2n]

Bacon bomb😂

[@flowleopard893]

😂 When you want to take care of the enemy and after battle snacks in one go.

[@peterking8586]

Tanks also support each other. Tanks are impervious to machine gun, so if a tank in your troop was getting overrun by infantry you’d just machine gun that tank.

[@richtravis9562]

Kudos on finding that vertical harmonica pistol; they were super rare for some reason and images of them are, also.

[@jokwonpope1561]

We didn’t talk about the gay bomb they tried to make in ‘94 that costed 7.4M

[@omgandwtf1]

I seem to recall references in many medieval fiction novels, to using pigs herded into a tunnel dug under the enemies wall, then under the wall trapped inside and set on fire, possibly along with wood and straw. The reasoning was something like the intense heat of the burning fat from the pig would cause the ground above to collapse somehow and with it the wall. I don't know if this really happened though.

[@Gear3k]

Most likely didn't. Undermining the wall while propping it up with wooden supports, and then burning the supports to collapse the wall was done often, but you don't need pigs for that. I guess it's possible rendered pig fat was sometimes involved, though. Furthermore, supplies are your main time limit when laying a siege. Many sieges failed because the people outside the walls ran out of food first. Nobody would've burned their food to achieve an effect you can get with some pitch and a torch.

[@stancil83]

Sideprojects: "Who knows? It was a long time ago. Go ask Megaprojects"

[@kpolenz9772]

Might be an English to American thing, BUT- If you're upwind of something, the wind is blowing from you to whatever. If you're downwind, whatever is blowing onto you.

[@theprofessionalfence-sitter]

For something more modern, Germany is currently developing a missile intended to be fired from a submarine's torpedo tubes to shoot down helicopters.

[@mbathroom1]

Last time I was this early, we just had sticks and stones

[@somerandom3257]

And we had to share the rock!

[@TUKByV1]

Wait-you guys have sticks?

[@perstaunstrup3451]

As for the Davy Crocket; I would feel skeptical being asked to operate any weapon named after a person who died in a last-stand operation, might as well have called it Custer… Americans sometimes have very strange naming conventions, like the oil platform Blind Faith…

[@ChrisFarrell]

Not to be pedantic, but the M20 Super Bazooka was in service in Korea in 1950 and used in the defense of the Busan Perimeter. So a bit before 1952.

[@robertlogan5354]

7:40 that looks like it's more dangerous to the user than anything. can't put your arm down to the side, can't tuck it behind your shield, can't move the shield to the side to see to stab the other guy and still stab him with the 'free' hand...

[@yutakago1736]

War pigs are similar concept as fire ox formation in Ancient China. The Ox have knifes tied to their horns and their tails are set on fire. When the large number of ox charge into the enemy formation. It create chaos and heavy casualties. The Japanese lunge mine can be effective in China because the Chinese Nationalist armored unit are inexperience and didn't have infantry support. The Japanese lunge mine can be effective in jungle ambush or night time ambush.

[@launis2000]

In Danish, 'recoilless rifles' are called (directly translatet) 'nozzle canons'. 😏

[@texrifleman]

The Davey Crocket weapon system was designed to fight various type of kaiju. And was theorized to be effective against Eastern Deities.

[@Maelthras]

Elephants trained to fight armoed people were probably often fed by woman that wore no armor, so perhaps them saying the elephants would not attack a woman was because of something like the women fed them.

[@Narangarath]

"In case you were wondering" No, it's the imperial Japan, I don't think any of us were wondering. OF COURSE it killed the operator too.

[@TheHGP3]

The up wind, down wind for the Davey Crockett was stated incorrectly. Like a stream, the way it flows. Up wind (the wind is blowing away from you = Safe) Down wind (the wind is blowing in your direction = Oh No we're F'ed)

[@davidstecchi9501]

The "Lunge mine" is simply an updated petard.

[@sircliffordmalcolmjac5870]

Anything with Simon gets an automatic thumbs up in my book!!😁😁💪💪

[@GameOpsDevStyle]

As I clicked on this, I said to myself "Aha, the Davey Crockett". I do enjoy a Davy Crockett tactical nuke reference

[@genericusername5909]

So the Davy Crockett had like two b52’s worth of conventional bombs but with the added risk of global nuclear escalation. Smart use of funds

[@poonoi1968]

War pigs! That is so funny when I'm high. Just picture it...a long time ago somewhere horrible... "Commander, I have an idea. Not only will it turn the battle, it will smell delicious"

[@kadoj]

Have you ever set living mammals ablaze without a second thought and sent them running into no mans land in order to terrify other, larger mammals who wish to kill you...... On weeeeeed, man?

[@Maelthras]

Towers are dark and the shield would be very useful for going up stairs in the dark.

[@bysshe51]

The nuclear bazooka was also featured in Starship Troopers 😂

[@dorianthegrey2685]

Got your upwind and downwind reversed, Simon

[@AndrewC.McPherson-xf5zw]

Blunderbust barrel full of broken kitchen utensils and bits taken from the blacksmith's floor good for clearing decks

[@Adiscretefirm]

I would think caltrops would be especially effective against elephants

[@zedeyejoe]

How about the Girardoni air rifle of 1780. Magazine fed with 20 round magazine, at a time when most soldiers were using single shot muzzle loaders.

[@AndrewC.McPherson-xf5zw]

Xmas eve with Simon...lol ❤

[@wittsullivan8130]

They weren't so worried so much with the Davy Crockett since there's a video of it being demonstrated to JFK and other dignitaries.

[@TheDrNinjaman]

How do modern elephants react to modern pigs? Surely we could at least observe whether it was reasonable to expect that war pigs would be as disruptive as the accounts indicate.

[@swoop1352]

@11:00 You've got upwind and downwind the wrong way round.

[@DrDezaro]

11:20 did you just get up wind and down wind confused? If you release a gas it flows down wind. So you’d want to be up wind of the enemy, for the wind to carry the gas down wind to the enemy. Hence you want to be up wind of the direct you fire a Davey Crocket.

[@israelborrerojr9772]

So Fallout having that Fat Boy launcher isnt so outrageous.

[@ddoherty5956]

Thats a hell of a knuckle duster 🤣🤣🤣

[@ewok40k]

Lantern shield looks like shotgun or smg with tactical flashlight attached. Maybe for some more elite guards? Mediwval SWAT anyone?

[@jayfriberg2789]

So Elephants don't like Southern BBQ?

[@Chris_Garman]

A recoilless rifle is not the same as a rocket. It is more like a bullet that shoots both ways.

[@philiphumphrey1548]

According to Newton's laws, a genuinely recoil-less gun would have to throw something out of the back with equivalent energy to the bullet going out of the front. If that doesn't happen, all a "recoil-less" gun can do is effectively cushion the recoil so that a smaller backwards force is transmitted to the user's shoulder for longer. Some designs of muzzle brakes (as used in tanks) are supposed to reduce recoil by throwing some of the combustion gases backwards.

[@vonneely1977]

Incindiary pigs are nifty units in Rome Total War, though not as useful as war dogs.

[@nfuryboss]

Simon, AIR-2 Genie air-to-air unguided missile would be another mini-nuke in addition to Davvy Crocket. Wonder if you could do a video on AIR-2 Genie

[@outsider7658]

As usual, thank`s for a entertaining video. The Japanese "Anti Tank" device, is as silly as Your PIAT! You had, almost, poke it to a tank, to make it work. And, as You said, also a "contraption", forgotten in history. What a joke, not a offence, just a thought from a engineer. from a Finn in Diaspora

[@jonharvey6277]

Ah yes the pepper box invented by one Percival Frederickstein Von Musel Klossowski De Rolo III

[@Dagashi6669]

Did you confuse "upwind" and "downwind"?? Otherwise I'm fricken confused....

[@heyarno]

Maybe the shield for home defence in a dark castle.

[@CTP909]

18:48 Late in the war indeed if the Japanese didn't introduce them until 1954

[@gandydancer9710]

0:59 "Abjectly terrifying"? Sorry, not the right modifier.

[@garyclark3843]

Da-vy, Da-vy Crockett, king of the fighting retreat.

[@grahamseabrook4954]

You will have to be upwind of the nuclear blast, Simon, not downwind.

[@johnandrewmayne]

Several other countries have tactical nuclear weapons like this. Including Russia.

[@maccurtis730]

War Pigs 🐘: "Help me it 🥓🥓🥓!"

[@Raz0rking]

I hope, the flying ginsu is included in the list.

[@AndrewC.McPherson-xf5zw]

Safe as long as you wore those goggles.

[@dearthditch]

Imagine your embarrassment as the launch mechanism of your nuclear bazooka fizzles 😅

[@vendasch666]

I knew Davy Crockett will make it to the list!

[@nuru666]

"Lunge Mines" aka the Unsubscribe from Life Sticks. Goes to show just how insanely desperate the Japanese were late war and how dangerous a radicalized society is.

[@derictripp9245]

We were told any ridiculously smaller creatures when they would get frantic and .are noise it would spook an elephant back then mice pigs certain birds and they would cause them to freak out !

[@blkspade23]

So it would seem every Japanese solution for anti-materiel was a kamikaze attack.

[@Gareyress0]

You forgot the Lantern Shield affiliate links. Please post...

[@Superjump100]

no mention of atomic annie?(the nuclear bomb that was in an artillery shell)

[@capslockbusted]

Sorry to nitpick, but the pepperbox was never "popular". At its peak, it was still pretty niche.

[@joshmajor8662]

Some of this is accurate but some of it is wildly off Simon! Lol 😂🤷‍♂️

[@jasonsanders8797]

The last time I was this early.....ah s**t, I'm late again.

[@WhickedWheeler]

Poly who?

[@TheDarthSoldier]

Last time I was this early, the other man jumped out the window

[@Pootycat8359]

1:20 Mice? Hee, hee....