Re: Most Stupid Weapon of WWII
The Okha rocket bomb was actually a rather deadly suicide system. Although many of the launch aircraft were shot down by CAP before they launched the actual Okha itself was devastatingly effective if it did manage a launch and go terminal on a target. Its speed was such that current US AA director systems on ships couldn't track it. It was tiny target and one, or two at most, would sink a destroyer and cripple most other ships.
For idiot suicide weapons the German Niger human torpedo is definitely right up there. Something around 100 were launched against shipping in the Channel and off Normandy. None found a target. Every one launched ended in the death of its pilot, usually from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Another not yet mentioned: The V-2. It was an impressive piece of technology. It also consumed a quarter of the German electronics industry output, a third of the potato crop (making alcohol for fuel), about 20% of the electricity in Germany (LOX production), had an airframe that cost about as much to make as a twin engine aircraft, and for all that could deliver a half ton payload on a target about 50% of the time up to 300 miles away one time. Proof that the Nazi leadership lacked any economic common sense whatsoever.
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