I think it was more of an info request. Anyhow, back to the point.

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There's no honorable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There is nothing good in war. Except its ending.

Few should argue that since this thing was NOT intended as a suicide bomb that it was a stupid idea.

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Pardon my ignorance, but if this wasn't a suicide bomb then what was it?

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Everly Brothers - What I Have To Do Is Dream
"Never wrestle with pigs, you both end up getting dirty and the pig likes it."

Is this the test version flown by Hanna Reitsch? If it is then surely it isn't stupid as it was used as a test platform, allowing important information on the flight dynamics of the aircraft. It gave enogh data to deal with the stability and guidanceproblems the aircraft faced.

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There's no honorable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There is nothing good in war. Except its ending.

I've heard of the piloted V-1 before. I think Hitler was disgusted by the Idea and gave it to the Japanese. I think.
On the subject, in 1945 German pilots where orderd to crash into the Rhine Bridges to stop the Allied crossings. Most disobeyed.

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Caption reads: Laxatives caused an elephant called Stefan to release an out-pouring of poo, burying it's pitiful trainer alive.

http://avia.russian.ee/air/germany/fi-103.php

Everything that I've read on this thing says that the pilot was supposed to bail out after puting it into a dive aimed at the selected target. Needless to say, all but a few fanatics were "hip" to the idea. Thus, I'd consider it a stupid weapon. Just imagine trying to bail out of this thing with a pulse jet behind your head while in a steep dive.

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How about the Dora railgun? I have no idea how many resources it took to design, fabricate, test and deploy the monster. Then they only shot 48 rounds. Pretty stupid!

More here:

http://www.hpwt.de/2Weltkrieg/Dorae.htm

About as easy as picking your nose with a fur-lined mitten on.

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Best Regards,
JW

I don't know if it's a weapon, but it was pretty stupid.
I have some pictures somewhere of Japanese soldiers crawling along the ground (in China I think) with what looks like a Spartan shield on top of them. A turtle shell made out of steel.
That thing had to be heavy to be effective.
On the bright side, you could probably take a nap in safety when you got tired.
Which would be every 50-100 feet.

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"Danger Will Robinson!"

I have several names that come to my mind:

-The 1945 Luftwaffe Kamikaze on the east front(only delayed the war for 24 hours and costs many lives + aircrafts )
-The Mistel (one airrcraft put on top of the fuslelage of another)
-The Maginot line; it was hardly used, cost a fortune and the spare dmoney could have build hundreds of aircrafts, tanks and change a lot of things
-The Biber submarine which turned its user into a manned torpedo with very little chance to survive.

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I agree on the Maginot line. The Germans attacked through that area in 1870, so the French always thought they would attack there again. They didn't in ww1 so the French where stupid to think that they would do it again. And besides, if you had two choices;
-attack through a heavily defended area, all according to the enemy's plan
OR
-walk through a neutral country to attack they lightly defended bit.
If the French had extended the Maginot line on ALL of France's borders, the war might of been different. The would have to fortify the beaches as well in case Germany wanted to do an amphibious landing.

Of course, the French could of not built it and made their army bigger and better.

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Caption reads: Laxatives caused an elephant called Stefan to release an out-pouring of poo, burying it's pitiful trainer alive.

Joe, if the Germans in 1870 attacked through the Maginot line general area, and in WW1 attacked elsewhere, and if per what you say it would be stupid to attack again thorough the same place, where would it be logical to attack again? Again through the Maginot area, after all they hadn't attacked through there for the last 70 years.

Besides, look at a map. One of the historically most fortified areas in Western Europe at the time was the Flanders-North-Northeast of France region, since Louis XIV. France WAS fortified on all it's borders, only it did not have an Hadrian's Wall everywhere.

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Everly Brothers - What I Have To Do Is Dream
"Never wrestle with pigs, you both end up getting dirty and the pig likes it."

But I think we can all agree they should have concentrated on building better weapons and changing their tactics. Most French tanks where better than their German counterparts, but the French system of using them was outdated by the Blitzkrieg.

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Caption reads: Laxatives caused an elephant called Stefan to release an out-pouring of poo, burying it's pitiful trainer alive.

If they only had had strategic reserves....

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Yes, I agree that doctrine and command methods were completely outdated by generations.

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Everly Brothers - What I Have To Do Is Dream
"Never wrestle with pigs, you both end up getting dirty and the pig likes it."

Without straying too far off topic, I should say that the French and British used their tanks as they did in WW1.

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Caption reads: Laxatives caused an elephant called Stefan to release an out-pouring of poo, burying it's pitiful trainer alive.

I hate it when people say grenade instead of shell.

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Caption reads: Laxatives caused an elephant called Stefan to release an out-pouring of poo, burying it's pitiful trainer alive.

Speaking of the Campaign of France context, sometimes they did, other times not. The French did some nice tank counter-attacks, the Battle of Stonne comes to mind.

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Everly Brothers - What I Have To Do Is Dream
"Never wrestle with pigs, you both end up getting dirty and the pig likes it."

The manned flying bomb, Yokosuka MXY-7 Ohka.
Yokosuka MXY-7 Ohka - manned flying bomb

That flying bomb is a nice model! It's the first time I see one of those.

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Well, I just picked up a copy of the World's Worse Weapons. I thought about this place and thought why not. ONe WWII example was the Bachem Natter. A rocket powered interceptor with 24 rockets in the nose. The Northrop XP-56 was another example, as was the Blackburn Roc.

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Lord, let me be the person my dog thinks I am.