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The World's Worst... WeaponsBy Paul HooperThis month we look at the world's worst weapons and the prize goes jointly to both Britain and Russian. Russia's contribution to this prize is the dog mine. The plan here was to train dogs to associate food with the underneath of tanks in the hope that they would run hungrily beneath the advancing Panzer divisions. Bombs were then strapped to their backs which endangered the dogs to a point where no insurance company would look at them. Unfortunately, they associated food solely with Russian tanks and forced an entire Soviet division into retreat. The plan was abandoned on day two of the Russian involvement in World War Two. If the Russians were fearful of dogs, that is nothing compared with the British hand grenade No 74, commonly know as the 'sticky bomb'. This bomb was covered in a sticky coating and was designed to be thrown at the side of a tank and stick there. The basic trouble was that it weighed nearly 5lbs and only a serious shot putter could throw it far enough. The adhesive on the sticky bomb was very sticky and the protective coating had to be removed before it was thrown. If you were slightly careless the bomb became stuck to you, but don't worry the designers had considerately given you five seconds to remove it before it blew up! Although some 10,000 sticky bombs were made for the Home Guard very few were actually used. There is no recorded incident of a German tank being knocked out by the sticky bomb. |