Several weird military equipment in World War I and World War II, among which the British inventions

Although war will cause a large number of casualties and property losses, it also promotes the rapid development of science and technology. In the process of developing various new weapons, it is inevitable that there will be some inventions that seem silly and ridiculous today.

Bicycle Generator

During World War I, it was not very easy to obtain sufficient electrical energy on the battlefield, so the Germans invented the two-person pedal generator , which looked like a tandem bicycle and was primarily used to power lighting equipment in the trenches. This human-powered device appeared to be so successful that it continued to be used to power radio stations during World War II.

Manned kites

During World War I, the main role of the air force was to perform reconnaissance missions. In addition to using airplanes, the British also invented manned kites to detect enemy situations from high altitudes. Compared with manned balloons, such manned kites are more difficult to shoot down. Manned kites are usually composed of a string of kites. They can fly to a height of 100 meters to observe the enemy's situation and perform some simple controls. The number of kites has a great relationship with the weight of the scout.

Stealth camouflage clothing

In the 19th century to the early 20th century, military uniforms in various countries usually used bright colors. This was to make it easier for friendly forces to distinguish and avoid accidentally injuring themselves. For example, the British army had many uniforms The color is bright red every year, but this will also make it easier for the enemy to find the target and aim and shoot. Before World War I, people had discovered that when battles evolved from the slow-paced formation battles of the past to more intense mobile battles, military uniforms that could resemble the environment were more advantageous in the war. So during World War I, various countries began to develop invisible camouflage.

In New York, USA, a team of sculptors and painters worked on this design. Women wearing these invisible camouflage suits hid among rocks and grass in the park to test whether the costumes were effective. Later, British experts observed that gray warships were easily spotted in the water, so they suggested painting the hulls with bright colors and strange patterns to confuse German U-boats. So this team painted protective patterns on thousands of American warships, but unfortunately, by the end of World War I, 96 of these ships that encountered German submarines were sunk, and less than 20 were protected. The pattern may have served to confuse the German troops.

Artillery observation pole

Sailors can climb the mast to observe the enemy's situation, but the army's artillery obviously does not have this advantage. During World War I, in order to help artillery correct its trajectory, the British army tied a long wooden pole to a carriage so that artillery observers could climb up and observe the enemy's situation and the impact point of the artillery thousands of meters away.

Rolling bomb

During World War II, in order to break through the German Atlantic barrier, the British army invented a strange-looking roller bomb. These roller bombs are more than 3 meters high. Driven by dozens of rockets, they can rush towards the German fortress at high speed. After blowing up a gap, Allied tanks can drive straight in. However, on the day of the D-Day landing operation, no trace of this magical weapon was found. Because in many tests before the war, this crazy wheel was always changing its direction and was difficult to control. It almost accidentally injured allied officers, soldiers and photographers participating in the test many times, so the British finally gave up on this imaginative thing. weapons.