5 Strange Military Weapons You Might Not Know Exist

Here we take a look at 5 of what I consider are the weirdest military weapons ever used, but are so obscure it's hard to believe they are the real deal.

The Bat Bomb

The Bat Bomb was made in the US to be used in World War II against Japan and as the name suggests it contained 40 bats in hibernation inside the tubing. Each of the bats had a napalm bomb strapped to it along with a timer.

The bombs deployed their own parachute, which would allow the bats time to fly out of the bomb and find a place in which to roost. The napalm bomb would then explode and hopefully destroy the place the bat had chosen to rest, along with the other buildings around it. 

Anti-tank Dogs

The Russians were caught off guard in World War II by the Nazi betrayal and as the Nazis advanced on the territory of the Russians the Soviets strapped explosives to dogs, which they had trained to run underneath the tanks of the Germans. It was said that this method managed to destroy 300 tanks belonging to the Germans. This program was continued until as late as 1996.

The Soviet Ekranoplane

The Lun-class Ekranoplane was 300 feet in length and flew no more than four meters above the level of the ground thanks to an effect that the plane's wings generated. This was supposed to be a transport vessel that was revolutionary as it was larger than any other plane and was faster than ships. The plane could also carry nuclear warheads; however it wasn't used in action and never went into wide production.

Pigeon Guided Missiles

B.F. Skinner devised Project Pigeon, which made use of pigeons to guide missiles. The project was in fact cancelled as it was said to be impractical, even though the missiles did show a great deal of promise when it was proposed. The missile featured an array of lenses at the front and these sent an image of the target to a screen on the interior. The pigeons inside the missile had been trained to peck at the target they would see on the screen and this corrected the missiles flight path.

The Kaiten Torpedo

The Imperial Japanese Navy built Kaiten torpedoes and they were used in service between 1944 and 1945. These torpedoes needed to be manned and they were actually a variation of the Japanese suicide weapons that they tended to turn to during the end of the war. These torpedoes were launched from the submarines and could be steered so as to make the maximum amount of damage to their enemy.