Germany didn't have one single "secret" weapon in WWI, but key innovations included the Fokker Eindecker fighter (dominating early air combat, known as the "Fokker Scourge"), the devastating long-range Paris Gun artillery, primitive flame projectors, and effective early use of poison gas, alongside their superior machine guns and trench tactics like the screw picket.
The Paris Gun, also known as the “Kaiser Wilhelm Geschütz” (Emperor William Gun), was the largest artillery piece in World War I. The Germans were busy, too. The first firing had developed a chamber pressure of only 53,800 psi, which required an adjustment to the propellant charge.
What is less known is the extent of Germany's secret weapons development. Germany pioneered rocket and jet-propelled aircraft, the pilotless plane, long-range rocket technology and 'robot bombs', and the world's first super-heavy tanks. Many of these weapons had a real impact on the course of the war.
The German 88mm gun was one of the most feared weapons of the Second World War. It started life as an anti-aircraft gun, but the Germans quickly realised it could tear through tanks just as easily. In France in 1940, and later in the open deserts of North Africa, the 88 gained its deadly reputation.
The MG42 was feared due to its terrifyingly high rate of fire (up to 1,500 rounds per minute), creating a distinctive ripping sound like "Hitler's Buzzsaw," which suppressed entire enemy units and inflicted devastating casualties, forcing Allied soldiers to fear the weapon's ability to pin them down and dominate the battlefield with its overwhelming firepower.
Its unique sound led to it being nicknamed "Hitler's buzzsaw". The MG 42 was adopted by several armed organizations after the war, and was both copied and built under licence.
Nicknamed the “Buzz Saw,” the MG-42 machine gun wreaked havoc in WWII. It sounded like a piece of cloth being torn close to the ear. It was the best machine gun of WWII, firing 1,550 rounds of 7.92 mm ammunition per minute, much faster than its nearest American rival, the Browning M-1919A4.
WW2 soldiers carried condoms primarily for disease prevention (STDs like syphilis and gonorrhea) and for practical combat uses, such as keeping sand and mud out of their rifle barrels, protecting small items, or even as makeshift waterproof bags, although the weapon-protection use is sometimes exaggerated in popular culture. The military distributed them widely (often in "prophylactic kits") to maintain troop strength, recognizing the significant manpower lost to venereal diseases in past conflicts.
Barbarossa: Hitler's Great Blunder. The Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 led to a catastrophe that eroded the fighting strength of the German Army.
The 85 mm gun could penetrate the turret front of a Tiger I tank from 500 m (550 yd) and the driver's front plate from 300 m (330 yd) at the side angle of 30 degrees, and the larger turret enabled the addition of another crew member, allowing the roles of commander and gunner to be separated and increasing the rate of ...
Wind Cannon – an experiment in air power
The Windkanone (Wind Cannon) was a bizarre German anti-aircraft weapon.
Most were killed by one of the most devastating weapons of the war - the Maxim MG 08. An adaptation of the original 1886 British Maxim machine gun, the MG 08 fired an average of 500 rounds per minute over a distance of more than 2,000 yards.
An M60 7.62 mm squad machine gun nicknamed “the Pig” because of its hefty weight.
Postwar whereabouts. On 14 April 1945, one day before the arrival of US troops, Schwerer Gustav was destroyed to prevent its capture.
Then, saying "It is finished, goodbye", Hitler took Eva back into their rooms for the last time. During the afternoon Hitler shot himself and Eva took the poison capsule that he had given her.
The analysis of Hitler's DNA helps dispel the myth that he supposedly had Jewish ancestry. But it reveals something else: Adolf Hitler stands out genetically when it comes to predisposition for certain psychiatric disorders and brain developmental conditions.
On September 28, 1918, in an incident that would go down in the lore of World War I history—although the details of the event are still unclear—Private Henry Tandey, a British soldier serving near the French village of Marcoing, reportedly encounters a wounded German soldier and declines to shoot him, sparing the life ...
'Bad' girls have always known how to look after themselves. Barrier methods were always very popular. A halved, emptied lemon skin placed over the cervix worked well, for example, as did sponges soaked in natural spermicides such as vinegar.
By the end of the war, approximately 7,000 of the 10,500 SIS staff were female. These women on the home front contributed to the Allied victory by successfully breaking codes and deciphering enemy messages. The women cryptologists were held to strict secrecy and would become one of the best-kept secrets of WWII.
The Bible literally has zero to say on condoms.
The single most common complaint was that the M60 was unreliable in extreme conditions and prone to jamming and other malfunctions during heavy firing, especially when it was dirty. Sometimes spent casings would fail to extract and stay stuck inside the chamber, forcing a barrel change before it could be fired again.
The V-3 (German: Vergeltungswaffe 3, lit. 'Vengeance Weapon 3') was a German World War II large-caliber gun working on the multi-charge principle whereby secondary propellant charges are fired to add velocity to a projectile.
Grunts hated carrying it because it was much heavier than the standard M16. But on the other hand, EVERYBODY gladly carried 100 rounds of M60 ammo, because everybody loved the brutal amount of rounds it could put down-range.