Category: War
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It was 1861 when Michigan’s legislature dismissed the idea of George Copway — a popular Methodist minister and Chippewa — to recruit a regiment of Great Lakes Native Americans who he claimed were “inured to hardships, fleet as deer, shrewd, and cautious.” However, much had changed in the span of two years, including the imposition of a federally imposed draft, quotas to be filled by each state, and the already-spilt blood of thousands of Michiganders. As such, Michigan began to seek out Native American soldiers to support the Union war efforts.
Col. Charles V. DeLand, a veteran of the 9th Michigan Infantry, and a troop of eager recruiters were particularly interested in finding stealthy men with acute marksmanship to join a regiment of sharpshooters — particularly, in Company K of the 1st Michigan Sharpshooters. But these recruits needed an incentive, like the promise of payment, meals, and the possibility of negotiating the protection of their traditional homelands from outsider incursion.
In a time when Native Americans feared losing their homes, military service spurred a glimmer of hope. Saginaw Chippewa Chief Nockkechickfawme gave the young men of his tribe even more motivation when he sharply warned of a Confederate overtaking where “there will be no protection for us; we shall be driven from our homes, our lands, and the graves of our friends.” Ottawa Chief Pawbawme drew from his fellow chief’s influence, sparking the enlistment of approximately two dozen more men with his fiery oration.
Upon their departure by steamer, the Ottawa-Ojibwa men were seen off by a great majority of their community. Among these departing warriors was Antoine Scott, who would later be recommended twice for the Medal of Honor but would never be awarded the great recognition.
Another was Thomas Kechittigo — known to many as “Big Tom” — who had originally been refused enlistment in 1861 but would climb the ranks to become a sergeant in Company K. Recruits came from Oceana County, Bear River, Little Traverse, Charlevoix, La Croix and near Saginaw.
Of those who drove enlistments, a shining star was Second Lieut. Garrett A. Graveraet. A young man of only 23, the multi-talented Graveraet became an officer and led an impressive recruitment drive to strengthen the ranks of Company K. He even signed up his own father, the 55-year-old Henry Graveraet, who shaved off 10 years from his true age during enlistment and was the company’s only non-native soldier.
Following recruitment, the men of Company K were met with vigorous training. So, while veteran Colonel DeLand and part of the Michigan regiment sought out the Confederate raider John Hunt Morgan in Indiana, Graveraet — along with Capt. Edwin V. Andress and First Lieut. William Driggs — drilled the recruits of the new company into shape.
They were so effective that upon DeLand’s return, mustering officer Lieut. Col. John R. Smith noted that the recruits were “the stuff, no doubt, of which good sharpshooters can easily be made.” And these native troops were promised the same benefits as white soldiers, such as $13 pay a month — outweighing the $10 monthly pay that U.S. Colored Troops (USCTs) received until equal pay was mandated.
Despite that difference, those in Company K began their wartime service by defending military storehouses and guarding Confederate prisoners — a path reflective of many USCTs’ entry into military service.
Ordered to guard prisoners of war at Camp Douglas outside Chicago, the company experienced the bitter taste of camp life, as they faced not only boredom but also disease and desertion. Additionally, fellow soldiers and Chicago civilians were fascinated by the culture that accompanied Company K.
It wasn’t until March 8, 1864, that orders came in, directing the 1st Michigan Sharpshooters to Annapolis, Maryland, where they would rendezvous with Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside’s IX Corps of the Army of the Potomac. Arriving as Lieut. Gen. U.S. Grant started upon the Overland Campaign, the sturdy soldiers of Company K were inserted into the whirlwind of battle.
Their first foray into combat came with the Battle of the Wilderness on May 6, 1864, when the native soldiers engaged with Confederate forces south of Saunders’ Field. They used the brush and mud of their surroundings to camouflage their uniforms and, with an acute aptitude for sharpshooting and skirmishing, dove into battle with great determination. Mortally wounded in the fighting, Sergeant Charles Allen was the first casualty of war to come out of Company K.
However, the dark side of war only intensified for Company K, as days later — on May 12, 1864 — they were attacked by North Carolinians under Brig. Gen. James H. Lane during the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House. Ten more of the company’s men were lost as a result of the fighting.
By June 17, 1864, the Army of the Potomac had moved south of the James River and Company K was again swept into combat when the 1st Michigan were included in Brig. Gen. Orlando Willcox’s poorly executed attack on a Confederate salient around Petersburg, Virginia.
While the sharpshooters obtained possession of Confederate breastworks, they were also isolated and soon-to-be surrounded by enemy forces under Brig. Gen. Matthew Ransom. The already dissipated native soldiers battled on, engaging in hand-to-hand combat that covered the retreat of their fellow soldiers, but were ultimately overwhelmed by the Confederates.
Company K suffered two casualties from the incident, including Oliver Arpetargezhik and the young, bright Lieutenant Graveraet. The young Graveraet fell only days after the combat death of the elder Graveraet.
However, the impact of the June 17 fighting brought about a fate worse than death for more than 80 soldiers from the 1st Michigan, including 14 men from Company K, who were captured by the enemy. Prisoners of war, these soldiers were sent to the notorious Andersonville Prison, where about 50% of these men didn’t make it out alive.
For those who avoided Andersonville, the following month was full of picketing, sniping, and digging, and overall unsavory conditions around Petersburg. But despite the monotony, the native sharpshooters didn’t fail to impress their fellow soldiers. There was a certain instance in which Lieut. Freeman S. Bowley witnessed the sharpshooters intently watch a mile-far chimney for hours, waiting for the enemy force to show themselves. When it seemed like no development was in sight, a sudden shot was fired and a Confederate was seen falling from the chimney, after exposing a portion of his body.
By the end of July 1864, the Union Army was hell-bent on breaking the stalemate in Petersburg and devised a plan to dig a lengthy tunnel under the Confederate defenses, and then fill this space with explosives. On July 30, the Federals detonated the mine, blowing a gap in the Confederate defenses. The 2nd Brigade from Brigadier General Willcox’s division, which included the 1st Michigan, was the third unit to charge into the crater. There, they encountered masses of dazed and confused Federals, many of whom failed to reach enemy lines. They also came across Confederates who, after regrouping, fought back.
On the far left of the Federal charge, the native sharpshooters had gained a foothold on the Confederate defenses, but the circumstances prevented them from overcoming enemy forces. As those opposing soldiers rained fire into the crater, the Native American forces remained composed and determined amidst an impossible situation.
Accounts of the 1st Michigan’s actions at the Battle of the Crater are far and few between, but the regiment’s current-day historian successfully put the puzzle pieces together to understand its final actions at the fateful site. As Federal forces attempted to retreat, sharpshooters — including Sidney Haight, Charles Thatcher, and Company K’s Pvt. Antoine Scott — covered their comrades. Scott was among the last to remove himself from the chaos and was recommended twice for the Medal of Honor for his astounding bravery, but the Chippewa soldier passed in 1878 and never received recognition. At the Crater, it is estimated that Company K lost three men in battle, plus one wounded and six captured. In total, the 1st Michigan lost approximately 45 soldiers in the assault.
Following the immense devastation of the Crater, Company K’s native sharpshooters were present at the battles of Reams Station, Peebles’ Farm and — in the final year of the Civil War — Hatcher’s Run and final operations around Petersburg. Throughout the course of the conflict, about 150 native soldiers served in Company K.
The righteousness of war turns wholly upon one’s perspective. One man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist. This timeless axiom is as old as mankind. The line between reviled bloodthirsty animal and celebrated warrior can at times be undeniably fine.
There is little I enjoy more than dissecting some rarefied military operation. This venue is dirty with my efforts to explore and explain the tales of heroism and refined military acumen that we as a patriotic people do so righteously venerate. However, what if the point of view is reversed? What if, instead of flint-eyed Navy SEALs infiltrating the hideout of some evil terrorist mastermind to dispense a little frontier justice, the operators are actually the terrorists, and the targets are good red-blooded Americans? I admit that this simple adjustment of source material does change everything about the narrative.
In today’s story, the Good Guys do not win. The Bad Guys perished in the effort, but, per their weird twisted moral calculus, that was likely their goal from the outset. Embedded within this narrative, however, is both a compelling story and some valuable lessons learned. That the aftermath, horrifically tragic though it was, did not turn out to be hugely worse speaks to the heroism and professionalism of the US Marines and Allied forces involved.
The Challenge
Establishing and maintaining all-around security for an aviation unit in a hostile area is a Gordian chore. It is one thing if you are a small SAS contingent tasked with occupying a modest wooded hilltop. It is yet another entirely when you must secure a sprawling airbase established in the middle of hostile territory.
Why would they put an airfield in such a place anyway? Airplanes and helicopters are fast. That’s the point. They can move troops and ordnance over long distances quickly. In this case, however, the tactical exigencies were driven by the short legs of the machines in question and the desire for rapid response times. Positioning strike aircraft as close as possible to the battle zone maximized both loiter time on station and the availability of combat assets. It also put these valuable aircraft within easy striking distance of the Taliban.
It really all comes down to geometry. Despite some simply incredible advances in military mobility, we yet remain fairly 2-dimensional creatures. We walk, run, or creep along the ground in such a way that a secure perimeter will usually grant us a proper sense of peace and security. When that perimeter grows to ungainly dimensions is when mischief ensues.
The Setting
Camp Bastion was a sprawling former British Army airbase situated in a remote portion of Afghanistan’s Helmand Province. The Brits later christened it Camp Shorabak. The facility was originally just a tactical landing zone established in 2005 by an RAF Tactical Air Traffic Control Unit. What began as a handful of tents eventually evolved into a bustling military airfield some four miles long by two miles wide. Camp Bastion was the largest British overseas military camp built since World War 2. At its apogee, Camp Bastion was home to 32,000 Allied troops from the US, the UK, and Denmark. It also played host to a substantial ANA (Afghan National Army) contingent as well as the US Marine Camp Leatherneck.
In 2012 Camp Bastion was equipped with a large number of AV-8B Harriers, AH-1W Cobra attack helicopters, UH-1Y Venom Marine utility helicopters, British AH-64 Apaches, and sundry other Allied aircraft up to and including USAF C-130 cargo planes. In support of these variegated fighting machines was a substantial runway and extensive maintenance facilities. Security for all this stuff fell to a joint UK/US force comprised of RAF personnel, Commonwealth troops, and US Marines. At the time of the attack, Prince Harry was flying combat operations out of Camp Bastion as a British Army AH-64 Apache pilot.
Maintaining security is one of the most odious aspects of the military experience. Defensive anything puts the defenders at a natural disadvantage. An attacker chooses the time and place of an engagement. To counter successfully the defenders have to remain ever-vigilant. Keeping that edge amidst long periods of tedium demands dedication, discipline, and deft inspirational leadership.
Things at Camp Bastion had fallen into a routine. We had been involved in Afghanistan for more than a decade, and the optempo of tactical aircraft in and out of the place remained monotonously steady. Roughly one month prior to the attack US Marine MG Charles Gurganus, the base commander, had reduced the number of Marines patrolling the base perimeter from 325 to 100. This turned out to be a fairly momentous decision.
The Enemy
Considering they are little more than souped-up cavemen with Kalashnikovs, the Taliban made for some formidable military opponents. Their dark religious ethos is difficult to comprehend for Western folk. Political capitulation rather than military defeat granted them ultimate victory in Afghanistan in the summer of 2021. What they have unleashed upon their country subsequent to that debacle was lamentably predictable.
A point of personal privilege–of all the twisted things the Taliban has inflicted upon their people in the name of their dark Satanic god, I think it is the plight of Afghan women that troubles me most. At a time when Americans wax apoplectic over pronoun usage, Afghan girls are prevented from advancing beyond grade school by the threat of violence. The Taliban overlords mandate that their women be treated solely by female physicians. They then ensure that there is no pipeline to replace the current profoundly limited crop of female doctors. Hijab laws are such that an Afghan woman now might live out her entire life never having felt the sun on her skin. Of all the world’s manifest injustice I fear this might be about the worst.
The Attack
The Taliban executed this attack with a team of fifteen jihadists all wearing pilfered American ACU uniforms replete with patches and name tags. They carried a variety of small arms including RPG antitank weapons as well as copious Soviet-era F-1 grenades. They later claimed that the impetus behind the assault was two-fold. The film the Innocence of Muslims had recently debuted, and they hoped to somehow kill or capture Prince Harry as well. Radical Muslims found this movie deeply offensive. Here’s a link to the film. I made it through about four minutes. It is epically bad.
The Taliban assault force penetrated the base perimeter on September 14, 2012, at around 2200 hours local time at a point guarded by Tongan and UK troops. The breach point was near the Marine aircraft hangars. They then split into three 5-man elements.
One team engaged a group of Marine aviation maintenance troops from VMM-161 before moving to attack the camp refueling stations. The second team focused on the parked aircraft. The third assaulted the post-cryogenics compound. As near as I could tell this facility managed low-temperature gases used for sighting systems and aviation support.
RAF security troops were onsite twelve minutes after the first shots were fired. The firefight went on for four hours. The second Taliban team detonated grenades in and on several Allied aircraft and engaged others with RPG fire. During the attack, aircrews scrambled UK Apaches as well as US Cobras and Venoms to lend close support. The Venom aircraft orbited the area supporting friendly troops with their door guns.
The pilots and aviation maintainers from Marine Attack Squadron VMA-211 took up their individual weapons and fought effectively as infantry in the close fight. This was the first time since the Battle of Wake Island during WW2 that US Marine aviation personnel had been called upon to do so. As the first five-man Taliban team moved down the flight line, Marines from VMM-161 cut them down, killing four and severely wounding the fifth, a 24-year-old fighter named Mohammed Nazeer.
One of the other Taliban units was eventually flushed out of hiding by a joint RAF/USMC security element and killed with small arms fire. The final group of insurgents was eventually cut down by gunfire from orbiting helicopters after being fixed in place by the RAF Quick Reaction Force. However, all this was not without cost.
The VMA-211 squadron commander, USMC LTC Chris Raible, had been in his office at the time of the attack. Running toward the sounds of battle armed with nothing but a 9mm pistol, LTC Raible was standing near their medical section when an RPG round with an antipersonnel warhead impacted a nearby wall. A piece of shrapnel struck the Marine officer in the neck, and he bled out.
USMC Sergeant Bradley Atwell was staging nearby preparing to join the base defense efforts. Frags from an RPG round killed him as well. LTC Raible was 40, and SGT Atwell was 27.
The Aftermath
Mohammed Nazeer survived, while the rest of the Taliban attackers perished. Six Harriers were destroyed and another two were damaged. These losses constituted six percent of the Marines’ active Harrier force. However, the Marines had another fourteen Harriers onsite 36 hours after the raid. The Taliban force destroyed a USAF C-130 on the ground as well.
In addition to LTC Raible and SGT Atwell, the Taliban wounded seventeen US and UK troops. Three refueling stations were destroyed, and six soft-skinned maintenance facilities were damaged. Allied losses ultimately totaled some $200 million.
At the time of the attack MG Gurganis was on the promotion list for Lieutenant General. After an investigation found that he was responsible for the degradation of base security he was quietly retired. MG Gregg Sturdivant was in command of USMC aviation assets in the area, and he got a similar treatment. Subsequent interviews with USMC personnel revealed that they had caught Tongan troops asleep on guard duty near where the Taliban breached the wire on several occasions. The British High Commissioner to Tonga vigorously disputed this allegation. The attack was the single greatest loss of US airpower since the Vietnam War.
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America’s ‘War’ Against Switzerland
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1. Panjandrum – the ultimate invasion weapon
This ungainly device was intended to be used against the beach defences of Hitler’s Atlantic Wall. It consisted of two rocket-propelled wheels, ten feet in diameter, joined by a cylinder filled with explosives. The Panjandrum was designed by the British Admiralty’s Directorate of Miscellaneous Weapons Development, and named after a piece of 18th Century nonsense prose. It would be launched from a landing craft, accelerate up the beach and blow a hole in the sea wall or any other concrete obstacles in its path. Tests in 1943 and 1944 were a disaster. The rockets attached to the wheels often failed or detached themselves, and the Panjandrum went everywhere except in a straight line. It was never used in action.
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2. Krummlauf – the gun that fired round corners
The Krummlauf was a curved barrel attachment for the German Sturmgewehr 44 (StG 44) assault rifle, which enabled the weapon to be fired around corners. Its shape meant it could also be used from within a tank to counter enemy infantry armed with mines or other anti-tank weapons. In use, it was found that the barrel attachment became distorted and quickly wore out from the pressure of the rounds being fired. Also, the bullets often shattered on exiting the krummlauf. Although a failure at the time, the concept has been revived with some modern weapons, allowing the user to engage the enemy without exposing themselves.
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3. Maus – Hitler’s giant tank
The Panzerkampfwagen ‘Maus’ (Mouse), designed by Ferdinand Porsche, was the ultimate expression of Hitler’s desire to produce an indestructible super-heavy tank. It was first proposed in 1942, but few in the German High Command saw the need for this 200 ton monster. Trials began in 1943, but there were constant mechanical problems associated with the drivetrain. The tracks were driven by electric motors powered by a huge Daimler-Benz aircraft engine, but top speed was barely 12mph. The Maus had armour up to 240mm thick and a 12.8cm gun. Although there were plans to build 150 tanks, only two prototypes – two hulls and one turret – were ever completed.
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4. Covenanter – Britain’s worst tank
At the outbreak of the Second World War the British army had three types of tank: light tanks for reconnaissance, heavily armoured ‘infantry tanks’ to support frontal attacks, and fast ‘cruiser tanks’ to exploit the gaps made in the enemy defences. One of the latter was the A13 Mk III (Cruiser Tank Mk V) Covenanter. It was designed in 1939, and looked good on the drawing board with its large wheels, low profile and rakishly sloped armour. Large numbers were ordered as Britain frantically re-armed. But its 2-pdr gun and 30mm armour were already outclassed when it was delivered in 1941, and worse defects lurked under the bonnet. The Covenanter suffered from major engine cooling problems which were never overcome. It was so unreliable that it never went to war, and the 1,771 tanks produced were used only for training.
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5. TOG – a First World War tank revived
In 1939 the Ministry of Supply set up a committee of the principal tank designers from the First World War, with the object of looking into current British tank development. ‘The Old Gang’, as they were known, came up with their own concept for a heavy tank – known as TOG 1. It was a long, heavily armoured machine, able to cross trenches and terrain cratered by shells. Its armament was mounted in sponsons on either side of the hull. It was in effect a machine designed to re-fight the First World War, and showed just how remote the committee was from modern developments. Its transmission and steering system were also needlessly complex. A second prototype, TOG 2, featured a revolving turret and other improvements, but the tank was still too cumbersome and too complicated to be adopted by the War Office.
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6. Maginot Line – failed French defences
The Maginot line was the French response to German rearmament in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. Built between 1929 and 1939, and named after a French defence minister, the line was a complex network of fortresses, bunkers, obstacles and artillery positions along France’s border with Switzerland, Germany and Luxembourg. The line was only partially extended north of this because it was assumed that any future German invasion attempt would be met and defeated in Belgium, hopefully with British assistance. The Maginot Line was seen as a sensible way to maximise the military potential of a limited number of troops, but it also reflected France’s static, defensive mentality which was exploited by Nazi Germany in May 1940. As expected, Hitler’s forces invaded neutral Belgium, but the focus of the attack was through the undefended Ardennes forest. The Maginot Line was quickly outflanked, and French forces caught off balance by the speed of the German advance. Within six weeks France had surrendered.
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7. Smith Gun – firepower for the Home Guard
During the Second World War Britain’s Home Guard was famous for making do with outdated weapons as industry concentrated on supplying the regular army with modern equipment. In particular there were very few anti-tank guns, a shortage which retired British Army Major William H Smith intended to put right. His unusual design for a 3-inch smooth-bore gun was put into production in 1941, but only after many safety improvements had been imposed. The Smith Gun had to be tipped onto its side to fire – one of its wheels acting as a baseplate. It had a low muzzle velocity and was only accurate to about 200 yards, assuming ammunition was available to fire – which was rarely. 4,000 guns were made, but they only really had value as propaganda.
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8. ‘White Rabbit’/’Nellie’ – the trench digging machine
‘White Rabbit’ or ‘Nellie’ were two of the nicknames given to a trench digging machine built by the Royal Navy and known officially as Cultivator No. 6. It was based on an idea first proposed by Winston Churchill during the First World War, which he revived in 1939, as First Lord Of the Admiralty. ‘Nellie’ was intended to burrow towards the enemy line, excavating a trench wide enough for troops to advance behind. The huge 130 ton machine combined a plough and cylindrical cutter but carried no weapons. The device may have had some merit on the Western Front during the First World War, but was utterly unnecessary on the Second World War battlefield and the idea was eventually dropped after a handful of machines had been constructed.
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9. V-3 – Hitler’s ‘Supergun’
The Vergeltungswaffe (Retaliation Weapon) 3 was a German supergun designed to bombard London from an underground complex 100 miles away at Mimoyecques, near Calais in northern France. The V-3 was constructed on a multi-chamber principle whereby secondary charges firing in sequence along the main barrel accelerated a shell to the velocity required to reach its target. A battery of 25 gun tubes were sunk into inclined tunnels in the ground, further protected by a vast concrete slab. It was planned to bombard London at a rate of 600 shells an hour. The Allies assumed the site was part of the V-2 rocket programme and launched bombing attacks in late 1943. Despite intense work by the Germans to finish the project, it was finally put out of action by a raid on 6 July 1944 before a single shell had been fired.
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10. Goliath – the robot demolition vehicle
Goliath, or the Leichte Ladungsträger, was a German expendable miniature tracked vehicle designed to deliver an explosive device by remote control. There were two types: battery-powered, with a 60kg charge, or a larger petrol engine version that could carry a 100kg device up to 650m from the controller. Goliath was to be used against buildings, bunkers or even enemy troops and vehicles if the opportunity arose. Some were used to clear minefields. Unfortunately for the Germans, the trailing control wires were vulnerable to being cut, and the vehicle itself was slow and had poor ground clearance. 2,650 were built between April 1942 and September 1944, but were rarely effective. The Germans also experimented with larger, radio-controlled vehicles that could drop a charge close to their intended target and then retire to a safe distance, but these too were a waste of resources.
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11. Luftwaffe Heavy Bombers – a project abandoned
In 1936 the Chief of Staff of the new Luftwaffe, General Walther Wever, was killed in an air crash. He had been Germany’s principal advocate of strategic bombing – defeating an enemy country through the systematic attack on its economy and population. It was an idea which had gained ground in Britain, where new heavy bombers were being designed for RAF Bomber Command. In Germany however, Wever’s death – and a lack of resources – saw the abandonment of existing projects for a long-range bomber. Instead, priority was given to smaller aircraft, especially dive-bombers. The Luftwaffe’s prime function would be to support the army over the battlefield. Germany’s lack of a strategic bomber force to hit back at British and Soviet industry was keenly felt as the war progressed. Belated attempts to get a range of new four-engined aircraft into service failed, and only one – the Heinkel He 177 – saw action. There were even designs for an Amerika bomber that could reach New York, but that objective was also never realised.
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12. Me 163 Komet – a firework fighter
The tiny Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet was the world’s only rocket-powered fighter. It was designed to intercept high-flying American bombers over Germany. It used a liquid propellant consisting of two volatile substances which ignited when mixed together. Enough thrust was produced to propel the tiny fighter to an altitude of 39,000 feet in 3.45 minutes, with a top speed of over 550mph. Operations began in May 1944 but the Komet was almost too fast and pilots struggled to engage the slow-moving bombers. Also, the rocket engine only had a ‘burn’ of 7 minutes, after which the pilot had to glide back to base. Accidents were common, and even small quantities of the highly unstable fuel could cause explosions if carelessly handled. 364 Komets were built but they shot down only 16 bombers for a loss of at least 13 of their own, which was a poor showing for such a major technological effort.
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13. Schwerer Gustav – the German railway gun
A giant railway-mounted gun had been used by the Germans to bombard Paris, during The First World War. The concept of such a colossal weapon was revived in 1936, when Adolf Hitler asked the head of Krupp armaments what type of gun could destroy the fortifications of the Maginot Line. The gun was designated Schwerer Gustav. The 80cm gun, weighed 1,350 tonnes and could project a 7-tonne shell 29 miles. It was completed too late for the German Army’s attack on France, in May 1940. The artillery unit-to which it was allocated in January 1942, named the gun Dora. It fired 47 rounds, against the city of Sevastopol, in the Soviet Union-wearing out the barrel in the process. The second gun produced by Krupp, Schwerer Gustav 2, was never used in action. Schwerer Gustav 2 was placed in storage in March 1943, at Rügenwalde – an artillery firing range. The increased efficacy of aerial bombardment, in the Second World War, made these large guns obsolete.
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14. V-2 – Hitler’s revenge weapon
The V-2 rocket was Germany’s most advanced weapon of the Second World War, and also the most wastefully expensive. It was the second of Hitler’s ‘revenge weapons’, a large ballistic missile carrying a one ton warhead, which reached the edge of space before descending at supersonic speed to its target. German rocket development began before the war, but the V-2 was not ready until the autumn of 1944. It was used mainly against London and Antwerp, and there was no defence against it. However, although technically brilliant, and of undoubted propaganda value to an embattled Nazi hierarchy, the weapon inflicted comparatively little damage in return for the vast sums spent on it. The total quantity of explosives delivered by the 3,000 or so V-2s fired was far less than could be dropped in a single raid by RAF Bomber Command. 9,000 people were killed in V-2 attacks. Tragically a far greater number of slave workers died building these weapons.
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15. Boulton Paul Defiant – Britain’s flawed fighter
The unusual two-seat Boulton Paul Defiant entered RAF service in December 1939. Its only armament of four .303-inch machine guns was concentrated in a power-operated turret situated behind the pilot. The turret fighter concept was originally designed to combat mass formations of unescorted bombers, with pilots positioning their aircraft alongside or below, so that the gunners could pour fire into their targets. Unfortunately, the aircraft’s extra weight and lack of forward-firing weapons made it vulnerable to conventional enemy fighters. The two Defiant squadrons committed to the Battle of Britain suffered heavy losses and had to be withdrawn. The aircraft had some success later as a night fighter during the Blitz, but was then retired to training duties.
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16. Wind Cannon – an experiment in air power
The Windkanone (Wind Cannon) was a bizarre German anti-aircraft weapon. It comprised a large barrel, bent upwards at one end, through which an explosive jet of compressed air was ejected upwards by the ignition of a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen. The aim was to knock down low-flying aircraft. Trials showed that a powerful ‘slug’ of high-velocity air could inflict damage on ground structures, but it was unclear if it would have the desired effect against a small, fast-moving aircraft. In 1945 a wind cannon was installed on a bridge over the River Elbe, but it failed to achieve any results.
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17. Kamikaze – Japanese suicide weapons
The Japanese military regarded death in battle as the ultimate way to serve their Emperor. When the war started to turn against Japan, the use of suicide weapons became a natural extension of this ethos – and a symbol of their desperation. The most famous example were the Kamikaze – pilots who deliberately crashed their aircraft into American ships. The Ohka was a manned rocket-powered flying bomb which was carried beneath an aircraft and then released near its target. There were also Shinyo suicide motorboats and Kaiten manned torpedoes. Not all Kamikaze weapons were small. The giant battleship Yamato was sent on a one-way mission during the battle of the Philippines in 1944. It was sunk by US aircraft. Japanese suicide attacks caused heavy casualties on occasions but had no hope of stemming the huge American onslaught. Even some Japanese commanders opposed the tactics as wasteful and futile.
![Soviet troops with 'war dogs'. Wikimedia commons [public domain – no known author] via Wikimedia Commons.](/sites/default/files/styles/text_with_media_mobile_2x/public/2018-07/1_36.jpg?itok=j99eJKoq)
Soviet troops with ‘war dogs’. Wikimedia commons [public domain – no known author] via Wikimedia Commons.
18. War Dogs – an unconventional Soviet weapon
Dogs played an important role in the Second World War, mainly undertaking security and search duties. In the Soviet Union they were also used for mine detection, message and supply carrying and as weapons of war. The most extreme example were the dogs trained to destroy enemy tanks using explosives strapped to their backs. The animals were trained to run under the vehicles carrying mines which exploded when a protruding lever touched the hull and detonated the charge. Soviet anti-tank dogs were used in 1941 and 1942 but results were poor. The animals often got confused in the heat of battle and some blew up their own handlers. The Germans quickly learned to shoot all dogs on sight. The Soviets soon abandoned this unconventional form of warfare.
![This example of the war balloon was shot down by the United States and later re-inflated. US Army photograph A371800 [public domain] via Wikimedia Commons.](/sites/default/files/styles/text_with_media_mobile_2x/public/2018-07/2_7.jpg?itok=2WAo0IDg)
This example of the war balloon was shot down by the United States and later re-inflated. US Army photograph A371800 [public domain] via Wikimedia Commons.