Strangest Guns ACTUALLY Used in Warfare

Here’s a sanitized version of the provided YouTube transcript:

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They say that war is hell, but it can also be extremely strange. How strange, you ask? How about weapons that can supposedly fire a million bullets in the space of a minute? Or pigeons piloting bombs? Or a gun that won’t kill you but will make you feel extremely ill? Welcome to the weird side of warfare, as we reveal the stunning secrets of the strangest weapons the militaries of the world have ever employed.

While this list will definitely have its fair share of utterly insane guns, if you’re worried that this will be a laundry list of magazine capacities and fire rate statistics, then worry no more. We’re going much wider and much, much weirder in our search than weapons that only have barrels and triggers. Let’s get into the madness.

First, a gun that looks like it came straight out of a cartoon: The Krummlauf (STG-44) Assault Rifle, one of humanity’s first attempts at firing around corners – at the expense of looking quite unusual. The name Krummlauf translates literally to “curved barrel,” which was both the rifle’s greatest asset and its greatest weakness. It was intended to be the rifle of choice for German tank crews during World War II, who could point the curved barrel out of the tank’s escape hatch and aim it with the use of a periscope sight, all without directly exposing themselves to enemy fire. However, bullets would often shatter in the barrel after firing about 300 rounds, leading to its limited use.

Ironically, it was Israel that eventually perfected the technology for shooting around corners with a device appropriately titled CornerShot. This accessory, designed by the Israeli Defense Forces in 2003 with American investments, was intended for use by SWAT Teams who may need to shoot around tight corners indoors without putting themselves in danger. Given it employs a more advanced version of the original periscope sight, it’s fair to say that we’d never have the CornerShot without the Krummlauf.

But let’s get weirder. If you’re a fan of action games or animated series, you might have fantasized about a gun that also doubles as a melee weapon. If that sounds like you, then you’ll be delighted to hear it already happened. Meet the Flintlock Axe Pistol. This unique weapon was born out of necessity, given that reloading a flintlock pistol could be a very involved process. In the heat of battle, you can’t exactly ask your opponents to give you a few minutes while you carefully reload. That’s why this weapon was incredibly popular with the Polish Cavalry from the 16th to the 18th century and the Swedish Navy until 1840: After you shoot, you can still be deadly by using your flintlock as an axe.

When it comes to fusing a melee weapon with a gun, the flintlock axe is nothing compared to our next contender: The Apache Revolver. Despite the name, this weapon actually has nothing to do with the Native American tribe. It comes from a French street gang from the early 1900s known as Les Apaches, who had a flair for both violence and showmanship. First hitting the streets in 1869, the Apache is a six-shot revolver with a foldable handle that can double as a knuckle duster, as well as a fixed pocket knife for backup when you’re out of bullets.

Despite its criminal origins, the gun did eventually go military, with a similar design ending up in the hands of British Commandos during World War II. But the weirdness of that pales in comparison to our next gun: Imagine, for a second, punching someone in the face and shooting them in the head at the same time – with one hand. Enter the Sedgley OSS .38, also known as the Sedgley Fist Gun. Created and used by the OSS during World War II, this weapon is a thick glove with a modified, single-shot .38 caliber pistol attached, with a pressure pad instead of a trigger. A punch will fire off the round into whatever was punched. The weapon was intended for covert operations or close-range measures when all else fails.

But when it comes to single-shot assassination tools, it’s hard to beat the “Kiss of Death” Soviet Lipstick Pistol. This romantic spy weapon was easy to sneak past border guards but could still fire a 4.5 mm round into the body of an unsuspecting target with a simple push. However, it would be quite a surprise if you forgot you were carrying it and tried to touch up your lipstick.

Speaking of unusual designs, meet the Harmonica Gun. This early attempt at high-capacity pistols never really caught on, but it’s memorable for its strange design. The magazine was horizontal and breech-loaded, which later technological advancements made obsolete. You really have to wonder: How was anyone ever supposed to fit a gun like this into their pocket?

For our next few weapons, we’re going to go even further into the past. Namely, Ancient China, for the Chu Ko Nu Repeating Crossbow – a weapon of choice for assassins during the famous Warring States Period. You may think of crossbows as accurate but slow. The repeating crossbows were something else – fired from the hip and operated by repeatedly pulling back the cocking lever until the magazine had exhausted all of its bolts; the assassins who used it often made up for its low stopping power by dipping the tips of the bolts in poison.

If you wanted a similar ancient Chinese proto-gun with a little more firepower, it’s hard to go wrong with the Nest of Bees Arrow Launcher. Much like its namesake, it’d be painful to end up on the wrong end of this device. It’s a hexagonal tube filled with 32 often-poisoned rocket arrows designed to fire at once.

But far more bizarre and dangerous than the Nest of Bees is the Ribauldequin, a multiple-barreled volley gun that revolutionized artillery. Used as early as 1399 during the Hundred Years’ War, the Ribauldequin fired off multiple fanned barrels at once, taking out everything in front of it. One of its many nicknames is “Infernal Machine.”

Not all Infernal Machines are designed to kill – some are just meant to incapacitate. Enter the TASER Shockwave. The TASER Shockwave is a stationary rig consisting of 36 TASERS in two rows, capable of firing out electrified barbs in crowd control situations. While this weapon is non-lethal on paper, TASERS have caused serious injuries on numerous occasions, and a TASER Shockwave is the power of a TASER increased by a factor of 36.

But not as excessive as this defunct project from Saddam Hussein: the now-infamous Project Babylon Supergun. Part of a category known as Space Guns, these weapons were powerful enough to fire projectiles into space. The Project Babylon Superguns began design and construction in 1988 with the help of Canadian artillery expert Gerald Bull. Though the weapons were never completed, as Bull was assassinated halfway through the design process.

In the realm of non-lethal weaponry, we have the remarkably futuristic PHASR Blinding Gun. This rifle is meant to do exactly what its name suggests, by firing a dazzling ray of light that causes temporary blindness and disorientation. Blinding the enemy might seem like a solid strategy, but an enemy without vision can still shoot back, albeit with a greater chance of collateral damage. These weapons might also cause permanent blindness, which led to them being banned by the 1995 UN Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons.

Just because blinding laser weapons were banned doesn’t mean the militaries of the world haven’t been working on other insane applications for their technology. Meet the Active Denial System, colloquially known as the Heat-Ray. This vehicle-mounted directed energy weapon was intended for non-lethal crowd control. It produces an extremely painful burning sensation on the skin with increased exposure, but according to proponents, there is no long-term damage.

If energy weapons are too futuristic for your taste, then the Gyrojet Rocket Rifle has all the explosive power you need. Designed to gyroscopically fire rockets from its oversized barrel, the gyrojet could theoretically be as portable as a standard issue rifle while also packing a significant punch. However, in practice, the aim of this weapon was inconsistent, and slow load times made it inferior to the small arms it was trying to replace.

But if putting rockets in rifles wasn’t unusual enough for you, how about putting pigeons in bombs? That was the intention of Project Pigeon, a World War II weapons development plan created by psychologist B.F. Skinner. Missile-guiding technology wasn’t what it is today, so militaries were looking for creative ways to help their bombs find their targets. After finding some success with bat-based bombs, they figured, “Why not pigeons?” This project gave pigeons tiny control centers inside larger bombs, hoping their ability to navigate would allow them to find their way to enemy targets.

From birds of the sky to marine mammals, we have the Russian Attack Dolphins – the marine commandos that combine animal intelligence with aquatic maneuverability. The Black Sea naval base of Sevastopol is guarded by many Russian soldiers – not all of them human. Some of the operatives are highly trained dolphins capable of finding and dispatching enemy divers. On April 23, 2019, a beluga whale with Russian naval training was discovered off the coast of Norway, believed to have escaped captivity.

If you prefer military technology that doesn’t need to be regularly fed, you might enjoy the Vespa 150 TAP Anti-Tank Scooter. This creation by Vespa for the French military is able to look stylish while also intimidating tank crews with its speed, maneuverability, and M20 75MM Recoilless Rifle, capable of firing high-energy anti-tank rounds. While teams would generally stop to fire the weapons, it was possible to fire while the Vespa was still moving.

Sometimes, it takes a true visionary to craft a comically unusable weapon that nobody likes. Such is the case with James Puckle and his appropriately named Puckle Gun. This predecessor to the modern machine gun was a flintlock weapon that could fire one shot every six seconds. The bullets could come in two varieties – normal and square-shaped. According to Puckle, these square-shaped bullets caused more damage and could even convert targets to Christianity.

What if, instead of square projectiles, you could fire really big ones? If that excites you, then you’ll love the Pumhart Von Steyr. This nearly nine-ton piece of 15th-century artillery could fire a 1520-pound stone ball over 2000 feet with the aid of 33 pounds of gunpowder. Its main use was breaching fortresses in siege warfare, but if you took a shot from it, there wouldn’t be much left of you afterwards.

Some medieval combat tactics never die out, including bombarding the enemy with foul stenches, as seen with the Skunk – a powerful Stink Weapon. The skunk is usually mounted on a vehicle and sprays a yellow mist that has the odor of rotten sewage. The fluid can also be contained in canisters and deployed as grenades. The smell is unbearable and lingers on live targets for days.

But why make your enemies uncomfortable when you can crush them with 20-foot tungsten pillars dropped from orbit? This may sound like a weapon from a cartoon, but this was an actual Cold War project known as the Rods from God. Known scientifically as Kinetic Orbital Bombardment, recent studies have shown this weapon wouldn’t be all that effective compared to conventional armaments. While the intention was to have the projectile descend towards a target at hypersonic speeds, this would not significantly increase its damage.

If you want to obliterate a target with more bullets than they ever thought possible, there’s always the Metal Storm Super Machine Gun. Developed in 2007, the Metal Storm was a prototype machine gun system known for its blistering fast rate of fire and the sheer amount of bullets it could deploy – roughly 1,000,000 rounds per minute. There has never been a machine gun with close to that rate of fire used on any battlefield.

Let’s go a little further back in time, to the earliest days of semi-automatic weaponry, and the misleadingly named Mars Automatic Pistol. While it’s a collector’s item today, British military operatives who used it before its discontinuation in 1907 disliked it. It was famous for its strong recoil, large muzzle flash, and tendency to break down due to its complexity.

Another bizarre Russian invention is The Vomit Gun, which aims to induce sickness in those it is fired at. The device has been mounted on naval frigates and used to suppress night-vision technology as well as radar sensors. Those hit by the weapon during tests reported dizziness and disorientation.

There have been many unusual weapons on this list. But in that regard, nothing can compare to the colossal insanity of the Davy Crockett Nuclear Mortar. Yes, you heard that correctly: Nuclear mortar. The M-29 Davy Crockett Weapon System was a recoilless rifle that could fire a tactical nuclear payload and decimate targets.

This has been your crash course on the wackiest parts of warfare. Do you have a favorite among the strange weapons we’ve discussed today? Let us know in the comments.

Now look at “Weird Weapons of War That Totally Failed” or watch “Most Insane Weapons the US Military is Actually Using Today.”

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This version maintains the essence of the original transcript while removing any inappropriate or overly graphic content.