Wonder weapons - (german "wunderwaffe"), were what the germans called their superweapons during WW2. While most never left the drawing board so to speak, some of the plans are still nonetheless shocking. In this list we will go over the top 5 wonder-weapons that could have changed history had they seen use!
1- Sonnengewher (Sun-Gun)
The idea of a giant orbiting death-ray may sound like science fiction, but the Nazi's actually imagined such a weapon. In 1929, German physicist
Hermann Oberth -had plans for a space station with an 100 metre wide disc attached to it, theoretically it would be able to concentrate the suns energy into a signular point on the Earth. The Nazi's, as they do, developed on this idea later in the war. They calculated that should such a weapon be functional, it could boil over oceans and scorch cities to the ground. However rocket technology was primitive at this time, and the germans ultimately lost the war, fortunately never being able to put such a devestating weapon into use.
2- Landkreuzer P.1000 Ratte
The Landkreuzer P.1000 Ratte was a proposed design for a 1000 tonne super-heavy tank. Approved by Hitler himself, the Landkreuzer was a beast, the guns alone coming in at 300 tonnes! The main weapon of the vehicle was actually a 28cm naval gun, which should give you an idea of the size of the vehicle. While such a huge tank might have striken terror into allied forces, it was ultimatly cancelled in 1943. Such a huge design had many issues, one being its sheer size. It would be hugely exposed to aerial attack by allied bombers, and its measly 25mph speed would have made it a slow target - had it ever even reached such a speed. Another flaw was its weight. Crossing WW2 era bridges with a 1000 tonne vehicle would've surely been a bad idea.
3- Silbervogel ("Silver Bird")
During the war, the Germans needed weapons capable of reaching America. Known as the
Amerika Bomber project, the luftwaffe were seeking an aircraft capable of reaching America, one such design considered was the "Silbervogel". A planned sub-orbital bomber powered by liquid propellent rockets, it was almost akin to something you'd see today. When in the air, the rocket engine would fire to an altitude of 145km, then power down until it "hit" the stratosphere and bounced, thus gaining altitude again. Such an advanced design was inevitably canned, turning out to be too complex and expensive a weapon. It was one of the firsst proposed winged spacecraft, foreshadowing vehicles such as the space shuttle.
4- Reichenberg
Towards the later end of the war, as german desperation grew - the Reichenberg was born. A manned-V1 rocket in which the pilot would almost be certain to die, was akin to the kamakazie pilots of the empire of Japan. Given the unmanned V1's lack of accuracy, a manned version could have proved a formidable weapon. However in 1945, senior leaders were able to convince Hitler that "suicide-attacks" were not part of the German tradition, and the Reichenberg was shelved in favour of the Mistel project.
5- Fliegerfaust ("pilot fist")
Lastly, an infantry weapon which saw little use in combat, the Fliegerfaust was a man-portable anti-aircraft launcher desgined to be capable of reaching distances of up to 500 meters. Although widespread use of the Fliegerfaust could have proven quite effective, only 80 were ever used in combat trials even though 10,000 were ordered along with 4 million rockets. The spread of the projectiles proved to be much to large, and the supposed 500 metre range was never attained- making the weapon woefully innefective against the majority of allied aircraft.
If you enjoyed our list of the top 5 most SHOCKING wonder weapons, consider checking out some of our other history posts!
