5 ms·
I imagine most of them are in the ocean somewhere, still, plenty of WWII ordnance is found all over the world, always good to remember that things like this are
by rurounijones 12y ago
I imagine most of them are in the ocean somewhere, still, plenty of WWII ordnance is found all over the world, always good to remember that things like this are possible.
Off-topic: Do we really need all the "Diabolical plan", "Wicked weapons" spiel. This isn't a 1940s comic book. It was a war and all sides were up to this sort of off the wall stuff ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_bomb http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_bomb for example ) as well as more conventional ways of killing people.
- Roboprog 12y agoI had to laugh at that part, as well. Sure, a B-24 is a "Liberator", and B-17s were, uh, friendly??? I think they meant to write "desperate", rather than "diabolical", for a plan to blow random holes in the countryside. Not that I would want to be under one when it came down, regardless of country of origin.
- JoeAltmaier 12y agoIn Japan, a very crowded country, it might have seemed effective to drop bombs at random - killing people at random as a terror campaign. But California is mostly empty space. Making random black spots on remote pastures and empty hillsides has a lesser effect on moral. I think it likely that the Japanese command were merely profoundly ignorant of the living situation in America including population density.
- cmsmith 12y agoAs I recall there was no expectation that the bombs themselves would cause any significant casualties. The intention was for them to start forest fires, which would hurt US civilian morale and require manpower to put out.
- chiph 12y agoOne of the clever things that Ian M. Banks did in his Culture series was naming military ship classes. So rather than "Liberator", he had "Torturer", "Gangster", and "Psychopath" classes of ship.
- tfgg 12y agoThose names make me think more of British ship names[1], which tend to be more aggressive, which makes sense given Bank's nationality. Also the background of The Culture trying to be taken more seriously by other civilisations who thought they were too soft. A sort of "We might be soft, but we can make machines that definitely aren't". [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astute-class_submarine#Boats_of_the_class https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astute-class_submarine#Boats_o...
- kjjw 12y agoRight and the reference to the atomic bomb is of a 'secret project'. The discrepancy is a little bit jarring to read.
- stewartbutler 12y agoPigeon-guided missiles also come to mind: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pigeon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pigeon
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- kjs3 12y agoPlenty of WWI ordinance being found, now a hundred years on. Much of it still dangerous, and as recently as March of 2014 two people were killed by a WWI bomb in Belgium.