WW2 SOE Exploding Rat

[CampX]

Sabots are also the wooden round bits that cannonballs are attached to, the powder bag was tied to the bottom of the sabot, I have included a photo of the one I have with a 6 pounder ball on it.
When it comes to these odd "Bombs" I like the Horse Sh*T bomb... now as odd as that sounds, in WW2 a lot of the German transport was by Horses, and most civies used horses, so contray to modern films, the streets were full of horse crap

BY the way, the sabot is the wooden bit between the ball and the bag

Just my Thoughts.

Dean O
Ajax Canada

[Scout]

Now available for tropical theaters of war: Exploding camels and exploding elephants offering considerably more bang for your buck! (Still under development are exploding whales for naval warfare: Exploding sperm whale carcass caught on camera in the Faroe Islands - YouTube )

Sorry, just couldn't resist it!

But, seriously: Very interesting; I had never heard of that.

Actually, exploding elephants were used on a trial and error (mostly error) basis during the Boer War.
How ever, the exploding elephant experiment came to a crashing halt around the time of the very first elephant called upon for this not so pleasent duty.
Whilst a rat can be held down by a a couple of determined men and the detonator inserted, it was found that a full grown elephant wasnt as easily persuaded, which led to several soldiers being trampled.
In retrospect, it was also deemed a mistake to use a cold detonator.

[KradSpam]

Working on something about the boomtown rats.... you get the idea.

A bit of an ikea joke that one. Put it together yourself, bits missing etc etc.

[CampX]

Boom Town Rats..one of my Fav bands..but of course " I Never Loved Eva Braun" she had an exploding Rat..sorry mistaken, a self shooting rat. LOL

Dean O
Ajax Canada

[lithgow]

There were some very unusual uses for animals in relatively recent wars-in WW1 the Germans had a 'cavalry' regt mounted on Zebu humpback cattle in East Africa where Tse Tse flies made the use of horses impractical-the US experimented with incendiary devices strapped to bats in WW2 (the idea being that they would roost in large buildings like factories or hangars) and of course our old friends the Soviet AT dog mines...

[CampX]

The Americans tried Camels in the south, ( not the smoking type) Texas I think..but that did not work out
In Canada we tried riding Polar Bars up North, however that did not work out either..bears got fatter and we ran out of riders. LOL

Dean O
Ajax Canada

[harryamb2]

Taka,I don't think trying to blow up Heydrich with one would have worked,he would have smelt a rat.[don't all groan at once,best I could do.----lol

[Gunny Hartmann]

Taka,I don't think trying to blow up Heydrich with one would have worked,he would have smelt a rat.[don't all groan at once,best I could do.----lol

Harry get your coat mate!....

[big ned]

Harry get you coat mate!....

Can somebody put one of the 'special' rats in the pocket first???

[Woolgar]

Didn't the Russians send exploding dogs to take out tanks?

I am sure I read this somewhere

Nick