Necessity is the mother of invention so it’s often during war that the most amazing contrivances are developed… and some of the most ridiculous.  This is a look at a few of the less successful wartime inventions!

The Bat Bomb.

During testing, a few bats escaped and disaster followed!

 A slab of Pykrete with a bullet mark.

The proposed Pykrete aircraft carrier.

The Bat guided bomb used in Project Pigeon.

The Fu-Go hydrogen balloon bomb.

A Fu-Go balloon found near Bigelow, Kansas on February 23, 1945.

A rendition of the proposed Nazi Sun Gun.

Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to US Army, US Gov, USAF, CyranoDeWikipedia, Teramatt, US National Archives, and the US Navy Archives.