Most exotic plausible World War 2 standard-issue weapons?

Driftless

Donor
Has any military used shotguns with slugs in the 20th century? It's a common deer hunting load in many parts of the US, but for other use?
 
I can't recall slugs mentioned inn the ammo for our shotguns 1974-1997. 00 Buck if my memory has not failed me. Not sure what the advantage of a single slug would be from a shotgun. I know they are meant for deer hunting, & I shot a dog with them.
 
As I understand they were not 'military spec'. Off the shelf weapons. I've run across mention of those & twelve gauge of various makes as far back as the 1890s. One elderly Marine related circa 1976 to me how the guard room of his company (4th Marines) had a row of 10 gauge they used for riots. No details on make or model, but he said for minor affairs they had shells loaded with bird shot and salt. Buck for more serious trouble. This would have been in China around 1922-26 when he was enlisted. An account by a Marine NCO in the 5th Marines in France 1918 mentioned ten gauge shotguns & twelve gauge, for trench raids and assaults. Never met anyone from the Korean or Vietnam era who could reliably identify the presence of a ten gauge. But, certainly twelveguage. Also had people identify shot guns as ten gauge in photos of Marines and Sailors aboard ships & in the field. I don't collect photos so cant review those.

IIRC, they also used shotguns against the Moros.
 
The British Home Guard looked at using shotguns firing slugs as, effectively, a short range rifle replacement. They also experimented with pouring wax into birdshot to make a semi-solid slug that was reportedly very nasty at extremely short range.

The downside with shotguns in WW2 is that they're outcompeted- rifles have better range, submachine guns are better at close range, and shotgun ammo is relatively heavy which adds up when you're carrying a hundred rounds for military use. That said, shotguns were frequently issued to Home Guard, Volksturm, and other desperation forces so I could easily imagine a smaller army introducing them as a standard weapon simply because they tend to be cheap and available.
 
This is getting as far away as possible from “standard weapons”, but would it be feasible to use HEAT shells for naval guns? If cruisers can sink battleships, it would have the effect of the main battle tank making heavy tanks obsolete. It would be a novel way to get around the Washington Naval Treaty.
 
Against surprised, or the inexperienced & untrained soldiers the shotgun has a bonus 'flash-bang' effect. Useful in close quarters assaults and against your stock street mob. Napoleons remark about morale counting for more than the physical is important to remember.
 
This is getting as far away as possible from “standard weapons”, but would it be feasible to use HEAT shells for naval guns? If cruisers can sink battleships, it would have the effect of the main battle tank making heavy tanks obsolete. It would be a novel way to get around the Washington Naval Treaty.

Interesting idea. Not any crazier than the 18" AA rounds for the BB Yamamoto.
 

marathag

Banned
This is getting as far away as possible from “standard weapons”, but would it be feasible to use HEAT shells for naval guns? If cruisers can sink battleships, it would have the effect of the main battle tank making heavy tanks obsolete. It would be a novel way to get around the Washington Naval Treaty.
Drilling small diameter holes from HEAT going off wouldn't be as impressive as HESH on armored warships for damage inflicted
 
The post-war Soviet BS-1 Tishina doesn't seem to require any advances over the WW2 state-of-the-art other than a desire to build a silenced rifle grenade launcher.
Or if you prefer a Western post-war silenced platoon artillery piece, the Fly-K- a spigot mortar design with a single weird purpose always struck me as being a time-displace British WW2 contraption.

Either design might appeal to an army interested in stealth and night operations. Perhaps a British Army post-Battle of France looking for tactics to make up for a perceived disadvantage in armored warfare might develop this kind of a system?
 

marathag

Banned
he downside with shotguns in WW2 is that they're outcompeted- rifles have better range, submachine guns are better at close range, and shotgun ammo is relatively heavy which adds up when you're carrying a hundred rounds for military use.
Buckshot does 9 per round, but patterns closer than you would think under 30 yards.
That's also about the accuracy for the 'pumpkin ball' slug that was common in the USA until after WWII
The Germans invented the 'Modern' shotgun slug before WWI, and that gets you accuracy out to 60-70 yards.
That accuracy in the Midwest, is called 'Minute of Deer' rather than Minute of Angle that accurate, rifled weapons use.
 
The post-war Soviet BS-1 Tishina doesn't seem to require any advances over the WW2 state-of-the-art other than a desire to build a silenced rifle grenade launcher.
Or if you prefer a Western post-war silenced platoon artillery piece, the Fly-K- a spigot mortar design with a single weird purpose always struck me as being a time-displace British WW2 contraption.

Either design might appeal to an army interested in stealth and night operations. Perhaps a British Army post-Battle of France looking for tactics to make up for a perceived disadvantage in armored warfare might develop this kind of a system?
There is this.

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Soviet research into recoilless rifles for warships led to a small like 1000 ton destroyer being equipped with like a 15 inch recoilless rifles. The rifle is practically the size of the ship it's mounted on.
 
Drilling small diameter holes from HEAT going off wouldn't be as impressive as HESH on armored warships for damage inflicted

I honestly wonder just how well French BB grade gas shells would have worked against say Italian capital ships.

I've also been toying with the idea of a naval shell that's a Tungsten discarding sabot round. Obviously only for direct fire but for say close range fighter it might allow say a destroyers guns to seriously damage say a heavy cruisers armor.

An even weirder late 20th century weapon would have been a shell developed for for the Iowa's 16 inch guns. Designed to fly to a certain height and then have a parachute deploy. Then a laser designator (either on an aircraft or on the ground) would designate the target and the rocket would ignite propelling the laser guided 16 inch rocket assisted shell at the target.
 
The British Home Guard looked at using shotguns firing slugs as, effectively, a short range rifle replacement. They also experimented with pouring wax into birdshot to make a semi-solid slug that was reportedly very nasty at extremely short range.

The downside with shotguns in WW2 is that they're outcompeted- rifles have better range, submachine guns are better at close range, and shotgun ammo is relatively heavy which adds up when you're carrying a hundred rounds for military use. That said, shotguns were frequently issued to Home Guard, Volksturm, and other desperation forces so I could easily imagine a smaller army introducing them as a standard weapon simply because they tend to be cheap and available.
This was pretty common among poor hunters in the US in the early 20th century. For some reason birdshot shotgun shells were much cheaper then slug shells. So they'd buy birdshot shells and then carefully open them and pour out the birdshot. Then put the loose birdshot in a mold and melt a candle so the wax intermixed creating a jury rigged cheap slug. Then the jury rigged slug would be put back into the shell and the top closed. Useful for poor hunters looking to bad a deer to feed their family.

No idea why birdshot shells were so much cheaper then slug shells.
 
This is getting as far away as possible from “standard weapons”, but would it be feasible to use HEAT shells for naval guns? If cruisers can sink battleships, it would have the effect of the main battle tank making heavy tanks obsolete. It would be a novel way to get around the Washington Naval Treaty.
Not effective, a warships compartmentalization would render HEAT almost useless. HEAT tends to lose effectiveness after running into the first layer of armor, hence spaced armor being a way to mitigate it. Unless you hit a turret, barbette or conning tower there are multiple compartments between the outer layer and anything important, so the jet will dissipate before it hits something important, while a solid shell of sufficient mass/velocity will bull its way through
 
Jesus, would love to see any clip of them actually firing that thing, must have been "interesting" for the crew?

I remember reading about it nearly swamping the thing when they tried it. Of course while really impractical I kind of wonder how the armor of say a Panzerschiffe would hold up against a round from one of those monsters.
 

marathag

Banned
I honestly wonder just how well French BB grade gas shells would have worked against say Italian capital ships.

I've also been toying with the idea of a naval shell that's a Tungsten discarding sabot round. Obviously only for direct fire but for say close range fighter it might allow say a destroyers guns to seriously damage say a heavy cruisers armor.

An even weirder late 20th century weapon would have been a shell developed for for the Iowa's 16 inch guns. Designed to fly to a certain height and then have a parachute deploy. Then a laser designator (either on an aircraft or on the ground) would designate the target and the rocket would ignite propelling the laser guided 16 inch rocket assisted shell at the target.
1637710792148.png

You can see here why many(myself included) call Bismarck a WWI retread, with external vertical plate, while the other nations were going with internal sloped plates, well except for KGVs&Vanguard that reverted from the sloped Hood and Nelson layout.

Tungsten Carbide won't shatter like uncapped AP or Common on hitting thick plate, but that's a solid shell, with no burster, so the damage done is purely kinetic by the slug and the spall and plug knocked out by the shot.
 
View attachment 697909
You can see here why many(myself included) call Bismarck a WWI retread, with external vertical plate, while the other nations were going with internal sloped plates, well except for KGVs&Vanguard that reverted from the sloped Hood and Nelson layout.

Tungsten Carbide won't shatter like uncapped AP or Common on hitting thick plate, but that's a solid shell, with no burster, so the damage done is purely kinetic by the slug and the spall and plug knocked out by the shot.

Well that and the mixed secondary armament instead of the unitary secondary armament of DP guns ranging from 3ish inch to 5ish inches that everyone else was building at the time.
 
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