Narrator: From the outset of war, weapons have been designed
to deliver death, destruction, and terror.
Whether it's a trebuchet launching more
than basic projectiles...
He comes up with the great idea to catapult the dead into the city.
Shane Adams: The boils had popped.
It was blood, it was puss, it was vile.
This was the first known example of biological warfare.
Narrator: ...or rockets designed to sow fire and fear...
The Congreve rockets were fired. It was terrifying.
This is what Francis Scott Key was describing
when he wrote "the bombs bursting in air."
Narrator: ...to 20th century missiles
whose sound alone creates horror.
Michael Shelden: You can hear just this sort of screech as it reached the target.
It made it difficult to stand your ground.
Narrator: These are just a few of the dark superweapons
fired in anger, no matter the cost.
It was a way of advertising to the world, "Don't ( bleep ) with us."
Narrator: Not all inventions are made with good intentions.
Unlock the twisted history
behind the world's darkest marvels.
Across more than 12,000 battles fought in human history,
massive weapons of terror have been used to spread destruction and fear.
Among the earliest is the trebuchet.
Shane Adams: A trebuchet is an actual catapult
that would be used to hurl an object.
Narrator: The earliest, now known as traction trebuchets,
still require the oldest energy source in warfare.
A traction trebuchet uses humans to provide the power to actuate the trebuchet.
So, to fire the implement, people grab the ropes
and pull it in unison.
So the amount of men in a traction trebuchet
determine how much it can fire and how far it can fire.
The earliest examples of this kind of catapult come from China,
probably around the 4th or 5th century before the common era.
Michael Livingston: These early traction trebuchets
were essentially anti-personnel.
They weren't what we imagine today as a trebuchet that's knocking down walls.
This is really about clearing people off of fortifications
so that you can then act.
With the Islamic expansion all through north Africa into Spain,
we start to see the development of new methods of artillery.
And one of these is ultimately going to be
a groundbreaking invention of adding the counterweight.
Narrator: The first counterweight trebuchets
could launch projectiles weighing up to 100 pounds
to much greater distances.
We first start seeing counterweight trebuchets
in Europe around the 12th century.
The idea then is you're using engineering to replace men so you need less men,
but you can also now begin to up that amount of energy that is being stored.
So you're going to have fewer men, much better firepower.
Originally, when traction trebuchets were only throwing
10 and 20-pound rocks,
these counterweight trebuchets hurling those 100-pound rocks
could easily do damage to a castle wall,
or of course buildings on the inside.
It's wonderful for breaking down the walls of a fortified city
or for flinging things into a fortified city over those walls.
We have examples of trebuchets
flinging dead cattle over the walls and into a city,
which had great benefits for siege warfare.
It was a wonderful way to spread panic and stench and disease.
Narrator: Engineers of the day
continued to develop these machines over time,
leading to the most fearsome trebuchet ever built.
1304.
The armies of King Edward I of England
have spread over Scotland on a quest to subdue a rebellion.
King Edward I goes to Scotland to set the Scottish straight,
as far as he's concerned, that he's in charge.
Shane Adams: The fact that William Wallace's army
was able to take Stirling Castle
really pissed the king off.
Christine Axen: So as Edward I is approaching Stirling Castle,
about 30 to 40 Scots are inside.
Narrator: They're under the command of Sir William Oliphant,
who is confident the thick fortress walls will stand against Edward's forces.
Now Stirling Castle is a fantastic fortification.
It's up on rock, the walls are strong.
Christine Axen: Edward I, he's throwing incendiary devices.
He's using smaller trebuchets. Nothing is happening.
Michael Livingston: For Edward, this is a problem.
You can't have this castle not fall to you.
It's a significant base of operations.
You need it, and if you have brought this all to bare
and it doesn't fall, you look weak as a result.
Narrator: After months of siege, King Edward is growing frustrated.
The longer it holds out, the weaker he gets
because he's losing men to food,
to disease, to desertion.
Edward Longshanks tried to get the Scots inside to give up.
But they thought, why give up?
"We're in the strongest built keep.
You've been trying to get us out for months.
We're not going anywhere."
Michael Livingston: And so, the Scots had to be feeling
mighty good about themselves.
Until they had to sit there and watch
while he started building, effectively, a superweapon.
Narrator: It will become the world's biggest counterweight trebuchet,
aptly named the Warwolf.
Christine Axen: It takes five master architects and maybe up to 50 workers
about four months to build him this monstrosity of a trebuchet.
We know that it took 30 carts just to move the parts
that went into this thing. It was absolutely massive.
To do this, Edward must have simply been really mad.
I mean, we could sort of project psychology to this, right?
He's going to build the biggest weapon. He's making up for something.
In this case, he's making up for the fact
that he couldn't get this thing down.
He's going to get it down now.
Narrator: During the months it takes to build,
the Scots grow increasingly intimidated.
Michael Livingston: They see the English cutting down trees.
They're probably taking apart some of the trebuchets that they have.
They're doing that for parts.
And then they would start to see them constructing
what would ultimately be recognizable as a trebuchet,
but one that is larger than any trebuchet they've ever seen or even heard of.
It had to be the most frightening thing they'd ever seen in their lives.
The Scots send out a parlay party. They want to make peace.
They want to end that battle before their castle is destroyed.
But Edward I has just spent the last four months waiting for this creation to be built.
Michael Livingston: Edward said, "No, no.
You wanted to be in there, you stay in there.
I'm gonna shoot this thing."
Narrator: By the time the Warwolf is complete,
it stands over 60 feet tall,
larger than a six-story building,
and its arm can hurl 300-pound stones up to 700 feet.
The stones, they could go up to 100 miles per hour,
and this is shooting over the span of two football fields in a matter of seconds.
It was really, really impressive,
and I'm sure that that's why Edward wanted to make sure
that it actually was used at least once.
Narrator: King Edward also wants an audience.
By the time Edward is getting ready to actually fire this thing,
he wants to show it off, too.
This is now something that's
going to display his power
for the people back home.
The stage was set, and royalty was set in place
to be able to watch the Warwolf unleash its projectiles.
For the Scots inside watching this, waiting for it,
it's finally built, and they can see people gathering to watch this.
Truly, imagine you're watching your own doom,
and they're selling tickets for it.
And when it hits, it doesn't just break the wall of Stirling Castle,
it breaks the will of the Scots.
After the first projectile hit the wall, it collapsed,
and building after building, throw after throw,
collapsed within it to the extent that Edward Longshanks,
King of England, knew that he just hammered the Scots.
Oliphant and the Scots inside are now allowed to surrender.
Oliphant is sent to the Tower of London.
He later goes on to escape,
and in the spirit of William Wallace,
goes back to Scotland to carry on the fight.
Narrator: A fight they will ultimately lose
after William Wallace is captured
and publicly executed in gruesome fashion.
William Wallace is publicly hanged, drawn, and quartered.
He is strangled, he is disemboweled,
he is castrated, he is beheaded,
and his corpse is cut into four different pieces.
Michael Livingston: And at this point,
a lot of the Scottish begin to submit
because they're worried about
what's going to happen to them.
Narrator: Including Sir William Oliphant,
who switches sides, becoming a servant to the English king.
As for the Warwolf,
its intimidating size
turns out to be its ultimate downfall.
Michael Livingston: One of the crazy things about all this,
is this is the only time the Warwolf is used.
This thing is so big, so difficult to build,
to transport, to run,
this is an enormous amount of expense
just monetarily to use this.
And in the end, it's too much.
Shane Adams: The Warwolf,
with all the money spent upon it,
was disassembled, taken down, and never seen again.
Michael Livingston: In the end, this was really just a huge flex
on Edward's part.
It frightened people, and for a time
they weren't willing to go against him
because he had shown this determination,
this willingness to go that extra mile,
to create something that magnificent
simply to make his point.
Narrator: The Warwolf of 1304
marks a new advance in superweapons of terror,
but the darkest twist on siege machines is yet to come.
Narrator: By the early 14th century,
soldiers are using an arsenal of creative trebuchet ammo
to intimidate enemies into submission.
Michael Livingston: The idea in warfare is you do what you must do,
and if that means I'm going to throw a dead cow over the wall,
or a dead chicken, or a dead person, or a rock, it doesn't matter.
You're just throwing things that you think
are going to be effective for your ends.
Narrator: A notable example is in 1345,
when a simmering conflict between the Italian Genoese
and a Mongol horde comes to a boil
in the walled city of Kaffa in modern day Ukraine.
Joyce Salisbury: Italy during the 14th century
was made up of a bunch of city-states,
and the Genoese from Genoa were one of them.
They actually produced Christopher Columbus.
Christine Axen: Kaffa is a port city on the Black Sea,
and this means that a lot of the commerce
that's happening around the Black Sea
is coming through Kaffa.
The Genoese were so dominant in the sea trade
that they got the rights from the Mongol empire to a port in Kaffa.
Narrator: But the agreement between the Genoese and the local Mongols
is not exactly a friendly one.
Joyce Salisbury: The Genoese lease the land,
and you would think that would be a reasonable arrangement,
but there was always tension between the Genoese
and the Mongol hordes who surround.
Almost anything could trigger a battle.
In 1345, the Mongols decide to take back Kaffa.
The Genoese decide they're gonna stay,
and a war breaks out between the Genoese and the Mongols.
Jani Beg, who is the khan of a group called the Golden Horde,
encircled the city of Kaffa and tried to besiege it.
They were called the Golden Horde because they were so rich,
and a "horde" because they were so violent.
Narrator: Making matters worse,
an outbreak of a deadly disease
is swiftly decimating the Mongol ranks.
While the siege is going on, the Mongols are getting sick,
and nobody knows why.
People were hearing rumors of a terrible plague
that was in the east in China.
They didn't know where it was coming from.
Narrator: This mysterious disease comes to be known as the bubonic plague.
The plague is a zoonotic carrier.
Rats would actually get the bacteria in their bodies,
the flea would then bite a rat,
and then it would bite a human.
Once that bacteria gets into the body,
it goes right into the lymphatic system.
You would develop black blisters under your neck at your lymph nodes,
under your arms and your groin.
Jordan Wagner: They'd get anywhere between
two to ten centimeters in size,
and then these big lymph nodes can open up, bleed,
puss comes out, blood, nastiness, all over the place.
It took everybody out. It was indiscriminate.
Narrator: But behind Kaffa's walls,
the Genoese appear to be safe.
Because the protective walls
seem so great surrounding the Genoese,
the Mongols are imagining that the Genoese inside
are living the high life.
They're supplied, they're not getting sick. No problem.
Christine Axen: Jani Beg, noticing that his own men are starting to die
from this mysterious disease, he comes up with the great idea
to use trebuchets to catapult the dead into the city.
Shane Adams: The Genoese behind that protected wall thought they were safe,
until they saw the first few bodies start flying over that wall.
Just imagine seeing these bodies fall from the sky.
The boils had popped. It was blood, it was puss.
It was human excrement. It was vile.
It was a very disgusting and gruesome scene.
Narrator: The Genoese dump the diseased bodies into the sea,
but it's too late.
The plague spreads quickly throughout the city of Kaffa.
Shane Adams: As soon as the first Genoese started to get sick,
fear started to set in, because they were no longer protected.
So they ran to their ships and evacuated the city,
and ultimately took that bubonic plague,
the black plague, with them on that journey...
...to the extent that when the first ship
started to dock in southern Italy,
people were met with horror as half of these ships
were filled with dead bodies.
Christine Axen: When the Genoese sail home,
they bring the black death to western Europe,
where it immediately spreads far and wide,
and the entire world is suddenly immersed
in this deadly pandemic.
It's estimated that some
35 million people were killed.
That's the entire population of Canada essentially.
And this would've resulted in the loss
of 30 to 60% of the population.
Intentionally or not,
when the Mongols put the plague-ridden bodies
onto the trebuchet and launched them over the walls into Kaffa,
this was the first known example of biological warfare in human history,
and the results were absolutely catastrophic.
Narrator: But it's far from the last time
gruesome intimidation tactics will be used in combat.
Narrator: No weapon of fear is more frightening than fire,
and throughout history,
arms have been created to deliver just that.
Martin Morgan: When the Chinese developed gunpowder first,
they quickly recognized that there was an application that could relate to archery.
And they simply created an attachment for the standard arrow
that would encapsulate some gunpowder.
So it would give the arrow a little bit greater velocity,
and therefore gave it a little bit greater range.
And this marks a transition from missile technology
being missiles that are accelerated by human force,
contracting a bow for example, to missiles that are being
propelled by scientific force.
It's a chemical reaction.
In an age where it was mostly just swords and spears
and a few bow and arrows, these fire-powered arrows
were pretty intimidating.
Martin Morgan: In this early stage,
the rocketry is taking baby steps.
The baby steps will then eventually lead to the recognition
that individual rocket-assisted arrows
are lacking in accuracy.
What is desired is a battery of rocket propelled arrows
capable of saturating a target.
Narrator: By 1400, the Chinese believe
they have the perfect sinister solution.
Martin Morgan: A document from the Ming dynasty
describes this thing called a huo che.
It was simply a battery.
In other words, rocket-assisted arrows
that were massed together and mounted on a cart
that could be wheeled onto the battlefield
and could be then used effectively as an area weapon
in opposition against an armed enemy.
Greg Jackson: Frankly, it was a pretty impressive weapon.
It fired over 300 of these fire arrows, these early rockets,
and you could go about it one of two ways.
You could either light all of them at once
and have a massive barrage hit your enemy,
or you could do them more sequentially.
Field artillery today functions just like the huo che did.
In other words, very, very smart people
from hundreds of years ago developed battery firing systems
that have inspired and influenced
the types of battery firing systems that we're using today.
Narrator: Following the invention of the huo che,
the use of rockets spreads shock and terror throughout Asia.
But in the 1700s,
one South Indian ruler adds a menacing twist.
Martin Morgan: The Kingdom of Mysore
is centrally located in south India.
It was under Tipu Sultan
that rocket technology had been taken to a level
that Europeans had not even begun to imagine.
Narrator: Differing from its predecessors,
the Mysorean rocket is encased in iron,
allowing it to hold more gunpowder
and travel upwards of a thousand yards.
So that was a massive advance over just using the gunpowder
in conjunction with arrows.
You got greater range and you got greater impact.
Narrator: Their chilling power
can be seen during a stand-off
against the English in 1799.
In resistance to this economic empire
that was created in India under the British East Indies Company,
the Mysoreans were ultimately locked in combat against the English,
leading ultimately and climatically to a 1799 siege engagement.
Narrator: Tipu's troops are outnumbered four to one.
So in a Hail Mary, they fire a barrage
of Mysorean rockets at the British,
causing them to flee in terror.
Michael Sheldon: The firepower lit up the sky
and also did a lot of damage on the battlefield.
But it's a great terroristic weapon
because it was more frightening
than it was actual physical destruction.
Greg Jackson: It isn't long after the British
are being attacked by Mysorean rockets
that they decide we need to look at these things.
They're stronger. They're better than what we've got.
They're taken back to Britain, where they can essentially
be studied and reverse-engineered.
Narrator: Inspired by this new technology,
in 1801, Britain creates a rocket research program.
Greg Jackson: So by the time we get into the early 1800s,
Sir William Congreve has more or less given Britain
its own Mysorean rocket, and it bears his name.
This is the Congreve rocket.
Now, these aren't the most powerful rockets out there,
but their psychological effect is absolutely on point.
When a Congreve rocket explodes, it fires a massive red flare,
and frankly, it had to be terrifying.
These things can go 4,500 feet in range,
and they were quickly put to use in the Napoleonic Wars,
and more notably to Americans, in the War of 1812.
Narrator: Close to 15,000 Americans die during the War of 1812,
and another 20,000 are taken as prisoners.
One of them is lawyer and poet Francis Scott Key.
Martin Morgan: During the siege and bombardment of Fort McHenry
in Baltimore Harbor, the Congreve rockets were fired toward Fort McHenry.
It was terrifying,
but it led observers to take note
of "rockets' red glare."
This is what Francis Scott Key was describing
when he wrote those lyrics,
saying, "and the rockets' red glare,
the bombs bursting in air,"
in America's national anthem.
As the glare of one of these rockets passed
and it briefly illuminated the flying American flag,
it was of great inspiration
not just to Francis Scott Key,
but every American that was around Baltimore Harbor.
Not even the rockets' red glare
could knock down the flagpole and bring down the American flag
that stood there defiantly over the course of this bombardment.
And it led them to feel bolstered,
to feel reassured that we can stand up
to even the rocket bombardment of the Royal Navy.
Narrator: But even the rockets' red glare
pales in comparison to a Soviet superweapon
unleashed during World War II.
Narrator: June, 1941.
Germany launches an invasion of the Soviet Union,
an offensive dubbed Operation Barbarossa.
The Soviet Union and national socialist Third Reich
signed a non-aggression pact before the war began,
but it ceased to be convenient very quickly for Nazi Germany.
The Soviet Union sat upon the world's greatest
oil resources for that time period.
Nazi Germany had by that point realized, "You know what?
We're going to need that oil for ourselves, and we don't want to have to buy it.
We're going to take it." What could possibly go wrong?
Michael Shelden: The invasion is a huge success at first.
The Germans in the summer weather
ride across the plains in relative ease.
But as they reach the end of the year
and the weather begins to turn nasty,
they have a harder time making progress.
Yet they do reach the gates of Moscow by December of 1941.
Martin Morgan: And at about that same time,
the enemy has marshaled his strength,
and the Soviet Union begins to fight back
with ever increasing strength.
Narrator: Caught in an impossible stalemate
and running low on supplies,
the invading Nazis are about to find themselves
in the crosshairs of a terrifying new Soviet weapon of shock and awe,
the Katyusha.
The Soviets roll out this new secret weapon,
this battery firing rocket launcher
that takes great effect against German fighting forces.
You would just hope that you were a lottery winner during that attack
and that you wouldn't experience a direct hit.
Because if you did, your chances of survival were almost zero.
Martin Morgan: The Katyusha system is called the BM-13.
That's the official designation of the rail launching system
that was then mounted on a vehicle.
The system itself was a launching platform
that had 16 separate rails, and it would therefore
have a battery firing capability
of 16 rockets simultaneously.
Narrator: Each M-13 rocket is 2 1/2 feet long
and weighs 93 pounds.
These weren't massive rockets by any means.
It was the number of them that made the difference.
It was more a question of quantity over quality.
Martin Morgan: The Katyusha system
is recognized as being an area weapon.
You're not sniping with it.
You're firing a barrage of Katyushas
at a certain beaten zone.
Within that beaten zone, you are going to tear everything up.
Narrator: This diabolical weapon has one more chilling feature.
Martin Morgan: The Katyusha had a powerful psychological effect
because the sound moved faster than the weapon.
And so the people on the receiving end
would hear this screeching, whirring sound,
and they would know what they were about to be in for.
Michael Shelden: You can hear just this sort of whoosh,
but then a screech as it reaches the target.
It really was so frightening
that it made it difficult to stand your ground.
Martin Morgan: If you heard the screeching sound of a Katyusha,
the hardened veterans would disappear very quickly
because they would all flee for cover,
and that had a powerful intimidating effect
against the people who were new to that battlefield.
Michael Shelden: The Russians were giving the Germans
a bit of their own medicine, because in the Blitzkrieg,
the Germans had understood the terror that comes
with screeching sounds from their Stuka dive bombers.
What the Russians did was use that practice against them.
Narrator: But it's the weapon's appearance
that lends itself to a twisted new nickname.
Many people thought when they looked at the configuration
of these tubes on the back of these trucks,
that it looked like a collection of organ pipes.
In a kind of battlefield gallows humor,
they gave it this nickname-- Stalin's organ.
Narrator: Stalin's organ stops the Nazis dead in their tracks,
contributing to the loss of over 250,000
of Hitler's soldiers during the Battle of Moscow.
The Germans are getting pummeled over and over again
by the M-13 rockets that are fired by the Katyusha.
The Germans don't like it because it sucks.
Michael Shelden: Katyusha rockets truly worried the Germans,
because they didn't have a defense against them
and they had nothing like it to fire back.
When you were in an assault by these Katyusha rockets,
there was no place to go.
They would cover a large area of the battlefield at once
and leave a lot of dead bodies.
Narrator: The lethal rocket is so effective,
the Soviets ramp up production,
ordering 10,000 more during the course of the war.
Michael Shelden: Russia just won't let up.
They keep coming and coming and coming.
And they sow such fear,
that almost all the Nazi leadership run to the west,
right back to the borders of Germany,
rather than face the Russians
with their Katyushas on the east.
Narrator: But back in the western theater,
the Nazis have their own top secret mega-weapon in the works.
Narrator: By 1941, Adolf Hitler is ready to fire back
at the Soviets with a truly horrifying piece of artillery,
one that's been in the works for almost a decade.
The Schwerer Gustav.
Michael Shelden: The Schwerer Gustav was an enormous weapon.
It was the kind of gun that you would be frightened just to see at a distance.
It's so enormous that it's going to have to be mounted
on railway tracks especially built for it to work.
Narrator: This gigantic Nazi cannon
will become the most notorious railway gun in history.
But its inspiration comes from an earlier deadly conflict,
the American Civil War.
Barton Myers: The Brooke naval rifle was originally designed
by John Mercer Brooke for the Confederate navy.
It was the first armored rail cannon
used in combat in world history.
The Brooke naval rifle weighs roughly ten tons.
It could fire a 64-pound projectile nearly five miles.
The basic problem, however,
was that it can only fire in one direction.
In 1864, at the siege of Petersburg,
the Union army deploys its own railway gun, the Dictator,
which fires a shell weighing 225 pounds.
But the recoil is so powerful,
it destroys the railway car that it's sitting on.
Even the impractical nature of these early rail guns
didn't deter later inventors
from attempting to invent larger guns on rail.
Narrator: Including German engineer Gustav Krupp,
first tasked by Hitler in 1936
to develop their own version of a railway gun
capable of obliterating the French Maginot Line.
Michael Shelden: The Maginot Line was a defensive line
that stretched pretty much across
the French border with Germany.
The Germans thought to get through the Maginot Line
they would need guns big enough to destroy
those deeply emplaced fortifications.
And so the Krupp arms manufacturers
are able to deliver to Hitler
the most massive gun that's ever been built.
Narrator: The weapon weighs 1,350 tons,
about the same as six Boeing 747 jets.
It fires 15,000-pound shells
at a range of 29 miles.
Martin Morgan: Schwerer Gustav was not just a powerful weapon.
It was a way of advertising to the world,
"Don't ( bleep ) with us."
Narrator: But by the time the weapon
is finally completed in 1941, it's too late.
The entire reason that Krupp designs this weapon
is so that Germany will have something
that can defeat the French Maginot Line.
And in the end,
it's not firepower that does that,
because German units simply maneuver around the Maginot Line
from its less heavily defended northern frontier.
Narrator: As a result, the Schwerer Gustav is put on the backburner.
But the time and resources spent constructing
this colossal weapon will not go to waste.
Martin Morgan: By the autumn of 1941,
Soviet forces held out at the city of Sevastopol.
This leads to an eight-month long siege operation
during which all manner of German firepower
was brought to bear against Soviet forces in the city.
And that firepower eventually would include Schwerer Gustav.
Michael Shelden: Sevastopol, if you think about it,
is quite a long way to take that gun.
It's well over a thousand miles.
Martin Morgan: It took 25 freight cars
to transport the various component assets of Schwerer Gustav.
So it was its own train just to get there,
only to then be assembled so that it could fire some shots.
Narrator: Once in place, the Gustav fires 47 rounds,
laying waste to various targets throughout the city.
Hardened underground ammunition storage facilities,
troop concentrations at railroad marshaling yards,
completely destroyed.
Ships that are riding in the harbor are destroyed
by the concussive force of AP rounds that are going off.
Michael Shelden: Even though it was very difficult to fire and to put into place,
the Germans decided it was worth it for its fear factor,
for the ability to strike terror.
This seemed like the most superweapon of all.
Narrator: But as evidenced by the Warwolf trebuchet
over six centuries ago, bigger is not always better.
Martin Morgan: Schwerer Gustav was extremely effective
in use during the siege of Sevastopol.
The only problem is that the accuracy is falling off dramatically
and much faster than expected,
to such an extent that after they had fired 47 rounds,
they realize that we might as well not even continue.
Michael Shelden: The gun is so labor-intensive,
requiring thousands to move it and maintain it,
but the really glaring problem with it
was that such a big gun can be seen from the air for miles.
So the gun was a sitting duck to any kind of air attack.
In the end, it's not a very useful weapon at all.
It looks impressive, but because it wasn't practical,
it was never going to be effective.
Narrator: Despite the Nazi cannon's flaws,
by the end of the battle, the Soviet army is annihilated,
suffering over 115,000 casualties.
Martin Morgan: After the siege of Sevastopol,
Schwerer Gustav never fires another shot in anger.
Narrator: To prevent the technology
from falling into Allied hands,
the Germans ultimately destroy the weapon in 1945.
It's interesting that the Germans felt
they needed to be destroyed.
It was one of the darkest
of all the superweapons of the Nazi regime
because at a distance it would frighten the hell out of you.
But it still begs the question of who would want to copy
such an impractical weapon?
Narrator: But a giant superweapon like the Schwerer Gustav
isn't the only Nazi idea for spreading devastation
and fear in the hearts of Germany's enemies.
Narrator: 1943.
The Nazis are secretly developing
a terrifying new weapon to destroy London--
the V-3 Supergun.
The Germans always believed that Britain would be a pushover.
They thought that after they stormed their way
through the low countries in France
that turning to England would be a fairly easy job.
Narrator: One of the earliest assaults against the Brits
happens on September 7th, 1940.
The Germans launch a surprise bombing attack on London,
setting off a relentless siege known as the Blitz.
Martin Morgan: Over the course of the eight months of the Blitz,
43,000 British subjects lose their lives.
Civilians.
Over one million homes are destroyed.
So for the United Kingdom, this is a massive loss.
Narrator: But the Brits fire back.
The British had an enormous advantage
in their early adoption of radar
that allowed them to know exactly when
these Luftwaffe planes were coming over to attack.
And so they would meet them head-on
with Spitfires and other fighter planes.
Martin Morgan: It becomes this grind over and over again
of the Germans send in a big attack
and the RAF comes up to fight them.
And eventually, over 2,000 German aircraft
are lost in combat.
Narrator: Their tenacity pays off
when Hitler abandons the siege on May 11, 1941.
But the fight is far from over.
Martin Morgan: By late 1942,
the RAF and the United States Army air forces
were conducting precision bombing raids against German cities
and killing German civilians by the thousands,
and Adolf Hitler wanted revenge for it.
And that speeds up the development
of the so-called V-weapons.
The V-1, the V-2, and the V-3.
The V is significant
because the V was roughly translated
in our language as vengeance.
These were vengeance weapons.
Narrator: For the next two years, the Germans continue
to develop the weapons in secret.
But after the Allied invasion of Normandy
on June 6th, 1944, or D-Day,
Hitler's desire for vengeance reaches a fever pitch.
One week later, the V-weapons are unleashed,
first on London and later Belgium.
Martin Morgan: It would start with the V-1 buzz bomb.
This was a pulse jet powered flying bomb
that would be used to strike targets
like the city of London.
Michael Shelden: The V-2 was much more sophisticated.
That was a real rocket.
Martin Morgan: This was the world's first ballistic missile.
That was one engineering solution
for getting a projectile on a target at great range.
Michael Shelden: The combination of these weapons
should have had greater impact than they did.
They certainly frightened a lot of English people,
but none of them proved to be decisive at all.
Narrator: And so Hitler imagines an even greater vengeance weapon,
one that can spread destruction, terror,
and most importantly, payback,
throughout the city of London.
The Germans begin the construction of a V-3 Supergun site
at a place called Mimoyecques in Northern France.
And it was here where there would be 25 barrels
divided into five groups.
And once that facility had been completed,
these 25 Supergun barrels would deliver 600 projectiles
against the city of London each and every day.
Narrator: While the Nazis raced to complete the Superguns,
it's nearly impossible to keep their plans under wraps.
Michael Shelden: In 1944, their fortifications
were spotted by aerial surveillance.
We knew it was bad news, and so we began a process of bombarding it.
And one of the most famous attempts
to destroy those fortifications
was mounted by a young lieutenant
in the American Navy
who agreed to volunteer to fly a bomber
jammed with explosives over that site of the V-3,
and then bail out after aiming his plane with these explosives
straight at that fortification.
That young lieutenant was named Joseph Kennedy.
He was president Kennedy's older brother.
And it didn't work.
The electronics on the bomber went off prematurely,
blowing poor Joe Kennedy up in the process.
So the man who the Kennedy family thought
would be the president of the United States,
older brother Joe,
was blown up trying to take out the V-3 guns.
Narrator: Despite the tragic accident, the Allies remain determined
to eliminate the Nazi's supersized death cannon.
The RAF dam-busters ultimately contribute significantly
to the destruction of the site at Mimoyecques
by using this weapon that's called the Tallboy.
It's a 12-ton bomb,
and it absolutely destroys the site
to such an extent that the project has to be abandoned.
But that system from the start was doomed
because Germany couldn't do any of it
without invading other countries
and enslaving the populations of those countries.
And when you do that, you're going to get war.
And when you get war, you might get
a multi-national coalition of 14 countries
that come and kick the living ( bleep ) out of you,
and that's what happened.
Narrator: The Warwolf trebuchet,
the Katyusha rocket system,
the Schwerer Gustav,
and the V-3 cannon,
though they had their flaws,
these terrifying weapons of shock and awe
combined the modern technology of the day with sinister intent,
and have left scars on both the battlefield
and the psyches of those who faced them.