10 Insane Plans You Won't Believe The Military Tried

By Tom Baker / January 14, 2017

9. Bringing A Hammer To A Submarine Fight

Part of why World War II was such a huge, intimidating battle was that the Allied forces had already come up against some superior weaponry on the part of Germany in the First World War. German U-boats especially caused a lot of grief for the British, American, and French forces, mainly in messing up their supply runs. It was getting to the point that rations throughout Europe were getting worse than ever, with something like 200,000 tonnes of supplies being sunk thanks to German U-boat attack.

There wasn't really the time for the Allies to develop their own submarine, or anti-submarine weaponry, so they improvised. With hammers. Literally, they would send a blacksmith and some soldiers on a life raft to sabotage German subs in the middle of the night, with nothing more than a hammer and a bag. That's not even on MacGyver's level.

Nevertheless it kinda worked, with the bag chucked over the periscope before being smashed, effectively blinding the U-boat.