10 Weirdest Weapons Used During World War II

1. Project Habbakuk - The World's First Aircraft Landing Zone On An Iceberg

One of the most ludicrous plans thought up during World War II was to construct an aircraft carrier out of pykrete - essentially a mixture of wood pulp and ice - in order to combat German U-boats in the mid-Atlantic during World War II.

Although the British never actually carried through the plan in the end, Geoffrey Pyke did come up with the bizarre idea to attempt to land aircraft on top of a large iceberg. The British wanted an aircraft landing zone in the middle of the ocean because this would have ensured that German U-boats would no longer have been able to just hide under the water, but an iceberg was never likely to be a good solution to this problem.

Unfortunately ice splits easily under pressure, while icebergs tilt from side to side as they bob in the ocean, meaning no aircraft could safely land there. Research into this project eventually ground to a halt in 1944, despite the fact that two American scientists had designed a pykrete structure that would be 600-metres long and could carry 150 planes. Talk about ambitious... and ridiculous!