1. The Moon
Bear with me here. This wasn't a weapon used to inflict damage upon the enemy, it was one designed to boost the morale of the American people. In 1958, Russia had gotten ahead in the Space Race with Sputnik, much to the chagrin of the Americans. The United States Government wanted to give the people something to cheer about, something to really get behind. After dispensing with the ideas of parades, carnivals and parties the next logical step was of course to launch a nuclear bomb at the moon. Wait, what?! The Insanity There's no other way to say this. They wanted to detonate a nuclear bomb on the moon. As a way of boosting morale. No matter how many times I type that, it still doesn't quite go in. A lot of wars can be boiled down to pissing contests. My junk is bigger than yours type silliness that ultimately has tragic consequences. This is one brilliant example of such thinking. "Oh sure, you can launch a functioning satellite. fine. No, that's cool. We'll just nuke the shit out of the moon." Codenamed Project A119, some brilliant minds devised various ways to make this crazy dream an even crazier reality. Scientists initially considered using a hydrogen bomb for the project, but the Air Force vetoed this idea due to the weight of such a device, as it would be too heavy to be propelled by the missile which would have been used. Not to be undeterred, they decided to use a lighter warhead instead. This would carry the nuke to the unlit side of the moon near it's terminator (that line between dark and light), detonate, and the sun's rays would cause the resulting explosion to have maximum visibility from Earth. Thankfully, someone said, "Hey, why don't we just put our efforts into putting someone on the damn thing instead of tearing strips off it?" The Apollo missions were devised and withing 11 years, Neil Armstrong took his small steps. Animals, hobos and nukes. War is made up of many silly things. And thank god for these stories, otherwise it would just be totally depressing. Have you got any favorite war stories I may have missed? Let me know in the comments below. In the meantime, I'm off to round up the various animals in my neighborhood and create an army of personal spies. Who know how to look out for oncoming traffic.