The Sun Gun
Sounding like something straight out of science fiction (or James Bond: Die Another Day), the sun gun or Heliobeam was one of the Third Reich’s craziest ideas. Devised by German Physicist Hermnann Oberth, the idea was to create a huge 5.6 kilometre (3.5 mile) reflector on a space station that could focus enough heat to burn a whole city.
Scary but far-fetched.
The Maus
The biggest armoured fighting vehicle of all time, the Maus never made its way off the production line. A 188 ton monster, there were no engines available at the time to carry its immense bulk.
Another great idea on paper that just wasn’t practical.
The V-3
The V-3 was the third and final in the line of the Vergeltungswaffen (retaliatory weapons) secret weapons of the Third Reich. Two huge bunkers were built in Northern France to hold the supergun, which was essentially a huge 130 metre (430ft) cannon. The V-3 would have fired 140 kilogram shells straight at London from the French coast but the lack of raw materials in the retreating Nazi Germany meant it was never used.
Check back into www.historyanswers.co.uk next Monday for part 2 of The Secret Weapons of the Third Reich including a tank even bigger than the Maus and Nazi energy weapons!