Moving mines, a ‘sun gun’ and a bell whose ring would ‘crystalise your insides’: The terrifying Nazi ‘wonder weapons’ which could have won World War II for Hitler
With World War Two dragging on, Hitler's crackpot scientists were frantically scurrying for ways to turn Germany's technological might into terrifying weapons of war
AN enormous, nine-foot bell rings, and everyone in a 600 ft radius drops dead, their insides crystallised at the terrible sound.
It sounds like pure fiction, but Die Glocke, German for "The Bell", was reportedly a real ambition for Nazi researchers.
With World War Two dragging on, Hitler's crackpot scientists were frantically scurrying for ways to turn Germany's technological might into terrifying weapons of war.
At the pinnacle of their research were the Wunderwaffe, literally "Miracle Weapons", which the Nazi war effort was geared around developing.
From moving landmines to an enormous sonic cannon, these technological terrors were propaganda weapons as much as anything else, unmatched in their ambition and destructive potential.
Some, like Die Glocke, were nothing more than wacky technical concepts, but many others were brought to life and used to devastating effect on the battlefields of WW2.
Whirlwind Cannon
Dr. Mario Zippermeyer, an Austrian scientist, came up with the idea of the whirlwind cannon to act as a defence against Allied aircraft.
The concept is simple: the cannon was designed to create a physical whirlwind which could knock planes out of the air.
Theoretically it worked by using a combustion explosion to shoot a tide of swirling air through a nozzle and into the sky, but the first full-size cannon didn't perform as he had hoped.
The gust wasn't powerful enough to reach any serious altitude, and the war had ended by the time the design could be perfected.
Sun Gun
Theoretically, the sun gun would have been an orbital weapon which could concentrate the sun's rays the same way a magnifying glass does.
Only on this scale, the power of the concentrated energy could have boiled oceans or ignited entire cities.
German physicist Hermann Oberth first came up with the idea in 1929, but scientists had only devised an experimental model by the time the Allies had brought the war to an end.
Die Glocke
The Bell is the wildest of all the Nazi's conceptual weapons, and its very development remains disputed to this day.
A Polish journalist named Igor Witkowski allegedly discovered the existence of the bell by reading transcripts of a Nazi officer's interrogation.
Supposedly, the experimental metal bell could crystallise animal tissue in a 600 foot radius, through an unknown process involving a secretive chemical developed by German scientists.
And while some claim the terrifying bell was a hoax, other researchers are adamant that the Nazis were working towards a weapon of its kind.
Goliath Tracked Mine
Brought into battle in 1942, the Goliath mine was deployed on all fronts throughout the war.
Essentially a remote-controlled bomb, the mines would be driven up to Allied tanks, bridges and bases, before unleashing their 200lb explosive payload.
At first, they were devastating, but Allies realised they had a weak spot: the 2000 feet of cable which connected them to their remote operators.
Cutting the wire would disable the mines, which were slow and hard to control - despite being years ahead of their time.
Sonic Cannon
First produced in 1944, the sonic cannon was the brainchild of Dr Richard Wallauschek.
A combustion chamber would ignite a mixture of methane gas and oxygen, creating extreme vibrations in the form of a very loud noise.
On paper, these vibrations could cause nausea at 900 feet, and was fatal at 160 feet - believed to literally vibrate a person apart from the inside.
The acoustic cannon was reportedly tested against animals, but was eventually scrapped for being ineffective.
Schwerer Gustav
The single largest cannon ever used in the history of warfare, the Great Gustav was awe-inspiring in every sense of the word.
With a calibre of 31.5 in, the enormous cannon was originally designed for use in the Battle of France, but wasn't ready in time.
It first saw active deployment at the Battle of Sevastopol where it blasted through bedrock to destroy an underground munitions depot.
But when the USSR's Red Army marched on Germany in 1945, the Germans destroyed their gargantuan gun to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Allies.
The Silbervogel
Originally dreamed up in the 1930s, the Silbervogel, or silver bird, was a rocket-powered bomber designed to strike across continents.
However, Nazi tech just wasn't advanced enough to make the craft a reality, and the project was put on ice in 1942.
But the basic concept ended up living on after Americans adopted the Silbervogel's design for its own space craft.
A variant of the craft's then-groundbreaking engine is still used in many rockets today.
The V-2 Rocket
Despite being one of the Nazis' least outlandish wonder weapons, the V-2 was one of the most devastating.
First successfully tested in 1942, the V-2 rocket is believed by many to be the world's first long-range guided ballistic missile, capable of reaching speeds of 3,500mph during its descent.
The missiles were used against Londoners in 1944, killing an estimated 2,754 civilians and injuring at least 6,500 more.
Previously, we told how Hitler's evil Nazis were obsessed with the occult... and even dedicated an entire SS division to hunting witches.
We also told how an Auschwitz survivor escaped the camp because the "Angel of Death" Joseph Mengele asked her to dance for him.