11. The Sticky Bomb Was One of History’s Worst Weapons
When the British were forced to hurriedly evacuate France in 1940, they left most of their antitank weapons behind. Faced with the threat of a German invasion, the Brits hurriedly designed and produced The Sticky Grenade, or Sticky Bomb, for use against tanks. Formally designated the Anti Tank Hand Grenade #74, it had an outer metal shell, covering a bomb coated with an adhesive. The user would pull a pin to remove the outer layer and expose the sticky bomb, run up to a tank, stick the bomb to it, activate a five second fuse, then skedaddle. Alternatively, the user could throw the bomb at the tank, and hope it stuck.
Unfortunately, the adhesive had trouble sticking to dusty, muddy, or wet surfaces – “a customary condition of tanks”, as Churchill’s chief military adviser pointed out. Worse, the Sticky Bomb often stuck to its user, because the adhesive tended to leak and glue the bomb to its thrower’s hand or uniform. It is likely that on more than one occasion, an unlucky soldier pulled the pin to arm the fuse, tried to stick the bomb to a tank or throw it at one, only to discover that it was stuck to his hand instead, and spent his last moments frantically shaking his hand like Wile E. Coyote with a stick of TNT glued to his paw.
