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Atrocious Historic Weapon Designs That Left a Lot to be Desired

Khalid Elhassan February 6, 2025 16 min

Weapon - An American general with a captured Krummlauf — An American general with a captured Krummlauf. Sandboxx

7. Failure to Adequately Test a Theoretically Promising Weapon

Weapon - A magnetic exploder used in the Mark 14 Torpedo fails to detonate in a 1926 test — A magnetic exploder used in the Mark 14 Torpedo fails to detonate in a 1926 test. US Naval History and Heritage Command

Unfortunately, the Mark 14 was designed at the height of the Great Depression, when money and military budgets were tight. Between frugality and secrecy, no live Mark 14 were conducted. The magnetic detonator upon which great hopes rested had been live tested only twice on older torpedoes in the 1920s. In one of the two tests, the detonator had failed to go off. A 50% test failure rate did not prompt the US Navy to conduct additional tests. Despite the fact that it had fared miserably in the few live fire tests conducted, the magnetic detonator to be used on the Mark 14 Torpedo was approved for use by the US Navy’s Bureau of Ordnance.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.