18. Tossing Secrecy Out the Window
The Great Panjandrum was supposed to be developed in secrecy in order to spring it as a surprise on the Germans. However, testing was carried out on a beach popular with vacationers, so secrecy was shot from the start. The testing was witnessed by huge crowds, who marveled at the weird device.
The design’s flaw emerged at the first trial run in 1943 when the rockets were ignited and The Great Panjandrum was launched. It made its way up the beach before rockets on one of the wheels malfunctioned, causing the device to careen wildly off course. The problem persisted with additional trials, as it proved impossible to get the rockets on both sides to ignite at the same time or to keep firing simultaneously. Still, the device’s designers persisted.
