Arms Race
The arms race during World War Two resulted in an entire gallery of new weapons. Some of them opened completely new perspectives of conventional warfare, while others came from the edge of human imagination.
These were so-called weapons of the “New Age:” unconventional arms imagined to be so powerful that they could single-handedly win the war.
Even though the world leaders based their power on conventional arsenals, all of them still had one eye on possible weapons of the future. In the years before — as well as during — the war, these powers had been developing such weapons.
With visions of Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon and so many other sci-fi characters, imaginations soared!
Some of these weapons were brought to life, as was the case with the atomic bomb, but some have never seen the light of the day. The Japanese Ku-Go “Death Ray” weapon falls into the latter category.
One of the most brilliant scientists of all times, Nikola Tesla, was one of the first to claim to have built a “death ray” weapon. He called his weapon “Teleforce” and it wasn’t designed to use any kind of rays but to project microscopic, electrically-charged particles.
Tesla’s weapon was rather complex, including several mechanisms to produce electricity of enormous force, somewhere around 60 million volts. This force required large, static power plants, estimating the cost of one such weapon station to be $2 million in 1940.
For that reason, he presented his plans first to the League of Nations and then to the leading powers of Western Democracy.
The United States Bureau of Standards rejected Tesla’s proposal as they believed it was not possible to produce such an enormous amount of energy.
The British attempted to make a “death ray” weapon, which resulted in the development of radar.
The Soviet Union made some effort in obtaining Tesla’s plans, but the actual weapon was never made.
However, that which was not of interest to Allies was of interest to the Axis Nations. The article about Tesla’s “Peace Ray” published in the New York Sun and the New York Times on July 11, 1934, caught the attention of Japanese news correspondents in the United States.
When the article was presented in Japan, Tesla’s death ray received a lot of public attention.
In the late 1930s, as Japan was preparing for the war, General Yamamoto was looking for a weapon that could give him an advantage over the United States. For this purpose, he sought out one of the most prominent Japanese physicists, Yoji Ito, from the Naval Technology Research Institute.
Ito had spent several years in Germany studying the development of the atomic bomb and magnetrons, giving him the required knowledge to build such a weapon.
After studying Tesla’s design, Ito and two other physicists, Maso Kotani and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, came to the same conclusion as their American counterparts: it was impossible to create a station that could produce so much energy.
For that reason, Ito and his team turned to what they already had. Microwaves!
In 1940, the Japanese had already been working on magnetrons as part of their radar research. Ito decided that they should make a bigger, much more powerful magnetron.
This magnetron would emit a high-power beam of very short radio waves that could cause either psychological or physiological problems to enemy soldiers and even death. Ito also believed that the same principle could cause internal combustion engines to stop.
Japanese officials thought that the project could be promising. They invested 2 million yen into it which, in 1940, was around half a million US dollars.
The whole project was put under the control of General Sueyoshi Kusaba. A brand new laboratory was established at Shimada, Shiyuoka Prefecture. The weapon was codenamed Ku-Go.
However, experiments with internal combustion engines were far less successful. Ito believed that microwaves could cause the pre-ignition of engines, but his experiments came across many obstacles.
In 1943, Ito and his team managed to stop an exposed car engine but failed to do so when the engine was protected by a hub. Experiments on an airplane engine from 1944 showed that microwaves were even weaker against well-protected engines.
The largest experiment was conducted in 1944 when the first prototype of Ku-Go was built by the Japanese Radio Company. This was an 80-centimeter magetron powered by 30 kilowatts feeding a di-pole antenna placed at the bottom of a 1-meter ellipsoid reflector. In 1944, 80 cm magnetrons were the shortest wavelength oscillators that the Japanese were able to make.
Plans were made in 1945 to build a new weapon consisting of 4 magetrons with the output of 250 – 300 kilowatts with a di-pole antenna and 10-meter reflector. Japanese physicists calculated that such a weapon would take ten minutes to kill a rabbit at a distance of 62 miles ( ~ 100 kilometers ).
However, the situation in the Pacific and the capitulation of Imperial Japan stopped all further research.
Click on images to enlarge.
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RAAF 98th Anniversary – 31 March
Pacific Paratrooper gives a sincere THANK YOU to the Royal Australian Air Force for being there!
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Military Humor –
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Farewell Salutes –
James Bacco – Grant Town, WV; US Navy, WWII
Violet (Bambi) Carrington, IL; US Army WAC, WWII
Ronald Helson – Cleveland, OH; US Army, Korea, 187th RCT, USAR, Lt.Col. (Ret. 30 y.)
Fred Lynn – Anderson, IN; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, D/511/11th Airborne Division
James Mumme – Phoenix, AZ; US Navy, WWII, PTO, radioman, USS Nassau
Robert T. McDaniel – Fort Worth, TX; US Army Air Corps, WWII, ETO, Tuskegee
Joseph Piccirillo – No. Charleston, SC; US Navy, WWII
Harold Steinmetz (101) – Mt. Clemens, IL; US Army, WWII, PTO, Capt., 38/149th Infantry, Bronze Star, Purple Heart
Muriel Seale Toole – Washington D.C.; Civilian, US Army Quartermaster Corps
Rodney Wicox – Arnot, PA; US Army, WWII, PTO, Sgt., 11th Airborne Division
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Posted on April 1, 2019, in Home Front, Uncategorized, WWII and tagged 1940's, Armaments, Death ray, History, Military, Military History, Science, war, Weapons, WW2, WWII. Bookmark the permalink. 103 Comments.
Great piece of history gp, thankfully it never came to fruition.
Could you imagine what would have been the outcome if Hitler had weapons like that during his reign of The Final Solution.
Cheers mate.
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His final solution would have ended us all!
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Great read. That’s one of the best death rays I’ve seen…
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haha, there doesn’t seem to be as many around as there used to be, eh?
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Great article, as always. Thanks. However the British “Death Ray” photo looks like a canister vacuum with ray gun stuff attached.
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haha, that’s exactly what I thought!!
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A book I have recently published, The Goddess of the Devil, includes some fascinating material, meticulously researched, regarding the Nazi quest for super-weapons.
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Oooh, now that’s where you get into some of the biggest and well-engineered equipment. They had some utter disasters, but they were impressive. Are you planning on a post with some of that information?
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That would be daunting. The book contains so much in that direction both proven and surmised. The documentation shows that even though Germany was on the back foot, she was on the absolute verge of launching an offensive with superior weaponry that would have brought the Allies to their knees;
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German engineering.
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With — according to the documentation — some far outside information.
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Japan and Germany used to compare their engineering too.
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Fascinating, GP. Thank you again for educating me!
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I’m just happy that you’re interested, Dolly!
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Definitely!
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A lot of this stuff sounds like they came from Buck Rogers
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Doesn’t it?!!
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Reblogged this on depolreablesunite.
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Sharing this post is much appreciated, Rick.
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This was a side to Tesla’s work I’ve never heard about. I had to laugh at the thought of the weapon that would take ten minutes to kill a rabbit at a distance of 62 miles. Entirely tongue in cheek, it occurred to me that I know some gardeners who might be willing to give it a try if it could keep the rabbits out of their gardens.
Another stray thought: I wonder what ghastly weapons are being cooked up in laboratories today, that we know nothing about?
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One of the readers did bring up that this sounded eerily familiar to what’s happening to our diplomats in Cuba.
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Just posted here GP … https://history2research.wordpress.com/2019/04/02/featured-blogger-report-arms-race-by-pacific-paratrooper-acehistorydesk-reports/
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Much appreciated, Ian.
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The Japanese had some lovely things up their sleeves for the good old USA. I’m going to be doing some book reviews soon about how close you all came to a very large outbreak of bubonic plague, one of the many diseases the Japanese worked on as the miracle weapon to change the tide of the war..
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I recall reading something about that, it’ll be great to read your research. You always do a fantastic job!
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Tesla’s ray was to fire 60 million volts? Whoa! That’s not just a weapon. That’s a very large power plant in itself. The largest substation we have in Kenya is only 220KV, much, much less than 60MV. I can only imagine what that ray could do to a person. It could vaporize people. Haha!
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I think they went and invented the atomic bomb for that. Thanks for making that comparison, Peter, it brings the ‘death ray’ more into perspective.
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Enjoyed the information about Tesla’s Death Ray. He was an amazing man, well before his time in many aspects of electrical science.
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Yes he was, most everyone usually mention Einstein or Edison and forget about this man.
Have a great week, Richard.
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Tesla certainly was a futuristic engineer in many fields. It’s always surprising how experiments for one thing lead to something else – radar, microwave, margarine, i.e.
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It is at that, Bev. I wonder if anyone tried to figure out how many accidental inventions there have been?
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It would seem that the technology has been around for years, even though it was not viable. That would suggest that, in time, it could well be! What a terrible thought that is! A fascinating bit of history!
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With all technology comes up with these days – it’s not hard to believe!
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Reblogged this on John Cowgill's Literature Site.
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Much appreciated, John.
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Glad to do it.
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Wow – what a fascinating read! 🙂
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Glad you found it interesting. It sure is something different, eh?! 🙂
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Well, thank heaven the research stopped. Microwaves, radar, sonar — btw, did you see the Heddy LeMarr documentary which shows her inventing sonar for the government? Very fascinating….
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No I did not, but I have read about her! Not just a pretty face, eh?!
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OMG, fascinating. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKXAkITImGU
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Wasn’t she just the most wonderful person?!! How exciting it would have been to meet her. My education was mainly science orientated – I would have been awe-inspired, I know!!
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Fascinating as always.
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Thanks, William!
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I wonder if the US or Japan continued the experiments after the war.
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I doubt very much they’d tell us until it came out of the archives. With the technology of today, I’m sure they could find much more efficient ways of doing it – like lasers.
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“at a distance of 62 miles (1 kilometer)”. Try again – a kilometer is approximately six tenths of a mile. (or 0.6)
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ah-ha, a typo, nearly 100 kilimeters
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Still a great post; I had found out about their work several years ago. I’m not even sure that it was that effective (distance wise) they were simply unable to produce the enormous energy needed to make it practical against advancing troops, and discontinued the project.
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Exactly and thankfully!
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The efforts of which you write sound eerily like what our diplomats in Cuba appear to have experienced in the last few years.
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It sure does, doesn’t it? I hadn’t thought of that – good connection!
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It is interesting to read about some of the weapons research going on. The Japanese could have had an inside track given their expertise with microwaves. Glad they weren’t successful.
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You’ld think they would have gotten the answer, don’t you?! 🙂
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Sure seems like they should have.
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It’s frightening, to consider the consequences. Of doing or not doing. Sigh.
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It is hard to say, isn’t it?!
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So interesting! So scary! So many ‘what ifs” scenarios. Thanks for your research, GP.
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That ‘what if’ could get really scary – couldn’t it?!!
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I love reading about these. I’ve seen a couple of programs about these ideas.
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They must have been the idea behind the sci-fi comics!!
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Scary thoughts that they want to kill a lot of people to gain power. But then throughout history men are always doing it.
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Narcissistic personalities have existed since the dawn of time.
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A very interesting report on futuristic weapons being developed during WW2! Nazi Germany also worked on devices that were commonly known as miracle weapons that were supposed to turn the tide near the end of the war.
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It’s a good thing many of their best scientists were secreted out of the country beforehand!
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I like the German Death Ray article. It reminds me of news stories we see these days, about such and such possible new weapon. I think most of the time these stories are BS hype, as was the Death Ray article, apparently.
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A lot of money was spent on these BS ideas.
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… I saw videos recently of USS Ponce testing ‘death ray’ guns at sea.
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That must have been interesting. If they ever succeed that would be one scary weapon.
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They’re always thinking…..
https://www.zmescience.com/research/technology/most-powerful-laser-weapon-9634654/
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Wow, I’d hate to be on the receiving end of that thing.
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The video I saw was scary enough … brrrr!
But armour always enters the race when required (asbestos-wrapped ships? The mind boggles …)
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Oh yeah. There always seems to be an answer to any new weapon invented. Perhaps with the exception of nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles.
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Hah! Find some way to reprogram them in flight and mark ’em “Unwanted package, return to sender” …
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Thank you very much GP! I am always wondering about the invention done before and during war activities. Some people only seem to get good ideas this way. Best wishes, Michael
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Necessity being the mother of invention or just “my laser gun can out-shoot your laser gun”!! 🙂
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So true, but always are the false people in the first line. 😉
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Such brilliant minds devoted to such evil goals. Very sad.
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And it still goes on today.
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Sadly, so true.
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The best weapon/peace maker, though, will remain the simplest, yet most complex: words.
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That takes a special talent to get countries to do what you want – much of that has to do with bartering and behind closed-doors deals.
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And, there was much rejoicing among rabbits of the world! But seriously, fascinating post! I see a lot of Tesla cars on the roads today.
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I’m sure the rabbits agree with you, DC!! I was behind a Tesla in traffic the other day. I understand they’re working on a Model E (?) which should only (only – haha) cost $35,000. Affordable to many (not me, but what the heck).
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So now I know a bit about Tesla. Elon Musk seems an eccentric descendant. Great post. I learned so much from reading it. Thanks, GP.
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I’m happy to hear that, Pat. Hope I can keep your interest till the end.
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You keep writing posts like you have been, I’ll remain a follower as long as I can get on a computer.
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That is so nice to hear!!
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So basically a personal-sized electromagnetic pulse shooter… I hope nobody ever figures that one out
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If they can figure out AI, they probably will get around to figuring that out too!
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As you know, a number of us wondered what you would write as your history of the war’s campaigns wound down. Now we know. You are continuing a tradition of excellent posts.
Where is that Vets’ memorial?
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Thank you.
The photo is the work of Johnbo. I can not say for certain where it is.
https://photobyjohnbo.wordpress.com/
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Nikola Tesla remains an enigma today. He was a fascinating eccentric.
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Yes, he was. One of these days, I’ll have to read up on him more.
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This was when it all began – and look where we are now
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Scary thoughts, eh Derrick?!
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Indeed
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Fascinating! Glad it all came to nothing though, for the sake of the bunnies 😀
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Isn’t THAT the truth!!
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Fascinating history of the ingenuity displayed in the hope of killing other human beings, GP.
At least Tesla got an electric car named after him. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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He was quite the genius, but it’s a good thing I’d say that this never came to be.
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Thank you, Ian. There will be more about the Japanese weapons coming up too.
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