German Sonic Weapons

[skorzeny]

Among the many things being experimented with by the Germans during WWII - and especially the desperate and chaotic 'V-weapon' period - was the concept of using sonic weapons. Here is an interesting article on one such weapon, the Luftkanone designed by Dr. Richard Wallauscheck:

www.lonesentry.com/articles/noise/

I think it might be interesting to explore the possibility that the Germans managed to refine this technology into a practicle anti-personel weapon, perhaps analogous to a flame-thrower in terms of battlefield use and in concept of range (although with a wider 'secondary' area of effect that would cause confusion and disorientation rather than injury and death). Such weapons would probably never become small enough with any reasonable extrapolation of WWII era technology to be employed as rifles or small arms, but perhaps could be reduced to a size where they could serve as field pieces or be mounted on tanks (or even walking tanks).

German sound cannons would be a nasty and unique type of weapon to arm the forces of the Reich, and one nicely rooted in experimentation the Germans were actually exploring.

[malika]

Cool! I tried to create a discussion on sonic weapons some time ago, check it here

[skorzeny]

An interesting quote from a site that took forever to load...

..........ancient posting begins here............

From: [e-mail] (Griffen)


[monster sized kanonen deleted -jp]
RE: Sound as a weapon.
Luftkanone. Developed at Talstation Lofer, Germany, during WWII. Developer: Dr. Richard Wallauscheck.

Best quote here:

"...design consisted of a parabolic reflector, 3.2 meters in diameter, having a short tube which was the combustion chamber or sound generator, extending to the rear from the vertex of the parabola. The chamber was fed at the rear by two coaxial nozzles, the outer nozzle emitting methane, and the central nozzle oxygen. The length of the chamber was one-quarter the wavelength of the sound in air. Upon initiation, the first shock wave was reflected back from the openend of the chamber and initiated the second explosion. The frequency was from 800 to 1500 impulses per second.

The main lobe of the sound intensity pattern had a 65 degree angle of opening, and at 60 meters' distance on the axis a pressure of 1000 microbars had been measured. No physiological experiments were conducted, but it was estimated that at such a pressure it would take from 30 to 40 seconds to kill a man. At greater ranges, perhaps up to 300 meters, the effect, although not lethal, would be very painful and would probably disable a man for an appreciable length of time. Vision would be affected, and low-level exposures would cause point sources of light to appear as lines." [1]

The device was not deployed, due to complexity and lack of range.

Also, a device that created vortices in the air, and a device that shot 'plugs' of air were developed at the same facility, primarily for low-level anti-aircraft defence.

References:

[1] _Secret Weapons of the Third Reich_ by Leslie E. Simon (USA, ret)

WE, Inc., Publishers (c)1971 [great book!]

[2] _The Guns 1939-45_ by Ian V. Hogg

Ballentine Books Inc. (c)1970

[3] _Lost Victories_ by Erich von Manstein

(Ooops, no data)

[4] _German Secret Weapons of World War 2_ by I. V. Hogg

ARCO Publishing Company, Inc. (c)1970


The site, for reference, is: www.sysx.org/soundsite/texts/weapon.html

[skorzeny]

The really nasty thing to bear in mind about the pressure the Luftkanone caused is that it came in pulses, magnifying the damaging effect. Imagine a yo-yo at sea passing repeatedly from a high pressure depth to a shallow depth in a matter of five or six seconds. Now imagine that yo-yo is the human body. Not a very pretty picture. Nasty stuff even for the Nazis.

[xeoran]

These sound like a very cool version of something bazooka-esque. Perhaps you could refine it to get into tanks. Another idea might be that if it was too short ranged and complicated they might have a weak version in a mine. So certain troops (pioneers?) can deploy mine fields of them or have them dropped from planes. While they wont kill or hurt the low pulses would distract, annoy and irritate nearby troops.