The Bombs

The battles of World War II brought new strategies to the fore. Chief among them was the ability to use technology to wreak destruction from afar. From unique engineering solutions like the Dambusters bouncing bomb, to the bunker-busting Tall Boy and Grand Slam some of these secret weapons were designed for a specific battlefield purpose. Others hoped to harness the innate capabilities of nature to deliver their destuctiveness, like the unerring precision of the homing pigeon, incendiary-armed bats or the Fu-Go balloon bomb. Some represented fantastic leaps forward in technology like the worlds first cruise- and ballistic-missiles and one, the nuclear bomb, would even go on to define an age. Each was designed in secret to serve a particular purpose, or solve a new problem. And if they succeeded, they were revealed for the first time as a blazing ball of fire.

Episode 5 of Season 1 from Secret Weapons of World War II — available to stream in HD on any device.