(26 x 1 Hour episodes)
THE SERIES
What differentiates an ordinary weapon from a Secret Weapon?
When does a Secret Weapon cease to be secret?
Which Secret Weapons outwitted an unsuspecting enemy when they first appeared?
Were they so revolutionary that they were totally unexpected? And were they surprising enough to win battles and wars by their sheer technological innovation in a particular theatre of war?
Of all the most Secret Weapons of the last 100 years the dropping of the first atom bomb in 1945 was probably the most surprising revelation of any hitherto secret weapons system. In fact the weapon had been kept so secret that it took the Japanese some considerable time to appreciate its full magnitude thus forcing the Allies to demonstrate its awesome power for a second time.
In World War I the introduction of the tank in vast numbers so took the Germans by surprise that the Allies were able to advance more miles in one day than had been possible in the previous three years.
The famous "bouncing bomb" of the Dam Busters raid of 1943 so shocked the German High Command when it destroyed the Mohne and Eder dams that the German population were not told of its secret until well after World War II was over.
On D-Day the Allies arrived on Normandy beaches with some of the oddest looking weapons the Germans had never seen. These were "The Funnies" - bizarre tanks that floated - others which carried bridges, some which carried giant cutters and others which hurled giant shells so large that they were called "flying dustbins". They alone could smash holes in Hitler's Atlantic Wall.
The Allies were not the only ones with well developed Secret Weapon systems. The Japanese experimented with balloons and seaplanes which could drop chemical and radioactive bombs on the West Coast of the USA.
The Germans developed a gun for firing around corners and a rocket so powerful that had it been completed could have struck New York from its base in Germany.
The Germans also developed submarines that could "breathe" under water and the Russians developed an aircraft so large that it could carry 500 troops or 5 battle tanks but could only fly 20 feet above the surface of the sea.
The British developed ways of preventing invasion by setting light to the sea and a sticky bomb that was far more dangerous for the thrower than its intended target. Even the Turks in World War I and the Chinese since World War II have developed fiendish weapon systems which have taken their enemies totally by surprise.
This new series "Secret Weapons" now discloses the secrets of these technologically stunning weapons systems which were kept secret for as long as possible in order to maximise their impact on an unsuspecting enemy.
It includes a hydraulic shell hoist in British warships which made every other Battleship obsolete and the latest in anti- submarine warfare. Even the latest generation of super weapons built by the Chinese but based on western technology are included.
It is the most comprehensive series ever produced on this fascinating subject.
FOR WORLDWIDE TV RIGHTS
PLEASE CONTACT:
MICHAEL KATZ
VICE PRESIDENT PROGRAMMING & PRODUCTION
THE INTERNATIONAL DEPT,
THE HISTORY CHANNEL
A&E TELEVISION NETWORKS
235 EAST 45TH STREET
NEW YORK
NY - 10017
USA
TEL: 001 212 210 9003
FAX: 001 212 907 9476
E-MAIL: michael.katz@aetn.com
FOR WORLDWIDE VIDEO AND ALL PUBLISHING RIGHTS
PLEASE CONTACT:
KATE WINN
THE HISTORY CHANNEL
A&E TELEVISION NETWORKS
235 EAST 45TH STREET
NEW YORK
NY - 10017
USA
TEL: 001 203 353 7204
FAX: 001 212 907 9418
E-MAIL: kate.winn@aetn.com
PLEASE CONTACT (USA):
SUSAN MARGOLIN
NEW VIDEO GROUP INC
902 BROADWAY (9TH FLOOR)
NEW YORK
NY 10010
USA
TEL: (212) 206 8600 X 226
FAX: (212) 206 9001
E-MAIL: SMargolin@newvideo.com
THE STORIES
(each programme = 26 minutes)
Programme 1
CHURCHILL'S WATER TANK
During World War I Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, demanded a design for an armoured caterpillar tractor with a gun capable of crossing trenches and crushing most obstacles in its path.
The matter was considered to be entirely outside the province of the Admiralty and his suggestions did not meet with much favour at that time from the experts. He persevered and eventually a Landship Committee was formed and without any reference to the Admiralty Board; the War Office of the Treasury and on his own personal authority the first tank was made. The design left much to be desired and has been improved upon but there is no doubt that without Churchill's perseverance this remarkable instrument of warfare might never have been made.
The programme will also include work by pioneering American scientists including F.W. Batter, G.H. Edwards, Mr. Holt and Colonel R.P. Davidson of the North Western Military and Naval Academy at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, all of whom played a part in what, for security reasons, became known as the Water Tank.
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Programme 2
THE SECRET NAVAL GUN
In the 1900s the British produced a new secret design for a new fast ship with five twin 12-inch gun turrets to outmatch anything afloat. With this new weapon they turned the tables on Japan, Germany and Russia. The British Battleships Albion and Glory also introduced a new type of hydraulic turret mounting with all round loading, which greatly speeded up the rate of fire. So secret, advanced and effective was this design that it was retained until 1945.
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Programme 3
THE STICKY BOMB
The sticky bomb was developed secretly in 1940 as an anti-tank grenade. It consisted of a glass ball filled with nitro-glycerine attached to a handle containing a five second delay and a safety pin. The ball was sheathed in coarse cloth covered in a powerful adhesive and this surface was protected by being enclosed in two tin hemispheres clipped to the handle which prevented the grenade sticking to everything it touched whilst being carried. When ready to use, the thrower pulled the pin which released the protecting covers, then pulled the safety pin. It was then ready to be thrown at the enemy tank. As it left his hand, the 'delay' would begin burning and after striking the tank and adhering to it the nitro-glycerine in the 'sticky bomb' would detonate.
For video availability click here.
Programme 4
SETTING LIGHT TO THE SEA
In 1940 hundreds of mysteriously burned German soldiers were washed up on British beaches. They were buried in secret but the rumour caused panic amongst Hitler's troops who were waiting on the other side of the Channel to invade England.
One of the most famous British secret devices in World War II was the ability to flood the surface of the sea with gasoline or oil and then ignite it to form a deadly flaming barrier, in order to prevent landing craft or small boats from approaching the shore. Although this is usually pointed to as an example of the hurried improvisations of 1940 when the German invasion was expected any day, the truth however lies in a secret weapon system which was developed and installed as early as 1937 off the south coast of Cornwall and on the Essex coastline.
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Programme 5
THE BUNKER BUSTING SHELL
Nicknamed 'The Flying Dustbin', the Petard Mortar could reduce Hitler's Atlantic wall to rubble. It is now believed that the great Panjandrum which failed on film so dramatically may have been deliberately kept going as a deception move whilst the true concrete 'Bunker-buster' was in fact being developed in secret. This awesome secret weapon was designed by Colonel Stewart Blacker and contained a forty pound warhead for smashing concrete with no attempt at streamlining on the projectile itself.
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Programme 6
THE HEDGEHOG
Winston Churchill was scheduled to visit the secret MDI test ground to witness the trial of another secret weapon and whilst he was there he was persuaded to watch a spontaneous demonstration of the secret 'Hedgehog'. The new secret weapon performed brilliantly and Churchill approved it instantly and it went into service forthwith. 'Hedgehog' was the ideal complement to ASDIC. It was an electronically fired multiple spigot launcher which fired a pattern of twenty-four contact fused bombs, each carrying thirty-two pounds of Torpex high explosive ahead of the ship. This enabled ASDIC contact with the U-boat to be maintained whilst the weapon was fired. Moreover the spread of charges in a pre-set elliptical pattern gave a much better chance of a direct hit, whilst the contact fuse meant that a detonation almost certainly indicated a kill. For a long period the German U-boat crews had no idea that this secret weapon existed and it was highly successful during the Battle of the Atlantic.
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Programme 7
THE V1
Originally developed by the Luftwaffe, the designated FZG-76 started life as a wooden pilotless aircraft driven by a pulse jet motor. The secret development was originally carried out at the Glider Research Centre at Darmstadt but was transferred to Peenemünde in 1942 when it became necessary to test-fly the machines in secret. The whole idea began in the 1920s with the development of the pulse jet motor and this was taken up by the Argus Aero-Engineering company in the 1930s by which time the Feiseler aircraft company got interested and designed the small aircraft body to go with the motor. This was known as the Feiseler FI-103 and sometime late in 1940 the Glider Research Station took over the project and turned it into a pilotless missile. The motor was set on a pylon above the airframe and the warhead contained 1,870 pounds of high explosives and an impact fuse. Mass production was put in hand in March 1944. The Nazis eventually stockpiled12,000 missiles.
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Programme 8
THE MAUS
Developed in total secret, the German super tank, 'Maus', was designed by Dr. Porsche from 1942 onwards. This monster weighed 183 tonS and carried a 12.8cm gun and a 7.5cm auxiliary gun. A 1,375 horsepower engine drove through an electric transmission to give a top speed of 12mph. The layout of the vehicle was unusual in its having the engine compartment in the middle and the fighting compartment at the rear. Armour of up to 9-inches in thickness was fitted. The project was presented to Hitler in secret on his birthday but the whole concept was out of date before it ever began.
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Programme 9
THE NEW YORK ROCKET
The Peenemünde team designed the A9/A10 which was the A10 with an A4 or A9 mounted in its nose to give it a two-stage effect. The A10 would lift off and the lot off the ground and push the second stage as far into the stratosphere as possible. Then the A4 or A9 would ignite and roar off to reach a maximum range of 5,600 kilometres, or 3,478 miles, leaving the now useless A10 stage to fall to the ground. Hitler hoped this would bring the US within striking distance of Germany, but the project got no further than the drawing board before the war ended.
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Programme 10
MINI SUBS
In the 1930S during the Pacific campaign, the Japanese began experiments with midget submarines. The type A was used unsuccessfully deployed at both Pearl Harbor and in Sydney harbour in Australia. However, its most notable success was torpedoing the British warship Ramillies in Madagascar in 1942. British miniature submarines included the 'Two Man Chariot' - the Human Torpedo and the highly secret 'X-Craft' which achieved fame for the daring attack on the Tirpitz.
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Programme 11
THE BOUNCING BOMB
In Britain, Barnes Wallace invented the famous Cylindrical bomb used by the Dambusters for the attack on the Ruhr dams in Germany. The Lancaster bomber was used to destroy the Mohne and Eder dams. Wallace's other designs were also significant and top secret at the time. They included the 22,000lb Earthquake or Grand Slam bomb which, with its offset fins, spun as it fell passing through the sound barrier on the way down and developing sufficient terminal velocity to plunge through concrete armour plated decks and viaduct foundations. It was with the advent of the Tall Boy and the Grand Slam bombs that 35ft of concrete could be pierced protecting the German U-boat pens on the French coast.
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Programme 12
THE FUNNIES
The funnies were a group of sophisticated weapons developed primarily for D-Day by a special team led by Colonel Percy Hobart. These included 'The Bobbin' which was based on a Churchill tank chassis that could lay a 9ft 11inch wide canvas carpet over soft sand making an instant corduroy road for following vehicles. Next came 'The Alligator' which was designed to swim out of the sea under remote control and able to lay a mattress containing one tonne of high explosive against a concrete obstacle. Its hull was an armoured conversion of a standard US LVT (Landing Vehicle Tract). Sherman DD (duplex drive) and was intended to spearhead the assault on the D-Day invasion beaches.
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Programme 13
THE MP43
The MP43 was actually the first assault rifle, firing a shortened cartridge and capable of single shot automatic fire. Under this guise, Hitler assumed it to be a replacement for the existing sub-machine guns and as he was in favour of these weapons the development of the MP43 went past him unquestioned. Eventually, when he found out about it he was furious and instituted an enquiry but it was renamed the Sturmgewehr and it went into serious production in several variants. It is widely believed that the MP43 weapon was the inspiration for the Russian Kalashnikov A47 assault rifle.
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Programme 14
THE V-3 SUPER GUN
During WWII the Germans developed one of Hitler's favourite secret weapons - the Supergun. It was an awesome weapon with a very long barrel and a normal shell and cartridge, however, along the gun barrel extra chambers had been arranged with an additional cartridges inside. Just as the first cartridge pushed the shell up the bore of the gun in the normal way, and the expansion of gas reached its limits, the shell passed the the next chamber where upon the another cartridge inside was fired in sequence. This continues up the barrel of the gun until many cartridges have fired in synchronicity to produce a massive end velocity when the shell left the gun muzzle.
The German V-3 installation at Mimoyeques was destroyed by Allied troops in 1945. With more development time it would have been quite possible for the Nazis to fire 550 pound high explosive shells at London every ten or fifteen minutes and quite possibly, in the near future, deploy of chemical warheads as well.
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Programme 15
WEAPONS OF THE ORIENT
This programme examines the secret weapons of South-East Asia. In other words, those countries where there has been significant conflict and where forces like the Vietcong have had to improvise in order to surprise a much heavier armed opponent. Some of these secret weapons systems had ancient origins but clearly took U.S. Forces by surprise when they appeared for the first time in the 1960s. Secret Weapons do not necessarily have to be 'high- tech' and the contrast between these ancient derivatives and hi-tech Western technology was stark in the extreme. Also, in terms of secret weapons, the Russians were active in the Gulf of Tonkin in the use of Russian spy ships and trawlers. Later, off the island of Guam, the Izmeritel took up position off the US Navy's operations centre and was able to intercept messages from the staging area and forewarn the North Vietnamese of approaching US B52 bomber attacks over Vietnam.
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Programme 16
TURKISH SECRET WEAPONS
In 1913 Turkey negotiated the supply of two weapons systems that would give her complete domination of the Eastern Mediterranean. These were two unprecedented mighty British super-dreadnought battleships, capable of delivering the most devastating broadside in the world: the 'Sultan Osman I' with 14 x 12-inch guns and the 'Reshadieh' with 10 x 13.5-inch guns. These were intended to surprise their hated enemy, the Greeks.
Other new secret weapons included motor torpedo boats, submarines and mines which were later to sink British battleships in the Dardanelles.
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Programme 17
SECRET WEAPONS OF THE MIDDLE EAST
The main conflicts in the Middle East since World War II have been Arab-Israeli in nature. The Israelis have had to defend a small territorial unit vulnerable to being overflown in minutes by second level Soviet jet combat aircraft from the Cold War Era.
Iraq's secret programme of missiles and chemical weapons was largely destroyed after the first Gulf War. However, the Iraqi super gun designed by Dr. George Bull and designed to fire chemical shells on Israel was one of the most potentially devastating secret weapons developed during this area.
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Programme 18
GUIDED MISSILES OF THE COLD WAR
This programme looks at the top secret weapons which have been produced since World War II and how atomic and nuclear devices have been improved and adapted from strategic to tactical use. Other developments covered are the increasingly sophisticated inertial guidance systems, infrared homing, integrated satellite systems and the latest technology, which protects US airspace including the Star Wars project and other forms of advanced missile defence.
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Programme 19
THE SCHNORKEL AND GERMAN SUPER U-BOATS
The Schnorkel was under development in Holland when the Germans invaded in 1940. They seized on its potential and developed it into serviceable device. It was an air-duct and diesel exhaust closed by a ball valve which allowed their U-boat to remain under the surface while still taking in air. The most promising of the German secret weapons at sea was the type XXI U-boat. Designed in 1944, it introduced many revolutionary ideas and included many secret developments including the 'Schnorkel', together with a streamlined hull, vastly increased battery capacity and rapid reloading for the torpedo tubes.
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Programme 20.
GUIDED MISSILES AND NUCLEAR MINES
Some of the earliest secret guided missiles were initially developed by the Germans, which included the 'Wasserfall' a radio, controlled anti-aircraft super rocket similar to the A4 in principals of operation. Another German secret development was Rheinmettal's 'Rheintochter' a guided anti-aircraft rocket which could carry a 330lb warhead.
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Programme 21
GUIDED BOMB
Notable among the secret bombs of World War II is the AZON - azimuth only - the only radio controlled glide bomb deployed by the US during the entire war.
Used to knock out vital bridges and viaducts in occupied Europe, the AZON also plays a major role in destroying railroad bridges - many of them built by British POWs - on the line between Thailand and Burma, bringing supplies into Japanese troops.
However, the first radio-controlled bombs used in World War II were not American, but German. They included the Fritz X and the Henschel HS-293, both of which would wreak havoc among Allied shipping in the Mediterranean and the Bay of Biscay .
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Programme 22
THE CASPIAN SEA MONSTER
On a misty morning in July 1967 on the shores of the Caspian Sea, a giant sea hugging monster - bigger than any Western aircraft was revealed. It was capable of carrying 500 troops or five Battletanks across water at high speed - powered by ten marine jet engines. People who saw it could not believe their eyes. It was the largest flying boat ever built, designed to fly just sixty feet above the ocean on a massive cushion of air. Truly, one of the greatest secrets of the Soviet era.
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Programme 23
THE FOXBAT
The ultimate Soviet top-secret air superiority strike fighter, this aircraft had a cropped delta wing, two fins and a top speed of MACH 3. Despite its low level capability its high altitude interception capability was an unprecedented 90,000 feet. It literally outclassed everything else and forced the USAF urgently to produce the F.15 Eagle in order to counter it. Used to fly over Israel on spying missions with impunity, it was too high and too fast for the US Phantoms to catch.
Powered by two huge Tumansky afterburning turbofans and containing large 'Fox Fire' pulse-doppler radar, this top secret aircraft really had the West outfoxed until a defecting Russian pilot landed one in Japan. Before the aircraft was returned to Russia, US and Japanese engineers took it apart completely, photographing every nut and bolt.
As a high altitude interceptor it was virtually a suicide plane because of the amount of fuel it had to burn in its two giant engines.
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Programme 24
JAPANESE SECRET WEAPONS
By the middle of 1944, the US had achieved almost total aerial domination in the Pacific. Amongst the decrypts at Bletchley Park in England is a list of cargo manifests from German submarines which tried at the end of the war to reach Japan. These clearly show that German scientists were shipping not only jet engines to their Japanese counterparts but also anthrax and influenza spores for chemical warfare purposes.
The Japanese planned to drop dirty bombs on the West Coast of the USA but with only two days to go before unleashing their nuclear assault they surrendered .
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Programme 25
CHINESE SECRET ARSENAL
Since World War II, the Chinese have worked on adapting Russian technology on land, sea and in the air, to a level which will surprise Western audiences. These developments include ground-to-air, ship-to-ship and land-to-sea missiles and nuclear delivery systems.
At the same time, however, they have developed a range of indigenous secret weapons, including fighter planes, attack submarines and missiles, which have caused great alarm in the West. This military might coupled with strong economic growth puts China on the verge of Superpower status.
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Programme 26
RUSSIAN SUPER SUBMARINES
It is evident in the design of the Soviet 'Zulu' and 'Whisky' class submarines that the Russians incorporated design features lifted from the German type XXI. The sheer volume of submarines produced by the Russians in peacetime shocked Western observers. But, more sinister, was the subsequent development of generations of other classes of secret submarines some of which were designed to be so fast and quiet that they could avoid detection by NATO acoustic listening devices. A good example was the 'Charlie' class cruise missile submarines, nuclear powered and with a very unusual fire control and guidance system for its time. And then there were the secret vessels designed to sound like something else…and the hydrogen peroxide torpedoes which no NATO torpedoes could match.
For video availability click here.
FOR WORLDWIDE TV RIGHTS
PLEASE CONTACT:
MICHAEL KATZ
VICE PRESIDENT PROGRAMMING & PRODUCTION
THE INTERNATIONAL DEPT,
THE HISTORY CHANNEL
A&E TELEVISION NETWORKS
235 EAST 45TH STREET
NEW YORK
NY - 10017
USA
TEL: 001 212 210 9003
FAX: 001 212 907 9476
E-MAIL: michael.katz@aetn.com
FOR WORLDWIDE VIDEO AND ALL PUBLISHING RIGHTS
PLEASE CONTACT:
KATE WINN
THE HISTORY CHANNEL
A&E TELEVISION NETWORKS
235 EAST 45TH STREET
NEW YORK
NY - 10017
USA
TEL: 001 203 353 7204
FAX: 001 212 907 9418
E-MAIL: kate.winn@aetn.com
PLEASE CONTACT (USA):
SUSAN MARGOLIN
NEW VIDEO GROUP INC
902 BROADWAY (9TH FLOOR)
NEW YORK
NY 10010
USA
TEL: (212) 206 8600 X 226
FAX: (212) 206 9001
E-MAIL: SMargolin@newvideo.com