The most interesting bomb design that I came across during my research was also potentially the most thoughtless. Based off of information that has only recently become declassified, the project, codenamed the “Blue Peacock,” involved tactical nuclear mines designed by Britain in the 1950s with the intention of setting them in Northern Germany, where it was suspected the Red Army would invade. Each measuring 10 kilotons, ten were ordered in 1957 to be situated in strategic locations. They would have exploded upon being disturbed but could also be triggered by remote. This is tastelessly comedic, as one has to imagine a soldier or vehicle triggering the mine and being vaporized, a mushroom cloud rising to the sky.
A flaw in the design saw that the instruments needed to implode the bomb would become too cold after being underground for a few days, and thus developers came up with a plan to have live chickens encased in the bomb, provided with a week’s worth of food and water, and hope that their body heat would allow the mechanics to function when called upon.
Regardless, the Ministry of Defense came to its senses and cancelled the project in 1958. It was finally decided that the consequences of multiple nuclear blasts and the subsequent contamination of allied territory was not worth it. It seems amazing that the Cold War mentality would allow for the entertainment of such a seemingly insane idea (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2003/jul/17/world.jamiewilson).
–The only picture available.
Image source: http://www.sonicbomb.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=59&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
Back to Explosives and the World they Made/Destroyed.
Back to the bomb main.
