20. A Less Than Ideal Solution to a Shortage Problem
The British Antitank Hand Grenade #74, better known as the Sticky Bomb, was one of WWII’s more infamous weapons. It was developed after defeat in the 1940 Battle of France and the evacuation from Dunkirk, where most of Britain’s antitank weapons were left behind. The Sticky Bomb, intended as a quick solution to the antitank weapons shortage, was a maraca-looking device with an outer metal shell covering a bomb coated with an adhesive.
The user would pull a pin to remove the outer metal layer and expose the bomb, run up to a tank, stick the bomb to it, activate a five-second-fuse, then run away or dive to avoid the explosion. Alternatively, the user could throw the bomb at the tank and hope it stuck to its surface. The first problem was that the Sticky Bomb’s adhesive had trouble sticking to dusty, muddy, or wet surfaces. Dusty, muddy, and wet surfaces were “a customary condition of tanks”, as Churchill’s chief military adviser pointed out. A second and bigger problem was that failing to stick to what it should, the Sticky Bomb often stuck to what it should not: the user.