25. An Ingenious Weapons With a Serious Flaw
The Sticky Grenade or Sticky Bomb was one of WWII’s more infamous – and hilariously inept weapons. It was developed by the British in the aftermath of defeat in the Battle of France and the forced evacuation from Dunkirk. The British Army got most of its personnel out, but most of its antitank weapons were left behind. So the British turned to a stopgap, cheap, and easily manufactured weapon, for use against tanks. The Anti-Tank Hand Grenade #74, better known as the Sticky Bomb, was a maraca-looking device with an outer metal shell that covered a bomb coated with an adhesive.
The plan was that the user would pull a pin to remove the outer metal layer and expose the sticky bomb. He would then 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 that it would stick to its surface. The first problem, and it was a major one, was that the Sticky Bomb’s adhesive had trouble sticking to dusty, muddy, or wet surfaces. Dusty, muddy, and wet surfaces are “a customary condition of tanks“, as Churchill’s chief military adviser could not help but point out. That was just the start of it.