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Evilest_Tim
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* Similarly, since the age of castles ended with the introduction of heavy cannon, nations have always prided themselves on owning various pieces of suitably horrible weaponry to scare each other with; primarily battleships, with nuclear weapons picking up the torch after 1945.
* Many weapons have been built on the principle that BiggerIsBetter, though the actual results have varied:
* At the turn of the 20th century, most battleships were armed with a selection of weapons; typically, around four large guns, with many smaller turrets for secondary guns along their sides. However, this proved wasteful and overly complex. In 1906, the British hit on the plan of using only the biggest calibre of anti-ship guns, building HMS \\\'\\\'[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Dreadnought_(1906) Dreadnought]]\\\'\\\'. This proved such a good idea that every other battleship afloat was basically rendered obsolete overnight.
* In 1916, having apparently taken leave of their senses, the British Admiralty decided what the Royal Navy really needed was submarines equipped with really, really big guns. Three [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_M_class_submarine M-Class Submarines]] were built, each armed with a 12-inch gun which could fire while partially surfaced, with the hope being they could [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything sidle up to unsuspecting enemy vessels and fire their great big cannons right where they least expected it]]. This proved about as good an idea as it sounds.
* Many weapons have been built on the principle that BiggerIsBetter, though the actual results have varied:
* At the turn of the 20th century, most battleships were armed with a selection of weapons; typically, around four large guns, with many smaller turrets for secondary guns along their sides. However, this proved wasteful and overly complex. In 1906, the British hit on the plan of using only the biggest calibre of anti-ship guns, building HMS \\\'\\\'[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Dreadnought_(1906) Dreadnought]]\\\'\\\'. This proved such a good idea that every other battleship afloat was basically rendered obsolete overnight.
* In 1916, having apparently taken leave of their senses, the British Admiralty decided what the Royal Navy really needed was submarines equipped with really, really big guns. Three [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_M_class_submarine M-Class Submarines]] were built, each armed with a 12-inch gun which could fire while partially surfaced, with the hope being they could [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything sidle up to unsuspecting enemy vessels and fire their great big cannons right where they least expected it]]. This proved about as good an idea as it sounds.
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** The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panzer_VIII_Maus Maus Tank]] was the heaviest tank ever built, weighing in at 192 tons and packing a 128mm main gun with a 75mm secondary (the size of most contemporary tanks\' \'\'main\'\' guns). Two prototypes were built, but found to be rather \'\'too\'\' heavy; just driving one down a road would cause poorly-supported buildings to collapse. Hitler wanted it to have an even bigger 150mm gun if it entered production, complaining that the 128mm weapon looked like a \
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** The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panzer_VIII_Maus Maus Tank]] was the heaviest tank ever built, weighing in at 192 tons and packing a 128mm main gun with a 75mm secondary (the size of most contemporary tanks\\\' \\\'\\\'main\\\'\\\' guns). Two prototypes were built, but found to be rather \\\'\\\'too\\\'\\\' heavy; just driving one down a road would cause poorly-supported buildings to collapse. Hitler wanted it to have an even bigger 150mm gun if it entered production, complaining that the 128mm weapon looked like a \\\"toy gun\\\" on the huge vehicle.
** The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jagdtiger Jagdtiger]] was the final evolution of the Jagd- series of assault guns and tank destroyers, a 72-ton behemoth based on the Tiger II chassis and armed with the 128mm main gun developed for the Maus. Mounting such a big gun on a chassis known for being underpowered and mechanically unreliable proved a bad idea; more Jagdtigers were lost due to mechanical breakdowns than enemy action.
** The Luftwaffe, apparently not wanting to miss out on the insanity, developed a series of ridiculously huge aircraft cannons, some of which were actually fielded. Sanity was almost in play with the 50mm BK 5 Bordkanone, but went out the window as 75mm and 88mm versions came into play, the latter with a tendency to make the carrying plane\\\'s landing gear collapse. But hey, there\\\'s no insanity like total insanity, so they went ahead and experimented with a \\\'\\\'14-inch\\\'\\\' recoilless aircraft cannon. Apparently this was written off only because \\\"damage to the airframe due to firing could not be minimised.\\\"
* During WWII, the US Army Air Force realized it had no dedicated ground-attack planes (other than fighter-bombers like the Airacobra, which was a poor dogfighter but whose 37mm nose cannon made a fine tankbuster). So it converted twin-engine light and medium bombers to ground attack by dropping most of the crew and gun turrets, and instead mounting six, eight or more .50 cal machine guns in the nose. The A-26 Invader was purpose-built as an attack bomber, but the A-20 Havoc, B-25 Mitchell, and B-26 Marauder all made fine conversions. Some B-25s were armed not just with nose [=HMGs=] but with 75mm Sherman tank cannons which could hack cargo ships to pieces.
* While aircraft cannon are no longer \\\'\\\'quite\\\'\\\' as insane as the above, in Vietnam it seemed the modified C-47 Skytrain gunships with their 7.62mm miniguns just weren\\\'t cutting it. So, BiggerIsBetter firmly in mind, the US military threw a huge stack of firepower into a surprised C-130 and created the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_AC-130 AC-130 gunship]]. Various upgrades have resulted in this carrying two 20mm gatling guns, a 40mm Bofors gun and a 105mm howitzer.
* One prime example of an aircraft built on the Liefeld plan is the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-10_Thunderbolt_II A-10 Thunderbolt II]], built around the heaviest aircraft gun in the US arsenal, the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GAU-8_Avenger GAU-8 Avenger]]. [[GatlingGood This is a 30mm, three-ton anti-tank gun that fires rounds the size of milk bottles at 3,900 RPM]].
** The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jagdtiger Jagdtiger]] was the final evolution of the Jagd- series of assault guns and tank destroyers, a 72-ton behemoth based on the Tiger II chassis and armed with the 128mm main gun developed for the Maus. Mounting such a big gun on a chassis known for being underpowered and mechanically unreliable proved a bad idea; more Jagdtigers were lost due to mechanical breakdowns than enemy action.
** The Luftwaffe, apparently not wanting to miss out on the insanity, developed a series of ridiculously huge aircraft cannons, some of which were actually fielded. Sanity was almost in play with the 50mm BK 5 Bordkanone, but went out the window as 75mm and 88mm versions came into play, the latter with a tendency to make the carrying plane\\\'s landing gear collapse. But hey, there\\\'s no insanity like total insanity, so they went ahead and experimented with a \\\'\\\'14-inch\\\'\\\' recoilless aircraft cannon. Apparently this was written off only because \\\"damage to the airframe due to firing could not be minimised.\\\"
* During WWII, the US Army Air Force realized it had no dedicated ground-attack planes (other than fighter-bombers like the Airacobra, which was a poor dogfighter but whose 37mm nose cannon made a fine tankbuster). So it converted twin-engine light and medium bombers to ground attack by dropping most of the crew and gun turrets, and instead mounting six, eight or more .50 cal machine guns in the nose. The A-26 Invader was purpose-built as an attack bomber, but the A-20 Havoc, B-25 Mitchell, and B-26 Marauder all made fine conversions. Some B-25s were armed not just with nose [=HMGs=] but with 75mm Sherman tank cannons which could hack cargo ships to pieces.
* While aircraft cannon are no longer \\\'\\\'quite\\\'\\\' as insane as the above, in Vietnam it seemed the modified C-47 Skytrain gunships with their 7.62mm miniguns just weren\\\'t cutting it. So, BiggerIsBetter firmly in mind, the US military threw a huge stack of firepower into a surprised C-130 and created the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_AC-130 AC-130 gunship]]. Various upgrades have resulted in this carrying two 20mm gatling guns, a 40mm Bofors gun and a 105mm howitzer.
* One prime example of an aircraft built on the Liefeld plan is the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-10_Thunderbolt_II A-10 Thunderbolt II]], built around the heaviest aircraft gun in the US arsenal, the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GAU-8_Avenger GAU-8 Avenger]]. [[GatlingGood This is a 30mm, three-ton anti-tank gun that fires rounds the size of milk bottles at 3,900 RPM]].
