5 Most Brutal & Intimidating Historical Weapons

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human history is filled with conflict and warfare as the centuries passed and the body-count increased the human creative spirit was put odds coming up with new and deadly weapons that could solve problems encountered on the battlefield whether filling the need to defend a castle overcoming advanced plate armor or defeating ingenious new battle tactics these new weapons would be designed to be as brutal and terrifying as possible not only being capable of giving enemy is a vicious death but also intimidating them in an effort to eke out whatever advantage they could here are my choices for five for the most brutal and intimidating historical weapons number five boiling oil attacking a medieval castle was an intimidating prospect tall thick stone walls defended by archers and swordsmen had to be overcome before victory could be won and the plundering could begin yet swords and bows were not the only weapons used to reign down death and destruction upon the attackers walls could be overcome with ladders and siege engines and gates could be battered down with Rams so other tools were put to use to try and repel an attacking army defenders but often pour boiling oil and other scalding liquids over the castle battlements or through especially built holes called murder holes which were holes in the ceiling of a gateway or passage through which the defender could pour their devastating payload on top of the attackers head while remaining safe from enemy projectiles with a name like murder hole little is left to the imagination about the impact these defenses had upon attacking soldiers arrows rocks boiling oil and indeed anything that could injure a man would be cast down the holes causing death destruction and chaos below while the term boiling oil is generally used the reality was that anything which could be heated up would be deployed oil of various types water animal fat hot sand and even sewage would be heated up inside a cauldron located nearby and then poured on to the unfortunate man below causing a painful death or at least inflicting horrific injuries upon anyone unlucky enough to be caught in the scalding down pour the hot liquids would usually completely come for the enemy soldiers who were hit getting under any protective armor they might be wearing and through the flesh in fact in many ways boiling oil would be considered an early form of Terra weapon since the terrible injuries and gruesome deaths it calls would have likely spread fear and panic amongst all the other attackers who managed to escape its reign of death the screams of the injured the smell of burning flesh and the sight of dozens of horrific Li burned bodies covering the ground would have no doubt proved more than enough reason for any wavering unit of men to completely retreat as well as to cause those following behind to reconsider the idea of getting anywhere near the walls such burning oil hulls and flammable liquids were not only effective against the attacking soldiers but also the ladders rams and siege engines setting fire to such equipments and rendering it useless the ways in which these boiling oils have been used throughout history has been diverse and ingenious the Romans used oil-based fire pots which could be thrown by hand or launched with ballista and would erupt in flames upon impact the phoenicians heated sand inside copper shields until it became red hot before thering it's over attackers the red hot sand penetrated gaps in the enemy soldiers Armour burning into the flesh one account speaks of the men hit by the scalding sand dying while going mad with horrible pain at Chester in 9:18 Vikings had their skin peeled off after being covered with the boiling water and ale mixture and at the siege of Paris in 886 AD the Franks used a special mixture including oil and wax which stuck to the skin of the attacking Vikings melting flesh from bone number four the war scythe for much of history frenzied hordes of rebellious peasants paying for the blood of their rulers would armed themselves with whatever weapons they could lay their hands on which would usually be farming tools converted for battle the war scythe is an improvised version of the standard farming scythe which was an agricultural tool used for cutting grass or reaping crops the long wooden handle contains a curved vicious-looking blade which could not only cut through crops but also human flesh during Wars and peasant uprisings farmers who could not afford expensive fighting equipment would convert to this useful farming tool into a weapon designed for one job to kill the blade of the scythe at would be stated that he pointed upwards like a spear creating a weapon that was far more effective at stabbing the enemy as well as defending against cavalry charges the final product was cheap quick to modify widely available and extremely effective it gave its wielder a long attacking range and it could also be used to cut as well as stab with documented examples of the scythe cutting through metal helmets in fact the threat posed by these weapons was so great that during the Austrian peasants war in 1626 any blacksmith found to be converting agricultural tools into weapons was punished with death with weapons unusual but clearly deadly appearance the sight of thousands of angry peasants armed with the converted blades would have no doubt had a psychological impact on the enemy and the prospect of being hacked to pieces by the frenzied attacks of enraged peasant farmers using their sometimes rusty and dirty blades would have no doubt sent a chill down the spine of anyone sent to fight them number three there's white Honda these giant two-handed swords look as though they could cleave a man in half with one blow and is easy to imagine the terror you might feel seeing several thousand powerful looking soldiers marching towards you with murder in their eyes carrying these enormous weapons across their shoulders the names white Honda was actually given to the swords in more modern times and at the time of their use they were generally just referred to as two-handed swords although the English often refer to them as slaughter swords which gives you a clear idea of the reputation the weapon primarily saw use in the early 16th century and was usually used in battle by German mercenaries as a way to counter tightly-packed Pike formations the soldiers trained to use the sword were usually the largest and strongest and would be given double pay for their services in battle where they would be placed in the front ranks and given the task of carving out breaches in the enemy Pike formation swinging their giant swords to knock pikes aside and even chop off the ends of the pikes once a path had been hacked clear they would then advance into the breach changing their grip on the swords and using them more like a spear to stab at the now vulnerable enemy ranks the reputation for killing became fearsome and the frisian hero pierre donea famously used his white hand ax with such skill and strength that he was said to be able to decapitate several soldiers with a single swing of his sword the weapon supposedly used by him is still on display today in the freeze Museum and is 7 feet long weighing an impressive 14 pounds although it's uncertain whether this weapon was actually used in battle or was simply a ceremonial sword while the huge size of the sly hand is blade which could often be over five feet long might make them seem slow and cumbersome they usually only weighed somewhere in the region of four to eight pounds and their exceptional reach and balance was put to deadly use by the soldiers who wilted them delivering devastating slashing blows and precise stabbing attacks they're recognized for design is not only due to their sheer size but also the inclusion have pointed projections known as flukes which acted as secondary hand guards once a plaque formation had been broken the swordsman could shorten his grip placing one hand higher up the sword just below the secondary handguard giving greater grip strength and torque and allowing him to more effectively maneuver in the tide press of the enemy ranks dispatching foes with lethal thrusts of his sword number two of the mace during the Middle Ages advances in metal plates armor began providing his wearer with ever-increasing protection against bladed attacks the wealthy knights and noblemen who were usually the only men on the battlefield able to afford such advanced equipment might enter combat with a greater sense of confidence in the likelihood of their own survival however this confidence would have taken a show-up dip when an enemy armed with a fearsome looking mace entered their field of vision the mace had already been around since the dawn of war in some form or another with the earliest examples being little more than clubs with rocks mounted on the end medieval maces took various forms yet they usually consisted of a heavy weights attached to the end of the club but more brutal looking designs were common vicious-looking metal spikes protruding from the maces head as well as deadly looking flanges gave the mace the ability to not only dent Armour but also pierce it these heavy metal maces were able to inflict severe damage against heavily armored Knights the full force of the blow would be transferred into the knight often denting his armor and bring him to the ground the tremendous force of a swing from a mace could crush chests cave in skulls and shatter bones even the most expensive piece of heavy armor would be unlikely to save its wearer from the brutal after-effects of up close contact with the full force of a mace even if you did survive the initial attack you might be left paralyzed with brain damage or severe injuries that would ruin your life even a minor blow could prove lethal in the end knocking the target off their feet and leaving them vulnerable on the ground to follow up attacks maces were relatively simple and cheap to make and quickly became feared by heavy infantry as a simple peasant now had the ability to eliminate a knight covered with the most advanced and expensive plate armor giving them a brutal and most likely painful death other variations of the mace included the Morningstar which was a mace that contains sharp spikes around the head enabling it to inflict blunt damage as well as puncture wounds and the flail which consisted of one or more striking heads attached to the handle by a rope or chain the flail had the unique ability to strike around and over shields and parries yet its drawback was less precision as well as this unsuitability for use in closed formations as it was likely to strike friend as well as foe in fact despite the flails popularity in movies and video games the flail that is often so commonly portrayed was probably rarely used the most common type of flail was instead a modified agricultural tool which consisted of a small stick attached to a longer one via a chain during times of war peasant armies would have modified the flail by adding studs or spikes on the striking end to increase the damage potential creating a basic yet fearsome weapon number one the war elephant in many ways elephants were the tanks of the ancient battlefield as the largest land mammals on the planet they made for excellent heavy cavalry and simply their presence on the battlefield was enough to inspire terror in the soldiers opposing them towering over the battlefield with an average height of two and a half meters the five ton heavy beasts could move surprisingly fast the speed of their charges reaching up to 20 miles per hour the main task would be to break up enemy formations and spread fear through an enemy army and at this they excelled as unlike horses stopping a charge of elephants where the line of Spears was difficult the brute force of the giant animals could easily smash through tightly packed formations of men impaling the enemy on their sharp tusks and trampling anyone foolish enough to stand in their way under their enormous hoofs and they were even trained to grab men with their trunks throwing them into the air before crushing them underfoot it's not difficult to imagine that ever experienced by ordinary soldiers standing in formation seeing the enormous elephants stampeding towards them many of these men might have never laid eyes on such a large and exotic animal before and the sight of their friends being impaled crushed and thrown around like ragdolls would have been more than enough reason to flee in terror armed with swords spears and arrows the infantryman would have had a tough time bringing the elephant's down as the thick skin was usually protected with armor and a single elephant could often withstand dozens of arrows and multiple stab wounds before finally succumbing to death the elephants also had a whole host of other valuable uses horses which weren't used to the smell of an elephant would become panicked when in their presence which could often render enemy cavalry completely ineffective providing a huge bonus to the entire army they were also excellent at destroying enemy fortifications acting as mobile siege engines and battering rams using their enormous weight and power to smash through gates and other obstacles towers would often be strapped onto the banks of the elephants inside which soldiers could be stationed the height of the elephant would provide the soldiers extra protection giving them a better view of the battlefield and giving those armed with bows a greater range of fire yet while they might sound like a super weapon using them brought with it a considerable risk when things went wrong they went really wrong if an elephant became injured lost its driver or simply became agitated it might run amok becoming uncontrolled the prized elephants could turn against their own side killing huge numbers of men as they charged back through the ranks of the army they were supposed to be aiding crushing anyone who got in their way the soldiers riding inside the towers strapped to the elephant's back would often carry a hammer and spike which could be driven into the back of the elephant's head should he go berserk preventing the enraged animal from turning on friendly soldiers disciplined armies could also be trained to counter elephant charges opening gaps in their ranks to allow the elephants to pass through before closing up again and dispatching them in the rear as whether scaring off the elephants with pots of fire and even flaming pigs whose loud squealing was said to terrify the giant elephants nevertheless war elephants made deadly appearances on famous battlefields all over the world throughout history used famously against Alexander the Great by the Persians and Indians by Hannibal of Carthage against the Romans as well as on countless other occasions yet with the growing popularity of gunpowder the use of war elephants rapidly began to decline from the 16th century onwards and the once mighty war machines were relegated to use in transport and logistics where they were used as little more than enormous beasts of burden as recently as the second world war so those are my choices for five of the most brutal and intimidating historical weapons but what do you think let me know in the comments below and I'll see you again on the next video

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Channel: Unknown5

Views: 2,389,334

Rating: 4.5889964 out of 5

Keywords: Historical Weapons, Weapons, brutal weapons, intimidating weapons, scary weapons, history, Boiling Oil, Scythe, Zweihander, Mace, Elephant, unknown 5, unknown5, top 5, top 10, top 15, top 20, documentaries, documentary, historical, history videos, mystery, science, medieval, siege, ancient history

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Length: 14min 29sec (869 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 16 2016

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