在军事史上，最令人丧胆的武器是什么？为什么? [美国媒体]

What are some of the most demoralizing weapons in military history? Why?

在军事史上，最令人丧胆的武器是什么？为什么?

回答一：
Jafar Isbarov, B.E. Biomedical Engineering, Tianjin University (2022)
Answered May 30
Corpse.

死尸

Imagine this. You are a Chinese soldier in Xiangyang. The awaited Mongol army arrives and finds the city strongly defended. Nevertheless, they besiege the castle, implement their masterful tactics. As ingenious as they may be, you defend vigorously, and your morale is increasing day by day.
After a short sleep, you wake up to sound of the commander’s footsteps and immediately wear your uniform and rush to the wall. It is your turn as a watchman.
Still half-asleep, and already immune to frightening sight of the Mongolian army, you climb the steps carelessly, indifferent to the sight awaiting you.

想象一下，你是襄阳的一名中国士兵。预料之中的蒙古军队来到了这里，发现这座城市拥有很强的防御力量。尽管如此，他们还是包围了城堡，施展了他们高超的战术。尽管他们可能很有创意，但你们仍在积极地捍卫，你们的士气与日俱增。
睡了一小觉之后，你醒来时听到指挥官的脚步声，你马上穿上自己的制服，冲到墙边。现在轮到你当巡夜者了。
你还处于半睡半醒的状态，而且已经对蒙古军队的可怕景象免疫了，你不经意地爬上台阶，对等着你去发现的景象无动于衷。

Among the gruesome details of an attacking force, you notice the faces of soldiers. They are not Mongols.
They are Chinese civilians, driven forward by Mongols. Your archers make sure nobody reaches the walls. In a few minutes, they are all dead, and the actual Mongol soldiers are rushing forward as the defenders are watching everything with disgust, disbelief, and fear.
Kharash was a common Mongolian tactic, where the prisoners would be driven towards the walls ahead the soldiers. What made this meat-shield demoralizing was that they used to be people of same region and visibly same blood with the defenders.

在有关这支攻击部队的可怕细节中，你会注意到的是士兵的面庞。他们不是蒙古人。
他们是受到蒙古人驱赶的中国平民。你的弓箭手确保了没有人能活着抵达城墙之下。几分钟后，他们都死了，而真正的蒙古士兵正向前冲过来，而防御一方的士兵们正用厌恶、怀疑和恐惧的目光注视着这一切。
“卡拉什”是蒙古人的一种常用策略，通过这种方式，位于士兵前方的囚犯们将被驱赶到城墙之下。这种肉盾令人丧胆的原因是他们曾经和防御者是乡里邻居，而且都流淌着同样的血液。



Use of human corpses to spread a plague into the besieged city (the city is Kaffa, and it worked). Not the most representative picture for usage of corpse, but definitely so for ingenuity of Mongols.

用人类的尸体把瘟疫传播到被围困的城市里（这个城市就是卡法，它奏效了）。这不是最具代表性的使用死尸的场景，但对于蒙古人的聪明才智来说，这是绝对最具代表性的。

回答二：
Joni-Petteri Kivist?, lives in Tampere, Finland
Updated Jun 7
The frozen soldier.
Your convoy advance through the narrow road. Eerie silence fills the forest. It is so cold that tree trunks are making crackling and popping noises. Suddenly you see this. You carefully advance. No danger, it is just a corpse.

被冻住的士兵。
你们的车队正在穿过狭窄的道路。可怕的寂静充斥着这片森林。天气太冷了，树干发出噼啪声和爆裂声。你们突然看到这个士兵。你们小心地往前，发现没有危险，它只是一具尸体。


  
It is Sergei, you knew him. Behind him is a convoy that left last week and was not heard from since. All the tanks, cars, trucks, destroyed. Other corpses are under the snow marked with sticks. You cannot advance because the road is blocked by the destroyed vehicles. You cannot turn around, the road is too narrow and there is too much snow. Your legs are numb from the cold. Looks like you will be spending a night here, on this road.

他的名字是谢尔盖，你认识他。在他身后的是一支上周离开的车队，从那以后就再也没有听到过它的消息。所有的坦克、汽车和卡车都被摧毁了。其他的尸体都被埋在了用棍棒标记过的雪下。你们无法前进，因为道路被被摧毁的车辆挡住了。你门也不能回头，因为路太窄了，积雪太多了。你们的腿正因寒冷而麻木。看来你们要在这条路上过夜了。

There is no moonlight. You have to make a fire to keep warm. The freezing trees make noises in the forest. You stare in the dark forest, you can barely see the first trees beside the road.
Something moves in the forest, it can see you, it saw the fire in the darkness, and it has now come for you.

晚上没有月光。你们必须生火取暖。冰冷的树木在森林里发出各种声音。你凝视着黑暗的森林，你几乎看不到靠路边的最近的那一棵树。
森林里有什么东西在移动，它能看见你，它看到了黑暗中的火焰，现在它已经朝着你们来了。

Disclaimer: The story is highly fictional. I’m no historian so I do not know how accurate this is or how accurate the description below is. It might have just been propaganda for the Finnish homefront, Soviet propaganda or a more common practice that was taboo, and not written in the official documents. Posing the fallen like this might have been done to make retrieving the bodies easier for the oppising force, as snowfall would had covered the bodies on the ground otherwise.

免责声明：这个故事是虚构的。我不是历史学家，所以我不知道这么叙述有多准确，也不知道下面的描述有多准确。它可能只是对芬兰国土防线的宣传、苏联的宣传，或者是一种更常见的禁忌，而不是在官方文件中记录的场景。像这样摆出这样的姿势，可能是为了让对手更容易找回尸体，因为降雪会覆盖躺在地面上的尸体。

“Finnish defenders sometimes, though very rarely, took fallen frozen Russian soldiers and posed them upright as psychological warfare. Although rare, a few cases have been documented. Common Russian soldiers and Finnish troops had a great deal of respect for the dead and would allow both parties to retrieve and bury their dead in peace and would make impromptu ceasefires for such occasions. Each party also buried the dead of the opposing side, left a stick on the ground marking the burial site and all the tags intact that would identify the dead.”

“芬兰的保卫者有时候——虽然次数很少——把冻僵的俄罗斯士兵当成了一种心理战武器。”虽然被发现的很少，但有一些案例已经被记录在案。普通的俄罗斯士兵和芬兰军队对死者非常尊重，允许双方在和平时候找回和埋葬死者，并在这种情况下临时停火。双方还会埋葬对方的死者，在墓穴上留下一根棍子，所有的标签都完好无损，可以辨认出死者的身份。”

回答三：
Randy Woods, 20 years in the Air Force
Answered Jul 2
I see the answers scattered but I will quickly combined them
1: Nuclear weapons, knowing more them can fall soldiers will worry about the death of their loved ones and the end of humanity. Even if just one falls and you see it, solders will worry about fallout.
2: Biological weapons, an item all the answers I read missed.
You can’t see microbes without a microscope, an invisible killer to anyone outside a research faculty. Men with horrible physical symptoms flooding medical station, rapidly depleting medical supplies, doctors and nurses becoming infected before orders are issued to don full protection. Men dropping like files from a disease that is out of control would be demoralizing on a vast scale. The victims would take a fearful revenge if they can find the culprit.

我看到了各种零散的答案，但我将会很快就会把它们统合在一起
排名第一的是核武器，对它的了解越多，士兵们就会越担心他们所爱的人的死亡和人类命运的终结。即使只有一颗核弹落下，你也会发现，士兵们会担心放射性尘埃的影响。
排名第二的是生物武器，我看过的所有答案都没有提及它。
你无法在没有显微镜的情况下看到微生物，这是除了研究人员之外所有人都看不到的一个杀手。出现可怕的身体症状的人大量涌入医疗站中，迅速消耗医疗用品，医生和护士在接到进行全面防护的命令之前就被感染了。人们因为一种失控的疾病而大量倒下，这会在很大程度上让他们闻风丧胆。如果受害者能找到罪魁祸首，他们将会进行可怕的报复。

3: Nerve gas or any poison gas that kills, blinds or destroys lung tissue
4: Napalm, phosphorus and flame throwers
5: Mines and booby traps
6: Snipers
What do all these things have in common, with the exception of the flame weapons, death is often the first sign you are under attack and once hit every step will seem to carry risk.

第三是神经毒气或任何可以致命、致盲或破坏肺部组织的毒气。
第四是凝固汽油弹、白磷弹和火焰喷射器。
第五是地雷和饵雷。
第六是狙击手。
除开火焰喷射器之外，所有这些东西都拥有共同之处，即死亡通常就是你受到攻击的第一个信号，一旦遭受到打击，你就已经身处险境了。

Contamination
Chemicals can contaminate a battlefield for some time
Mines can last for decades: in Cambodia and other places mine from the 1960’s are still claiming victims.
Nuclear Fallout…that can make an area too hot for human use for several decades and even then there will some residual fallout that will last for thousands and thousands of years.
Flame throwers often force the enemy to risk deadly gunfire in order to escape The flame weapons claim more victims than those they kill, often soldiers and civilians are maimed by fire bombs.
Snipers at least stop once the battle or war is over.

污染：
化学物质会在一段时间内污染战场
地雷可以潜伏几十年：在柬埔寨和其他地区，从1960年代开始，地雷一直在不断地害人。
核放射性尘降物……这可能会使一个地区在几十年内变得过热，即使在此之后，也会有一些残留的放射性尘埃将持续存在数千年。
火焰喷射器往往会迫使敌人冒着致命的炮火，以躲避它的攻击，这种间接方式杀死的人数往往多于它的直接毙敌数量，士兵和平民还往往因为遭燃烧弹袭击而致残。
一旦战斗或战争结束，狙击手至少会停下手来。

回答四：
Susanna Viljanen, works at Aalto University
Answered Jun 3
The Bailey Bridge.
Okay, the enemy is advancing, and to slow him down you practise the scorched earth, including blowing up the bridges behind your retreat. Nothing is more fun than a kilo of hexogen!
But waitaminute… you just hear the tank engines roar behind you. Waddafuk? Where did they come from? The tanks cannot cross that river, can they? Who left the bridges undemolished? Once you investigate the engineers, it appears they have all done their job. What kind of witchcraft is this?
Meet the Bailey Bridge.

活动便桥。
好吧，敌人在前进，让他慢下来，你得实施焦土战略，其中包括炸掉你撤退后的桥梁。没有什么比一公斤的黑索金更有趣的了！
但是等等，你只听到坦克引擎在你身后呼啸而过。怎么回事？他们是从哪里来的？坦克不可能趟过那条河，对吗？是谁让桥梁完好无损了？你调查过了工程师，他们似乎都完成了他们的工作。这是什么巫术？
来见识一下活动便桥吧。



A Bailey Bridge is a basically a bridge construction kit in 1:1 scale. It consists of standard components which can be assembled at field with just means of spanners and hoop wrenches, and carried module-wise without any aid of machinery to the place. A platoon of engineers can assemble a Bailey bridge and install it on place in a matter of hours without any aid or machines.

活动便桥基本上是一种1：1比例的架桥工具。它由标准部件组成，可以在现场用扳手和勾头扳手进行组装，在没有任何机械设备的情况下分成各模块携带。一排工程师可以在没有任何帮助或机器的情况下，在几个小时内组装出一座活动便桥，并安装就位。

The Bailey Bridge is basically a truss girder bridge, but it can be assembled as a pontoon bridge, multiple girder bridge, suspension bridge or anything the engineers can come up on their minds. They are irreplaceable on crossing water features and other obstacles, and the key of the Western Allies’s swift advance in the Western Europe 1944–1945. It is claimed the only reason why the operation Market Garden failed was that the trucks carrying the Bailey Bridge components got stuck in a traffic jam and the bridges could not be deployed in time.

活动便桥基本上是一座桁架梁桥，但它可以作为浮桥、多梁桥、悬索桥或者工程师能想到的任何东西组装起来。它们可以跨越各种水文特征的河流和其他障碍，在这方面它们是不可替代的，也是西方的同盟国在1944年至1945年在西欧迅速推荐的关键所在。据称，市场花园行动失败的唯一原因是，载有活动便桥部件的卡车遭遇了交通堵塞，桥梁无法及时部署到位。

The Bailey Bridge is used even today - I fell in love immediately with it - and the components are still in manufacture, over 75 years after it was first introduced.

即使在了今天，活动便桥仍然在被使用——我立马就爱上了它——在它第一次投入使用75年之后，人们仍然在制造这些组件。

回答五：
Nathaniel Tokich, Project Manager (2015-present)
Answered Jun 4
From my knowledge the most demoralizing weapons in military history are the ones that got soldier to stop dead in their tracks or control their actions.
Such weapons while terrifying also present very real risks to those using them as well.

据我所知，军事史上最令人丧胆的武器是那些能够让士兵们在他们的前进道路上止步不前或控制他们行动的武器。这种武器不仅可怕，而且也给使用它们的人带来了非常大的风险。

Flame Throwers:

火焰喷射器


  
These flame spewing monstrosities are more than enough to make a hardened military veteran stop dead in their tracks. In close quarters such as bunkers or tunnels these weapons are down right impossible to avoid. In World War 2 and Vietnam flame throwers were used to mixed success against hardened military emplacements such as bunkers, tunnels, trenches, and buildings.
When soldiers would see someone running around with one of these they would immediately focus on them due to the tremendous destructive potential of flame throwers.
These were exceptionally demoralizing due to the fact that watching those in your unit burn alive is absolutely terrifying. Or watching those around the guy walking around with a flame thrower burn alive when the tank started to leak and caught on fire.
These weapons were a catch 22 so both sides were in a precarious position when they were deployed.

这些火焰喷射出的怪物足以让一个坚强的老兵在他的前进道路上止步不前。在掩体或隧道等近距离设施中，这些武器是无法阻挡的。在第二次世界大战和越南战争中，火焰喷射器在地堡、隧道、战壕和建筑物等坚固的军事阵地上取得了成功。
因为火焰喷射器的巨大破坏力，当士兵们看到有人在周围跑来跑去的时候，他们就会立即集火在他们身上。
这些武器都是非常令人丧胆的，因为看到你的战友被活活烧死绝对是非常可怕的。或者看着那些配备了火焰喷射器的人，当罐体开始泄漏或者着火的时候，他们会被活活烧死。
这些武器属于第二十二条军规的范畴，所以当它们得到部署的时候，双方都处于危险之中。

White Phosphorus:

白磷弹：



White phosphorus is terrifying and I have personally used it in the past in the Navy. While in the Navy white phosphorus is used for sea flares, it is also used with other deadly munitions to literally melt through obstacles.
White phosphorus burns as a class D fire (Fire class - Wikipedia), These kinds of fires are by far the worst to encounter and extinguish. The reason for this is because this type of combustion can sometimes create its own oxygen to fuel it’s continued combustion or continue the reaction in lower temperatures to spontaneously combust. In the Navy when a class D fire is detected the SOP is basically to jettison the offending item ablaze over the side as quickly as possible. NEVER USE WATER ON THESE TYPES OF FIRES!
On soft targets like human flesh it’s an agonizingly slow death as the white phosphorus burns it’s way through the human body. As it does the best approach to saving the casualty is to literally cut the fire out of them if saving them is an option. 

白磷弹很可怕，我过去曾在海军中使用过它。在海军中，白磷被用于海上照明，但它也被用于充当其他致命的武器，可以让障碍物真正被融化。
白磷燃烧时产生D级火焰，这类火焰是迄今为止所能遇到的最严重的遭遇和扑灭。之所以会这样的原因是，这种类型的燃烧有时能够自己制造氧气来推动它继续燃烧，或者在低温下继续燃烧。在海军中，当发现D级火灾时，标准作业程序基本上是尽可能快地将着火物品抛在一边。不要试图用水扑灭这些类型的着火物品上的火焰！
当这种火焰附着在像人体这样的柔软目标上时，它将导致令人痛苦的缓慢死亡过程，就像白磷在人体中燃烧一样。而拯救伤者的最佳方法就是将他们身上的着火部分切除，如果可以救活的话。

Booby Traps:
Deadly unknown traps scattered around the theater of war presented a significant risk to moral as well progress. In Vietnam the nefarious nature of the various hidden traps presented a great deal of risk to anyone traversing the terrain.
Many of the traps were designed to wound and not kill, forcing those around them to handle a wounded individual. A lot of the damage traps like these would inflict was gruesome. I have heard the chilling tales of some of the vets that encountered such traps. The inability to trust mundane items, or consider one’s self safe in what should be a fairly benign area forces soldiers to always be hyper vigilant. Due to constantly worrying about one’s environment its virtually impossible to decompress from the stress eventually burning the individual out.
Once burnt out the individual will not be as remotely effective as they were before, and much more prone to making mistakes or falling victim to a trap due to being incapable of focusing in a reasonable manner.

陷阱：
在战场上往往散布着致命的未知陷阱，它们给道德和地区的进步都带来了巨大的风险。在越南，各种隐藏的陷阱给穿越这片土地的人带来了巨大的风险。
许多陷阱被设计用来致残而不是致死，这迫使周围的人必须去处理伤者。很多像这样的伤害陷阱会造成可怕的后果。我曾听过一些遇到过这样的陷阱的老兵的可怕经历。无法信任普通事物，或者在一个相当安宁的地方担忧自己的安全都会迫使士兵们始终保持高度警惕的状态。由于始终担心自己所处的环境，从压力中解脱出来几乎是不可能的，最终它会让个人精力耗尽。
一旦一个人的精力被耗尽，他就不会像以前那样高效地工作了，而且更容易犯错误或落入陷阱当中，因为他们无法以合理的方式集中注意力。

Artillery barrages:
Intense artillery barrages are one of the most demoralizing encounters in combat. This is due to the nature of being unable to adequately defend against such an attack. While this clip is from a TV show, it’s depiction of the general panic such an attack makes while soldier run for cover is fairly accurate.
Surviving such an encounter is like standing outside a heavy downpour while trying not to get wet. It’s a case of the sky is raining lava and even if one managed to find shelter, if that shelter isn’t hardened or takes significant damage the chances of survival are minimal. Artillery from the United States is one of the most demoralizing events a military force can encounter.

火炮弹幕：
激烈的火炮攻击是战斗中最令人丧胆的场景之一。这是由于无法充分防御这种攻击所造成的。虽然这段视频来自一个电视节目，但它对于士兵在面对这种攻击时胡乱奔跑寻求庇护的普遍恐慌的描绘却是相当准确的。
在这样的场景中幸存下来，就如同站在倾盆大雨中尽量不让自己淋湿一样。这是一个天降火山岩浆的场景，即使一个人设法找到了避难所，如果这个庇护所不足够坚硬，或者受到严重的损害，那么他的生存的机会也是很小的。来自美国军队的炮火是一支军队所能遇到的最令人丧胆的事物之一。

Land Mines/Improvised Explosive Devices (IED):
While these could be considered booby traps, I opted to keep them separate due to their ease of use when deploy them. Land mines and IED’s are concealed explosive devises designed to kill or incapacitate. The are designed to counter either personnel or vehicles.
The reason why these are so demoralizing is due to how incredibly effective they are at halting progress of enemy forces. The are the perfect invisible wall for ground forces completely preventing any progress through the area until the location has been cleared.
When soldier encounter such fields and are forced to triage a casualty the effects are terrifying. Not only do they want to save the individual, but in doing so they will likely end up a victim of the mines as well. The presents a very high stress precarious position.
Improvised explosive devices are like land mines except one cannot assume what their application of deployment will be. Warning video contains graphic content!
IED’s are both static and dynamic allowing them to be literally used anywhere. This can immediately defeat defenses and sees the most use in A-symmetrical warfare. 

地雷或简易爆炸装置：
虽然这些可以被认为是陷阱，但我选择将它们分开描述，因为它们十分便于部署。地雷和简易爆炸装置是一种隐藏式的爆炸装置，旨在杀死敌人或使其丧失能力。它的设计初衷就是用来对抗人员或车辆的。
这些武器之所以如此令人沮丧的原因在于它们在阻止敌军前进方面的效率非常的惊人。这是地面部队的一道完美的隐形高墙，它完全阻止了试图穿越该地区的任何进展，直到该区域被彻底清扫。
当士兵遇到这样的场景，并且被迫对伤员进行分类时，它的效果是非常可怕的。如果他们想要拯救这个人，那么他们也就很有可能成为地雷的受害者。这代表了一种非常高压的危险状态。
简易爆炸装置就像地雷一样，但人们不能假定它们的部署目的是什么。
简易爆炸装置包括静态的和动态的，它们可以在任何地方被使用。它可以很快击败防御方，并且在不对称战争中得到了最多的使用。

Propaganda:
While not a weapon designed to cause harm directly the effects of propaganda used to incite violence is extremely dangerous. In WW2 the Nazi propaganda machine allowed a fascist government to literally get away with war crimes and horrible atrocities. While in an internet driven culture this is much more difficult, however a fear driven population is easy to dupe into believing anything.
This is demoralizing due to the nature propaganda has on free thought. By indoctrinating a population creativity and critical thinking evaporate giving way to allow malicious forces to reign supreme. Propaganda has been used to effectively justify many terrible actions throughout history. The most demoralizing aspect of propaganda is when the veil is lifted and the population is forced to come to terms with their actions.
Propaganda also makes diplomatic discussions nearly impossible to engage in. Propaganda also protects the indoctrinated population preventing their position from being swayed. This presents a monumental task when attempting to seek peace or convey the reality of s situation.
The main reason why propaganda is so effective is due to how the majority of any population refuses to critically think about the topics it conveys. In these cases once the majority of the population succumbs to the propaganda the often begin ousting the minority of the population. this is done to ensure the view portrayed by the propaganda is maintained and justified by those who have adopted it’s view point.

宣传：
虽然不是一种旨在造成直接伤害的武器，但用于煽动暴力的宣传效果是极其危险的。在二战期间，纳粹的宣传机器让法西斯政府得以成功地实施战争罪行和可怕的暴行。在互联网驱动下的文化中，这么做要困难得多，然而，受到恐惧驱动的人群还是很容易被骗去相信任何事情。
它之所以令人丧胆，是因为宣传的本质对自由思想所造成的影响。通过让人民丧失创造力和批判性思维，从而让邪恶的力量占据统治地位。在历史上，宣传已经被用来有效地证明了许多可怕行径的合法性。宣传中最令人沮丧的一面是，当面纱被揭开，人们还是得被迫接受他们的行动。
宣传也使得外交讨论几乎不可能参与进来。宣传也会隔离开被教育的人群，防止他们的地位受到动摇。这是在试图寻求和平或传达现实情况时的一项重大任务。
宣传之所以如此有效的主要原因是，大多数人都拒绝批判性地思考它所传达的主题。在这些情况下，一旦大多数人屈服于宣传，往往就会开始驱逐少数族群。这样做是为了确保宣传所描绘的观点被那些采纳了它的观点的人所维护和证明。