this post was submitted on 28 Feb 2026
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Mildly Interesting
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Cold-War era strategic Autobahn segments in West Germany had covered shafts at regular intervals.
Rumors had it that they were supposed to be fitted with small tactical nukes in the case the Sowjet tanks were on the verge of crossing the border...
Edit:
Found the relevant Wikipedia article (only in German, though...):
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebra-Paket
There were also plans to bury nuclear landmines stuffed with chickens across Germany.
Britain: Some of you will be reduced to nuclear ash, but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make.
I never expected to read the term "chicken powered nuclear bomb" in a serious Wikipedia article. Yet here we go!
BTW, I think we have left the mildly interesting context by now... :-)
While reading that I thought they intended to make mounds akin to the ones made by megapodes (sort of chicken-like), but now I understand why people have mistaken a declassified data for an April Fools
Today I learned something new, and it was completely insane. Thank you.
Thank you for that link. Now I'm surprised I haven't seen it used in a meme yet.
Be the change you want to see in the world.
But why? More kaboom isn't always better in mines. Especially not in infrastructure you have to repair after the war.
Most of northern and central Germany was seen as a complete loss in any way.
There where hundreds of French tactical nuclear missiles pointed, not at Warsaw Pact countries, but at Germany, to bring the Soviet advance to a halt before it could reach the French border.
German Tornado fighter jets would have been outfitted with nuclear weapons to drop them - you probably guessed it - on German soil.
There would not have been an "after the war" for Germany.
Welcome to the insane logic of nuclear warfare!
It is called MAD, after all.