This 15th Century Weapon of War Fired 100 Arrows at Once 

No balloons were harmed in the making of this Documentary.

He was just out of range....ten feet closer and he might've popped a lot more balloons

The land of Korea has 70% mountains. Old cities and castles are on high ground, so they are very advantageous when defending. There is a reason why ancient korea has excellent artillery technology

I had to do a double take when Wolfgang started speaking and Kurzgesagt's voice came out of him.

I can't stop thinking: was it so hard to repeat the experiment with the baloons IN RANGE this time??

I’ve watched enough anime to know that any samurai would’ve cut those arrows in half mid-flight!

'Hwacha' has a record of actual battles inflicting great damage against Japanese troops in the 1593 battle called Haengju Daecheop. The reason why the Hwacha was much more damaging is that the Joseon army used 16th-century blasting bombs and cannons together. When the enemy's row and shield are broken with a cannon, it is a method of subduing a large number of enemies with a massive fire of a Hwacha and a Korean-style bow. In this way, the Chosun army defeated three times more enemies and was able to retake Seoul.

According to medieval records, the weapon was very useful, and soldiers at that time only had 400hwacha in Korea, so the king insisted on installing 100 for each fortress. It was a very useful weapon to recapture Pyongyang from Japan. It is also a weapon that 2,500Korean soldiers blocked 23,000 samurai in the Haengjusan Fortress Defense. Only arrows are fired in the this video, but there is also a version that explodes at the target with gunpowder. The power is similar to the current grenade. The range was between 400m~600m. However, due to the high cost, it was later eliminated by the development of artillery guns with a range of more than 1 km. Experts believe that the transitional invention and power of the gunpowder age were very clear.

Soviets in 1940s: Hey, that ancient weapon is brillant! But what if we replace the arrows... With boom boom stuff?

Now imagine a hundred of those launchers....

Katyusha: who are you? Hwacha: i'm you, but i fight the Japanese

About 550 years ago, South Korea has a record of making and using a large missile with a timed-explosive warhead. They studied ballistics to ensure that the warhead flies correctly. Also, some were designed to explode after impact.

Sweet! *looks for old box of bottle rockets and arrows*

Its psychological impact outweighs its effectiveness.

the arrows where too short. They say that the hwacha used arrows called 'shingijun' and it was more a arrow with a rocket mechanism. there were three types of shingijun and it was the so-shingijun(1103mm),joong-shingijuun(1455mm), and the dae-shingijun(5500mm with an explosive pouch, world's first long range rocket). The arrow used here is probably the so-shinkijun

More of a psychological terror weapon but probably ineffective against armored soldiers

Wait till the advancing enemy get closer then fire the rocket propelled arrows horizontally into their ranks.

'Hwacha' means 'fire vehicle' in korean. Only referring to the fire pad which the 100 rocket arrows were fired from. These vehicles were used in numerous different ways with different weapons that could be mounted onto this vehicle. Even including the role as an medival era 'tank' where they barricaded the outside and placed hand cannons to fire on all 4 directions. Those rocket arrows are called 'Shin-Gi-Jeon', a small one to be more specific. There were large variations which would actually explode on impact as well. While the accuracy may look horrible, you have to keep in mind that this was fired off by some random modern day German historian rather than the actual military technician of that era. You wouldn't call your proud m16 an 'epic fail' of a weapon just because someone from ancient Rome fired without properly mounting the rifle and missing the target right infront of them. As the documentary has suggested, this had huge role in breaking enemy morale. Historic records also states arrows firing on them with gunpowder firing off everywhere would cause panic and rout the enemies. However, this weapon was still seen as being quite wasteful of precicious gun powders and therefore was used more for the role of signalling instead, firing single arrows at a time.

I believe my uncle still nags about using this and say 'that's not the samurai way'.

"This... is a weapon of terror! It's made to... intimidate the enemy!"

Medival Age's Katyusha... Great idea

Joergsprave: A korean friend rebuilt this medieval weapon for me,let me show you its features HA HA HA

"Had the enemy placed themselves under the arrows, it's more likely they would have been hit."

"Soldiers! This is a secret wunderwaffe you've waited for all war long that will turn the tide of the conflict! Wait....why are you deserting!?"

Ballons : Then we will fight in the shade!

That BMP 1 there just chilling in the back..

It's easy to laugh at the total miss, but it was probably f-ing terrifying in its day. Even in the demo, the view at 0:56 is pretty intimidating! I imagine a few dozen of those bad boys would have no problem routing a large force of medieval attackers.

It’s so accurate it even adjusted for the movement as if the troops were real!

“It’s not much but is honest work”

After repeating shooting with the same distance, this person was frustrated and finally used the tank in the background of the video 😂

I absolutely love the cheap sound effects.

Japan watching this video : i told you to be a inches apart

He needs alot more to be effective. That is the point of these things, you group of them raining down arrows etc...

So.. basically katyusha is a hwacha on a massive steroid.

Samurai wouldn’t have run away, they believed that going into battle determined to die and you will survive, go into battle hoping to live and surely you will not. Loyalty and honor were what was most important to them. Just like sangheili.

Hwacha: **exist* accuracy: *y e s*

It does not take in account of armor worn by soldiers.

This is like that scene in Pulp Fiction where the guy runs out of the back room an unloads on Vincent and Jules only to miss every shot

Yi Seonggye : Well, time has come to get rid of this balloons invasion Balloons : pfffffsshhhrr

The way to hit advancing targets is to aim low not high because they are moving forward and the projectiles you fire are going over them in an arc. It's physics

This weapon was used primarily for large groups charging at you. Problem of this weapon is that it takes time for the fuze to light however for one man. It takes a pull back and release.

Thankfully no balloons were harmed. The balloons were very scared and needed counseling.

I love the fact that there's a tank, just standing there

It's looks like Minecraft when you put a arrows in dispenser with a red stone..

Someone tell me the interpreter sounds like the Kurzgesagt narrator.

Pretty good to stall an advancing formation...which is tactically usefull

I’m surprised that no one is talking about how the narrator is the same one that voices Kurzgesagt

ਪੁਰਾਣਾ ਸ਼ਾਨਦਾਰ ਹਥਿਆਰ ਬਹੁਤ ਵਧੀਆ ਲੱਗਿਆ ਸਰ ਸ਼ੇਅਰ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ ਧੰਨਵਾਦ ਜੀ

Hwacha is one of shingijeon rockets. It's multiple rocket launcher type. And other one of singijeon's version called "sanhwa-singijeon" was single rocket like congreve but it had 3 rocket propelled explosive charge warhead on it's head. That means sanhwa singijeon was world's first two stage rocket And also world's first explosive charged cluster for war.

Now picture 5 more of them and they're all in range.

Amazing considering how long ago this technology was being used, I am sure, as with more recent artillery, they would have ranged the enemy before letting off the whole salvo

I believe that this weapon would have been devastating to enemy troops on the battlefield. The issue of accuracy is being questioned because of this example but I believe that the example proved just that. The charge alloted to each narrowed would have been carefully calculated for its maximum potential - its killing zone - and as a result, all 100 arrows would have landed in a given area for maximum devastation.

Now imagine a row of Hwachas instead of a a single one... that’s the dangerous part

Yeah, they made one on Mythbusters about 13 years ago.

To Wolfgang, those Launcher are Nebelwerfer

The arrows job was to cause enemy soldiers to “button up” due to the THREAT of being hit by an arrow not the actual probable chance the arrows going to take out an enemy

He should test fire a range first before the full salvo.

Das ist der Pyrotechniker von Galileo, hallo ihr Deutschen in den Kommentaren XD

I can’t imagine these being effective at all as an actual weapon, but more of a physiological warfare. Those arrows have such little velocity no way they were penetrating armor

This reminds me of... Danger doesn't look for you, you look for it instead, just maintain your current position"

Just imagine if you had someone aiming it with and handlebar to the side. Especially ambushing an cavalry charge or supply chain. This thing in fortifications would be unassailable except for the best armored opponent or an organized shield phalanx

"One man can fire hundred arrows with the blink of an eye" - yes, when everthing is prepared in advance, but how long does it take to prepare it?

1:36 hey I didn't expect the Kurzgesagt narrator to be here

In all honesty, at the speed those arrows were moving, I doubt it would have pierced the amour of the enemy.

I'd call that a fail.

It would be interesting to have the arrows explode at the end of their flight like Black Cat pop-bottle rockets 🚀💥

Good thing they had that tape to make sure the enemy balloons didnt run away in fear.

Having dozens of these machines just the sound alone would be some pretty effective psychological warfare

The soldier who survive these arrows will say God save them !

Isn’t that the Kurzgesagt narrator doing the voice over for the German guy?

The arrows seem to be flying with less power less damage on impact

0:45 What a brave guy that camera man is

Odds are a practiced warrior from the 15th century would have "tuned" or otherwise have known how to get better control with a barrage.

came here after the latest season of walking dead

Redstone engineer's: *"Give me 10 dispenser's 25 slime block's 25 piston's a bunch of repeater's maybe 5 stacks of redstone and 2 observer's then 100 arrow's and give me an hour!"*

Everytime I see hwacha "Weapons of the enemy, not samurai" - lord shimura

Feel bad for the guy that had to reload that thing.

I dont think that would be as dangerous as drawing an arrow from a bow.. i think that has a weaker impact against an armored foe .. just my opinion doe from looking at it

Hiding behind the baloon appears to be the safest place ..🤣🤣

I have never laughed so hard 😂 those balloons withstood that 😂😂

I know this from epic battle simulator

Are we just going to ignore the BMP-2 sitting there? 0:34

Korea hwacha have 3type, first one so-shingijeon(small size) just like in video fireing arrow, second is jung-shingijeon(middle size) same in video but more bigger and inside of each arrow have some gunpowder, when arrow hit the ground they have some explosive just like a grenade (but there's no frag), last one is dae-shingijeon(huge size) is just single rocket like British congreve roket (Shingijeon is the arrow in side the hwacha)

Don’t be too proud of this technological terror you’ve constructed. The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force.

This episode is entitled: how to waste a hundred arrows.

this device : *fires 100 arrows at once* mumbo jumbo : pathetic

Whoa! This is so cool. A draw back is it would likely be a single use weapon. It must take a long time to load.

You could make these arrow shooters now a days. But they'd be way more advanced and have large metal arrows and less arrows and would probably not shoot them all at once.

I think this is missing alot of the momentum a hand drawn arrow would have with a spring and arched wood frame. With a piece of armor, I doubt these would inflict alot of dmg.

"the Hwacha works well" yes, the ground is dead

Every Smithsonian video I have watched, so far, makes me think the experts need to go back to playing with legos and Lincoln logs

The Koreans should’ve just used that BMP-1 to fight off the samurai. If I remember correctly, samurai armor is vulnerable to ATGMs

0:59 Katyusha

When you can understand German, but the translator makes it impossible for you to understand xD

I would say that this was more of an intimidation thing. Seeing THAT many arrows land would have been scary

Hwacha is a meme. Anyone that close would be well within arrow range and sitting ducks for archers. And the Japanese weren't fighting in closely-packed formations. They were a mounted archer culture first and foremost until firearms dominated the battlefield. This bottle rocket launcher was someone's little toy.

Should have just moved the launcher 10-15 feet forward and then redo the scene.

TWD

"In the blink of an eye." A very long blink. Check if he's sleeping.

The bulk of them fell short but in a tight enough area....repeat it and change the range/aim/propellant charge... brilliant for its time