From the strange annals of military history comes this little scooter that could. A Vespa scooter armed with a 75mm recoilless rifle! (The obligatory "crotch rocket" joke is made in the comments).

Actually, a more serious commenter wonders if the "main battery" is intended to be fired from the scooter, or whether it would be removed for operation. He notes that there is no provision for changing elevation. The pictures in the post are unclear, but I can think of a couple of methods for firing this while mounted. First, of course, if it's designed for short-range work, you don't need to elevate the muzzle - and it would be a perfect little toy for staging anti-armor ambushes at close range. In that role, you want to be able to "clear datum" as quickly as possible, so that the buddies of the tank you just shot up (or the tank itself if you didn't score a mission kill) don't get to take you under fire as you break down the weapon. The US Army mounted various forms of AT guns on jeeps in the Cold War period for shoot-and-scoot anti-armor ambushes. Secondly, if you do have to elevate the muzzle for whatever reason, it's not all that hard to run a scooter up an improvised ramp. And at least one source (referred to in the article) says "More impressively, the recoilless rifle could be fired effectively on the move by the best of the gun crews." Yikes. I suspect that's mostly bravado, but still...

It's amazing what a little bit of ingenuity can do, isn't it?

Via the Daily Illuminator