A secret research endeavor under the direction of the British Admiralty led to the development of a unique weapon that would change the course of maritime warfare during World War 2. The result of trial and error, this anti-submarine projector turned the tides against the Nazi U-boats and wreaked havoc in the Pacific.Instead of dropping depth charges on submerged submarines and causing damage from hydrostatic shockwaves, a different approach to outperform them was conceived early in the war. The idea was to design a device that would fire spigot mortars ahead of a ship and have them detonate only when they hit a hard surface.Though the original Fairlie Mortar device was unsuccessful, a new idea sprung from the misadventure, and thus the Hedgehog was born. Named for its rows of launcher spigots -which resembled the spines of the creature when devoid of a load- the Hedgehog would not only redeem the Fairlie but become one of the most feared weapons against the dreaded German submarines…