Tesla coil (Red Alert 1)

The Tesla Coil was a Soviet defensive structure that first saw combat production in World War II. It used a combination of elecrticity generation and atmosphere ionization to hurl artificial lightning bolts at hostile attackers.

It's construction was based off practical blueprints created by Nikola Tesla, but it's ability to throw it's electricity at specific targets was a feature that was added by USSR military scientists. The device proved so reliable that it would see combat in all three of the following world wars, albeit in the form of new models with substantial upgrades.

Pre-War Years
The true origins of the Tesla coil lay with the devices namesake, the scientist Nikola Tesla, who created the first working prototype in 1891. Tesla originally intended the device to have practical or recreational applications, seeing it as both a possible energy source (which it did become much later on) and a source of light-hearted amusement, hardly a weapon of war. Tesla had already begun the development of a feasible death ray for that particular niche, but a combination of impracticality and lack of funds prevented it from ever seeing the light of day. As for the original Tesla coil, it never managed to achieve the public recognition Tesla hoped for, and thus it remained largely forgotten in the proceeding years after his death in 1943.

Until, that is, the blueprints found their way into Soviet hands, who also managed to create a sophisticated control system, allowing it to hit targets with pin point accuracy. Following Russian military doctrine, the Tesla coil was made bigger, stronger, and more powerful, until it became clear that the next major breakthrough in weapons technology had just been achieved. It was only a matter of time before the coil, and all the technologies that branched off from it, would see use in the coming war in Europe.

World War II
The Tesla coil saw widespread use in the second world war, going so far as to become one of the staples of the Soviet military installation. The standard coil stood about thirty feet tall and was surmounted with a bulbous electric diode, typically one brimming with excess electricity. The base of the coil hid an underground control bunker that contained a single operator, usually a Soviet technician, whose purpose was to direct the coils attacks at enemy targets. This would be done by ionizing the air between the coil's diode and the target, completing the circuit and creating a lightning bolt. This bolt was devestating against infantry, usually killing them instantly, and proved almost as effective on most vehicles.

Tesla coils were typically installed near reinforced walls and defenses, though it was not unheard of for them to be grouped together to form a solid defense on their own merits. It was still much more tactically accepted to place them near walls though, as the coil's were considerably fragile and could be destroyed quite quickly by a well ordered tank force. The device soon became the most feared sight of any Allied attack party, as it usually signified that someone would most definately lose their lives in the assault; it was simply a matter of who was reduced to ashes first.

The Tesla coil was established on nearly every major Soviet base during the war, and proved a superb anti-ground weapon. Depite what the Red Army preferred to believe however, the device was not impregnable; it had no ability to strike airborn targets due to the fact they were non-grounded and therefore immune to lightning strikes, and it only had the ability to attack one target at a time due to it's power needs. In fact, power itself was a major weakness of the Tesla coil; if power were cut off from the base it was defending, the unit would go dead and become useless. This tactic was commonly used by the Allies to circumvent the towers deadly force.

Nevertheless, the Tesla coil and it's "children," the shock trooper and the Tesla Tank, were easilly among of the pinnacle technologies of the second world war, and would see duty in the coming conflicts with added modifications.