" Bazooka " has become synonymous with shoulder-fired anti-tank rocket launchers in the United States. This strange term can be traced back to the World War I period, but it was not a weapon at that time, but a sweet-sounding rocket launcher. , a cute little trombone.
During World War I, tanks came onto the battlefield, posing a big problem to weapons engineers from all over the world. How to destroy these rough-skinned, thick-flesh, rumbling steel monsters?
The most effective weapon in the early days was the powerful but insufficiently mobile large-caliber artillery . However, when the troops did not have such weapons, except for anti-tank trenches and obstacles, the infantry was basically unable to stop them.
The Germans first tried armor-piercing K-type bullets, and when they became ineffective, they developed the world's first 13.2mm Mauser 1918 T-Gewehr anti-tank rifle. However, tank armor became thicker and thicker, so more powerful weapons were needed.
During World War I, American engineer Dr. Robert Goddard invented an early prototype of the rocket launcher . Unfortunately, the development of this promising weapon was terminated at the end of the war.
It was not until the early 1940s that Army Colonel Leslie Skinner and his assistant Lieutenant Edward Wuerl began to think about how to better throw M10 anti-tank grenades onto enemy tanks.
M10 anti-tank grenade is an individual directional explosive weapon. It uses a conical shaped charge and can penetrate 60mm thick armor. It was the best performing weapon of its kind at the time. But it weighs 1.6 kilograms and is difficult to be thrown by soldiers or launched with rifle grenades . The only way is to manually place it on the tank. This is too dangerous. It is difficult for soldiers to get close to the tank on the battlefield, and it will take heavy casualties to blow it up. The lightweight version of
M10, M9
M10, was later slimmed down and derived into a lighter M9 rifle grenade that could be fired from a rifle, which later led to the development of a series of rifle grenades. However, individual weapons that could truly compete with tanks still did not appear. It was not until the rocket engine was combined with the shaped charge warhead to become the rocket that the shape of war changed.
Skinner wanted to design a weapon to launch anti-tank rockets, and he asked Lieutenant Wuerl to find suitable materials.
60mm rocket
When Ur was passing by a scrap pile, he saw a pipe that was exactly the same size as the rocket to be launched. He thought, "This is the answer! Put the rocket in the pipe and carry it on the shoulders of the soldiers, and then it will fly." Gone."
M1 rocket launcher weighs 8 kilograms and consists of a metal launch tube, wooden stock, handle and sight. It uses electronic ignition to launch 60mm shaped charge rockets, which can penetrate 75-100mm armor. The maximum range is about 300 meters.
In the spring of 1942, Skinner's rocket launcher became a blockbuster at Aberdeen Proving Ground . It was extremely powerful, had excellent aiming and effective launch performance, and accurately destroyed several targets, much to the amazement of the generals watching on the scene.
Army Major General Barnes, who had always been anxious about infantry anti-tank weapons, was very happy. He personally fired a round and accurately hit the target. He decided on the spot to put into small batch production and quickly equip the troops.
Major General Barnes, Director of the Research and Engineering Department of the Ordnance Department, said humorously: "This guy looks a lot like Bob Burns' Bazooka." Since then, the name has been fixed, "Bazooka" ” became synonymous with rocket launchers.
Bob Burns is a famous American musical comedian who joined the 11th Marine Regiment to fight in Europe during World War I. At that time, the war was coming to an end and the Marines had nothing to do, so Burns took advantage of his talents in the army jazz band and tinkered with some instruments in his spare time.
Once he combined a pipe and a whiskey funnel to play, and found that the sound was very special, so he improved it and named it "Bazooka".The word
is derived from bazoo, which means "mouth", and further back it may be derived from , the Dutch 's bazuin, which means "trumpet". When Burns returned to the United States, his instrument became a household name along with him.
The bazooka was an epoch-making weapon that gave infantry the ability to fight heavily armored tanks and inflicted a major blow on the German army. So the Nazis quickly obtained it and copied the more powerful 88mm "Tank Nightmare" (Panzerschreck) series of rocket launchers.
Tank nightmare on the left, Bazooka on the right
After the war, rocket launchers continued to develop, and a large number of classic models were born, such as the Soviet RPG-7, the American M72, the German "Lance" and our country's 40-fire. They are active on battlefields around the world and have become one of the most feared weapons of armored forces. In the Fourth Middle East War , the Israeli army lost more than 800 tanks, 1/4 of which were destroyed by RPG-7.
Hefeng Mantan’s original text, welcome to pay attention. The pictures are from the Internet, personal opinions, for reference only.
