Author: World War II Pretty Lady (Without permission, it is forbidden to copy the full text and carry it privately!) ）
In 1916, when the British put the "Mark" I tank into the Battle of the Somme, they shocked the Germans on the spot: trenches, steel wire, machine guns, and other defensive barriers that had once refused to resist infantry "thousands of miles away" had no effect in front of this "tin can".
Derived from the game
Later, germany and France also developed and equipped their own tanks. Although there were no large-scale armored swarm tactics during World War I, these "knife and gun" iron guys brought infantry into a "nightmare" era of war.
As an infantryman on the battlefield, it is certainly not realistic for you to have them take a cannon and bombard a tank! So countries began to look for a simple anti-tank weapon for their infantry. Their first thought was to "zoom in" directly on the rifle, thus developing many types of anti-tank guns, such as the famous "Mauser 1918" anti-tank rifle of the German army at that time.
Mauser 1918 anti-tank rifle
However, these lighter (compared to other anti-tank weapons) anti-tank rifles have many congenital disadvantages:
First of all, it lacks armor-piercing ability, which can only cause some damage to the flanks and rear armor of the tank. Second, the recoil of the anti-tank rifle was too great for the infantry, and the shooter would be shattered by his shoulder blade if he was not careful. It is said that if a person fired three shots in a row with a German Mauser 1918 anti-tank rifle, the person would have to be carried to the hospital.
Normal bullets and anti-tank rifle bullets (you can imagine how big the recoil is!) ）
Therefore, after the limitations of anti-tank rifles were exposed, individual anti-tank weapons developers in various countries began to turn their attention to other anti-tank weapons: such as anti-tank grenades, Molotov cocktails, flat guns and anti-tank mines. But either too bulky or left the infantry in a "semi-suicidal" state, these weapons are simply "embarrassing" against tanks.
In terms of individual anti-tank weapons, the first to find a "shortcut" was the Americans: in the summer of 1918, the U.S. army launched a project to study "individual rocket launchers", which was led by Dr. Robert Goddard. After more than half a year of research, they successfully designed a 51mm anti-tank bazooka.
Dr. Robert Goddard
But by the time this bazooka was developed, world war I was over! Without the sense of urgency at the front, the US military top brass completely shelved the matter. Perhaps they think that this anti-tank bazooka may not be as effective as they previously expected.
It wasn't until more than 20 years later that the clouds of World War II once again covered europe. At this time, the Americans found that the tanks had also been "reborn"! They have quietly changed from the earliest "thin-skinned big stuffing" tin cans into a thick "steel fortress" that can walk. Infantry without new individual anti-tank weapons, on the battlefield is even more difficult.
An armored German Panther tank
As a result, the individual rocket launcher, which had been almost forgotten by the Americans, was brought back to study and improve. But the project was no longer developed by the original Dr. Robert Goddard, but by a halfway rocket expert: the obscure Army Captain Leslie Skinner.
Building on the original Dr. Goddard's design, Skinner and his assistant spent nearly a year successfully testing a new generation of individual rocket launchers that stabilized the projectile body with tail fins. However, due to the lack of a suitable "warhead" at that time, this anti-tank weapon once faced the embarrassing situation of "ending without a problem".
At this time, an unknown Swiss engineer: Mohupt, it was he who saved Skinner and the anti-tank bazooka. Mohupt concocted a "hollow charge" design method that successfully solved the problem of the "warhead".
Bazooka and its ammunition
The so-called "hollow charge" is to hollow out the warhead at the front of the warhead, and then add a tapered metal cover on the outside, using the high temperature metal flow generated by the explosion after launch, plus the extremely fast initial speed to penetrate the tank's armor.
After the design of this bazooka is complete, the next step is a series of testing work! In order to prove the great power of this individual rocket launcher to the top management of the US military, Skinner decided to operate the demonstration himself at the test site. The crowd saw him holding a 1.38-meter-long seamless steel pipe (that is, a bazooka) and confidently coming to the test site.
The bayonet has a small square flap at the muzzle, while the tail of the barrel has a wire-welded flared bracket. However, the role of this bracket is not to eliminate the rear spray tail flame, but to strengthen the bazooka body to prevent the tail of the barrel from affecting the loading of the rocket due to bumping deformation.
The left side of the tube is welded with a simple mechanical sight, two grips with wooden guards underneath, and a large wooden shoulder rest. After the test began, Skinner's two launches went smoothly, and the M6 rocket launched by the bazooka successfully penetrated the 112 mm thick steel plate.
This test result undoubtedly made the American generals at the scene very excited! Eventually, the rocket was defined as the M1 anti-tank rocket launcher, using the M6 rocket (an improved version of the M10 grenade) as ammunition. On May 19, 1942, an order for 5,000 M1 individual rocket launchers was quickly approved and production was required to be completed within 30 days.
In November 1942, the first M1 rocket launchers were urgently transported to the Tunisian battlefield in North Africa. At that time, the Germans were mostly weakly armored Panzer II and III tanks on the North African battlefield. Therefore, the M1 rocket launcher in the hands of the American soldiers began to show its might: often the German tank was "shot into the soul" and instantly became a pile of "scrap copper and rotten iron"!
With this anti-tank weapon in hand, the confidence of the Allied infantry began to double, and they praised the M1 bazooka. However, at the time, the Germans called the American bazooka a "shoulder cannon," and American soldiers saw it much like a pipe instrument used by American radio comedy star Bob Pence.
Therefore, the US military gave this M1 rocket launcher a nickname: Bazooka, although this name is not a formal official name, but because of its popularity, it has been passed down to this day.
The "Bazooka" eclipsed other infantry anti-tank weapons of the same period! Its appearance made the American infantry become "full of confidence" in the face of German tanks, and Rommel once said: "The best weapon to destroy tanks can only be tanks"! In front of the "Bazooka", it seems to be outdated.
In December 1942, the U.S. army was equipped with an improved version of the rocket launcher, the model with the largest number of U.S. infantry equipment in World War II. Later, based on the experience of the Soviet-German War and the Pacific Theater, the US military successively introduced the M9 and M9A1.
The two improved models and the basic combat performance are basically the same, they are only equipped with optical sights, and the ignition device has been improved, mainly used in the harsh winter and wet jungle combat environment.
In the Pacific Theater, due to the general armor of the Japanese armored vehicles " weak " : even the more advanced Japanese Type 97 tanks , its front armor is only 20 mm. Therefore, it is as easy for U.S. soldiers to hit them with "bazookas", just as easy as "opening cans with a hammer", so American soldiers in the Pacific Theater jokingly called bazookas "can openers".
In addition to attacking tanks, Bazooka was often used to attack small and medium-sized pillboxes and fortifications of the Japanese army. In the Battle of Saipan, American soldiers used bazooka rocket launchers in large quantities, knocking out the Fire Points of the Japanese Army one by one like "opening cans", so that the Japanese troops hiding in the fortifications "cried bitterly".
However, in the European battlefield, in fact, "Bazooka" did not get the opportunity to be used on a large scale. After all, the Allies had absolute air supremacy at the time, and the infantry did not have to "die" with the enemy's tanks and fortifications like the Pacific islands.
Moreover, with the advent of the German "Tiger and Panther" tank later, the "Bazooka" also began to appear inadequate! After all, it still has some flaws of its own:
First of all, the "Bazooka" must ensure that there are no obstacles behind the bazooka before launching. Otherwise, the high-pressure gunpowder gas spewed from the tail of the barrel at launch may burn the shooter himself. Secondly, there is also a problem with the way the bazooka is operated, and the shooter must maintain a kneeling position when firing.
"Bazooka" launch duo (film and television)
And generally require two people to cooperate in the operation of a "bazooka", because the "bazooka" barrel length of more than 1.5 meters, single reloading and aiming is very inconvenient. The deputy shooter must be responsible for assisting with reloading, unsafeing, plugging in circuits, and a series of other tasks in order to quickly complete the preparation for shooting.
After the co-shooters have done all this preparation, they usually pat the shooter's helmet to show that they are ready to fire! However, even if the two-person bazooka team is skilled and cooperative, the shooter is often exposed to enemy fire for a long time, so the risk of the shooter himself is extremely high.
A trembling shooter
Finally, there is the problem of the slight lack of power of bazooka in the late stages of the war, and the accuracy is poor. When facing the German Panther and Tiger tanks, its armor-breaking ability was almost "tickling" the frontal armor of these two tanks. A U.S. soldier used Bazooka to hit the front of the Tiger tank twice at a distance of tens of meters, but he was ejected by the frontal armor of the Tiger tank.
Tiger tank horror front
Therefore, in actual combat, the US bazooka "Bazooka" shooters can only shoot their tracks, observation holes, load wheels or rear engines when dealing with German medium or heavy tanks.
As for the defects exposed by the "Bazooka", the US military top brass also gave another statement at that time: no one can guarantee that all tanks will be penetrated with this weapon. For example, in a letter dated 20 May 1944, General Patton wrote to his colleagues: "The role of Bazooka is not to destroy tanks, but to prevent tanks from bullying infantry at will. ”
Maybe by the end of World War II, "Bazooka" did have some unsatisfactory places! But between 1942 and 1945, the U.S. military built nearly 480,000 Bazooka anti-tank bazookas. There is no doubt that this infantry anti-tank weapon has always played a huge role on the battlefield!
As Eisenhower said at the time: The Bazooka, jeeps, C-47 transport aircraft, and atomic bombs were the four "outstanding pieces of equipment" for the U.S. military to win world war II.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the United States aided a batch of Bazooka rocket launchers to the Chinese Expeditionary Force in 1944. It is said that at that time, Sun Lianzhong and Song Xilian fought for six "Bazuka", and the two sides almost got into a fight! It can be seen that the Chinese army attached great importance to this anti-tank weapon at that time, after all, the war suffered a lot of losses of Japanese tanks.
Chinese soldiers are training to use "bazooka"
However, because the Bazooka bazooka was too difficult to aim, the target of the Japanese army was blurred when it attacked at night. Therefore, the Chinese soldiers will carry out a series of precise exercises in response to this situation.
During the War of Liberation, the United States gave a large number of Bazooka rocket launchers to the Nationalist army, the specific number of which is unknown. However, later the People's Liberation Army captured a large number of "bazookas" from the Kuomintang army, which shows that the amount of US aid at that time will not be small.
Before the Liaoshen Campaign began in August 1948, the 12 infantry columns of the Northeast Field Army were equipped with a total of 253 M9 60 mm rocket launchers, of which the three columns had a maximum of 42. After the Battle of Liaoshen, the Northeast Field Army captured 288 Bazookas in the battle, and by the time a million Northeast Field Army left the border and went south, the artillery regiments of each column had been equipped with an average of 40 "Bazookas".
These American "Bazooka" anti-tank bazookas were continued to be used in the hands of the volunteer army in the early days of entering the DPRK. Experienced volunteer rocket launchers, who once had a digital record of destroying and injuring more than 5 U.S. tanks in a single battle.
At that time, New China also used the Army Arsenal left by the Japanese army in the northeast to urgently imitate a number of domestically produced "Bazooka" (also referred to the M20 "Super Bazooka") to support the Korean front, which was named: Type 51 90 mm bazooka. By the end of 1951, more than 4,800 domestic Type 51 rocket launchers had been produced.
Type 51 90 mm rocket launcher
On the U.S. side, in fact, in the early days of the Korean War, they still used the "Bazooka" of World War II. Later, however, they were reloaded with the latest: the M20 Super Bazooka. On the same battlefield, the new and old generations of the same weapon "compete in the same field", which is also rare in the history of war.
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