Posted on 03/13/2015 8:57:36 AM PDT by C19fan
In 1945, Wilbur “Bill” Brunger was an engineer with the U.S. Army, and it was his job to break things. Namely, three underpasses on the Autobahn near Dortmund, Germany.
He had to break the underpasses, so the rubble would block the road from any attacking enemy vehicles. But as Brunger and a squad of soldiers attempted to take control of the underpasses, they spotted German armored half-tracks coming their way.
Fortunately, he had the right tool for the job at hand—an M-9 Recoilless Rocket Launcher—better known as a “bazooka.” Brunger fired a round at one of the half-tracks.
(Excerpt) Read more at medium.com ...
Was the bazooka the first anti-tank weapon to use a shaped charge?
Dunno, panzerfaust used a large diameter shaped charge too.
But I don’t know when it came out off the top of my head.
archy probably knows if he is around.
I do know the Panzerfaust was based off captured bazookas. As you mention the major improvement was the larger diameter round packing a lot more punch.
They also had the M18 57mm recoiless rifle, another man-portable shoulder-fired tank buster. My dad’s airborne division had them.
Later versions of it changed to 75mm (M20) and were mounted on Jeeps. By Vietnam, it was 105mm (M40) and BIG (not so man-portable anymore...)
The Faustpatrone/Panzerfaust was, but the timing is oddly coincidental to the bazooka. The Germans encountered the bazooka and developed the Panzershrek shortly thereafter.
“THEM!”
Great “Atomic Bug” movie!!!!
James Whitmore on the bazooka!
That would be the panzerschreck.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panzerschreck
it appears that the Panzerfaust and the bazooka both came about in the same year, 1942.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panzerfaust
The tank fist being a development from the Faustpatrone.
Weird.
Thanks. You are right. Panzerfaust was a short range throw away weapon with a massive shaped charged warhead.
I have one of those “inert” rockets my dad brought back. I spent many hours unscrewing the warhead and tail section playing with it.
Very short range it seems.
First use of shaped charges was by German glider troops in the storming of Fort Eben-Emael.
Picture of what their flat mines did to an armored cupola here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Eben-Emael
The charge the Germans used there was shaped like a mine, flat, side profile, round from top down, and it had a small dish depression in the explosive filler.
Did nasty work too.
Dr. Robert Goddard”The Father of American Rocketry” actually invented the weapon back during WW I.
Holy carp - a white phosphorus bazooka round? What could possibly go wrong?
“Was the bazooka the first anti-tank weapon to use a shaped charge?
archy probably knows if he is around. “
The Panzerfaust”Panzer fist “was the first antitank weapon with a shape charge warhead.
There was also a 90mm recoiless rifle - man portable - barely.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M67_recoilless_rifle
Thanks
At West Point there was a museum, and one of the exhibits made the point that the advantage often shifts between offense an defense as weapons and tactics evolve. Part of the
exhibit was a lovely diorama with an American Sherman tank about to be struck with a Panzerfaust shouldered by a little German figure hidden behind a wall. A young boy nearby looking at the diorama was caught up in the exciting scene, and remarked enthusiastically that the tank had had it. Then behind me came an older voice with a distinct German accent that said to his boy “No, it vas very hard, you had to be very close. It was dangerous”.
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