Posted on 03/13/2015 8:57:36 AM PDT by C19fan
Thanks. Y’know, I’ve always thought that Guatemala (which sounds like some kind of poisonous lizard) would be way more popular a tourist destination if they’d change the name to Guacamala, or even Guacamole. Nothing would help Bolivia.
WHAT HAPPEN?
Interesting time to be in the Service...
We were actually allowed to call the enemy “The Enemy”...
“...The yield was small ...”
I imagine it could ruin yer day, though...
The British developed a spring loaded spigot mortar in 1942 to launch a HEAT projectile, but its recoil was brutal, it did not always re-cock when fired, and the round fell out of the launch tube when it was depressed below a certain angle. The PIAT (Projector, Infantry, Anti-Tank) was used through WW2 until war’s end and was quickly replaced.
The M1 2.36-inch rocket launcher (aka Bazooka) was the answer that worked. The Bazooka combined the M10 HEAT grenade with a solid propellant rocket motor. The These new rocket launchers were devastating to the Germans who first felt the Bazooka's wrath in the 1942 North African campaign. Prior to the Bazooka, the Germans were used to fighting heavy, clumsy, towed anti-tank guns. Instead, the rocket launcher was light, portable, and could travel with small infantry units to protect them.
M1 rocket launchers captured in North Africa by the Germans were reverse engineered and deployed as a one-shot, throw away, short range anti-tank weapon called the Panzerfaust (armored fist). The M1 rocket launcher was scaled-up from 2.36 inches (60mm) to 88mm and called the Panzerschreck (armor terror). In the sincerest form of flattery, the US Army reverse engineered the Panzerschreck to become the 3.5-inch (90mm) M20 “Super Bazooka”. However, the M20 was not issued until the Korean War when the 2.36-inch launchers could not be depended on to stop North Korean T-34 tanks.
The US Army was also concerned the 2.36-inch rocket launcher's range and accuracy weren't sufficient. The M18 (57mm) and M20 (75mm) recoilless rifles were issued to troops in late 1944 and early 1945. Recoilless rifles had rifled bores, used a perforated cartridge case, and fired a pre-engraved rifled projectile with accuracy. The recoilless rifle had a vented breech. An amount of burned propellant gas equivalent to the mass of the projectile was ejected from the breech to make the rifle “recoilless”.
Actually, the blast damages were not very dangerous and the Prompt Ionizing Radiation was the biggest factor. At 300 meters the overpressure was only 2.5 PSI and thus very survivable. At only 150 meters the blast was only 7.5 PSI and a human would survive without injuries depending on what was being thrown around with the blast wave. It is true that getting behind some type of cover was recommended but the actual blast wave would not kill a person.
Prompt Radiation would fry someone at those distances and at 500 meters was around 210 REM (data from some released documents and also using the handy-dandy effects calculator supplied to troops)
Lemme tell you, if you were near the rear of a 106mm when it cranked one off, you lost a bit of hearing, if taken unawares. They used to sneak an ONTOS or two around the perimeter of LZ Stud at night and crank one off. That would wake the dead!
I forgot to add that you were also right about the government operation. From what I understand, Arbenez was a "agrarian reformer" and started giving land to the peasants. The problem was that the land belonged to the United Fruit Co. who had contacts in Washington (follow the money). Our State Dept had him ousted and replaced him with someone more amenable.
Good, I hope he was shot once between the eyes on the way out. :’)
I think one of the first shaped charge warheads was that of the German gr. G. Pzgr. 40 rifle grenade, one of the earlier attempts to give the common infantry Joe/Fritz a way to deal with tanks while his platoon antitank rifleman was trying to shoot holes in it. Remember that in those days, some light tanks had only half-inch/25mm armor in some spots. They date back to at least 1940, when concerns about Belgian and French armoured vehicles was a major concern to German High Commanmd planners thinking about their next move on the European chessboard: Gross Gewehr Panzergranate 40
The first HEAT round from a launched projectile may indeed have been the bazooka, but I'll have to think on that a bit. Yeah, I know it took me a while to answer this post.
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