[C19fan]

Was the bazooka the first anti-tank weapon to use a shaped charge?

[Darksheare]

Dunno, panzerfaust used a large diameter shaped charge too.
But I don’t know when it came out off the top of my head.

[MileHi]

Was the bazooka the first anti-tank weapon to use a shaped charge?

archy probably knows if he is around.

[rjsimmon]

Was the bazooka the first anti-tank weapon to use a shaped charge?

The Faustpatrone/Panzerfaust was, but the timing is oddly coincidental to the bazooka. The Germans encountered the bazooka and developed the Panzershrek shortly thereafter.

[G-Bear]

C19fan wrote:
“Was the bazooka the first anti-tank weapon to use a shaped charge?”

No, the theory of a shaped charge was known in the late 1800’s. Before WWII, the U.S. Army had anti-tank hand grenades, that used a shaped charge. Only problem was, they weighed a couple of pounds, so that in order to throw them at a tank, and hit it, you were well within the blast radius. Not Popular With The Troops!

[MasterGunner01]

There were shaped charge anti-tank grenades fielded early in World War 2, but they were too heavy for the soldier to throw. Also a HEAT grenade had to hit the armor a certain way to fire the shaped charge so the explosion could be focused into a jet to burn through the armor. HEAT rifle grenades were developed as an interim weapon, but they could only be fired from the bolt action M1903 Springfield rifle in an Army equipped with the semi-automatic M1 Garand rifle.

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”.