Today we're going to cover five secrets that you may not have known about the Bazooka
After World War II the Allied Supreme Commander, General Dwight Eisenhower,
was quoted as listing the 'Four Tools to Victory' that allowed the Allies to win World War II
They were the C-47 transport, the Jeep, the atomic bomb
and what we're going to discuss today, the Bazooka.
In fact we're going to cover five secrets that
you may not have known about the Bazooka, so stay tuned!
But if we're just meeting for the first time, my name is Ken. I am a mechanical engineer, pilot
and someone that loves digging into the secrets surrounding World War II
So let's get started digging into the secrets surrounding
the Army's M1A1 Bazooka rocket launcher
I thought the Bazooka was simply a grenade launcher
A weapon allowing a soldier to launch a grenade
farther than what he could regularly throw by hand.
In fact I couldn't have been more wrong
The Bazooka, or officially the M1A1 rocket launcher, was a recoilless,
man-portable, anti-tank weapon. In fact the M1A1 was the first generation of
rocket-propelled anti-tank weapons used in combat
Okay, here's the first thing you may not have known about the Bazooka
It actually received its name from a musical instrument
used by comedian Bob Burns in the 1930's
During the initial evaluation of the M1A1 at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds
in front of several high-ranking officers in early 1942,
it was Major General Barnes who was Chief of Research and Engineering
of the Army's Ordnance Department
He's the one that commented "It sure looks like Bob Burns' Bazooka.
The resemblance is definitely there, so the name stuck
But it was during that initial round of testing at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds
that we made our second discovery about the Bazooka
The second secret we discovered about the Bazooka
Well when it was presented at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in early 1942
against several mortar-style weapons up for consideration for contracts
The rocket launcher prototype was so new, it didn't even have sites
a soldier could use to aim it properly
That morning the sites on the prototype were actually fashioned out of one of these
a wire coat hanger
In fact the prototype of the Bazooka scored several hits on a moving tank target,
out-performing any of the other mortar-style weapons
Not only did the Bazooka pack more of a punch than any other man-portable weapon,
it also brought with it a lot of versatility
With the development of several different warheads,
it was determined by evaluators that the Bazooka could be an anti-tank weapon
A bunker buster, or an anti-personnel weapon
In fact later in World War II, pilots strapped Bazookas
underneath the wings of their artillery spotting aircraft to take on German tanks
Did you know the Bazooka was battery powered? I sure didn't
It had two batteries stored in the shoulder rest of the launch tube
One to detonate the rocket propellent
and the second as a spare backup in case the first battery went dead
When a soldier pulled the trigger on the Bazooka
it completed a circuit through two wires running into a detonator lodged in the rocket propellant
The solid propellant would ignite, launching the warhead to the target
It was also a recoilless weapon, meaning there was very little kickback or recoil
when the soldier pulled the trigger
The rocket was launched at relatively low speed
but when it reached its target a secondary trigger was activated,
and at that point all hell broke loose
Leading us to our fourth secret about the Bazooka
The Bazooka didn't launch a grenade. It actually launched what was called a shape charge
Which has the ability to direct the energy of an explosion to a specific point
allowing it to punch through heavy enemy armor as thick as 75 millimeters
or approximately three inches
Leaving German Panzer tanks vulnerable
because their armor was typically about 60 millimeters thick
And this advantage lasted until about early 1943
when the Germans started bringing the Panther and Tiger tanks on the scene
But even these newer tank designs still had vulnerable parts
The back-end, as well as the armor on top and underneath
it still gave the soldiers plenty of targets with their Bazookas
In fact the Germans were so envious of this weapon
that they actually captured several Bazookas
and reverse-engineered the design to create their own weapon
which they called the Panzerschrek
So what's the fifth secret you may not have known about the Bazooka?
As deadly as the Bazooka was in the hands of an allied soldier
it also had the ability to destroy anything behind it
As you can see in this army training video,
the second soldier that was required to load the bazooka prior to firing
had to position himself out of the way, otherwise he would have
been right in the middle of that rocket blast
I hope you found these five secrets about the bazooka helpful
In fact if you even just learned one new thing about the Bazooka, then I did my job
I hope you take this information, share it with your kids, share it with your friends
Share it with anyone that might have an enthusiasm about World War II
and particularly this type of weapon
So if you found this video useful and informative
please click and subscribe
If you knew about the Bazooka, but didn't know how it worked
I hope this video gave you some extra insight
as to not only its capabilities, but how it was developed
We'll be covering more secrets in future videos
My name is Ken and thank you for checking out History X