The bazooka was a man-portable anti-tank rocket launcher made
famous during World War II where it was one of the United States
Armed Forces's principle infantry anti-tank weapons. It was one of
the first weapons based on the High Explosive Anti-tank (HEAT)
shell to enter service. It was nicknamed "bazooka" from a vague
resemblance to the musical instrument of the same name. It saw
widespread use throughout WWII and the Korean War. The German armed
forces copied the design, increasing the caliber to 88 mm, as well
as other changes, and issued it as the Raketenpanzerbüchse
"Panzerschreck". In addition to an actual bazooka, the word bazooka
is often used to refer to all similar rocket weapons, such as
Rocket propelled grenades (RPGs).
By late 1942, the Bazooka, M1A1 was introduced. This consisted
of a 54-inch-long (1.37 m) tube with a simple wooden stock
and sights (replaced by metal in the production models), into which
the 2.36-inch rocket grenades were inserted at the rear. A
two-cell dry battery in the buttstock provided a charge to ignite
the rocket when the trigger was pulled. The main drawback to the
weapon was the large backblast and smoke trail which gave away the
position of the shooter (compare to the British PIAT). The original
models were not reinforced for bore-safety, and they added a ring
basket at the breech and a deflector at the muzzle of developmental
models to control the backblast.
Congrats to
jaymanges for the FTF