M1 Bazooka

Lore & Background

The development of the bazooka involved the development of two specific lines of technology: the rocket-powered weapon and the shaped charge warhead. The rocket-powered weapon was the brainchild of Robert H. Goddard as a side project during World War I. Goddard designed a tube-fired rocket for military use and successfully demonstrated it to the U.S. Army Signal Corps at Aberdeen Proving Ground on November 6, 1918, but development was discontinued after the Armistice. Shaped charge technology was developed in the U.S. into a shaped charge anti-tank grenade, the M10, effective at defeating up to 50 mm of armor. In 1942, U.S. Army Colonel Leslie Skinner received the M10 grenade and gave Lieutenant Edward Uhl the task of creating a delivery system. Uhl created a small rocket and used a tube from a scrap pile as the launcher. The prototype was demonstrated in May 1942 at a competitive trial at Aberdeen Proving Ground, where it hit a stationary tank despite improvised sights made from a wire coathanger. This led to an order of 5,000 units. By late 1942, the improved M1A1 launcher was introduced. During World War II, the German armed forces captured several bazookas and reverse engineered their own version, the Raketenpanzerbüchse 'Panzerschreck'. Near the end of the war, the Japanese developed the Type 4 70 mm AT rocket launcher. During the Korean War, the M1 and M9 Bazooka series was replaced by the larger caliber M20 Super Bazooka.

In Their Own Story

The mud of the French countryside clung heavy to my boots as I dragged the tube behind me. Ahead, the roar of a Tiger engine vibrated through the soles of my feet, shaking the earth with every rotation of its tracks. My squad was pinned down in a ditch, their rifles useless against the thick steel plating looming over us. I raised the M1 Bazooka, the cold metal biting into my shoulder. There was no time for a second shot; one chance to stop the beast. With a deep breath, I squeezed the trigger.

Reader's Guide

The bazooka is a shoulder-fired weapon that uses a solid-propellant rocket to deliver a shaped charge warhead. The original M1 launcher used the M6 rocket, which was notoriously unreliable. The M6 was improved and designated M6A1, issued with the improved M1A1 launcher. Later variants included the M6A3 rocket with a blunt, rounded nose to reduce ricochet, meant for the M9 and M9A1 launchers. Late in World War II, the M6A4 and M6A5 rockets with improved fuses were developed but arrived too late for service. The 2.36 inch smoke rocket M10 and its subvariants used the M6A1 motor and fin assembly with a white phosphorus smoke head, used for marking targets, blinding enemies, or driving troops from bunkers. The 2.36-inch incendiary rocket T31 was an M10 variant with an incendiary warhead, not often utilized.

Did You Know?

• The name 'bazooka' comes from an extension of the word bazoo, slang for 'mouth' or 'boastful talk', probably stemming from the Dutch bazuin.
• The word 'bazooka' appears in the 1909 novel The Swoop by P. G. Wodehouse, describing a musical instrument.
• The prototype launcher's sights were fabricated from a wire clothes hanger bent with a broken nail.
• Major General Gladeon M. Barnes commented after firing the prototype, 'It sure looks like Bob Burns' bazooka.'