The Bazooka

Bazooka is the common name for a man-portable recoilless rocket antitank weapon, widely fielded by the US Army. Also referred to as the "Stovepipe", the innovative bazooka was amongst the first-generation of rocket propelled anti-tank weapons used in infantry combat. Featuring a solid rocket motor for propulsion, it allowed for high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) warheads to be delivered against armored vehicles, machine gun nests, and fortified bunkers at ranges beyond that of a standard thrown grenade or mine. The Bazooka also fired a high-explosive squash head, effective against buildings and tank armour. The universally-applied nickname arose from the M1 variant's vague resemblance to the musical instrument called a "bazooka" invented and popularized by 1930s U.S. comedian Bob Burns.


During World War II, German armed forces captured several bazookas in early North African and Eastern Front encounters and soon reverse engineered their own version,increasing the warhead diameter to 8.8 cm (amongst other minor changes) and widely issuing it as the Raketenpanzerbüchse "Panzerschreck" ("Tank terror").

The term "bazooka" continues to be used informally as a genericized term to refer to any shoulder-fired missile weapon (mainly rocket propelled grenades).

Design and development

The development of the bazooka involved the development of two specific lines of technology: the rocket-powered (recoilless) weapon, and the shaped-charge warhead. It was also designed for easy maneuverability and access.

The shaped charge

Development of the explosive shaped charge dates back to the work of American physicist Charles Edward Munroe, who carried out explosive shock focusing experiments in 1880. For over 50 years the phenomenon remained a curiosity. Around or during 1937 however, two apparently (but potentially not) independent groups of German and Swiss inventors began promoting shaped-charge devices for application as anti-armor weapons. The picture is clouded by secrecy in the buildup to World War II; the German group of Cranz, Schardin, and Thomanek went on to develop weapons for the German war effort, while the group led by the Swiss inventor Henry Mohaupt licensed their designs internationally.

Mohaupt's technology was developed in the US into a shaped charge hand grenade for use in highly fluid situations, effective at defeating up to 60 mm (2.4 in) of vehicle armor. The grenade was standardized as the M10. However, the M10 grenade weighed 3.5 lb (1.6 kg), was difficult to throw by hand, and too heavy to be launched as a rifle grenade. The only practical way to use the weapon was for an infantryman to place it directly on the tank, an unlikely means of delivery in most combat situations. A smaller, less powerful version of the M10, the M9, was then developed, which could be fired from a rifle. This resulted in the creation of a series of rifle grenade launchers, the M1 (Springfield M1903), M2 (Enfield M1917), and the M7 (M1 Garand) and M8 (M1 Carbine). However, a truly capable anti-tank weapon had yet to be found, and following the lead of other countries at the time, the U.S. Army prepared to evaluate competing designs for a large and powerful anti-tank rifle.

The combination of rocket motor and shaped charge warhead would put paid to Army development of light antitank guns.