Bazooka () is the common name for a man-portable recoilless anti-tank rocket launcher weapon, widely deployed by the United States Army, especially during World War II. Also referred to as the "stovepipe", the innovative bazooka was among the first generation of rocket-propelled anti-tank weapons used in infantry combat. Featuring a solid-propellant rocket for propulsion, it allowed for high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) shaped charge 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 universally applied nickname arose from the M1 variant's vague resemblance to the musical instrument called a bazooka invented and popularized by 1930s American comedian Bob Burns.
During World War II, the 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 (among other minor changes) and widely issuing it as the Raketenpanzerbüchse "Panzerschreck" ("rocket anti-armor rifle 'tank terror). Near the end of the war, the Japanese developed a similar weapon, the Type 4 70 mm AT rocket launcher, which featured a rocket propelled grenade of a different design.
The term "bazooka" still sees informal use as a generic term referring to any ground-to-ground shoulder-fired missile weapon (mainly rocket propelled grenade launchers or recoilless rifles), and as an expression that heavy measures are being taken.
Name
The name "bazooka" comes from an extension of the word "bazoo", which is slang for "mouth" or "boastful talk", and which ultimately probably stems from the Dutch bazuin (buisine, a medieval trumpet). The word "bazooka" appears in the 1909 novel The Swoop, or how Clarence Saved England by P. G. Wodehouse, describing the character Grand Duke Vodkakoff, and a musical instrument used in music halls:
During World War II, "bazooka" became the universally applied nickname of the new American anti-tank weapon, due to its vague resemblance to the musical instrument invented and popularized by 1930s American comedian Bob Burns.
Shortly after the first prototype launcher and rockets had been tested by firing into the Potomac River, U.S. Army colonel Leslie Skinner, and lieutenant colonel Edward Uhl took the new system to a competitive trial of various types of spigot mortar (at that time seen as the most promising way to deliver a shaped charge), which was held at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in May 1942. The new rocket launcher scored several hits on a moving tank while the five different mortars achieved none; this was a considerable achievement since the launcher's sights had been fabricated that morning from a wire coat hanger bent with a broken nail. The trial was being watched by various senior officers, among them the chief of research and engineering in the Ordnance Department, Major General Gladeon M. Barnes. Barnes was delighted by the performance of the system and fired it himself, but commented: "It sure looks like Bob Burns' bazooka".
History
Design and development
The development of the bazooka involved the development of two specific lines of technology: the rocket-powered weapon, and the shaped charge warhead. It was also designed for easy maneuverability and access.
World War I
This rocket-powered weapon was the brainchild of Robert H. Goddard as a side project (under Army contract during World War I) of his work on rocket propulsion. Goddard, during his tenure at Clark University, and while working at Worcester Polytechnic Institute's magnetic lab and Mount Wilson Observatory (for security reasons), designed a tube-fired rocket for military use. He and his co-worker Clarence N. Hickman successfully demonstrated his rocket to the US Army Signal Corps at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, on November 6, 1918, but as the Compiègne Armistice was signed only five days later, development was discontinued. The project was also interrupted by Goddard's serious bout with tuberculosis. He continued to be a part-time consultant to the US government at Indian Head, Maryland until 1923, but turned his focus to other projects involving rocket propulsion. Hickman completed the development of the bazooka after becoming head of the National Defense Research Committee in the 1940s, where he guided rocket development for the war effort.