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Battle of the Bulge - Improvised Bazooka Mine
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2022
- I came across some brilliant footage from January 1945 highlights one of the little-known secondary uses for the Bazooka's rocket, it could be set up as an improvised mine!
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My favorite ad hoc bazooka usage story is still "Bazooka" Charlie Carpenter, and his Piper Grasshopper with 6 bazookas mounted 3 under each wing. The fact that he got 6 official tank kills in an observation plane is so amazing. 😁💯✌
Me to dude,a bit of in field ingenuity and a huge pair of balls is a lethal combo
@@Whatisthisstupidfinghandle Great Value Typhoon LOL
Press x to doubt
@@Bors9 You doubt Bazooka Chuck? Bazooka Chuck is displeased. LOL
@@Bors9 very real and also quite well documented.........press x to get educated
I have personally done this with the 3.5 inch Bazooka round. It is so simple, since the rocket is electrically fired and the arming is just pulling the pin on the inertial firing pin/weight behind the warhead. Applying a low voltage (3-9 volts) to the firing wires ignites a squib which ignites the motor. Once you pull the safety pin, the round is armed and will detonate, even at a very short distance. I don't know if these are still in the system, but they were cheap. The cost was about $3.50 back in the early 80s, from the DoD supply channels.
Wow, no way! Very cool!
You just bought Bazooka rounds for $3.50 from the government?
@@visassess8607 i think he was in the army when he did this. the $3.50 cost is probably what was charged to his units budget.
The AT4 recoilless desposable launcher is made specifically to be able to set it up with a string to pull the trigger. It even has a hole in the trigger for attaching the string.
I have seen news reports of the New IRA doing something similar with spigot mortars, but didn't know about the AT4
We were trained in using the AT4 and it’s predecessor Psk68 in this manner.
@@mattiasdahlstrom2024 The backblast would be so nasty on its own 😵
Both the Miniman and the AT4 were constructed to be used as directional AT mines. We were thoroughly trained in that use.
@@HasturT Which military did you serve in? That's really interesting.
Stepfather was SF in Nam. Said he used 2.75” aerial rockets with barbed wire strung between them fired at 2 ft height as a makeshift claymore.
that sounds brutal
That’s a nasty little trick. Very inventive.
We spent time at the School of Military Engineering learning how to make improvised mines and boobytraps of all types. y personal favorite was a lightbulb bomb where you cut the glass of a bulb and pack a small amount of PE around the base with an electric det connecter to the filament probes then place a small amount of any handy shrapnel into the bulb and use the PS to stick the glass back into place and fit it back into the socket. The effects are devastating.
Like home alone 2
As a retired combat engineer I approve this!
Good bit of in field engineering. Replicated even as recently as the conflicts in Syria and Iraq by using PG-7V warheads as improvised off route mines.
Yes, I think it's fascinating to see the concepts early use. Thanks for watching!
The only problem with improvising the RPG is the shaped charge uses a wave shaper at the beginning of the explosive train. Unless the detonator is centered exactly, it will not be as effective as to penetration. One of the problems with using it as an off-route IED, is that the warhead was designed to work effectively at a specified distance. The Copper jet formed by the shaped charge begins to spread-out beyond that. The use of a lattice on vehicles to cause the warhead to detonate prematurely is a good example of defeating it. It does work well against thin-skinned vehicles and exposed personnel, though.
@@untermench3502 That would've been true in WW2 because the cone in shaped charges weren't as well made and broke up earlier. Modern cage armour actually is designed to "catch" the projectile and cut/deform the warhead before it detonates or prevent it from detonating. If the tip of a shaped charge hits a bar on cage armour and detonates then penetration will barely be affected. Years back I read about a test where either an RPG-29 or Kornet where detonated at a 1 metre stand off and penetration was actually improved, can't find it rn if anyone knows the source.
I remembered reading news about German banker Alfred Herrhausen killed by a copper plate much the same way like shaped charge. It was a explosively formed projectile, though.
@@TheNnooop Actually the 3.5 round was quite substantial, having a steel body, much like a mortar round. It supplied considerable fragmentation as well, as to the RPG7. I have had experience inerting them. The warhead body is made of thin alloy and provides little fragmentation beyond a meter or so. I have had no experience with the RPG 29 or Kornet, so I can't comment on them.
I remember seeing a diorama that had a Panzerfaust strapped to a fence but never knew something like it was really used during WW2 thought it was a more modern thing
You mean a remote controlledly fired Panzerfaust, or only its separated warhead as IED?
@@letoubib21 found a drawing of the set up, it's a full panzerfaust fixed to a fence with a wire across the road. The book is in Russian and I can't read it so I don't know what it says about it.
@@mondriaa Thank you! At the end of WW2 the German soldiers often used the warhead as explosive devices, and for that they remove the tube, the propelling charge. With it probably it was rather thought as a kind of spring gun *. . .*
@@mondriaa So who was first to use shaped charge warheads in this manner.. Germans or Allies?
@@whisthpo no idea, the tank in the drawing is a Panther D so after mid 43 at least. Being on the retreat likely the Germans had more chances to use it, but who was first?
I remember reading about off road mines like this while a soldier in the 70s. Never saw it done outside of this video. Thanks.
IIRC during the fighting in Angola(?) some bright spark invented the "pyramid mine" which consists of 3 mortar rounds laid flat in a hole with the pins pulled, an anti tank mine on top of those then an anti personnel mine on top of that as the initiator and then covered up. Pop. Bang. Boom.
Grimly ingenious.
Sounds like a waste of ordnance.
@@shanek6582 Sounds pretty cheap to me if it will destroy a mine resistant Ratel armoured fighting vehicle, its crew and the infantry inside. The presence of the AP mine also makes it harder to disarm while being far more sensitive to passing traffic.
@@zoiders Sounds to me that you have zero idea what are you talking about.
You wasting one mine and 3 mortar rounds only to fck-up the setup and allow it to be trigered by almost anything, because anty-tank mine will not gonna be trigered by single soldier, kid on a bike or some wild animal...
Anty tank modifications on armored vehicles like the Ratel would do jack sht against anty-tank mine.
@@zoiders there’s better ways to booby trap an anti tank mine, some even have a well in the bottom built in for the anti tampering device and it doesn’t make them more sensitive to the type of traffic they’re designed to destroy. If you just needed a larger charge for the Ratel, you stack two or more of the tank mine. Save the mortars for the mortar tube artillery guys and the anti personnel mine for the enemy trenches.
I used to chew Bazooka bubblegum and enjoyed reading the free comic inside the wrapper when I was a kid. It was s lot of gum for a penny.
4:42 Ah yes the mandatory "We just blasted a hole in the side of a US stuart tank" handshake.
You've seen the German Cross, this was definetly a Pz IV!
Fantastic stuff, keep 'em coming, much appreciated
Definitely have a browse around the channel, thanks for watching!
@@TheArmourersBench For sure liked, subscribed and shared this vid, looking forward to your other vids. Many thanks again
4:43 "Just blew that tank into next lifetime, good show chap!"
*You had me at "Bazooka Mine"*
Never knew this. Amazing footage.
I was so excited when I realised what it was!
Great video. Never would of thought to use my bazooka rockets like this, wonder if it works to keep the neighbors dog off the lawn.
Greatvideo thank you for your hard work !!
Interesting how improvised munitions are old yet we're cutting edge and still relevant
as long as any invention has existed, people have been using them the 'wrong' way to achieve the same result!
what's that saying about skinning a cat...?
@@slaughterround643 there is no wrong way as long as the job gets done
I just realized this video will put put me on a list.
I have seen something similar demonstrated by the S.A.S with a 66mm L.A.W and Claymore Initiator
Yep and using a hand grenade fuse to set trip wire claymores. I also like the satchel charge under a buried 55 gallon drum of gasoline. Man, the sh1t a mind will come up with in war...
@@JohnDoe-pv2iu Who needs a war heard about some apprentices doing that at an engineering firm 45 gallon drum acetaline gas small hole and a flame the rest follows naturaly. No names no packdrill.
i was just thinking while scrowling through the comments wondering if the ukranians will use some of the law rockets they got to do this.
I appreciate the spelling of “Kayoed” in the image, how fun
Dam! My Grandfather was in this battle, said was like a mountainous gun range.
There was an off rout mine kit manufactured using the 3.5 Inch Rocket. The M24. I actually got rid of a pile of these when they were declare obsolete. We also made one usin an 84mm FF65 (also another crap round). Half the 84mm HEAT I fired always seemed to be blinds. Maybe you guys used L40s for the same?
"It's loaded now so be careful." That is quite the phrase right there.
Great training film thank's for posting 👍👍🇺🇸
Thanks Jimmy!
That's an excellent upload 👍 sub earned
Thanks Scrappy!
A very interesting presentation, thanks.😃👌👏👏👏
Thanks Terry, thanks for watching
I loved this video. Dang. I guess it all makes sense but had never seen this done.
It was new to me too! Thanks for watching.
Brilliant a bazooka on guard. I'd use wire plate and battery. Just leave it for god to sort out as there may be drama miss timings may be an issue
That wasn't really new idea, most of the Italian/German "mines" in North Africa had been in fact bombs and grenades with pull fuzes or remote controlled---quasi the first IEDs *. . .*
The funny thing is that Soviet engineers also set traps with capture Panzerfaust.
I like how the narrator in the bazooka video sounds like Hank hill it's probably cotton hill to be honest
Good share. Cheers!
IF you have the advantage of time, it makes sense because you are less exposed when firing. I suspect enemy tanks tend to not go where you want them to go, so ......good old bazooka shooting skills are a plus.
There was an old Filipino weapon called a "stand cannon": It was a bamboo tube or a hollow log, loaded with "junk" shrapnel in front of a powder charge, with a counterweight of dirt or sand behind it, fired either electrically or with a manual fuse -- point the junk-end at a trail, and stand by.....I can't prove it, but I'm pretty sure that's where this idea got into the Army psyche, during the Philippine Occupation. The original idea made its way into a certain SF manual published in 1969, that I probably should not reference here, but still......
It predated that by a bit. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fougasse_(weapon)
Pretty wild to see a possible way they ambushed at the Battle of the Bulge. I has a Doctor as a kid named Dr. Sakurski,, he was a triage Dr. at the Battle of the Bulge. I was burned really bad as a kid and on the same day a kid had a lawnmower go up his leg...he told my mother that he was flashing back to the war that day, me with 3rd degree burns and the other kid all cut up. He also did emergency surgery on my mother when she was a little girl, for a busted appendix...he pulled all her guts out and literally washed them in a tub. Packed them all back in, gave her CPR as she was dead, and got her kicked back off again. She was born in 43, and was 5 yrs old, so he hadn't been home long at that time. Anyhow, I figured he was worth telling about, one of the Country's "Greatest Generation"!
*edit. BTW, he never charged more than $5 for an office visit, because he wanted medical care to be affordable for everyone! He really was a great guy...rough bedside manner but I think that could be expected after seeing all that he did. Always had a cigar stub in his mouth, he said that started during the war as he worked 20 hr. shifts, it helped him stay awake.
Wow what a brilliant story. He sounds like he was a hell of a man. Thanks.
In another Combat Bulletin film GI's improvised a multi tube Bazooka launcher.
I've seen that one! I've been trying to dig up some more info on it.
Very interesting
Thanks Darren!
In the first scene the troops were wiring the tube to a fence. Using the shipping tube reminded me of the LAW. Maybe this was the beginning of the idea of the disposable launcher.
The 66mm LAW can be used in the same way
Impressive.
You could probably take out a Tiger with the under the road installation, if you timed it right.😎
I would use a tripwire set up about 1.5m in front of rocket, actuation switch could be made in feild expedient manner quite quickly (no need to list the numerous ways), downside would be loosing a semi hard to replace battery if you could not go back and retrieve it after the bang.
Bazooka rounds must have a really short arming distance.
Yes probably 10 15feet.
there is no arming distance just an inertial firing pin.
Armed as soon as you pull the safety pin in the intestinal igniter.
Taliban did this to us in Afghanistan with Katyushas. Pretty genius use.
The Vietnamese people taking notes of this film for the near future. Just in case a scenario was to happen where it might come in handy.
Wonder if you could also bury the battery and leave some bits of wire overlapped with some dirt or something between to improvise a pressure plate.
I'm sure there would be a way of rigging something. Nothing as complex in the manuals of the time though.
just a good old ied
Donald R. Burgess's As Eagles Screamed references this.
Oh does it, thanks Harold ill look it up!
@@TheArmourersBench Very, very briefly, I think as he is describing their load out for the Normandy jump.
@@TheArmourersBench I was going to mention it as well. It's mentioned in passing relating to them not having any bazookas, or even rockets to use in the manner described in this video. I thought it was in his subsequent book Seven Roads to Hell but I may be wrong.
Current versions are premade EFP's.
Probably the only safe way to stop a late war Tiger with a bazooka. The armor’s pretty thin on the bottom.
That would make advancing rather "interesting" . They probably adopted that technique as digging was something close to impossible, and would make them too exposed. I'd probably set them up in pairs. One front & one to the side. Even the crew of a King Tiger would probably not want to encounter that.
Definitely hard to dig down in frozen ground so makes sense. Thanks for watching!
Digging a foxhole into frozen ground is hard, but not impossible. Did that a couple of times during my basic in FDF.
It is hard to the tools as well - in my squad, three guys broke their entreching tools during basic (all broke at the folding mechanism)
@@jukkatalari3896 1943-46 were some of the worst winters ever recorded until then. I have seen evidence that it was caused by the war itself. Effectively it precipitated a micro ice age.
Thats cool
12 bravo for win.
I thought the bazooka rocket would have a minimum arming distance?
Not at this point.
Tank: *explodes
*U.S. soldiers shake hands.
Why could you just bury a armed bazooka rocket into the dirt with warhead sticking slightly out? Wouldn't the weight of a tank set off the impact fuze off?
there is not safe distance safety lock for bazooka rockets ?
Other than the little tab that was removed I don't believe so at this stage.
@@TheArmourersBench Ok, I am just asking because modern ammunition usually has some sort of protection against detonation in close proximity of crew (grass, bushes...).
Yes, it does indeed! Valid question, I should have mentioned it in the video.
so this means there's no delayed safety feature like on modern AT rockets to prevent the warhead going of to close to the crew.
it is a very small warhead so it would be kinda pointless, big chance that you gonna die because the safety worked when it should not...
I’d think attaching the wires too solidly to the rocket would make it not fly straight. Guess the one buried going straight up wouldn’t matter it’s such a short distance but the one tied to the fence post maybe. Also, I’d think the rocket would need a certain distance to pick up enough speed to crush the detonator? Wonder what that distance is.
The M6 rocket weighed 1.5 kg & had a velocity of 82m/second. The law of inertia would come into play.
A set-back type initiator/detonator would be armed in the first inch or so of forward motion at launch speed.
being a hallow charge , the set back fuze is set at the base of the explosives.
Later bazooka rockets, most mortars and Panzerfaust use set back type initiators. They become armed as the rocket flys forward , the firing pin and weight are 'set back' by the forces of acceleration. In doing this, they usually are releasing a safety ( different kinds) and when forward motion is checked, the firing pin flys forward, setting off the hallow charge. This happens as the projectile is being accelerated. The use od a certain weight of spring keeps the firing pin in a safe mode untill its a sudden, fast jolt, like being shot out of a tube.\ lets the projectile move forward while the loose firing pin/weight set back and arm.
@@chiphailstone589 makes sense, just that rockets aren’t like bullets where they start off at the fastest speed, they start out slow and pick up speed, this was a big problem with the gyrojet pistols that they never did really overcome. Just wondering about these, I know the safeties weren’t up to modern standards but they’d still have to have a certain distance to pick up some speed with that weighted firing pin in the back you described, even if it were just a foot or so would be good info for them to add in this original military video. Thanks man.
@@shanek6582 True.
While not going bullet speed, the rockets motor on the Bazooka was a sudden and powerful enough of an acceleration for the set back fuse to take effect. Same for the Super Bazooka. It evidently worked well enough to use.
Their idea of safety back then was crude, they were happy if it was it not going off if dropped. Once in the pipe, it was ready to go.
Good luck!
Keep in mind that the buried explosives effective contain the backblast, so despite a shorter "barrel", they will have more pressure build-up behind the rocket.
I wonder what else they used. You don't stop German panzers with rifles. Thanks for showing.
The same engineer battalion apparently also laid conventional minefields so they were definitely busy! Thanks for watching.
A lot of covered trenches too
Soldiers today usually fist bump or trash talk after job done, apparently hand shake are use back in the days
Haha, yeah.
Panzerfaust on fence with wire from it was better variant. You just put it and leave. Like a tank mine. Wire on the high of tank turret, not every Infantryman who support tank will see it if he dosent know what he need to find. Mechanical mechanism is more reliable than electrical... And your solders are out of sight.
So, it's an IBM......wonder where that name came from.
I.E.D.
Interesting yes, we show our enemy how to kill and mame us in future wars and conflicts.
shape charge up the belly.... that would have been ... effective
is something like this applicable with RPG-7 rounds?
Nope, RPG7 use a capsule and firing pin. Its a mechanical firing mechanism, not electrical.
@@Anatoli-y Noted, Thanks for the reply. Cheers!
@@mahogany7712 your welcome!
Someone needs to share this with the Ukrainians
So I guess the rocket had no minimum distance to arm the detonator.
No I don't believe so. Something that came in later.
The modern, say, Russian shaped charge mines are ridiculous. They're massive and it's just going to be a bad day on the receiving end.
But was it affective?
Engineers lead the way.
Can't hear you
Weird, what are you watching on?
Vanguard could have used this. Would have been so good. But noooooo
audio is a little quite
Thanks for letting me know, will keep an eye on it for future vid.
@@TheArmourersBench I’m glad you replied bc I forgot to subscribe after I watched some of your videos earlier. You make great content, keep it up!
Ahh thanl you! Much more in the pipeline.
hi
Old hat.. this was and with modification is standard improvisation even these days..
Thanks for watching
This would be good information for our Ukrainian freinds
How to use ww2 bazooka rounds in modern war against russian tanks? Seriously?))
Ridgeway's company clerk was a lousy speller.
The enemy were not the German but the Russians.
At the Battle of the Bulge? Pretty sure the Germans were the attacking force.
This looks like something the Ukranians could do if "push-comes-to-shove"..
Your mumbling narrator 🙉