Bazooka

For other uses, see Bazooka (disambiguation).
Bazooka

M1 Bazooka
Type Recoilless rocket anti-tank weapon
Place of origin United States
Service history
Used by See Users
Production history
Designer Edward Uhl[1]
Designed 1942

Bazooka is the common name for a man-portable recoilless antitank rocket launcher weapon, widely fielded by the United States Army. 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 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 (HESH) round, effective against buildings and tank armor. 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[2] and Eastern Front encounters and soon reverse engineered their own version,[3] increasing the warhead diameter to 8.8 cm (among other minor changes) and widely issuing it as the Raketenpanzerbüchse "Panzerschreck" ("Tank terror").[4]

The term "bazooka" still sees informal use as a generic term referring to any ground-to-ground 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 (recoil-less) weapon, and the shaped-charge warhead. It was also designed for easy maneuverability and access.

World War I

The Rocket-Powered Recoil-less Weapon was the brainchild of Dr. Robert H. Goddard as a side project (under Army contract) 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 during World War I. He and his co-worker, Dr. 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, further development was discontinued. The delay in the development of the bazooka was as a result of Goddard's serious bout with tuberculosis. Goddard continued to be a part-time consultant to the US government at Indian Head, Maryland, until 1923, but soon turned his focus to other projects involving rocket propulsion. Hickman later became head of the National Defense Research Committee in the 1940s where he guided rocket development for the war effort, including completing the development of the bazooka.[5]

Shaped charge development

Shaped charge technology was developed in the US into a shaped charge hand grenade for use by infantry, 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), the M2 (Enfield M1917), the M7 (M1 Garand), and the 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 more effective man portable anti-tank weapon.[6][7]

The combination of rocket motor and shaped charge warhead would lead to Army development of light antitank weapons.[8]

Rocket-borne shaped charge weapons development

In 1942, U.S. Army colonel Leslie Skinner received the M10 shaped-charge grenade which was capable of stopping German tanks. He gave Lieutenant Edward Uhl the task of creating a delivery system for the grenade. Uhl created a small rocket, but needed to protect the firer from the rocket exhaust and aim the weapon. According to Uhl,

I was walking by this scrap pile, and there was a tube that... happened to be the same size as the grenade that we were turning into a rocket. I said, That's the answer! Put the tube on a soldier's shoulder with the rocket inside, and away it goes."[1]
The M1 Bazooka

By late 1942, the improved Rocket Launcher, M1A1 was introduced. The forward hand grip was deleted, and the design simplified. The production M1A1 was 54 inches (1.37 m) long and weighed only 12.75 pounds (5.8 kg).

The ammunition for the original M1 launcher was the M6, which was notoriously unreliable. The M6 was improved and designated M6A1, and the new ammunition was issued with the improved M1A1 launcher. After the M6, several alternative warheads were introduced. The 2.36-inch Smoke Rocket M10 and its improved subvariants (M10A1, M10A2, M10A4) used the rocket motor and fin assembly of the M6A1, but replaced the anti-tank warhead with a white phosphorus (WP) smoke head. WP smoke not only acts as a visible screen, but its burning particles can cause burns on human skin. The M10 was therefore used to mark targets, to blind enemy gunners or vehicle drivers, or to drive troops out of bunkers and dugouts.[9] The 2.36-Inch Incendiary Rocket T31 was an M10 variant with an incendiary warhead designed to ignite fires in enemy-held structures and unarmored vehicles, or to destroy combustible supplies, ammunition, and materiel; it was not often utilized.

The original M1 and M1A1 rocket launchers were equipped with a simple rear sight and fixed front sight, and used a launch tube without reinforcements. During the war, the M1A1 received a number of running modifications. The battery specification was changed to a larger, standard battery cell size, resulting in complaints of batteries getting stuck in the wood shoulder rest (the compartment was later reamed out to accommodate the larger cells).[10] This was followed by a new aperture rear sight and a front rectangular "frame" sight positioned at the muzzle. The vertical sides of the frame sight were inscribed with graduations of 100, 200, and 300 yards. On the M9, the iron sights were at first replaced by a plastic optical ring sight, which proved unsatisfactory in service, frequently turning opaque after a few days' exposure to sunlight.[11] Later iron sights were hinged to fold against the tube when not in use, and were protected by a cover. The launcher also had an adjustable range scale that provided graduations from 50 to 700 yards (46 to 640 meters) in 50-yard (46 m) increments. An additional strap iron shoulder brace was fitted to the launcher, along with various types of blast deflectors.

The bazooka required special care when used in tropical or arctic climates or in severe dust or sand conditions. Rockets were not to be fired at temperatures below 0° F or above 120° F (−18° C to +49° C).[12]

Field experience induced changes

In 1943, field reports of rockets sticking and prematurely detonating in M1A1 launch tubes were received by Army Ordnance at Ogden Arsenal and other production facilities. At the US Army's Aberdeen Proving Grounds, various metal collars and wire wrapping were used on the sheet metal launch tube in an effort to reinforce it. However, reports of premature detonation continued until the development of bore slug test gauges to ensure that the rocket did not catch inside the launch tube.[13]

The original M6 and M6A1 rockets used in the M1 and M1A1 launchers had a pointed nose, which was found to cause deflection from the target at low impact angles. In late 1943, another 2.36-in rocket type was adopted, the M6A3, for use with the newly standardized M9 rocket launcher.[6] The M6A3 was 19.4 inches (493 mm) long, and weighed 3.38 lb (1.53 kg). It had a blunted, more round nose to improve target effect at low angles, and a new circular fin assembly to improve flight stability. The M6A3 was capable of penetrating 3.5–4 inches (89–102 mm) of armor plate.

Battery problems in the early bazookas eventually resulted in replacement of the battery-powered ignition system with a magneto sparker system operated through the trigger. A trigger safety was incorporated into the design that isolated the magneto, preventing misfires that could occur when the trigger was released and the stored charge prematurely fired the rocket. The final major change was the division of the launch tube into two discrete sections, with bayonet-joint attachments. This was done to make the weapon more convenient to carry, particularly for use by airborne forces. The final two-piece launcher was standardized as the M9A1. However, the long list of incorporated modifications increased the launcher's tube length to 61 inches (1.55 m), with an overall empty weight of 14.3 lb (6.5 kg). From its original conception as a relatively light, handy, and disposable weapon, the final M9A1 launcher had become a heavy, clumsy, and relatively complex piece of equipment.[11]

In October 1944, after receiving reports of inadequate combat effect of the M1A1 and M9 launchers and their M6A1 rockets, and after examining captured examples of the German 8.8 cm RPzB 43 and RPzB 54 Panzerschreck, the US Ordnance Corps began development on a new, more powerful anti-tank rocket launcher, the 3.5-inch M20. However, the weapon's design was not completed until after the war and saw no action against an enemy until Korea.[14]

In 1945, the U.S. Army's Chemical Warfare Service standardized improved chemical warfare rockets intended for the new M9 and M9A1 launchers, adopting the M26 Gas Rocket, a cyanogen chloride (CK)-filled warhead for the 2.36-in rocket launcher.[15] CK, a deadly blood agent, was capable of penetrating the protective filter barriers in some gas masks,[16] and was seen as an effective agent against Japanese forces (particularly those hiding in caves or bunkers), whose gas masks lacked the impregnants that would provide protection against the chemical reaction of CK.[15][17][18] While stockpiled in US inventory, the CK rocket was never deployed or issued to combat personnel.[15]

Aviation use

Major Carpenter with Rosie the Rocketeer

Following Operation Overlord in 1944, the military version of the slow-flying Piper J-3 Cub high-wing civilian monoplane, the L-4 Grasshopper, began to be used in a light anti-armor role by a few U.S. Army artillery spotter units over France; these aircraft were field-outfitted with either two or four bazookas attached to the lift struts,[19] against German armored fighting vehicles.

Upon arriving in France in 1944, US Army Major Charles Carpenter, an Army aviator flying liaison and artillery-spotting lightplanes like the military version of the Piper J-3 Cub, the L-4 Grasshopper, was issued a new L-4H version during the concluding stages of "Overlord", taking this "light attack" role against German armor by himself. With a 150-pound pilot and no radio aboard, the L-4H had a combined cargo and passenger weight capacity of approximately 232 pounds.[20][21] This margin allowed him to eventually mount a total of six bazookas, three per side on the lift struts as other L-4s had done. [22][23]

Within a few weeks, Carpenter was credited with knocking out a German armored car and four tanks. Carpenter's plane was known as "Rosie the Rocketer", and his exploits were soon featured in numerous press accounts, including Stars and Stripes, the Associated Press, Popular Science, the The New York Sun, and Liberty Magazine. Carpenter once told a reporter that his idea of fighting a war was to "attack, attack and then attack again."[24] During the critical late-September Battle of Arracourt, Carpenter managed to achieve disabling hits on several German armored cars and even two Panther tanks, along with killing or wounding a dozen or more enemy soldiers.[21][25]

In the opening months of the Korean War era, in August 1950 a joint US Navy and Marine Corps test used a newly acquired Bell HTL-4 helicopter to test if a bazooka could be fired from a helicopter in flight. One of the larger 3.5 inch models of the Bazooka was chosen, and was mounted ahead and to the right of the helicopter to allow the door to remain clear. The bazooka was successfully tested, although it was discovered that it would require shielding for the engine compartment, which was exposed in the model 47 and other early helicopters. The helicopter itself belonged to HMX-1, a Marine experimental helicopter squadron.[26]

Operational use

World War II

Secretly introduced via the Russian front and in November 1942 during Operation Torch, early production versions of the M1 launcher and M6 rocket were hastily supplied to some of the U.S. invasion forces during the landings in North Africa. On the night before the landings, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower was shocked to discover from a subordinate that none of his troops had received any instruction in the use of the bazooka.[27]

Initially supplied with the highly unreliable M6 rocket and without training, the M1 did not play a significant armed role in combat in the North African fighting,[14] but did provide a German intelligence coup[28] when some were captured by the Germans in early encounters with inexperienced US troops. A US general visiting the Tunisian front in 1943 after the close of combat operations could not find any soldiers who could report that the weapon had actually stopped an enemy tank.[14] Further issue of the bazooka was suspended in May 1943.

A U.S. soldier fires an M9 bazooka at a German machine gun nest, Lucca 1944.

During the Allied invasion of Sicily, small numbers of the M1A1 bazooka (using an improved rocket, the M6A1) were used in combat by US forces. The M1A1 accounted for four medium German tanks and a heavy Tiger I, with the latter being knocked out by an improbable hit through the driver's vision slot.[14] A major disadvantage to the bazooka was the large backblast and smoke trail (in colder weather), which gave away the position of the shooter, mandating quick relocation of the squad. Moreover, the bazooka fire team often had to expose their bodies in order to obtain a clear field of fire against an armored target. Casualties among bazooka team members were extremely high during the war , and assignment to such duty in the face of German counterfire was typically regarded by other platoon members as not only highly dangerous, but nearly suicidal .

When the existence of the bazooka was revealed to the American public official press releases for the first two years stated that it "packed the wallop of a 155mm cannon"—a great exaggeration, but widely accepted by the American public at the time.[29]

In late 1942, numbers of early-production American M1 bazookas were captured by German troops from Russian forces who had been given quantities of the bazooka under Lend-Lease as well as during the Operation Torch invasions in the North African Campaign.[30] The Germans promptly developed their own version of the weapon, increasing the diameter of the warhead from 60 mm to 88 mm (2.4 to 3.5 in). In German service, the bazooka was popularly known as the Panzerschreck. The German weapon, with its larger, more powerful warhead, had significantly greater armor penetration; ironically, calls for a larger-diameter warhead had also been raised by some ordnance officers during U.S. trials of the M1, but were rejected. After participating in an armor penetration test involving a German Panther tank using both the Raketenpanzerbüchse, or RPzB 54 Panzerschreck and the U.S. M9 bazooka, Corporal Donald E. Lewis of the U.S. Army informed his superiors that the Panzerschreck was "far superior to the American bazooka": ‘I was so favorably impressed [by the Panzerschreck] I was ready to take after the Krauts with their own weapon.[31]’

The M1 bazooka fared much better on the rare occasions when it could be used against the much thinner armor typically fitted to the lower sides, underside, and top of enemy tanks. To hit the bottom panel of an enemy tank, the bazooka operator had to wait until the tank was surmounting a steep hill or other obstruction, while hitting the top armor usually necessitated firing the rocket from the upper story of a building or similar elevated position. Even the heavy King Tiger tank only possessed hull and turret top armor thicknesses of 44 mm (1-3/4 in) thickness at best, capable of being pierced by the American bazooka's shaped-charge rocket ordnance. During the 1944 Allied offensive in France, when some examples of liaison aircraft with the U.S. Army began to be experimentally field-armed, and were already flying with pairs or quartets of the American ordnance[32] — and most notably used during the Battle of Arracourt — Major Charles "Bazooka Charlie" Carpenter mounted a battery of three M9 bazookas on the wing-to-fuselage struts on each side of his L-4 Grasshopper aircraft in order to attack enemy armor, and was credited with destroying six enemy tanks, including two Tiger I heavy tanks.[23][33]

Despite the introduction of the M9 bazooka with its more powerful rocket—the M6A3—in late 1943, reports of the weapon's effectiveness against enemy armor decreased alarmingly in the latter stages of World War II, as new German tanks with thicker and better-designed cast armor plate and armor skirts/spaced armor were introduced. This development forced bazooka operators to target less well-protected areas of the vehicle, such as the tracks, drive sprockets, bogey wheels, or rear engine compartment. In a letter dated May 20, 1944, Gen. George S. Patton stated to a colleague that "the purpose of the bazooka is not to hunt tanks offensively, but to be used as a last resort in keeping tanks from overrunning infantry. To insure this, the range should be held to around 30 yards."[14] The extreme difficulty of closing to grenade-throwing distances unnoticed before hitting small spot targets on an enemy tank helps explain the high mortality rate of men assigned to anti-tank rocket launcher duty.

In the Pacific campaign, as in North Africa, the original bazookas sent to combat often had reliability issues. The battery-operated firing circuit was easily damaged during rough handling, and the rocket motors often failed because of high temperatures and exposure to moisture, salt air, or humidity. With the introduction of the M1A1 and its more reliable rocket ammunition, the bazooka was effective against some fixed Japanese infantry emplacements such as small concrete bunkers and pill boxes.[34][35] Against coconut and sand emplacements, the weapon was not always effective, as these softer structures often reduced the force of the warhead's impact enough to prevent detonation of the explosive charge.[36] Later in the Pacific war, most infantry and marine units often used the M2 flamethrower to attack such emplacements.[36] In the few instances in the Pacific where the bazooka was used against tanks and armored vehicles, the rocket's warhead easily penetrated the thin armor plate used by the Japanese and destroyed the vehicle.[37] Overall, the M1A1, M9, and M9A1 rocket launchers were viewed as useful and effective weapons during World War II, though they had been primarily employed against enemy emplacements and fixed fortifications, not as anti-tank weapons.[31] General Dwight Eisenhower later described it as one of the four "Tools of Victory" which won World War II for the Allies (together with the atom bomb, Jeep and the C-47 Skytrain transport aircraft).[38][39]

Korean War

The success of the more powerful German Panzerschreck caused the bazooka to be completely redesigned at the close of World War II. A larger, 3.5 in (90 mm) model was adopted, the M20 "Super Bazooka". Though bearing a superficial resemblance to the Panzerschreck, the M20 had greater effective range, penetrating capability and was nearly 20% lighter than its German counterpart. The M20 weighed 14.3 pounds (6.5 kg) and fired a hollow shaped-charge 9 lb (4 kg) M28A2 HEAT rocket when used in an anti-tank role. It was also operated by a two-man team and had a claimed rate of fire of six shots per minute. As with its predecessor, the M20 could also fire rockets with either practice (M29A2) or WP smoke (T127E3/M30) warheads. Having learned from experience of the sensitivity of the bazooka and its ammunition to moisture and harsh environments, the ammunition for the new weapon was packaged in moisture-resistant packaging, and the M20's field manual contained extensive instructions on launcher lubrication and maintenance, as well as storage of rocket ammunition.[40][41] When prepared for shipment from the arsenal, the weapon was protected by antifungal coatings over all electrical contacts, in addition to a cosmoline coating in the hand-operated magneto that ignited the rocket. Upon issue, these coatings were removed with solvent to ready the M20 for actual firing.

A 3.5 inch bazooka rocket — loader training projectile.

Budget cutbacks initiated by Secretary of Defense Louis A. Johnson in the years following World War II effectively canceled the intended widespread issue of the M20, and initial US forces deploying to Korea were armed solely with the M9/M9A1 2.36-in. launcher and old stockpiled World War II inventories of M6A3 rocket ammunition. During the initial stages of the Korean War, complaints resurfaced over the ineffectiveness of the 2.36-inch M9 and M9A1 against Soviet-supplied enemy armor. In one notable incident, infantry blocking forces of the US Army's Task Force Smith were overrun by 33 North Korean T-34/85 tanks despite repeatedly firing 2.36 inch rockets into the rear engine compartments of the vehicles.[42][43] Additionally, Ordnance authorities received numerous combat reports regarding the failure of the M6A3 warhead to properly detonate upon impact, eventually traced to inventories of rocket ammunition that had deteriorated from numerous years of storage in humid or salt air environments. Supplies of 3.5- in M20 launchers with M28A2 HEAT rocket ammunition were hurriedly airlifted from the United States to South Korea, where they proved very effective against the T-34 and other Soviet tanks.[44] Large numbers of 2.36-inch bazookas that were captured during the Chinese Civil War were also employed by the Chinese forces against the American Sherman and Patton tanks,[45] and the Chinese later reverse engineered and produced a copy of the M20 designated the Type 51.[46]

Vietnam War

The M20 "Super Bazooka" was used in the early stages of the war in Vietnam by the US Marines before gradually being phased out in favor of the M67 recoilless rifle and later, the M72 LAW rocket.[47] While occasions to destroy enemy armored vehicles proved exceedingly rare, it was employed against enemy fortifications and emplacements with success. The M20 remained in service with South Vietnamese and indigenous forces until the late 1960s.

The Vietnam People's Army also developed their own bazooka under the management of Tran Dai Nghia. It was successfully test-fired in 1947.[48][49]

Other conflicts

Portuguese defense forces used quantities of M9A1 and M20 rocket launchers in their overseas departments in Africa against Marxist guerrilla forces during the Portuguese Colonial Wars. The French Army also used the M1A1, M9A1, and M20 launchers in various campaigns in Indochina and Algeria.

Variants

Rocket Launcher, M1 "Bazooka"

Rocket Launcher, M1A1 "Bazooka"

Rocket Launcher, M9 "Bazooka"

Rocket Launcher, M9A1 "Bazooka"

Rocket Launcher, M18 "Bazooka"

Rocket Launcher, M20 "Super Bazooka"

Super Bazooka (mislabeled "SIAM-7 shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missile") in Batey ha-Osef Museum, Tel-Aviv, Israel

Rocket Launcher, M20A1 "Super Bazooka"

Rocket Launcher, M20B1 "Super Bazooka"

Rocket Launcher, M20A1B1 "Super Bazooka"

Rocket Launcher, M25 "Three Shot Bazooka"

RL-83 Blindicide

3.5 in HYDROAR M20A1B1 Rocket Launcher

88.9mm Instalaza M65

Specifications

M1

M1A1

M9/M9A1

M20A1/A1B1

Users

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Scales, Robert (May 31, 2010), "Edward Uhl", Time.
  2. ↑ MC 2008; With cheap cost per use and which any 'farm peasant can be trained to fire’, the AT4 CS is the modern-day descendant of the Bazooka (paraphrased conclusion).
  3. ↑ MC 2008
  4. ↑ MC 2008
  5. ↑ Mike Gruntman (30 July 2004). Blazing the Trail: The Early History of Spacecraft and Rocketry. American Institute of Aeronautics & Ast. p. 178. ISBN 978-1563477058.
  6. 1 2 BS 2010.
  7. ↑ Green & Green 2000, pp. 36–37.
  8. ↑ Zaloga, Steven J (2005), US Anti-tank Artillery 1941–45, Oxford: Osprey, p.  8.
  9. ↑ Smith, Carl (2000), US Paratrooper, 1941–45, Osprey, p. 63, ISBN 978-1-85532-842-6.
  10. ↑ Dunlap 1948, pp. 304–5.
  11. 1 2 Dunlap 1948, pp. 304.
  12. ↑ TM 9-294: 2.36-inch A.T. Rocket Launcher M1A1, US War Department, Sep 1943.
  13. ↑ Keith, Elmer (1979), Hell, I Was There, Petersen Publishing, pp. 184–91, ISBN 978-0-8227-3014-9.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 Green & Green 2000, pp. 38–39.
  15. 1 2 3 Smart, Jeffrey (1997), "2", History of Chemical and Biological Warfare: An American Perspective, Aberdeen, MD, USA: Army Chemical and Biological Defense Command, p. 32.
  16. ↑ http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/ershdb/EmergencyResponseCard_29750039.html
  17. ↑ "Characteristics and Employment of Ground Chemical Munitions", Field Manual 3-5, Washington, DC: War Department, 1946, pp. 108–19.
  18. ↑ Skates, John R (2000), The Invasion of Japan: Alternative to the Bomb, University of South Carolina Press, pp. 93–96, ISBN 978-1-57003-354-4
  19. ↑ Francis, Devon E., Mr. Piper and His Cubs, Iowa State University Press, ISBN 0-8138-1250-X, 9780813812502 (1973), p. 117.
  20. ↑ Piper Cub Weight & Balance Calculation, retrieved 24 October 2011
  21. 1 2 Fountain, Paul, The Maytag Messerschmitts, Flying Magazine, March 1945, p. 90
  22. ↑ Francis, Devon E., Mr. Piper and His Cubs, Iowa State University Press, ISBN 0-8138-1250-X, 9780813812502 (1973), p. 117
  23. 1 2 "Piper Cub Tank Buster". Popular Science. New York: Popular Science Publishing Company. 146 (2): 84. February 1945. ISSN 0161-7370.
  24. ↑ Gallagher, Wes, Major Charles Carpenter, Once History Teacher, Now Legend in Patton's Army, The Rock Island Argus, 26 September 1944
  25. ↑ Puddle-Jumped Panzers, Newsweek, Newsweek Inc., Vol. 24, Part 2 (2 October 1944), p. 31
  26. ↑ Helicopter Gunships: Deadly Combat Weapon Systems, Wayne Mutza, p.13–14
  27. ↑ Green & Green 2000, p. 38.
  28. ↑ MC 2008
  29. ↑ Popular Mechanics, January 1944.
  30. ↑ MC 2008
  31. 1 2 Green & Green 2000, p. 39.
  32. ↑ Francis, Devon E., Mr. Piper and His Cubs, Iowa State University Press, ISBN 0-8138-1250-X, 9780813812502 (1973), p. 117
  33. ↑ Carpenter, Leland F, "Piper L-4J Grasshopper", Aviation Enthusiast Corner, Aero Web, retrieved 21 October 2011.
  34. ↑ Rottman, Gordon L (2007), US Airborne Units in the Pacific Theater 1942–45, Osprey, p. 43, ISBN 978-1-84603-128-1.
  35. ↑ Harclerode, Peter (2005), Wings of War–Airborne Warfare 1918–1945, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, pp. 332–33, ISBN 0-304-36730-3.
  36. 1 2 Kleber & Birdsell 2001, pp. 549–54.
  37. ↑ Green, Michael (2004), Weapons of the Modern Marines, Zenith Imprint Press, p. 45, ISBN 978-0-7603-1697-9.
  38. ↑ "The US Forces included Navy, Army, Army Air Force and Marine Corps". Digger history. Archived from the original on 12 December 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-19.
  39. ↑ "Douglas VC-47A Skytrain DC-3". Aircraft. March field. Archived from the original on 3 December 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-19.
  40. ↑ TM 9-297, 3.5-inch Rocket Launchers M20 and M20B1 (technical manual), Department of the Army, 10 August 1950, pp. 31–35, 86–88.
  41. ↑ TM 9-1055-201-12, Launcher, Rocket, 3.5-in M20A1 and M20A1 B1 (technical manual), Washington, DC: Department of the Army, August 1968, p. 39.
  42. ↑ Fukumitsu, Keith K, "No More Task Force Smiths", Professional bulletin, US: Army, archived from the original on 2008-10-11.
  43. ↑ former members of Task Force Smith (1985), To President Reagan on failure of 2.36 inch bazooka (letter).
  44. ↑ Blair, Clay (2003), The Forgotten War: America in Korea, 1950–1953, Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, ISBN 1-59114-075-7.
  45. 1 2 Appleman, Roy (1989). Disaster in Korea: The Chinese Confront MacArthur. Military History. 11. College Station, Texas: Texas A and M University. pp. 17–18, 118, 188, 120, 190. ISBN 978-1-60344-128-5.
  46. ↑ Archer, Denis HR (1976), Infantry Weapons, Jane, p. 572, ISBN 0-531-03255-8.
  47. ↑ The U.S. Army had transitioned to the M67 recoilless rifle prior to deploying units to Vietnam
  48. ↑ "Kỷ niệm 100 năm ngày sinh của cố GS. VS Trần Đại Nghĩa (100th birth anniversary of the late Professor. VS Tran Dai Nghia)" (in Vietnamese). Báo điện tử Quân đội nhân dân (People's Army Newspaper Online). 13 September 2013.
  49. ↑ "Chuyện chưa kể về Giáo sư Viện sĩ Trần Đại Nghĩa (The Untold Story of Academician Prof. Tran Dai Nghia)". Phunutoday (in Vietnamese). 24 January 2012.
  50. ↑ Guzmán, Julio S (April 1953), Las Armas Modernas de Infantería (in Spanish).
  51. ↑ "Contactor latch assembly standardized", Preventative Maintenance Monthly, William ‘Bill’ Ricca, Nov 1952, archived from the original (JPEG) on 2007-09-26.
  52. ↑ "Military Review", Military Review, Jane, Fourth: 81, 1985-04-01, ISBN 0-7106-0334-7.
  53. 1 2 J 1996, p. 300.
  54. ↑ "Spain - M65 Anti-Tank Rocket Launcher". Tanks.Net. Archived from the original on 2 March 2014. Retrieved 23 June 2013.
  55. ↑ Neil Grant (2015). Rhodesian Light Infantryman: 1961-1980. Osprey Publishing. p. 22. ISBN 1472809629.

Bibliography

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