The development of bazooka series is also a typical American legend, which originated from the persistence of two young people, and attracted the attention of high-level officials by an accidental opportunity, and finally achieved great success.
As early as World War I, the application of rockets in modern warfare has attracted the attention of warring parties. Not content with Germany and Russia, which have made progress in this field, the emerging United States started a project on the study of individual rocket launchers in the summer of 1918, and its host was Dr. R.H. Goddard, one of the founders of American rocket technology. Dr Goddard has designed a variety of schemes, and finally he thinks that the most suitable caliber for infantry rocket launchers is 51 mm. The designed rocket launcher tube is 1.68m in length and 3.4kg in mass. When in use, the shooter must put the front of the tube on his shoulder to adjust the shooting direction at any time, and the rear of the launcher tube is supported by a light bipod. The supporting rocket is 51mm long and weighs 3.63kg, of which the warhead weighs 1.81kg. At the beginning of November that year, the rocket launcher was tested many times at Aberdeen proving ground, and its maximum range reached 685.8m m. However, such a seemingly promising weapon was put into the cold house because of the end of World War I, and Dr. Goddard's research work was abandoned halfway. If it had continued to develop at that time, and the European army could have used this weapon when World War II broke out in 1939, the "blitzkrieg" launched by Germany would probably have been another result, and world history would have been rewritten accordingly.
the real father of bazooka is American army captain Leslie skinner. Since childhood, he has been interested in rockets and has made and launched many rockets by himself. In 1931, he was transferred to Aberdeen proving ground under the Ordnance Department of the United States Army, where he continued to make and test rockets in his spare time. By 1938, he had accumulated quite a wealth of knowledge in this field that the army was not interested in at that time. In 194, Skinner, who had been sent to Hawaii, was transferred back to the United States to participate in a so-called "special project" research work. The "project" has neither funds nor assistance, but only examines whether the rocket has the value of being used as a weapon. Although in a difficult situation, it took Skinner and his assistant, Navy Captain Edward Earle, less than a year to successfully test a simple shoulder-fired rocket launcher with a sliding barrel and a stable tail. The only difficulty at that time was the lack of a suitable warhead to verify the effectiveness of the weapon, but the army would not develop it alone because of the application of an unknown project, and Skinner's design faced the fate of premature death. However, God never shuts one door but he opens another. Just as Skinner was worried about it, his luck fell from the sky. At that time, it happened that a Swiss engineer came to the United States with his hollow charge warhead, and the American who was trying to develop an anti-tank rifle happily bought the patent. There is an episode worth mentioning here. In 1938, the Swiss tried to sell this design to the British military attache in Switzerland, but failed. However, the British were inspired to develop the No.68 Grenade, the world's first hollow-charged anti-tank Grenade. Americans also designed M1 anti-tank grenade on the basis of Swiss patent. Although its performance is excellent, it has been neglected for a long time because of its excessive recoil and unable to find a suitable carrier. In the spring of 1942, Skinner decided to apply this M1 warhead to his rocket launcher. In order to match the size of M1, he expanded the inner diameter of the launch tube to 6mm, re-manufactured a set of integrated launch tube and electric shock generator using flashlight battery, and processed 12 rockets with fake warheads, and successfully launched 3 of them.
Skinner went to Aberdeen proving ground with his new design and the remaining nine test bombs, with the purpose of testing his design results on the regular proving ground. Luck favored him again. At that time, the proving ground was carrying out a performance shooting of M1 improved products, a tank as a target was driving on the proving ground, and many senior military personnel were watching the performance. Skinner and Earle made a bold decision, determined to seize this excellent opportunity. They set up their own rocket launcher at one end of the launch line without anyone's consent. Skinner later recalled: "The situation at that time was that the tank was coming in our direction, so we decided to shoot at it. Earl made a temporary substitute sight with a piece of wire picked from the ground, and then he fired the first shot, which hit the target. Before the tank turned, I hit it with a rocket ... Because everyone was not familiar with the special sound generated when the rocket was launched, the audience decorated with the star emblem (meaning senior officers) all turned to our side, including Major General Barnes, who was the head of the ground ordnance development department. Barnes came and picked up the rocket launcher and hit the tank. Others rushed to test it until all the remaining rockets were finished ... "Officials temporarily decided to make this rocket launcher a small batch production project. Subsequent facts prove that this decision made on the test site is very correct.
fortunately, after avoiding all kinds of bureaucratic and red tape interference and delay, the military set out to realize an emergency plan so that the army forces can quickly equip this new weapon. The American-style high efficiency was quickly reflected, and this weapon was fully put into production before it was formally finalized. On May 19th, 1942, Ordnance Department signed a contract with General Electric Company to produce 5, rocket launchers within 3 days. After completing the task ahead of schedule, a high-standard shooting performance was arranged, and many allied representatives were invited to attend. In this performance, the Soviets first came into contact with the American invention, and then they expressed their desire to get this kind of weapon. Their demands were met, and the first batch of hundreds of products were immediately transported to the Soviet battlefield. The success of this performance led to a large number of additional orders from the US military. Due to the German invasion of North Africa, this kind of anti-tank weapon was badly needed at the front. Most products were sent directly from the factory to the dock and then shipped to North Africa. In order to catch up with the time, some rocket launchers were airlifted to the port by plane.