WWIIRulz Posted January 14, 2000 Share Posted January 14, 2000 I was playing chance encounter as the Americans. I had two bazooka teams in the furthermost house in front of the hill seperating the germs from the US. I had them waiting to ambush those stugs when they crest over the hill, but when I fired the bazooka the whole house caught fire. Does a bazooka have that much back blast? I thought it didnt have that much to actually harm the building because it never happened before. [This message has been edited by WWIIRulz (edited 01-14-2000).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desdicatus Posted January 14, 2000 Share Posted January 14, 2000 Yeah...the backbast is a mother on all rocket-propelled weapons. When I was in the service, got to see what the backblast from a LAW did: torch city. There's even stories about VC during the Vietnam Conflict firing the LAWs backwards becaust they thought the backblast was the real weapon. I would assume the bazooka would have the same general effect.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug Beman Posted January 14, 2000 Share Posted January 14, 2000 Then they wonder what put the big holes in the guys standing behind them! DjB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyRoss Posted January 14, 2000 Share Posted January 14, 2000 Most of the portable anti-tank weaponry had pretty horrific backblast(because they're recoil-less the exhaust needs to be left free at the back). The Panzerfaust and schrek were pretty bad for it and many a serious injury was caused. About a month ago I came across a website which went into fantastic depth about this type of weaponry (mainly German though with lots of diverging parts on US and British stuff). I'll try to find it again and post it here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MOS was 71331 Posted January 14, 2000 Share Posted January 14, 2000 I'd bet that story of the VC firing a LAW backwards is just a revision of a similar story I remember from Korea about the ChiCom firing a captured recoilless rifle backwards: they first fired it forward while standing behind it, and, after the backblast killed their observers, they turned it around and fired it again, losing another bunch of observers. They finally abandoned the weapon. That story's on a par with the one about all the abandoned alligators in the NYC sewer system and part of John Dillenger being preserved in the Smithsonian. [For the youngsters in the CM forum, Dillenger was a Depression era bank robber and murderer who was shot by Federal agents after leaving a theater.] ------------------ Airborne Combat Engineer Troop Leader (1966-1968) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wild Bill Wilder Posted January 14, 2000 Share Posted January 14, 2000 I am picturing those events in my mind, MOS, and cracking up! Just too funny! Another one. The VC AA gunners were trained to shoot down helicopters by adding a model on the end of their gun at an angle. This would account for the time needed between the shot and its arrival at the target. Some VC gunners in attacking landed or hovering helicopters led them using the above lesson, shooting some 50-100 feet in front of the stationary choppers. No doubt this made for some very happy Warrant officers (G)! ------------------ Wild Bill Wild Bill's Raiders Director of Scenario Design, The Gamers Net billw@thegamers.net http://wbr.thegamers.net Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Big Time Software Posted January 14, 2000 Share Posted January 14, 2000 Correction. Dillenger was not "shot by Federal agents". It should read that Dillenger was "ventilated by Federal agents" Imagine how many times we would be seeing that on TV if the Fox network were around back then Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattias Posted January 15, 2000 Share Posted January 15, 2000 Is the projectile in the LAW actually rocket propelled? Thought it was a recoilless weapon like the AT-4. Anyone know? M. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyRoss Posted January 15, 2000 Share Posted January 15, 2000 It was rocket propelled, but also recoilless. I'm sure www.fas.org have a decent section on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest teutonic Posted January 15, 2000 Share Posted January 15, 2000 Andy I also ran across a fabulous page about the panzer faust and shcreck. http://www.geocities.com/Augusta/8172/panzerfaust.htm Is this the same one? Teutonic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattias Posted January 15, 2000 Share Posted January 15, 2000 AndyRoss, Thanks, the LAW projectile is indeed a rocket propelled grenade. Keep in mind though that the term recoilless primarily is used in connection with weapons that use a conventional propellant charge, but avoid recoil by letting the exploding charge expand in two opposing directions. Examples of this type would be the Panzerfaust, the AT-4 and the Carl Gustav. I don´t think I have ever hear about a rocket weapon that has recoil, well, at least not a hand held one. M. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyRoss Posted January 15, 2000 Share Posted January 15, 2000 Thanks Teutonic, that's the very one: very detailed for a website. It even gives some decent rudimentary explanations on shaped charge mechanics. Matthias, it was your previous post which threw me off: you asked if it was rocket propelled and then said "Thought it was recoilless" as if you can either have a recoilless weapon or have a rocket propelled weapon. So I actually thought that you believed that rocket propelled projectiles generally have recoil: sorry . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest TOBRUK Posted January 15, 2000 Share Posted January 15, 2000 AndyRoss & Teutonic: The sites you mentioned are great! I know so little about weapons and armor that these finds are jewels. Do you have any other sites you could recommend so that I could bring myself up to speed? Grateful. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guachi Posted January 16, 2000 Share Posted January 16, 2000 Here are a couple on armor/vehicles Russian Military Zone A Russian site about soviet armor. (It's in English) Achtung Panzer A site on German armor TRACK-LINK Reader Model Gallery A site with great pictures of models Jason [This message has been edited by guachi (edited 01-17-2000).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyRoss Posted January 16, 2000 Share Posted January 16, 2000 Teutonic, genuinely good websites are very difficult to come across. If you really want to learn about weaponry I suggest a trip to the local library (or bookshop if you're liberal with money). I myself am doing the same thing. Almost everything I know about WWII is from a strategic and operational point of view: so I only have my common sense to shepherd me through CM. Most of the books I've read have only anecdotal or brief information on tactical decisions (and almost nothing on actual doctrine). So I hope to goodness that I'm a natural Otto Skorzeny [This message has been edited by AndyRoss (edited 01-15-2000).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest TOBRUK Posted January 16, 2000 Share Posted January 16, 2000 Thanks Guachi. They look interesting. Unfortunately I was unable to load the last one, but I'll try later. Appreciate it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard III Posted January 16, 2000 Share Posted January 16, 2000 TOBRUK, The last link is misspelled. It should be" http://www.track-link.net/gallery.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest TOBRUK Posted January 17, 2000 Share Posted January 17, 2000 Thanks Richard 3; you were right. I should have noticed that too, but I had just cut and pasted I think, without reading. Thanks to all for the good sites. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tss Posted January 17, 2000 Share Posted January 17, 2000 I happened to stumble on an old training poster (or more accurately, a picture of the poster) that depicted the use of Panzerfausts. There was one section that warned about the backblast (my translation): "Mind _fire blasts_ that emerge from both ends of the tube. You have to keep your foremost hand at least 5 cm from the front end of the tube. The backblast is lethal at 1-2 meters and can wound persons up to 10 meter away." - Tommi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest GriffinCheng Posted January 17, 2000 Share Posted January 17, 2000 Check out this book "Tank Killing : Anti-Tank Warfare by Men and Machines" by Ian V. Hogg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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