The Bazooka - In The Movies 

Fun fact, the SAS soldier firing the m72 at the iraqi tank also played harry welsh in band of brothers.

One creative way to use The Bazooka is to fire it at ground at users feet while making a crouch jump, allowing user to perform a rocket jump.

An additional comment. The bazooka had no launch safety for all the early versions. Once you pulled the safety pin it would detonate if you dropped it, or even just by firing it. It was not safe. Apparently much later versions would not detonate till they were fired + a delay time.

I would like to add that the bazooka was mounted on Jeeps and used as artillery support during the invasion of Italy.

I was a Bazooka shooter in the French army a few decades ago ...Shooting it , i remember vividly , was basically like running face first into a wall .. You'd always touch your nose afterward to check if it was bleeding ..

In one book about the fighting in Hue, Vietnam in 1968 the author mentioned that most of the Marine 3.5in bazookas had been stored as there were few targets worthy of carrying the weapon and ammo around on patrols. With the city fighting in Hue, the Marines hustled to get the bazookas issued again and used them to good effect in attacking buildings.

Fun Fact: The Chinese received thousands of bazookas during the Chinese Civil War and the Korean War. The Chinese copy of the Super Bazooka known as the Type 51 can use both American and Chinese ammunition but the American Bazooka can't use Chinese ammo.

The American WW2 bazooka was a miracle of armament engineering simplicity. It upheld Occam's Razor theorem which in essence states that the best solution to the most complex of problems and dilemmas is often the most simple or straightforward. That was the M1 and M9 bazooka, a simple, inexpensive steel tube. The Germans were astonished when they captured American bazookas in North Africa and in the Soviet Union. The simplicity of the design, manufacture, and operation had them shaking their heads in amazement. Why didn't German ingenuity think of that first? But then everyone knew that the Americans were capable of ingenious inventions. The Germans had committed the reverse of Occam's Razor by designing a small, wheeled artillery piece to fire the German, 8.8 cm anti-tank rocket. It was a classic case as engineers like to joke, of 'overengineering' something. Instead of an artillery piece that required four men to move and operate, plus a wheeled vehicle prime mover, here was Simplicity the Goddess herself. A simple steel tube with necessary attachments could be handled by only two men, a gunner and a loader with no vehicle necessary. The Germans already had the anti-tank rocket. They just needed to reverse-engineer the American bazooka and make it bigger in diameter. The American WW2 bazooka was formidable against thin-skinned vehicles such as trucks and armored cars plus fortifications but against the tanks of WW2, the bazooka was already staring at obsolescence. It was deadly enough against thin-armored tanks like the Japanese ones and the early German Mark I and II. But after that the frontal armor of succeeding tanks was too thick. Side and rear armor proved vulnerable but dangerous to approach. Make a long story short. The U.S. Army Ordnance proved slow to respond and kept insisting on improving the current M9 and M9A1. It wasn't till very late in the war, in 1945 that U.S. Ordnance began work on the M20 Super Bazooka. War's end held up final development and mass production, which would prove a serious mistake. The U.S. Army went into South Korea in June 1950 with M9 bazookas that proved ineffective against T-34/85 Soviet-built tanks of the North Korean People's Army. War is the best corrector of procrastination and mistakes. The U.S. Army airlifted M20 bazookas to Korea and mass production ramped up. Interestingly, the British and Soviets both received quantities of M1 bazookas in 1942. Both tried them out and as quickly put the bazookas into storage for similar reasons, the bazooka backblast was large and dangerous, giving away the location of the bazooka team. The British held on to their effective PIAT to war's end and then adopted the American M20 Super Bazooka until such time as British armaments could invent their own modern anti-tank weapons which meant rockets and missiles. The Soviets went on to create the excellent RPG, still in use today.

The guy with the bazookas on his prop plane is a absolute legend.

Gladly you mentioned "Bazooka Charlie" aka Charles Carpenter. The men who single handily support American tank and troops during the battle of Arracourt, while American air support were bog down by heavy cloud, fog and rain

At 3:01: "Titles are cancelled we're running Currahee!"---- Well played sir, well played!

The fact that in Battlefield V, If you go behind the M1 Bazooka's Back blast it will kill you and if you are the one who is doing it, you can get a Teamkill by accident, TBH they did a great Job depicting the M1 Bazooka in Battlefield V

Nice one JJ. My father in law was loader in a bazooka team in the Black Watch circa 1955. He said it was essentially a death sentence. His instructor preferred the PIAT as it didn’t advertise your position quite so emphatically.

We were trained on the 3.5” Super Bazooka in the Canadian Army circa 1970s. Although I never got to fire it, we did however use a lot of M72s and it’s big brother the Carl Gustav. It always felt like getting punched in the face when you fired it as the concussion of the rocket motor hit you. Mind you, it paled into comparison to what it was like on the receiving end. I really wouldn’t want to find out.

Thanks for the great and unique content! You can really see the effort and care put into each video. So good on you Johnny!

The US Air Force used the M67 90mm recoilless rifles for airbase defense from the late 1960s to at least the late 1980s. Interestingly enough, I once met the man I was told was most responsible for the Air Force adopting this weapon. The story I was told is that he had been a Security Police commander in Vietnam during the 1968 Tet Offensive who had been tasked with dislodging VC sappers from a bunker they had overtaken. His base defense troops had no weapons capable of penetrating the bunker, so he rushed to the nearest Army unit and borrowed an M67, with which he successfully dislodged the enemy, an action which earned him both a Purple Heart and Silver Star. As for bazookas mounted on light observation aircraft, in the 1953 Korean War movie "Mission Over Korea" there is a scene where a Stinson L-5 is used in just such a manner to attack North Korean tanks.

Armor penetration is pretty much scaled by the diameter of the warhead. The bazooka was a really small diameter! The Panzerschrek was larger in diameter, and the Panzerfaust had a much larger diameter warhead. The RPG-7 also uses enlarged warheads for better penetration.

I read a book by and got to talk to a bazookaman who served in the Glider Riders and he much preferred the M9 to the M1 bazooka. He never got to take out a tank but he did knock out an MG42 position inside a barn with it in Holland. He didn't look at what had happened but his friends told him the rocket had passed through the gunner and detonated on the wall behind them, presumably killing the loader as the whole team was killed.

In the movies, the anti-tank round always explodes like it was High Explosive. You would think that it would just punch a hole in a tank, and within a few seconds a sheet of flame would erupt out of the open top hatch, as the ammo inside the tank went up (if it was struck by the original fragments)..Without an internal explosion, some crew members could probably survive, and flee.

I only fired a "Bazooka" once, in 1967, at Army National Guard "Summer Camp"! My partner & I, each fired one projectile, at an old tank & he made an unbelievable shot! The rocket went directly down the mouth of the tank's cannon & imploded inside! If this happened during actual combat, he probably would have got a medal!

I should say I didn’t know bazookas are electrically-fired. I thought they have some sort of primer at the end of the rocket ignite by a hammer. Like modern RPGs. Or fire the same way as a German panzerfaust where a primer/percussion cap is manually place on the outside of the tube.

Always love your taste in film and television for your weapon examples. As a fellow film nerd, I really appreciate it buddy

"Titles are cancelled we're running Currahee!" - Pure Genius!

Wait a minute. The title talks about movies but when I watch this I learn things. Learn things! You're tricking me into knowing more than I did before about interesting things. You magnificent bastard!

Two problems with the US bazooka; first the small diameter warhead. That came from the original design of the rifle grenade design that was developed into the rocket projectile. After seeing the German's reverse engineering of the Panzerschreck the US Army developed the 3.5in design. The "Super Bazooka" was ready shortly after WW2 ended and they were stored, then hauled out and put back into production for the Korean War. The second problem with the US bazooka was mediocre training. Atkinson's "An Army At Dawn" mentions that the bazookas were so new they were rushed to the forces gathering for Operation Torch headed for North Africa. The first time most troops ever saw one was when the crates were opened onboard the transports heading to the invasion! Even in later actions the bazooka crews were often just picked from riflemen with little added training on the weapons or the best tactics for using one. Today's trivia: US rocket weapons in WW2 were identified by the diameter of the warhead in inches, versus tube artillery moving to metric designations.

Cool video! I was thinking if you can make a video about the German 37mm cannon? Both on planes and AA batteries. Thanks!

What a great present to receive just as I got home from work

Awesome video for an awesome weapon! Good work Johnny!

John Mc Grath was the grandfather of a class mate of mine. We never heard stories from him as kids. But found out later, after Band of Brothers was out. The man passed shortly there after.

When I was 12 years old in South Africa in 1950 we made a Bazooka from bamboo piping and Guy Fawkes rockets.......such fun.

Well done ,thanks for throwing a few The Great Raid clips in there, keep up the great work buddy.

Haha I like how you included that python sketch one of my faves not least cos Terry Jones walks in with that massive bazooka out of nowhere.

I like how you had the actor Rick Warden shooting a bazooka as Harry Welsh in Band of Brothers and shooting a LAW as Tony Benotti in Bravo Two Zero.

Excellent video as always, greatly showcasing the revolutionary design of the Bazooka :) I highly enjoyed the references made in clips from Band of Brothers. Keep it up!

Song at the end is "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone" Bert Lown Orch. 1930

Oh yes a 5am johhny johnson vid, brilliant as always😩

Yes I’ve been waiting for this video since forever

6:37 I’m glad you mention bazooka Charlie man! Not many people know about him

Always great! Thanks for the weapons rundowns.

Love your vids...found your channel last week and binge watched em all..keep up the great work!!

I was probably one of the last Marines to be instructed in the use of the 3.5 inch rocket launcher, or the bazooka! I was in boot camp in 1966, and was instructed in the use of the bazooka AND the flame thrower! Of course, I never used them in combat in Viet Nam. I remember shooting at 55 gallon drums and ruined tanks.

Have you thought of doing The Colt Peace Maker

Brought the wrong bazooka to band, had a blast though

Here in Brazil, "Bazuca" is the slang word for any portable rocket launcher, even for like the RPG-7 if the person seeing it doesn't know much about weapons.

This is great, keeping me up after midnight. Take care, and all the best.

Everyone always talks about "superior German technology" of WWII, but the Allies did invent some very useful things, like the rocket launcher (aka the Bazooka)

BTW, Time stamps 2:26 and 7:42, these scenes were filmed just west of the Contonment area of Yakima Firing Center, Wa state. Now Yakima Training Center. The area is now occupied by a Marine Corps maintenance facility, a WAARNG Armory and the WAARNG MATES facility MATES = Manuaver Area Training Equipment Site. (formerly Mobilization And Training Equipment Site)..

Always on with the great content. Keep it up, brother.

That tank rifle hitting the t34, and nudging it was comedy gold.

Well done video - Thanks!

My dad was trained for the bazooka and fought in Italy in WW11. RIP Pop

Love the titles at the top often giving up or becoming memes, usually referring certain Hanks produced mini-series or movies!

Johnny, you do A GREAT JOB with these videos : REALLY WELL CREATED AND EDITED. God bless you - John 3:16

Another great video 👍🏾👏🏾

You've knocked it out of the park again, Johnny.

How about the M67 recoilless rifle? We had a bartered one from the First Infantry Division in CuChi RVN. I was a patrol officer with RivDiv 593. "The Iron Butterfly" PBR squadron out of Phi Cuong and Nha Be on the Saigon River. We had HEAT (M371A1) and antipersonnel (M590) flechette rounds.

Very good, and informative!

Great video, I loved it!

from a marine, love these videos

"Titles are cancelled we are running Currahee!" Got me lol

Interesting fact the Rosie the Rocketer plane is at the American Heritage Museum in Hudson, MA

Very nice work 👍

You showed a very breif flash of the "super bazooka" from The Eagle heas landed with Larry Hagman (J R Ewing in Dallas) in. They use it against a barn and a car I believe in the film, but they signal ready by tapping the gunners helmet to fire the rocket.

Next video suggestion: Bergmann 1896 pistol in movies

My dad was a barber from the 1950s to the 1990s. Whenever he gave a kid a haircut, he would always give him some bazooka bubble gum. It's still made!

As I mentioned on the German version I was trained on two occasions to use an M72LAW but I don't believe I ever fired one. I did fire a couple of rounds through a 3.5" Rocket Launcher in the Marines in 1970. Here - one of the rounds didn't fire. Me: _"Sir, Misfire Sir,"_ Instructor: "_What?"_ Me: _"Sir, Misfire Sir,"_ Instructor: _"Oh ... [pause] OK. Try it again now."_ 3.5" : *_SWOOSH!!!_* They had at one time in the past actually had a vehicle to shoot at but ... after thousands of rounds had been fired into it - there was nothing left of the vehicle but chunks of metal scattered about the impact area and being rescattered with every new round fired into it. My Instructor didn't let me aim - as there wasn't anything to actually aim at anyway and he didn't want to take to long - so he just pointed the tube at the impact area with his hands and told em to fire. .

We also see a Bazooka in Paul Verhoeven's Dutch defense promo film "Het Korps Mariniers" (1965). Made in the style of Terrence Young's James Bond films.

"Titles are canceled, we're running Currahee" 🤣🤣🤣🤣

3:01 love the title change

Another great video.

Great video as always! Kinda surprised I didn’t see footage from Battlefield V! Keep up the great work!

I don't have anything to add but I would like to say thank you that was a very informative video

Another great video. I bought some bazooka gum recently 😆

I would just like to applaud your many band of brothers references throughout the video 🤣

I'd like to see the Sterling SMG done next, just for its long association with the Star Wars films.

Excellent video

I love how you said the bazooka in the introduction

1:26 I was just watching a Macgyver episode and the "Pete" character referred to a LAW as a bazooka. I had to grit my teeth but knowing it's an accepted generic term for a rocket weapon makes me feel better

I heard that by the end of WWII the US was also using another portable AT, the M48 recoilless rifle, don't know if was made to substitute the Bazooka or it took another role, thing is that both got further development, the Bazooka with the superbazooka and the M48 with a larger warhead, I think 90mm, but don't remember the name, both were phase out with the M72 LAW and the Carl Gustav.

Good video work👍

Love the Hell Let Loose footage you used ha

In the SciFi movie "Them" there's a great scene of soldiers using a bazooka to attack the giant ants.

A side comment. One of the few places outside of Spain where the M 65 Instalaza was used was in Argentina. It was used in the South Atlantic war, but I don't remember seeing it in any of the few movies about that war. Greetings from Patagonia Argentina

04:00 Making Sobel proud 😂

Panzerschreck: Who are you? Bazooka: I am your father.

So, being Dutch I had to look up which slang it could have been. It was "bazuin", which is a trumpet, like in the book of Revelation. When someone is going around telling a story, often false, we use the expression "rond bazuinen"..."trumpeting around."

love your channel bro

I'm here early lol, just subbed. Thanks for the great content.

Watching this video reminds me of Ahoy’s video on rocket launchers. It kinda has similar style, but mainly focused in video games instead. I'll be honest with you all: after all these years, I would still prefer to watch Ahoy's videos because it seems to be 1 level higher than any other video on YT. Recommend to watch them before rebutting me.

the bazookas just the younger brother of the panzershrek (i know that the panzershrek was a copy of the bazooka) i just watched saving private Ryan i love when one of the soldiers yell panzershrek the other soldier chucks 4 grenades at the germans

Also Note that the Belgians improved the m9a1and m20a1b1 design to make their own Bazooka called the RL 83 and RL-100 Blindicide. which was the primary cold war Swiss shoulder fired AT Rocket launcher. plus how about 106mm M40 RCL. This gun was originally meant to replace M18 57mm and M20 75mm RCL in AT Role for ww2. but became a favorable Anti Armor weapon of the cold war.

7:00 Tough times for Hank Hill. He's been reduced to providing voiceovers for WWII training videos after the short success of King of the Hill.

Another good one Johnny!! Appreciate it my friend. I wonder if this is where Bazooka bubblegum got it’s name?

I'm surprised I never heard you refer to it as a stovepipe. Maybe I missed it, I was slightly distracted by my phone for a second. Anyways, I love this type of content and you present it very well. You earned a new sub.

ISTR bazookas we’re used in ‘Them’ to launch napalm or WP on the ant mound.

I learned something today, thanks to you.

KABOOM...nice one Johnny...check out SAS ,South Georgia Boating Club, fellow Birkonian and Tranmere Rovers fan, and old Anselmian,a real derring do book...Pen and Sword books..

Good job, Johnny!!

3:43 How did he fail to notice which side the sight was on?! He's right-handed, is holding that thing right-handed, and it's built in right-handed configuration anyway. I know, I know. It's done for comedic effect. See also that one scene in Commando.

I was awesome. The most incredible film I’ve seen of the history of the bazooka. Very very good. Digging up all these little known war films. Very nice touch.