panda124c
Posts: 1692
Joined: 5/23/2000 From: Houston, TX, USA Status: offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Bonzo:
Perhaps the plain Rocket M6 was H.E.(not likely), but is not listed in my 1944 Catalog except to say the M6A1 through A3 replaced it and it was obsolete.
The M6A1 has a 'pointed' nose and the modifications from the M6 are listed as:
Improved ignition, involving removal of the contact ring from th ogive,reduced powder charge and inserted obturator disc.
The M6A2 has the same modifications except that the contact ring was not removed from the ogive.
The M6A3was the same as the M6A1 except it had a hemispherical ogive and cylindrical fins.
There is also the White Phosphorus Smoke round, the WP Smoke Rocket M10 (formerly the T26E2) that is the same 2.36 diameter, and carried a 0.9 pound white Phosphorus filler. There is no mention of it being used in bazookas, but there is the comment that it was used for "laying down smoke screens and as an effective casualty producing weapon against enemy personel in pillboxes, foxholes, trenches, etc."
If there were a straight H.E. round, I would not expect its warhead to be larger than the 0.9 pound WP round.
You could compare it to the similarly sized 60mm mortar round. The M49A2 60mm H.E. Mortar round had an overall weight of 2.9 pounds with 0.34 pounds of TNT, compared with the 3.4 pound overall weight of the M6A1 Rocket with a 0.5 pound warhead. The Rocket should be heavier for a given warhead weight, due to the less efficient use of propellant by a rocket motor compared with the closed breach mortar.
[ July 12, 2001: Message edited by: Bonzo ]
According to the Ballintine Weapons series the Bazooka did not have an HE round because of the size, however there was a WP round for smoke and WP effect. I don't remember if there were any other details I'll have to check. One of the reasons given was the most desirable effect agains bunkers and building that the HEAT round had and the poor effectiveness of the HEAT round against personal.
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