The Bazooka was an American unguided anti-tank missile launcher with a cumulative warhead from the Second World War and the post-war period. In the basic version (designation: M1), the weapon weighed 5.9 kilograms, was 137 centimeters long, and the effective range was up to 140 meters. The caliber of the weapon was 60 mm.
The first works on individual anti-tank weapons of the American infantry took place as early as 1933, but only the outbreak of World War II significantly accelerated them. The first copies of the bazooka were used during the fighting in North Africa in 1942, where they proved to be a useful and effective weapon. Over time, improved versions of the M1 model appeared: M1A1 (a model with a simplified structure, but with an improved electrical system) and the M9 and M9A1 (versions with better targeting devices and a reduction of the service to 1 soldier in the M9A1 version). After World War II, the bazooka was still being developed, which resulted in the M20 Super Bazooka with a caliber of 88.9 mm, with a new missile capable of penetrating armor up to 280 mm thick and significantly increased range. There was also the M20B1 model with a reduced mass aluminum launcher. The last versions of the bazooka were withdrawn from the US Army in the 1960s, and the M72 LAW launcher was adopted in their place.
The M1 Garand rifle is an American semi-automatic rifle from the interwar period, World War II and the post-war period. The first prototypes of the weapon were created in 1928, and mass production was carried out in the years 1934-1957. In total, about 5.5 million pieces of this weapon were created. The initial velocity of the projectile fired from this weapon was up to 825 m / s, and the effective shot range was around 400 meters. The practical rate of fire, with a well-trained shooter, was about 30 rounds per minute. The weight of the unloaded weapon is 4.3 kilograms, and its total length was 1.1 meters.
The M1 rifle was developed by John Garand, after whom the weapon took its name. It was the first semi-automatic rifle, used on a mass scale in the US Army and replaced the Springfield M1903 bolt-action rifle as the basic armament of an infantry soldier, which in turn was modeled on the German Gewehr 98 rifle. The weapon was initially adopted by soldiers and officers with considerable reserve, but in During World War II, it showed its many advantages - most of all, high reliability, a much better rate of fire compared to repeating rifles, and was generally considered a highly successful design. There were also numerous specialized versions - mainly M1C and M1D, which were intended for sharpshooters. The M1 Garand rifle played a major role during World War II and the Korean War (1950-1953) as the primary weapon of the US Army and US Marine Corps. It was replaced only in 1957 by the M14 rifle.