The Pilot who strapped Bazookas to his Plane (World War II)

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plane world war ii 1944 major charles carpenter also known as bazooka charlie and the mad major was an american pilot of world war ii he was credited with eliminating at least six german tanks and several other armored vehicles during the 1944 campaign in western europe using bazookas the crazy thing was he destroyed all the vehicles while flying in his l4 grasshopper light reconnaissance airplane this highly unusual war hero was a history teacher in the moline illinois high school like many other patriots he joined the army in 1942 eager to do his bit in the war effort as a commission's second lieutenant he completed his flight training and was assigned to flying light observation aircraft such aircraft were designed to survey the battle area report enemy positions and spot targets for the artillery to fire at for this purpose carpenter was sent to general george s patton's third army group that was racing through france towards the german border along with his piper l4h grasshopper plane he was attached to the fourth armored division in addition to surveillance missions carpenter was also assigned as a private pilot to the divisional commander general john s wood carpenter accompanied his division along its entire campaign excelling in his duty however being his comrades eyes in the sky was not how he imagined fighting in the war charles carpenter was more of a daredevil and craving for action his impatience almost cost him his life on one occasion as he was driving in a jeep searching the area for landing fields german infantry surprised and attacked his unit carpenter didn't waste time he jumped on top of one of the m4 sherman tanks like a seasoned infantryman grabbed the 50 caliber machine gun and started shooting at the germans carpenter took command of the situation and shouted at his comrades to move forward and repel the enemy attack in the heat of battle carpenter ordered the sherman's gunner to shoot at one of the enemy vehicles as it turned out it was an allied sherman bulldozer tank luckily the only damage was a blown-off blade his superiors were not impressed by carpenter's exploits he was arrested and accused of recklessness and carrying out friendly fire and threatened with a court martial fortunately carpenter's case came to the attention of the third army's commander general patton patton appreciated the heroism of his fighting men and therefore had all charges dropped he also declared that the army needed more men who fought like charles carpenter major carpenter returned to his duties but was strictly forbidden to interfere with the ground forces again still itching to get stuck in he had no intention of spending the rest of the war without seeing more action against the germans at one point he heard that other pilots were mounting bazookas onto their light aircraft to attack and strafe enemy tanks on the ground so he did the same with the approval of the divisional headquarters carpenter took two m1a1 bazookas and mounted them onto the wings of a small l4h grasshopper the number quickly increased to six bazookas three on each wing each bazooka was wired back to the pilot's cockpit from where carpenter fired them by flipping switches on a console later the m1a1 launchers were replaced with more powerful m9s carpenter named his plane rosie the rocketer in tribute to rosie the riveter the symbol of women working in factories back in the states the m1a1 rocket launcher or bazooka fired a 2.36 inch m6 rocket which by the time of the 1944 campaign was pretty ineffective against the armor of most german tanks especially the tigers and panthers major carpenter however had an advantage of firing his m6 rockets from above aiming for the top of the turret which had significantly lighter protection carpenter's tactic was to dive his aircraft directly at the enemy tanks and fire his bazookas from a height of 300 feet or 100 meters he would then pull up his plane trying to escape the enemy's return fire as quickly as possible tactics proved to be very effective as he managed to destroy several armored vehicles as general wood's private pilot carpenter had a lot of spare time he used it for the search and destroy missions that earned him the nickname bazooka charlie the story of a flying menace with bazookas soon started spreading among the german army as well when a light plane with bazookas attached was spotted the germans would open fire with everything they had the problem with aircraft such as the l4h grasshopper was that they were very slow and as a result boost an easy target to enemy fire each mission therefore carried a lot of risks for carpenter many other pilots considered his actions to be almost suicidal and call him the mad major mad or not major charles carpenter did his best to help win the war he carried out his most notable mission on september 20th 1944 during the battle of our court part of the lorraine campaign a sudden attack by german panzer units got the support units of the fourth armored division pinned down and in danger of being completely overrun because of the dense fog they were denied air support still bazooka charlie went to the rescue when the fog cleared he located the german panzers and attacked them with his bazookas after firing all six of his rocket launchers he returned to base to refuel and reload them and made another attack he flew three combat sorties that day firing 16 rockets against german vehicles the result was that several armored vehicles and two panther tanks were knocked out the german panzers withdrew and the u.s armored support unit was relieved carpenter's heroism was endless on another occasion he destroyed an entire german column but instead of returning to base he landed his plane to inspect the damage that he had caused as he approached the smoking remains of the column he grabbed a rifle from a dead german and took six enemy soldiers prisoner [Music] in recognition of his gallantry major charles carpenter was promoted to lieutenant colonel and awarded the bronze star the air metal with oak leaf cluster and the silver star with oak leaf cluster unfortunately in early 1945 charles carpenter was diagnosed with hodgkin's disease and sent home doctors told him he would not live for more than two years carpenter returned home to his old job of teaching history being the fighter he was he would live on for another 21 years undisputedly charles carpenter was one of the most unusual and bravest warriors of world war ii in 2017 the dusty remains of rosie the rocketer were found in the ostarakesh luftwaffe museum aircraft museum in austria and purchased by the collings foundation who brought the plane back to the usa for restoration as it neared completion the final bit of artwork was painted on it by charles carpenter's granddaughter aaron you

Channel: Simple History

Views: 455,469

Rating: 4.9533415 out of 5

Keywords: simple history, animated history, educational, education, bazooka charlie, men of valor, ww2, crazy, madman, us hero, Major Charles Carpenter, L-4 Grasshopper, History teacher, observation aircraft, George S. Patton, M4 Sherman tank, Rosie the Rocketer, M6 rocket, battle of Arracourt, panzer units, Erin, Osterreichisches, Luftfahrtmuseum, General John S. Wood, hero, bazookas, M1A1 launchers, Moline, Illinois

Id: 1sFJ3Oe6R-M

Length: 9min 2sec (542 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 30 2021