Bangalore torpedo
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A Bangalore torpedo is an explosive charge placed on the end of a long, extendable, tube. It is used by combat engineers to clear obstacles that would otherwise require them to approach directly, possibly under fire. It is sometimes referred to (somewhat inaccurately) as a Bangalore mine or simply a Bangalore.
The Bangalore torpedo was first devised by Captain McClintock, of the British Army Bengal, Bombay and Madras Sappers and Miners at Bangalore, India, in 1912. He invented it as a means of exploding booby traps and barricades left over from the Boer and Russo-Japanese Wars. The Bangalore torpedo would be exploded over a mine without the engineer having to approach it by more than about ten feet (three meters).
By the time of World War I the Bangalore torpedo was primarily used for clearing barbed wire before an attack. It could be used while under fire, from a protected position in a trench. The torpedo was standardized to consist of a number of externally identical five-foot (1.5-meter) lengths of threaded pipe, one of which contained the explosive charge. The pipes would be screwed together using connecting sleeves to make a longer pipe of the required length, and a smooth nose cone would be screwed on the end to prevent snagging on the ground. It would then be pushed forward from a protected position and detonated, to clear a five foot (1.5 meter) wide hole through barbed wire.
The Bangalore torpedo was later adopted by the US Army as well during World War II, as the M1A1 Bangalore Torpedo. It was widely used by both the U.S. and Commonwealth forces, notably during D-Day. The use of a Bangalore Torpedo to clear a barbed wire barrier is depicted in the D-Day beach invasion scene in the movies Saving Private Ryan, The Longest Day, and The Big Red One. In the last film, screenwriter/director Samuel Fuller, a veteran of D-Day, expressed through the narrator his disdain for the inherent hazards of assembling and employing the weapon: "The Bangalore Torpedo was 50 feet long and packed with 85 pounds of TNT, and you assembled it along the way. I'd love to meet the asshole who invented it." In Michael Herr's "Dispatches," the Bangalore Torpedo is described as having been used by the North Vietnamese Army.
The Bangalore continues to be used today, in the little-changed M1A2 version, although primarily to breach wire obstacles, allowing soldiers to subsequently clear a path of mines using hand-emplaced demolitions, grappeling hooks, or other means. American combat engineers have also been known to construct similar, "field-expedient" versions of the bangalore by assembling segments of metal picket posts and filling the concave portion with C4. The C4 is then primed with detonating cord, and pickets are taped to each other to form what would be the pipe portion, which becomes the shrapnel that cuts the wire upon detonation. This method produces similar results to the standard issue bangalore, and can be assembled to the desired length by adding picket segments.
In the path-clearing role the new rocket-deployed Antipersonnel Obstacle Breaching System and the British RAMBS II rifle grenade breaching system, are starting to replace the Bangalore, due to their ease of use, effectiveness, and flexibility. These systems are similar to the towed Mine Clearing Line Charge(MICLIC), and towed Giant Viper, in their method of deployment(rocket-fired, carrying a line charge), yet they are capable of being carried by individual soldiers. The RAMBS II can clear a path 60 meters deep .6 meters wide, and the APOBS can clear a path 45 meters deep at .6 - 1.0 meters wide. It has been estimated that the Bangalore torpedo is only effective for clearing wire and mines up to 15 meters deep and 1 meter wide.
