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Bangalore torpedo
Bangalore torpedo in Batey ha-Osef museum, Israel.
Place of origin	UK
Service history
In service	1914-present
Used by	British Army, United States Army
Wars	World War I, World War II
Production history
Designer	Captain McClintock
Designed	1912
Specifications
Length	up to 15 metres in 1.5 m sections
Filling	TNT, C4

A Bangalore torpedo is an explosive charge placed on the end of a long, extendible tube. It is used by combat engineers to clear obstacles that would otherwise require them to approach directly, possibly under fire. It is sometimes colloquially referred to as a Bangalore mine, bangers or simply a Bangalore. Image File history File links Question_book-3. ... ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (1186x343, 39 KB) Summary Description: Bangalore torpedo antipersonnel mine clearing charge in Batey ha-Osef Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel. ... The British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British Armed Forces. ... The United States Army is the largest and oldest branch of the armed forces of the United States. ... “The Great War ” redirects here. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... 1912 (MCMXII) was a leap year starting on Monday in the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Tuesday in the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... R-phrases S-phrases Related Compounds Related compounds picric acid hexanitrobenzene Except where noted otherwise, data are given for materials in their standard state (at 25 Â°C, 100 kPa) Infobox disclaimer and references Trinitrotoluene (TNT) is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. ... Preparing C-4 explosive C-4 or Composition C-4 is a common variety of military plastic explosive. ... This article is concerned solely with chemical explosives. ... A US army combat engineer setting up a communications cable. ...

It has been estimated that the modern Bangalore torpedo is effective for clearing a path through wire and mines up to 15 metres long and 1 metre wide.^{[citation needed]}

Overview

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 sapper having to approach closer than about three metres (ten feet). The British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British Armed Forces. ... , For other uses, see Bangalore (disambiguation). ... This article is about an antipersonnel trap designed for use against humans. ... Combatants British Empire Orange Free State South African Republic Commanders Sir Redvers Buller Lord Kitchener Lord Roberts Paul Kruger Louis Botha Koos de la Rey Martinus Steyn Christiaan de Wet Casualties 6,000 - 7,000 (A further ~14,000 from disease) 6,000 - 8,000 (Unknown number from disease) Civilians... Combatants Russian Empire Principality of Montenegro [1] Empire of Japan Commanders Emperor Nicholas II Aleksey Kuropatkin Stepan Makarov â€  Emperor Meiji Oyama Iwao Heihachiro Togo The Russo–Japanese War (Japanese: Nichi-Ro Sensō, Russian: Russko-Yaponskaya Voyna, Chinese: RìézhànzhÄ“ng, February 10, 1904–September 5, 1905) was a conflict... “Minefield” redirects here. ... A sapper, in the sense first used by the French military, was one who sapped (undermined) anothers fortifications. ...

In World War I

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 1.5 metre (five foot) 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 1.5 metre (five foot) wide hole through barbed wire. An example of this technique can be seen in the silent film Wings, the 1927 film that received the Academy award for "Most Outstanding Production". “The Great War ” redirects here. ... Typical modern agricultural barbed wire. ... Trench warfare is a form of war in which both opposing armies have static lines of defense. ... Wings is a 1927 silent movie about World War I fighter pilots produced and released by Paramount Pictures. ...

In World War II

The Bangalore torpedo was later adopted by the U.S. 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 films Saving Private Ryan, The Longest Day, and The Big Red One as well as the games Medal of Honor: Allied Assault and The Big Red One. In The Big Red One, screenwriter and 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." The United States Army is the largest and oldest branch of the armed forces of the United States. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... Land on Normandy In military parlance, D-Day is a term often used to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. ... Saving Private Ryan is a 1998 Academy-Award-winning film set in World War II, directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Robert Rodat. ... The Longest Day is a 3-hour-long 1962 war film with a very large cast, based on the 1959 book The Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan, about D-Day, the invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944, during World War II. // The movie was adapted by Romain Gary, James... The Big Red One is a 1980 war film written and directed by Samuel Fuller. ... Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (MoH:AA) is a first-person shooter (FPS) computer game by Electronic Arts. ... The Big Red One is a 1980 war film written and directed by Samuel Fuller. ... Samuel Fuller (1987) Samuel Michael Fuller (August 12, 1912 – October 30, 1997) was an American film director. ... R-phrases S-phrases Related Compounds Related compounds picric acid hexanitrobenzene Except where noted otherwise, data are given for materials in their standard state (at 25 Â°C, 100 kPa) Infobox disclaimer and references Trinitrotoluene (TNT) is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. ...

Post WWII development

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, grappling 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 explosive. The C4 is then primed with detonating cord, and pickets are taped to each other to make a long torpedo producing shrapnel that cuts the wire when detonated. This method produces similar results to the standard-issue Bangalore, and can be assembled to the desired length by adding picket segments. A soldier loading the hook. ... C4 or Composition C4 is a common variety of military plastic explosive. ...

The newest evolution of the Bangalore is the Bangalore Blade, an updated version made from lightweight aluminium and using shaped-charge technology to breach obstacles which the original Bangalore would have been unable to defeat. In a test detonation conducted on the television show Future Weapons, the Bangalore Blade blasted a gap roughly 5 metres wide in concertina wire, and also created a trench deep enough to detonate most nearby anti-personnel mines. The Bangalore Blade was developed in the United Kingdom by Alford Technologies and is intended for use with both standard army and Special Forces units that require a lightweight, easily-portable obstacle-clearing device. Sectioned HEAT round with the inner shaped charge visible 1:Aerodynamic cover 2: Empty room 3: Conical liner 4: Detonator 5: Explosive 6: Piezo-electric sensor A shaped charge is an explosive charge shaped to focus the effect of the explosives energy. ... Future Weapons is a television program series first shown on April 19, 2006 on Discovery Channel. ... A sketch of a typical concertina wire obstacle Concertina wire is a type of barbed wire or razor wire that is formed in large coils which can be expanded like a concertina. ... For other uses, see Special forces (disambiguation). ...

Other recent path-clearing devices

The U.S. Antipersonnel Obstacle Breaching System (APOBS) and the British RAMBS II rifle grenade breaching system are starting to replace the Bangalore for path-clearing due to their ease of use, effectiveness, and flexibility—they can clear a path several times longer than the Bangalore torpedo.^{[citation needed]} The Antipersonnel Obstacle Breaching System is an explosive line charge system that allows safe breaching through complex antipersonnel obstacles. ... Rapid anti-personnel minefield breaching system, RAMBS II: British rifle grenade obstacle-breaching and path-clearing weapons system which is starting to replace the Bangalore torpedo as it is easier to use, more effective, and more flexible. ... A rifle grenade is a form of grenade that utilizes a rifle as a launch mechanism to increase the effective range of the grenade. ...