Chemistry PBL Section

What Were The Weapons of World War II?

Elliot A. Cantor

Period 2 Chemistry

5/20/14

What Were The Weapons of World War II?

The V-1 Rocket or Flying Bomb was used by the Nazis from 1944-1945 as an early form of what is now known as a cruise missile.  The V-1 was one of the first successful pulse-jet powered bombs ever used in war combat.  It was originally used to bomb Britain and terrorize the English people.  When many of the V-1 camps were taken over by the allies the ones that were left focused on other European countries like Belgium due to their lack of targets that were in range of the rockets.  

The V-2 Rocket, also known as Vengeance Weapon 2 was a weapon used by the Nazis used to attack allied cities to show the power of the Axis and as a form of retaliation for the Allies bombing Germany and other Axis occupations.  The V-2 was the first long range ballistic missile ever built and used, as well as the first man-made object to get to the fringes of Earth's atmosphere bordering space.  These killed about 9,000 people over all, and impacted the development of things from nuclear weapons to the space program that got the first man on the moon.     

The M2 Mortar was an infantry artillery support weapon that was developed by the Americans in the early 1920s that was able to be carried around and fired without requiring very much man power.  This mortar was able to fire multiple types of ammunition depending on the situation.  It could fire high explosive rounds which were effective against light infantry targets.  White phosphorous smoke shells which were used for signaling and screening, and lastly an illuminating round which was used to illuminate the battlefield during night combat.

 The Mk. 2 Fragmentation Grenade was created in 1918 by the Americans and was used all the way through the vietnam war.  It was used to clear bunkers and provide a safe way to kill enemies without getting into direct contact with them.  It worked by packing explosive mixtures inside of the grenades and so when they exploded it would cause the sharp metal in the casing and the explosive mixture to sail off in all directions at blazing hot temperatures.

The M1A1 Flamethrower was a portable flamethrower developed by the Americans at the start of 1940 due to the need to attack fortifications in the jungle area as the flames would burn away all the hiding spots for the Japanese and make the American advance much more simple and easy.  It was not used very often in the European fronts though.  Some of the later versions of the flamethrower used napalm which is a gelling agent with petroleum.  It is a combination of naphthenic acid and palmitic acid.  The M1A1 was also getting replaced by the M2 Flamethrower by 1943, which was really just an improvement, but was very large as it increased its effective range three-fold.        

   

The M1 Bazooka was an high explosive anti tank warhead used by infantry to combat tanks or other fortified locations that were out of grenade or other conventional explosive ranges.  Invented by the Americans and first used in combat in 1942.  It was only used for about a year as it was phased out as more advanced versions were created.  Also due to lack of instruction very view Bazookas were used in operations such as the landings in North Africa.  America also gave some Bazookas to Russians for their use against the Germans.  The Germans soon found the Bazookas from both the Russians and Americans and Reverse Engineered it and created their own version.     

Little Boy was the name for an atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945.  It converted only about 700 milligrams of matter into energy which in turn created an explosion the size of 16 kilotons of TNT.  It was created using uranium-235 as it was fissionable, so the atoms inside could be split easier.  The uranium came from the Democratic Republic of Congo, but from a privatized company owned by an American who already had a large amount of Uranium in New York ready to go.  More than 60,000 people were killed instantly from the bomb and about another 60,000 were injured, with even more to die from radiation.  

The Panzerfaust was a German anti-tank weapon used in World War II that could be operated by a single soldier and was used from 1943 to 1945.  It was extremely popular is the German military as it was very cheap to make and had a disposable launch tube, so none of the materials were very expensive.  Due to this it was very efficient in what it did.  It was created with a 50:50 mixture of hexogen explosives and TNT.   

The M1 Carbine was the standard issue weapon used by the US Military in WW II.  It was favorited by many people as it was lightweight, simple, and semi automatic so it was easy to be accurate with it.  It was first used in 1942 by Allied Soldiers in the European Front.  Many people liked it in the jungles in the pacific due to how compact and lightweight it was but people that were fighting often did not like it very much as many people have claimed it was very weak and required a large amount of shots to take down one person.  

The BM-8 Katyusha was a Soviet rocket artillery vehicle used to fire off large amounts of rockets and still be mobile.  These were put on stationary platforms, trains, boats, cars, trucks, and even on some tanks.  They were invented by Soviet Scientists in 1939 and were used until the end of the war in 1945.  By that time over 10,000 of them were built.  They were first used by the Soviet secret police and soon after by the entire military.  The were not built very often at first but later they were put into mass production due to how efficient and cheap they were to create.  They were one of the main reasons the Russians defended the Germans somewhat easily when they were invaded from the west.