Why a history teacher mounted six bazookas on a Piper Cub observation plane during WW2 — and officially destroyed 6 German tanks, including 2 Tigers. This World War 2 story reveals how Major Charles "Bazooka Charlie" Carpenter turned a 65-horsepower fabric-covered aircraft into a tank killer.
September 20, 1944. Major Charles Carpenter, artillery observation pilot with the Fourth Armored Division, crouched beside his L-4 Grasshopper at Arracourt, France. German Panther tanks were advancing through fog toward trapped American positions. Carpenter had bolted six M9 bazooka launchers to his wing struts and armed them with HEAT rockets. Every aviation manual said observation planes were unarmed reconnaissance aircraft. Fellow pilots, ground crews, and even ordnance specialists called it suicide.
They were all wrong.
What Carpenter discovered that morning wasn't about firepower. It was about altitude and angles in a way that contradicted everything the Army taught about bazookas. The fabric-covered Cub that everyone mocked became something German tank commanders learned to fear. By the time Combat Command A finished fighting at Arracourt, Wehrmacht forces had changed their standing orders about ignoring observation planes.
This technique spread unofficially through Fourth Armored Division pilots, though most abandoned it after experiencing the reality of diving into anti-aircraft fire. Carpenter didn't abandon it. The Germans gave him a nickname: der verrückte Major. The Mad Major. American soldiers just called him the man who proved Cubs could bite back.
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⚠️ Disclaimer: This is entertainment storytelling based on WW2 events from
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