Bad News For Russian-Built Tanks In Korea-A New U.S. Shell

Wanganui Chronicle, 7 August 1950, Page 5

Bad News For Russian-Built Tanks In Korea-A New U.S. Shell

WASHINGTON, Aug. 5 (Rec. 6 pm).—Army ordnance officials said today they had “really bad news" for the North Koreans in Russian-built tanks. The first successful artillery shell version of the 3.5 in. post-war bazookas. a devastating “shaped charge" rocket, will be in action in Korea within a week. It will “kill any tank in the world as far as the gunner can see it and hit it." Shell experts said the 3.5 in. bazooka, which was thrown into the Korean campaign on July 20 was “bad news,” but the new shell had ,n easy combat range of 1000 yards, compared with the bazooka’s range < f-100 yards or less. The shell, in addition, possessed an tillery shell’s inherent advantage of igh velocity and accuracy over long distances that was completely lackig in the slow-firing bazooka rocket. Experts said it was planned to use the deadly shaped charge shell only

in combat emergencies, rather than as a standard projective, partly because the new shells could be in scarce supply until real production was achieved and partly because they would be needed only for use against tanks and other targets that, had proved hard to knock out with conventional ammunition. The new shell, at least in its original combat form, was designed for use in 90-millimetre guns, the main weapon mounted by Pershing tanks that recently reached Korea. Experts said it would make them master of any tank built. The New York “Herald-Tribune” says the new shell’s amazing armourpiercing qualities—said to be between 11 and 12 inches of steel—were attained from the fact that its “form focusses the force of the explosive it carries in almost a pinpoint beam, much as a reflector focusses the beams of light.”