US Army Air Force

Charles “Bazooka Charlie” Carpenter

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Charles “Bazooka Charlie” Carpenter was famous for his usage of this plane against tanks and armored vehicles. Armed with Bazookas, he was credited with the destruction of 14 tanks (Two Tigers), several armored vehicles, and killing dozens of German soldiers. Promoted to the rank of major in 1944, Carpenter was assigned to combat duty in France with the 1st Bombardment Division. Upon arrival he was assigned an L-4H and assigned to fly artillery support and reconnaissance missions in support of the U.S. 4th Armored Division, part of General George S. Patton’s U.S. Third Army. The Piper L-4H was a military version of the Piper J-3 Cub, a small fabric-covered, unarmored two-seat aircraft. Inspired by other L-4 pilots who had installed bazookas as anti-tank armament on their planes, Carpenter first attached two M1 rocket launchers (bazookas) to the underwing struts of his L-4H, which he named Rosie the Rocketer. After some experimenting, Carpenter would later add two more rocket launchers, then two more for a total of six bazookas, three mounted just above each set of lift struts per side, just outboard of the L-4’s jury struts. During the 1944 Allied offensive in France, Carpenter continually improved the armament on Rosie the Rocketer, eventually installing six improved type M9 bazookas using the new M6A3 HEAT rocket, which could penetrate 3.9 inches (99 mm) of armor plate at a 30° impact angle. Each trio of M9 launch tubes was mounted side-by-side atop a plate in the same general locations as the earlier M1 bazookas’ launch tubes had been mounted. Even the heaviest German tanks such as the Pzkpf Tiger Ausf. B or King Tiger, the Nazis’ most dangerous tank, used thinner 40 mm or 45 mm armor on the tops of their turrets and hull superstructure, which the M6A3 bazooka rocket warhead could easily penetrate. As before, a battery of three M9 launchers was installed side-by-side on each underwing strut of his L-4, with an overall weight (when loaded with rockets) of some 106 pounds, not counting the weight of the mounting brackets and firing controls. By using an electrical firing mechanism connected to pushbutton controls on a cockpit-mounted panel, Carpenter could fire his six rockets either individually or salvo all six at one time. He once told a reporter that his idea of fighting a war was to “attack, attack and then attack again.” Initially, Carpenter faced little return ground fire on his missions. German forces were normally reluctant to fire on the L-4 and similar light planes without offensive armament, as doing so would give away their position and cause the plane’s occupants to call in artillery fire or fighter-bomber support. Moreover, as long as the pilot, gas tank or engine was not hit, most small arms fire would not bring down an L-4, since the plane had such a light wing loading (an excess of wing and control surface area for its weight) of 7.5 pounds per square foot. However, as Carpenter’s bazooka attacks became more well known, German ground fire increased in intensity. Even German infantry would join in, attempting to down Carpenter’s L-4 with rifles and machine pistols. On one mission, as Carpenter banked steeply around a tall tree in order to get a bazooka shot at a German tank, German infantrymen opened up on him with machine pistols, forcing him to turn for cover behind another tree before escaping with several 9mm bullet holes in one wing. Carpenter told a Stars and Stripes correspondent that the “word must be getting around to watch out for Cubs with bazookas on them. Every time I show up now they shoot with everything they have. They never used to bother Cubs. Bazookas must be bothering them a bit.” One of Carpenter’s longest missions occurred on September 20, 1944 during the Battle of Arracourt near Nancy, France, when German armored forces launched a sudden tank attack on the headquarters component of the 4th Armored Division’s Combat Command A, in the process trapping or pinning down several 4th AD support units. Major Carpenter took to the air with his armed L-4, but owing to a heavy fog which obscured the ground below him, was unable to locate the enemy. Around noon, the fog began to lift, and Carpenter spotted a company of German Panther tanks and armored cars advancing towards Arracourt. Diving through a barrage of German ground fire in a continuing series of attacks against the German formation, Carpenter fired all of his bazooka rockets. Returning to base to reload, Carpenter flew two more sorties that afternoon, firing no fewer than sixteen bazooka rockets at the advancing enemy. Rosie the Rocketer was later credited with immobilizing two German tanks and several armored cars, while killing or wounding a dozen or more enemy soldiers. Carpenter’s attacks also forced the remaining Panther tanks in the formation to retreat, in the process enabling a trapped 4th Armored water point support crew, who had witnessed Carpenter’s actions that day, to escape capture and destruction. “Some people around here think I’m nuts,” Major Carpenter was quoted as saying, “but I just believe that if we’re going to fight a war we have to get on with it sixty minutes an hour and twenty-four hours a day.” The Associated Press reporter Wes Gallagher, in a 1945 article in Liberty Magazine, concluded that the major was “a legend in an outfit where reckless bravery is commonplace.” By war’s end, Major Carpenter had destroyed several German armored cars and knocked out 14 German tanks (he would be officially credited with six tanks destroyed, including two Tiger I tanks), and had also participated in several ground combat actions. Never having received as much as a scratch from enemy fire, he acquired still another nickname, “The Lucky Major”. In recognition of his achievements, Carpenter was promoted to lieutenant colonel and awarded the Silver Star with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Bronze Star, and the Air Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster. In 1945, Carpenter became seriously ill, and was honorably discharged from U.S. Army service in 1946. He returned to work as a history teacher at Urbana High School in Urbana, Illinois, where he worked until his death in 1966 at the age of 53. 75 years later, the Piper L-4H — nicknamed “Rosie the Rocketer” — has found its way to a rural garage near La Pine, where it’s being restored by a retired engineer. Carpenter’s daughter, Carol Apacki, knows her father’s story as well as anyone, but said she was surprised her father’s plane resurfaced. “It never occurred to me that the plane would still be in existence,” she said. The 76-year-old Apacki, who lives in Granville, Ohio, said she knew very little about her father’s war history growing up. She described him as a peaceful man who didn’t want to discuss the war often. “He had moved on, emotionally,” she said. “I think he came back from the war shattered, and it was a hard time for my mother, too, trying to start her life over again, waiting for four years for him to come home, thinking he never would.” Apacki said her father even got in hot water for challenging his military superiors about tactical decisions, as he was concerned about unnecessary losses of life. That’s why his media reputation seemed out of character. “I always adored my dad; he was a great man of peace,” she said. “So to be called ‘Bazooka Charlie’ and all these war monikers is not who I knew as my father.” Her father was a man who defied the odds. In 1945, Carpenter was discharged from the Army after being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease, and wasn’t given more than a couple years to live, Apacki said. But he lived until 1966, spending most of his remaining years teaching high school history in Urbana, Illinois, and running a summer camp in the Ozarks until he died at 52, Apacki said. Many years later, Apacki came across online discussion of her dad’s exploits with many believing the story of “Bazooka Charlie” was nothing more than a tall tale. Apacki knew otherwise and wanted to prove it to the world. Using old newspaper clippings and letters Carpenter sent home, Apacki eventually wrote an article for Warbirds Magazine in October 2017. After it was published, Apacki received a call from a researcher working with the Collings Foundation, a Massachusetts nonprofit that preserves historical American aviation and transportation artifacts. The foundation had tracked down “Rosie the Rocketer” in the Österreichisches Luftfahrtmuseum — that’s German for the Austrian Aviation Museum — near the Austrian city of Graz. Collings bought the plane and shipped it to a man who’s had plenty of experience with restoring classic planes: La Pine resident Colin Powers. “A lot of people don’t believe what (Carpenter) did; they don’t believe the story,” Powers said. “That’s why I’m so thrilled to be able to do this project, because of its history. So I’ve got to do it right.” The 83-year-old Powers, who said he’s always had a fascination with airplanes since growing up near Yosemite National Park during World War II, has had a longtime hobby of restoring airplanes. After retiring from 35 years as a mechanical engineer for Hewlett-Packard in Monmouth in 1997, he became the restoration director at the Evergreen Space & Aviation Museum in McMinnville, working on famous planes like the Spruce Goose, until he moved to a rural residence south of La Pine in 2009. Powers has restored two Piper L-4H planes, the first in 2001. He took that plane to the Dayton Air Show, where he met Apacki. That’s also when Apacki saw the kind of plane her father flew many years before. “She became very emotional, because she didn’t realize that he had no armor, no protection at all,” Powers said. “She never realized how vulnerable her father was, and what he did.” The pair have stayed in touch, working together on a display at the Evergreen Museum in 2009 displaying a Piper L-4H and Carpenter’s old military uniforms and newspaper clippings. During the restoration of “Rosie the Rocketer,” Powers has kept Apacki updated on his progress. One day, Powers found a bullet hole in the plane’s wing, and Apacki remembered her father writing in a letter, “My luck is still going, because I got shot at today, and it hit a steeple.” She said the project has created an emotional bond between the two. “Colin is such a lovely man,” Apacki said. “He cries when he talks to me. He’s so moved that we’re doing this together.” Powers’ plans for restoring the plane include structural fixes, like replacing wingtips and a carburetor airbox, placing new polyester fabric on the plane’s body and wings, and having Apacki’s daughter and a graphic designer, Erin Pata, who lives near Santa Barbara, repaint the original “Rosie the Rocketer” logo on the fabric. "She doesn’t want any other painters on her grandfather’s plane, so she’ll do it,” Apacki said. “Plus, the sentimental part of it is a good feeling.” Powers said the goal is to have “Rosie the Rocketer” in the air by summer 2020 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and he hopes to fly it. Apacki said she’ll be there, too, with grandchildren in tow. “We’ll make it a family affair.” taken from fb/History of WW2