Bangalore Torpedo
Bangalore torpedoes are a simple explosive device used for clearing booby traps and light obstacles such as barricades and barbed wire. Named after a town in India they were originally invented at the time of the British Empires conquest of India. The torpedo is man portable and consists of three different sections, a nose which is smoothly shaped for penetrating obstacles, empty sections of piping to give the device the required length and explosive sections normally filled with an explosive such as TNT. Each section apart from the nose is normally about 6ft long with a 3" diameter. Bangalore Torpedoes were widely used in both World Wars , most famously during the D Day landings to clear obstacles from the beaches as seen in the films Saving Private Ryan and the Longest Day. The communist forces also used Bangalore's in the Vietnam War and similar devices are still used today, being portable, simple and easy to use.
How to cite this article: Dugdale-Pointon, TDP. (23 February 2003), Bangalore Torpedo, http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_bangalore.html