Bazooka Charlie

[Jack Cook]

Charles "Bazooka Charlie" Carpenter, a native of Edgington in southern Rock Island County, graduated from Rock Island High School and Centre College in Danville, Ky. He was teaching history at Moline High School when he joined the Army in 1942. File Photo Major Charles Carpenter with his plane, ``Rosie the Rocketeer,'' somewhere in France. His battlefield exploits in the tiny plane won him a variety of nicknames: ``Bazooka Charlie'', ``The Mad Major'' and ``Lucky Carpenter.''
In 1944, by then a major, he arrived in France, where his assignment was flying a Piper Cub on reconnaissance missions in front of the 4th Armoured Division of Gen. George Patton's Third Army. Ignoring regulations against arming the tiny recon planes, Major Carpenter attached six Bazooka launchers to the wings of ``Rosie the Rocketeer'' and began attacking German armour. Threatened with court-martial, he was saved that fate by Gen. Patton himself, who not only stopped the disciplinary proceedings but awarded the major a medal for bravery. Major Carpenter was soon known the world over. The Army newspaper, Stars and Stripes, featured him and his exploits several times, as did papers as far-flung as the New York Sun and the London Times. The Associated Press reporter Wes Gallagher, in a 1945 article in Liberty Magazine, said Major Carpenter was ``a legend in an outfit where reckless bravery is commonplace.'' He told Gallagher that his idea of fighting a war was ``to attack, attack and then attack again.'' By war's end, Major Carpenter had destroyed six German tanks, participated in several ground fights (he'd land on the battlefield and lend a hand), won a Silver Star and an Air Medal and been promoted to lieutenant colonel. Discharged from the Army after it was discovered he had Hodgkins Disease, he was given just two years to live. He made if for 20 years; he died in 1966 in Urbana, where he had taught school since the war's end. He is buried at Edgington Cemetery.
http://aeroweb.brooklyn.cuny.edu/specs/piper/l-4j.htm

[Obergrafeter]

Now that would make a great movie. Too bad nobody would go to see it but Wixers

I saw a really, really nicely restored L-4 at Oshkosh a couple of years ago done up as his airplane. I think about him often while occasionally tootling around in my buddy's J-3. That man had guts!

[Jack Cook]

That's probably Colin Powers L-4. He beat the FG-1D for the Rolls Royce trophy at Reno and won at Oshkosh also. It's now at Evergreen's museum.

[Wheels up]

What's that doodad in the back seat?? Looks like a commandeered Oxy bottle. That where the boys load the extra juice needed to get that "war emergency" bomb load airborne? Nothing like gobs of horsepower!

[The Inspector]

Thats the last guy you want to cut-off on final!

[fitzday]

WOW thanks Jack, those pictures are awesome.

[RyanShort1]

A lot of the L-4s had those converted oxygen bottles put in to give them extra range for the Channel crossing. I guess some of them may have been kept for extra range.

Ryan

[TAdan]

Thats a really great story. Thanks for sharing it with us Jack.

One bada$$ little L-bird!

[Django]

That's awesome. That WOULD make a great movie.

[Wheels up]

If that's Bazooka Charlie...here's Bazooka Joe!

[RickH]

Wheels, that's one classy hangar ! Thanks for the pics and the story, Jack.

[RyanShort1]

Ok, to stir the pot a little - here's a picture from Fighting Grasshoppers - which is one of the better L-bird books out there. It is of Maj. Carpenter with his aircraft.



Now the question I have is - was there more than one aircraft in his unit fitted out with the bazookas? Looks to me that this is a different bird than the one in Jack's pictures...
Also was reading a back issue of the ILPA newsletter and saw an article that indicated that there may have been a bazooka-armed OY-1 similarly equipped near Iwo Jima. The letter *said* that there were published photos of a FMO-4 OY-1 that had such an arrangement. Anyone know where I could find such information?

Ryan

[Dan K]

Ok, to stir the pot a little - here's a picture from Fighting Grasshoppers - which is one of the better L-bird books out there. It is of Maj. Carpenter with his aircraft.



Now the question I have is - was there more than one aircraft in his unit fitted out with the bazookas? Looks to me that this is a different bird than the one in Jack's pictures...
Also was reading a back issue of the ILPA newsletter and saw an article that indicated that there may have been a bazooka-armed OY-1 similarly equipped near Iwo Jima. The letter *said* that there were published photos of a FMO-4 OY-1 that had such an arrangement. Anyone know where I could find such information?

Ryan

Ryan, the answer is yes. Three pilots with the 4th Armored had L-4's modified this way.

Carpenter was credited with either 5 or 6 panzers destroyed, but apparently some evidence exists that suggests that other grasshopper pilots may have had many, many more panzer kills--as many as 30+

Check out the following links:

http://www.ww2f.com/weapons-wwii/12478- ... nters.html

http://www.combatreform.com/killerbees.htm

(scroll way, way down on second link for info on book Alone and Unarmed )