Edward Uhl
Encyclopedia
Edward Uhl was a United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

 Ordnance Officer who helped to develop the M1 portable rocket launcher, known as the bazooka
Bazooka
Bazooka is the common name for a man-portable recoilless rocket antitank weapon, widely fielded by the U.S. Army. Also referred to as the "Stovepipe", the innovative bazooka was amongst the first-generation of rocket propelled anti-tank weapons used in infantry combat...

.

He was born in New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

 and graduated in engineering at Lehigh University
Lehigh University
Lehigh University is a private, co-educational university located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in the Lehigh Valley region of the United States. It was established in 1865 by Asa Packer as a four-year technical school, but has grown to include studies in a wide variety of disciplines...

, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Bethlehem is a city in Lehigh and Northampton Counties in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 74,982, making it the seventh largest city in Pennsylvania, after Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie,...

 in 1940. He enlisted in the US Army in 1941 and was commissioned into the Ordnance Corps.

In 1942 whilst working at the headquarters of the corps in Washington with the rank of lieutenant he was tasked with utilizing the M10 shaped charge as an anti-tank weapon for use by the infantry
Infantry
Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...

. It was too heavy for a hand grenade so Uhl used a piece of scrap metal tubing to create a simple recoil
Recoil
Recoil is the backward momentum of a gun when it is discharged. In technical terms, the recoil caused by the gun exactly balances the forward momentum of the projectile and exhaust gasses, according to Newton's third law...

less rocket launcher to propel the charge. According to Uhl,

"I was walking by this scrap pile, and there was a tube that ... happened to be the same size as the grenade that we were turning into a rocket. I said, That's the answer! Put the tube on a soldier's shoulder with the rocket inside, and away it goes."


By launching from the shoulder the danger of burns to the face of the operator was avoided. In 1942 the new weapon was deployed to North Africa and it was later used effectively against German tanks in the Normandy Campaign
Normandy Campaign
The Battle of Normandy or Normandy Campaign includes the following:* Operation Overlord - The Western Allied campaign in France from June 6 - August 25, 1944...

.

Uhl rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel and after his military service he worked for the Glenn L. Martin Company
Glenn L. Martin Company
The Glenn L. Martin Company was an American aircraft and aerospace manufacturing company that was founded by the aviation pioneer Glenn L. Martin. The Martin Company produced many important aircraft for the defense of the United States and its allies, especially during World War II and the Cold War...

 and Martin Marietta
Martin Marietta
Martin Marietta Corporation was an American company founded in 1961 through the merger of The Martin Company and American-Marietta Corporation. The combined company became a leader in chemicals, aerospace, and electronics. In 1995, it merged with Lockheed Corporation to form Lockheed Martin. The...

 on guided missiles projects and became vice-president of engineering. He was then president of the Fairchild Engine and Airplane company before his retirement in 1985. He died aged 92 of heart failure.

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