When They Put Aircraft API Rounds in Thompson Guns — Japanese Called It Armor Fire

Описание: November 8th, 1943. 4:27 AM. One Sergeant. One Thompson submachine gun. A Japanese Type 95 tank closing in. Sergeant Jacob Marsh sat in the mud of Bougainville, facing a machine that should have been invincible against his .45 caliber rounds. But Marsh had something the Japanese never saw coming: a secret modification that turned a submachine gun into a tank-killer.

It started with Vincent Caldwell, a Marine armorer known as "The Tinkerer." While the Army said infantry couldn't punch through steel, Caldwell was busy breaking the laws of physics. He scavenged incendiary compounds from aircraft ammunition and machined hardened steel cores to fit inside a standard Thompson magazine. It was unauthorized, dangerous, and potentially lethal to the shooter.

The result was "Armor Fire." When Marsh pulled the trigger that morning, he didn't just hit the tank—he ignited it. Three rounds through the vision slit turned the interior into an 800-degree furnace. The Japanese had no answer for a weapon that defied every tactical rule. They began to fear the sound of the Thompson more than any artillery barrage.

Eight hundred rounds were hand-assembled in a jungle tent. No paperwork. No authorization. Just results. Even when the military bureaucracy launched an investigation to court-martial Caldwell, the evidence was undeniable. The "blue-striped" rounds were saving lives. Instead of a prison sentence, Caldwell was told to make thousands more.

This is the forgotten story of the men who refused to accept the impossible. A machinist from Pittsburgh and a Sergeant from Iowa who changed the face of jungle warfare with a blue stripe and a bit of chemistry. History might have buried the "Armor Fire," but the men who saw the tanks burn will never forget.

Watch until the end to see how one man’s defiance of doctrine saved an entire division.