# Is the D-Day Bangalore Torpedo scene in Big Red One actually accurate? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 9, 2022, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-d-day-bangalore-torpedo-scene-in-big-red-one-actually-accurate/965908 "2022-06-09T04:54:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2022, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-d-day-bangalore-torpedo-scene-in-big-red-one-actually-accurate/965908/1 "2022-06-09T04:54:53Z")
I ask mainly because it’s the only time I’ve ever seen a Bangalore torpedo deployed in this specific way, other movies a bangalore is just treated as a single explosive you place, whereas in Big Red One it’s treated like you have to assemble a bunch of pieces into one to make it work. Here’s the movies quote on it > “The Bangalore torpedo was 50 feet long and packed with 85 pounds of TNT and you assembled it along the way, by hand,” Zab says. “I’d love to meet the asshole who invented it.” For those curious [here’s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWUetKD6cWM) the [actual scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvpvQYO6RVM) depicted in the movie. As you can see in the second video the end of the bangalore is pointed directly at the barbed wire fence they intend to blow as if something is to shoot out of it, as opposed to it just being a single string of explosives. Could you string together multiple tubes of bangalore torpedoes, would that have actually been done on D-Day as opposed to just throwing a single section at the barbed wire? ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2022, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-d-day-bangalore-torpedo-scene-in-big-red-one-actually-accurate/965908/2 "2022-06-09T05:05:40Z")
> **[Bangalore torpedo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangalore_torpedo)** > > A Bangalore torpedo is an explosive charge placed within one or several connected tubes. It is used by combat engineers to clear obstacles that would otherwise require them to approach directly, possibly under fire. It is sometimes colloquially referred to as a "Bangalore mine", "banger" or simply "Bangalore" as well as a pole charge. > Per United States Army Field Manual 5-250 section 1-14, page 1-12 "b. Use. The primary use of the torpedo is clearing paths through wire obstacles and heavy unde... Says that there is one explosive section, and multiple inert extensions that can be screwed on to increase the reach. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2022, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-d-day-bangalore-torpedo-scene-in-big-red-one-actually-accurate/965908/3 "2022-06-09T05:15:14Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > {…} As you can see in the second video the end of the bangalore is pointed directly at the barbed wire fence they intend to blow as if something is to shoot out of it {…} I think it’s supposed to be depicting him struggling to get the mine deep enough, really all the way through, the obstacle. Blowing a hole in two-thirds of the concertina wire would have been just as effective as blowing none of it. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2022, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-d-day-bangalore-torpedo-scene-in-big-red-one-actually-accurate/965908/4 "2022-06-09T05:22:35Z")
They assemble and use a Bangalore on the beach in Saving Private Ryan. They’re pinned up against a dune and Tom Hanks starts yelling for “Bangalores” and they start passing pipes down the line. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2022, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-d-day-bangalore-torpedo-scene-in-big-red-one-actually-accurate/965908/5 "2022-06-09T05:29:33Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > {…} Bangalore on the beach in Saving Private Ryan {…} Spoilered 'cause head shots and shit, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlCItO2jEJw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlCItO2jEJw) ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2022, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-d-day-bangalore-torpedo-scene-in-big-red-one-actually-accurate/965908/6 "2022-06-09T09:39:58Z")
This may be of interest: > In 1912, Captain McClintock of the British Army of Bengal in India (in Bangalore, very precisely) developed this device: he imagined a metal cylindrical tube several meters long that could fit into other tubes in order Increase the area of ​​the explosion. Filled with explosives, these cylinders are introduced through the network of barbed wire: explosion, the metal casing breaks down into multiple fragments that destroy the wires and open a way of about three meters wide. > > The US military re-used this process in the early 1940s and produced a large-scale torpedo M1A1, known as bangalore, from the name of the city where the tube was designed by Captain McClintock. This torpedo consists of several cylinders (connectable to each other) 1.5 meters long and 5 centimeters in diameter each consisting of 3.85 kilograms of TNT. [https://www.dday-overlord.com/en/material/weaponry/bangalore-torpedo](https://www.dday-overlord.com/en/material/weaponry/bangalore-torpedo)