
523
18
Shaped Charges
Although shaped charges can trace their origin to the early 1900s (and some authors
suggest even further back), it was not until the Second World War that their use prolifer-
ated. Monroe in the United States and von Foerster and von Neumann in Europe discov-
ered that a hollow charge, i.e., a block of explosive with a cavity on the target side, caused a
deeper penetration than a similar charge that had no cavity. About the time of the Second
World War, the combatants determined that if they lined this cavity with a metal and
pulled the charge back from the surface, they achieved an even deeper penetration. The
penetration ...