Japanese Soldiers Were Terrified When They Saw 1,000 Steel Balls Wipe Out Their Banzai Charge

During the Pacific War, U.S. forces transformed the 37mm M3 anti-tank gun into a devastating "giant shotgun" by loading it with canister rounds that burst at the muzzle, hurling 122 steel balls in a deadly cone up to 250 yards. At battles like Guadalcanal's Tenaru River and Edson's Ridge, Marines used these weapons to shred tightly packed Japanese banzai charges, turning coordinated human-wave assaults into point-blank slaughter. The same brutal tactic was later employed at Saipan and other Pacific battles, where the 37mm guns tore "gaping holes" through massed Japanese troops during their final desperate attacks, breaking the back of what had been feared shock tactics. Subscribe for more untold stories of WW2!