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I thought Goddard worked on liquid fuel rockets, hardly the same thing.
The anti-tank rockets are small solid fuel rockets, holding a shaped charge of TNT. The power of the shaped charge was discovered by a number of experimenters at about the same time. Basically, it is an explosive with a cone shaped depression and a means of detonating the explosive at an optimal distance from armor plate. The cone focuses the explosive charge and a great deal of force is concentrated in a small space, burning and blowing a hole in the armor. A metal liner increases the power, for reasons I don't understand. A light nose cone reduces air resistance and provides the proper stand off distance. Rotation reduces the effect, which is why shaped charges from rifled bores don't work well unless some means is used to prevent or slow rotation.
The projectile carrying the charge does not need high velocity, since the speed of the projectile has no bearing at all on the force of the explosion.
Jim
Jim
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