hoist by one's own petard

[James A. Landau]

For the record, a petard is not a "shaped charge."  The principal behind the shaped charge was discovered by Munro in the 1880's and, as far as I know, first used in World War II in rocket-propelled anti-tank missiles such as the British PIAT, the German Panzerfaust, and the US bazooka.




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