Panzerschreck Pack A Punch

[Meinard Hartmann]

Afterall, the Panzerfaust 100 has 220mm of armor penetration, which that alone is pretty strong, but on top of that, its a lob shot weapon that can easily hit from a high angle to punch through armor on top of tanks. With it being a lob shot weapon, it is also considerably easy to land shots at pretty long ranges too. Lastly, you can still run with it in hand, making it easier to reposition with and flank your target when necessary.

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same ammo types.. I think you have a misunderstanding of them. They are pretty much all the same ammo- a HEAT round. Some, like the Faust 'could be' bigger, and hence a bigger bang and hence more penetration. Some were easier to aim than others, which helps with range. Each had its plusses and minuses.

PIAT, lauched by a big darn spring.

Shortest range of the bunch, but it could also be fired from inside buildings without provblems as it had no back blast. It also had the advantage of not giving their postion away so obviously by the bloom of the bacl blast like all the rockets types. Of course, having the nerve towait for your target to get so close is another story altogether.

Bazooka, the orginal came in 2.36 inch and was good for '42 and even '43 but started having problems with German armour after that due to increases in thickness, slope angles and the surprise effect being a bit done. I even read a book by James Gavin the CO of an airborne division that by '44 they paraded with the 2.36 for the newsreels, but then took Panzershrek into action instead.

The Panzerfaust was a rocket launched from a tube where the rest of the rocket overlapped the front of the tube. Think RPG but very primitive. They came in different models based on range of use. I think it was Panzerfaust 30, 60 and 100.

Late very end of the war saw developments of 150 and 250 evne with reusable launchers and wraps around the warhead for shrapnel effect, but the last two were very late.

The Panzershrek was essentiallly an upscaled copy development of the US bazooka. Reusable, hellacious backblast and good hole puncher. Like I said, even the Us airborne carried them into their fights at times.

The US 3.5 inch bazooka was the last development and matched if not besting the rest except of course that signature back blast of all the rocket types. Too late for general use in the second world war, it was used by nearly every western army, some right until the mid 1980s! It even had the afvantage of different types of ammo like dedicated HE or WP rounds too..

The German "Faustpatrons" of large calibers, although they did not produce a significant amount of fragments during the explosion, had a serious high-explosive effect. When firing at buildings, 1-3 shots were enough to make people in the affected room unfit for combat. Therefore, captured "Faustpatrons" were widely used in Soviet assault units in urban battles. There were official orders prescribing the collection and transfer of captured "Faustpatrons" to provide assault units. And there were even handicraft installations for salvo fire from "faustpatrons" in urban battles.

Hi Cuprum,

I seem to recall reading at some point in the past that, in the closing months of the war, the advancing Soviet army captured a factory or assembly plant manufacturing Faustpatrone and actually put it into production.

Hi! I have never seen any mention of the establishment of the production of German rocket-propelled grenade launchers for the Soviet army. In my opinion, there are two reasons for this: the first is the initial underestimation by the Soviet leadership of hand-held rocket weapons. After testing the bazooka, the USSR refused to supply this weapon, considering it to be an insufficiently effective anti-tank weapon (although these grenade launchers were still in service with the Red Army in small quantities, coming complete with amphibious vehicles). The second reason is the huge number of captured German grenade launchers. At this time, the Soviet leadership had already recognized the effectiveness of grenade launchers in urban battles, but considered it necessary to refine these weapons. What they did after the war with the help of German specialists.

In the meantime, these weapons have been used with great success by assault groups in the storming of cities. Here is a description of his actions during the assault on Danzig:

"During the assault, Soviet troops actively used captured anti-tank weapons: the Faustpatron and the Panzershrek rocket launcher. Captured Faustpatrons were ordered to be collected and handed over to the engineering services. But they were not intended to fight tanks. Most of the Faustpatrons were at the disposal of the assault sapper brigades (ShISbr), which used them as part of assault groups to suppress enemy firing points.Before the assault on Danzig, 30 assault groups were trained in the 1st SISBr.Each sapper assault group consisted of 4 attack aircraft and 4 flamethrowers (of which 2 reserve). With each of these assault groups, a group of "faustniks" of 4 sappers operated (a squad leader and three "faustniks", one of which had a special machine for salvo throwing). This machine was a domestic invention and allowed simultaneously throwing up to 10 faustpatrons. A group of "faustniks" was armed with 50-80 faustpatrons and machine guns.One tank or self-propelled guns was allocated for the transport of a sapper assault group, which also provided fire support. To storm especially difficult objects, demolition men were included in the group. 200 kg of explosives were allocated to the sappers' department. With the help of sewer hatches, which were used as reflectors, they staged directed explosions, and then, after pre-treatment of the hole with a flamethrower, they finished off the surviving Nazis. Hiding behind neighboring houses, sappers armed with faustpatrons made their way to the intended object and fired at the window where the enemy machine gun was installed. Others at this time threw grenades at windows and doors, from which the Nazis fired. If the enemy's resistance did not stop, one or two concentrated charges were placed under the walls of the building and an explosion was made. After that, the enemy garrison usually surrendered. If he continued to resist, the infantry threw grenades at the breach. During the first two days of the assault on the city, enemy resistance in 19 buildings was suppressed in this way. When fighting within the quarter, the importance of faustpatrons and flamethrowers increased, since under these conditions, the processing of assault targets by direct-fire artillery and tanks became almost impossible. And when the sappers-attack aircraft managed to get close to the object of the assault or the firing point at the distance of a shot from a flamethrower, the success of the assault was ensured, since flamethrowing in all cases forced the enemy to leave the defended object. Almost daily, assault groups fired 200-250 faustpatrons at the enemy. True, hits by faustpatrons were not always accurate enough, but the force of their explosion made it possible to eliminate enemy firing points equipped in buildings with two or three shots. The great opportunities provided by the weapons of the Red Army, rich trophies and the ability to use all this effectively made it possible to carry out the operation to capture Danzig.

Years ago in some Quarrie WW2 rules there were AP values for a PIAT in which its anti-armour performance declined with range. This seemed to make little sense for a HEAT weapon, but there was a thread here a few years ago on the PIAT which sort of explained it. Accounts of people who had used them were cited indicating that its velocity was so low you had to give it a lot of elevation for it to achieve its maximum range. As a result of being "lobbed", it would arrive at a glancing angle with adverse effects for its AP ability. It would try to penetrate the armour at an angle basically. So ole Quarrie was right after all.

These are the type of weapon where it's bemusing to me that they weren't thought of in 1916. Compared to an anti-tank rifle, both launcher and round are cheap to make. The principle of shaped charges had been known about for 20 years, so even without the all-important metal liner you could made a rocket launcher at that date that could have taken out those WW1 rhomboid tanks without difficulty.

It makes you wonder if tank development would have happened differently to how it did, had tanks been seen as horribly vulnerable to hand-held infantry weapons from the get go. AIUI, the early reservations around them related to their vulnerability to breakdown and bogging, rather than to infantry anti-tank fire.

There was a problem with the first type of fuze in the PIAT bomb, which lead troops to think they were firing duds when in fact the angle of impact was stopping detonation. A new (all ways? I'll have to check) replaced this and would detonate the bomb. There was a bit of PIAT propaganda in some 1944-45 publications, recommending increased training and familiarity by personnel to get over any preconceptions about it.

The Soviets did not manufacture pz Fausts.

They organise collection of unused German ones.

I wouldn't get too carried away with expectations there.

It was mostly specialised sov units in set piece late war situations would have them. At least in an organised fashion.

I have seen a short report on the US 17th Airborne Division being given a small number of recoilless rifles for use ahead of Varsity. I think it was 18 of the 57-mm type and two of the 75-mm version. As I recall the author was very much trying to dampen down reports that these were 'wonder weapons' and would shortly be displacing towed anti-tank guns as they were so effective. US Infantry Battalions would have had them for the invasion of Japan and I think a few were likewise provided for trials on Okinawa.

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