How many penetrations with a bazooka/panzershreck/panzerfaust did it generally take

to disable a tank? I've read accounts of enemy tanks that needed several penetrations to fully disable the machine.

 

Hmmm. Well, I'm currently reading Phil Nordyke's Four Stars of Valor about the 505th PIR, and I'm on the chapter about Normandy. During the attacks on a bridge held by A Company and associated stragglers, two bazooka teams and a 57mm anti-tank gun took several minutes to even disable a single Panzer - I believe it was a Mark III or IV. Their combined fire damaged it and tore a tread off, but it was only a chap running up and chucking a grenade through the hatch that finished it off.

Earlier in the book, an account of a 505th PIR bazooka team in Sicily managed to take on and knock out several panzers with just a few shots, so it seems to vary. The same with the PIAT really, and I would guess the German versions - the closer the better. 1st Airborne used a few PIATs to good use during Arnhem in street-fighting conditions.

 

I think it all depends on where you hit the target. If you shoot a bazooka into the frontal armor of a panzer, its gonna take more than one shot to kill the tank. But if you hit the tank in the fuel tanks, then it might just blow up on the first shot. Another factor is armor thickness. Its much easier to knock out a thinly-armored Sherman than a Jagdtiger

 

The Bazooka and PZshreck were both largely equal in penetration and could destroy a tank in 2-4 shots if 2 shots penetrate with success. The Panzerfaust could usually destroy in 1 hit as it had the ability to penetrate up to the thickest tanks(200mm armour)

 

A minor correction: the panzerschrek was superior to the bazooka in terms of penetration. The later 3.5-inch bazooka used in the Korean War was equivalent in penetration to the panzerschrek.

I'm not sure about accuracy, though.

 

From what I know they were fairly accurate, the Panzerfaust was accurate to 120 Meters at the maximum. BAzooka and Panzerschreck figures I am not sure of, but I recon they are about the same, if not slightly higher. Far shorter range than a rifle, obviously though.

 

It might take one or numerous rounds of HEAT to defeat an armored threat, depending on the location of the hits and the contingencies of secondary effects that defy prediction. A panzersfaust might penetrate glacis armor and hit nothing, or blow up the tank completely.

Also, all man-portable antitank weapons have horrible accuracy and it is best to fire at the closest range possible because a miss is usually promptly awarded with a round of HE and a long burst of machine-gun fire. Highly unhealthy for someone wrapped in cloth and less than 200 meters from the tank.

I have read at least one assessment of bazooka-type weaponry by the US Army that states it was basically a suicide weapon used by veteran NCOs, the only ones with balls enough to wield it.

 

But it was generally required to separate the supporting infantry from the tank first, right?

 

Yes, but a savvy defender would also have his automatic weapons sited to cover his bazooka teams. Armor is the critical part of the problem, as everything else can be neutralized by regular infantry weapons but if the armor escapes, the attacker keeps his trump card and can destroy you. The wrost thing that can happn to a tank hunter team after destroying the enemy AFV is to die knowing it died saving the day. If it failed, everyone dies and/or fail.

 

I can see how that's a huge problem. Having LMGs cover the tank hunters could expose the support weapons to the tank itself..

The formation of Tank hunter teams was generally ad hoc, right?

 

Dont have it on my shelf now, but recall a description from a battalion XO of two US tanks hit by Panzer Faust type weapons. Supervising the cleanup and recovery of a battlefield the Major found one tank severely damaged from internal fire. The interior was so badly melted he could only recognize the breach block of the main gun. The other tank had no damage except the small 2-3 cm hole where the shaped charge had burned through the side of the turret. The radios were still operating when he inspected the tank. The crew had abandoned the vehical when the shaped charge burned through and subsequently evacuated with the wounded. Both tanks were hit in the same general area on the same side of the turret.

 

The Panzerfaust was good to between 30 and 60 meters at most depending on model. For the most part it was only capable of firing to about 30 meters. The panzerwurfmine could easily be tossed that far which is why panzerknacker generally prefered it. The Panzerschrek could fire to about 100 - 150 meters while the US bazooka was capable of being fired to 500 to 600 yards. The PIAT could fire to about 100 yards but could not be fired pointing down like from an upper storey of a building (the bomb would fall out).
The US, British, and German antitank rifle grenades could all be fired to about 100 yards.

As for knocking tanks out: This is a function of the thickness of the armor and where the tank is hit. Hitting ammunition and setting it on fire is a certain kill. This is why the Sherman ended up with wet storage. The water put the ammunition out before it could burn and explode. The Jadgtiger was particularly vulnerable to ammunition damage as it used two part ammunition. The cases being open ended could be ignited by virtually any spark in the fighting compartment.
The more of the blast and jet from a HEAT round that entered the tank made a difference too. Thinner armor meant more blast and heat inside the tank. This could injure the crew as well as damage the vehicle itself. Fuel isn't a big danger comparatively. Unless the tank ruptured and spilled there would be insufficent air volume to ignite it.

Of the weapons listed at the top of this post I'd say the panzerfaust is the most suicidial. You have to get really close to a tank to use it effectively. That means exposing yourself at the last second. You might have to let the tank virtually overrun your hiding position. The blast and smoke of firing is almost certain to attract the attention of other tanks or enemy nearby when you fire.
That was the advantage of weapons like the US M9 rifle grenade or the panzerwurfmine. These left nearly zero firing signature and were deadly in use. Both represented no significant range decrease over alternatives available to the troops using them.

 

Tanks are a tough nut to crack. I think the US and Brittain were more concerned with the "Mobility Kill" or a "Fire Power Kill" whereas the Germans and the Russians developed weapons for the "Catastrophic Kill".

I would assume that the best dismounted infantry could hope to acheive, on a consistant basis with the available weapons, would be the Mobility Kill.

Wikipedia has summed it up nicely:

Anti-tank warfare - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

The bazooka was accurate up to 500-600 yards? I was always under the impression that the effective range was 100-200...nevermind. a source states 300, seems accurate.

Something of note: the panzerfaust weighed 13.5 lbs. The bazooka, in comparison, weighed around 12.75-15.5 lbs. How many panzerfausts was the average trooper supposed to carry (those things weigh a ton for a single shot)? At least it wasn't the PIAT, that thing weighs over 30 lbs...

 

Well, you can shoot at static targets at very long rang--in theory. The use of the bazooka in anti-tank combat was usually only successful when the enemy tank was static or moving at slow speeds.

As an engineer officer put it succintly to me: "To use a RPG-type weapon you need everything to go your way. The man in the tank has got all the advantages but you cannot make mistakes or afford bad luck."

IMHO, the Panzerfaust, ableit effective, is a last-ditch weapon. You can count on the sacrefice of your infantry squads to at least decelerate an armored advance or to turn them away. But it cannot stop a determined attack or destroy strong armor units. To do that, you need artillery, mines, anti-tank guns, fighter-bombers, or best of all tanks.

 

m-1 bazooka or the m-9 bazooka or the panzershreck/panzerfaust which is more effective.