A photo from the NARA. Caption reads: "Platoon Sgt. Fred G. Hipkin demonstrates the firing position of a Piat, British antitank weapon, weighing 35 lbs. It can be manned by a 1 or 2 man team. Mt. Trocchio area, Italy. "2nd Bn. London Irish rifles, 78th Div." Date: 25 March 1944. III-SC 189039, Credit NARA. PIAT - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Dave
From what I learned of PIAT in this forum and other places, the PIAT was a throughly nasty piece of crude weaponry, feared equally by those whom it was used against and those who used it. It's a spring loaded high explosive antitank projectile launcher. Totally quiet and having no signature, it was a dangerous weapon to face for tanks in built-up areas. On the other hand, it took sheer muscle power to load and was not the most reliable of weapons... "Nasty!" as Sapper put it.
The PIAT contrary to popular belief doesn't use the spring to propel the bomb (that was propellant charge) but to absorb the recoil from the propellant charge. The spring was designed to be re-cock from the recoil of the bomb but of course that didn't happen everytime.
Since the topic has been brought up i have always been curious about this odd English weapon and can anybody give any information on how effective it was in actual combat? Did the PIAT see alot of use?, was it accurate, to what range? what was it like to fire it (horrible recoil no doubt)? And if it hit a tank or a building or some other target, was it generally effective at destroying it, or was it usually innefective, or was the effect variable?
It was effective at very close ranges indeed, although it would seem less so than the Panzerfaust. It took a brave man to make effective use of it, which probably accounts for the fact that no less than 6 Victoria Crosses were awarded for actions in which PIATs were used. They were certainly effective against older types of German tank ( eg not Panthers or Tigers ) but were often nullified by armoured skirting. The PIAT was particularly valued at Arnhem were fighting was at very close quarters indeed, and it proved useful in house-to-house action. My favourite PIAT story concerns VC winner Fusilier Jefferson, who destroyed a Panzer IV in Italy by firing a PIAT from the hip. Barrack-room talk reckoned that he should have got the VC just for firing it from the hip......
It was issued one per platoon, with several more being available at company or battalion level, think battalion level. Muzzle velocity of 80 m/s, was on the low range in terms of loadable infantry AT weapons (Panzershrek for example was 110 m/s), but higher than the Panzerfaust weapons (45 m/s). Theoretically it recocked after firing, and from what I have read this could be expected MOST of the time, it depended on how hard the loader pressed into the weapon, a loose grip and it would not recock. If it did recock, it was very quick to load a round in, and a very quick rate of fire could be achieved, from training videos (and thus best case examples) you are looking at one round even two seconds which does blow the Bazooka and Panzerfaust out of the water with it taking well over ten seconds for each weapon to load. The lack of a rocket projective had a number of advantages, no smoke generated from firing, an ability to fire from confined spaces and inside buildings, and a very small report, allegely no louder than a rifle so it was difficult if not impossible to locate the PIAT during a battle. Disadvantages meant lower muzzle velocity, had to be cocked if it did not recock, recoil from spring etc. The HEAT charge for the weapon was an ineffecient design, despite being 89mm wide, similar to the Panzerfshreks round in size and 29mm bigger than the zooka round, it penetrated 75mm at 0 degrees originally, and a later round only improved to 100mm at 0 degrees. Part of this could be attributed to the lower quality of British explosives as the war progressed. Given the method of dilivery, the weapon could double as a mortar and was issued with both a High Exlosive round and White Phosphorous round for anti infantry work if armor was not expected. Heavy and awkward, it seems to have done its job fairly well all things considered, its design gave it certain advantages and disadvantages. Thats debatable, armored skirts are something which everyone "knows" works but no one has any proof or examples of them successfully defeating HEAT rounds. I personally have never heard of an example of them saving a tank. Factor in that the HEAT rounds were still early generation variants with their proper standoff ranges not taken into account, a premature explosion before the round strikes the armor potentially INCREASED the effectiveness of the rounds at certain distances, as HEAT rounds require some space to form the most effective explosive jet it can. Its important to remember modern day "slat armor" is not in any way similar to the side skirts on German tanks. Slat armor on modern vehicles DEFORMS the warhead, interrupting the formation of the explosive jet. German side skirts did not work in that way, nor was it ever designed to stop HEAT rounds. A post from another forum I visit
I think there's a statistic out there that PIATs accounted for something like 7% of tanks knocked out by the British during Normandy, so they were certainly effective and saw some use. (That's more than air support managed.) I don't know how that compares to the bazooka, though the panzerfaust accounted for more kills. Against tigers, you'd probably have to look for vulnerable spots, but tiger kills have been reported. (My favourite badass is a certain Major Caine.) Panthers are easy targets, since their side and rear armour is very weak.
Not sure about the bazooka, but "British Armor in the Normandy Campaing 1944" by John Buckly states that British losses to HEAT weapons were around 8% or so, so it does not appear much worse. Mines killed more, 15% if I recal, and of course direct tank/ATG-fire with 75%.
Which shows how easy it is to mythologize the PIAT - in fact, Major Robert Cain's Arnhem PIAT 'kill' was a StugIII ; he is credited with the later disabling of a Tiger II, but that was using a 6-pr A/T gun......
I have a copy of the 1943 training manual. It is only 20 pages long. I'll see if I can post it in the next few days. A few answers on the PIAT: The max range (officially) is 115 yards. The sights are set for 70 and 100 yards. You cannot fire the PIAT on a negative elevation. That is, firing it down on something like from a second or third storey of a building where you have to point it down will result in the bomb falling out of the tray. It is also suggested that you can use it up to 350 yards (I assume fired at a fairly high elevation) against houses and other fixed targets.
Excellent. You can email them to me if you wish. The higher the quality, the better the PDF will look.
