Most effective portable anti-tank weapon of WWII ?

in the book Germans tanks of WW II by George Forty, he published some pics of germans tanks killed by the piat,one is a tiger and another is a hetzer

 

The PIAT isn´t described as a popular weapon in any source I´ve seen, but they all claim that it could knock out more or less any German tank. It had a maximum range of 370 yards, and an effective combat range of 110 yards. I haven´t found any information on its penetration capabilities though.

 

It could knock out Tigers according to my sources, but that's probably from the side or in ambush. Maybe even from a building and thus shooting into the top armour.

 

panzerfaust

Definitely the most influencial. The argument that it is inferior because of its limited range is ridiculous because all hand-held anti-tank weapons are short range, even the panzerschreck, bazookas, or anti-tank rifles.

Panzerfaus is easy to use (10 year old kid or an 80 y/o grandma can be trained in 5 minutes), it is highly portable and easily conceled, cheap and made for mass production. Its effectiveness is unquestioned as it can penetrate even the front armor of many tanks in WWII and definitely the side and rear armor of most WWII armored vehicles.

Sure it is one time throw away weapon, but who wants to drag along a bazooka or a panzershreck when running away from tanks that are shooting back.

 

that is a good point,but still it was like awaste of material for the German industries

 

Actualy, Panzerfausts were salvaged after battle and returned to German factories to be refitted with new rockets.

 

uupps, I change my mind,

 

when did the panzerfaust first see action?

 

Late 1943 I believe. It's day of glory is 1945 when it was responsible for no less than 11% of American tank casualties in the west.

 

Roel, do you happen to have the statisitics of what destroyed allied tanks most in '45? Because I for one would find that very interesting.

 

First deliveries of the Faustpatrone Kleine and Panzerfaust 30 were in August 1943 according to the little info I've got. Give them some time to get to the front, distribution and training and late 1943 looks pretty well on to me.

 

Personally I like the bazooka, however it had major shortcomings; but,mostly i think it was just too small.


(Also because i'm American i find it hard to believe that we could build anything but the best!)

 

No, but I'm guessing long-range AT guns.

 

After May 7th of 1945, the answer would be "friendly fire".

 

Actually, Operation Nordwind came well after the Ardennes offensive was underway. Hitler was trying to retake Strasbourg, among other things, by taking advantage of American preoccupation with the Bulge. He believed that this offensive could take advantage of a lack of immediately available reserves due to the Ardennes fighting.

 

ATRs

A couple of comments about anti-tank rifles.

The Japanese 20mm Type 97 was not automatic, but only semi-auto. I know someone who has translated the original handbook, and I have also examined a gun myself. There are two possible reasons for the widely-quoted full-auto mistake: one is that an auto aircraft cannon was developed from the gun, the other was that when one was test-fired in the USA, the sear failed so it fired off the whole mag in one burst. I wouldn't have liked to be the firer

I attach a couple of photos of anti-tank rifle ammo for you. The first one shows those with a calibre of less than 20mm; the first round is the 7.92x57 rifle round for comparison, while the last one on the right is the .50 BMG. These include some experimentals. The second pic shows 20+mm rounds;the first one is the .50 BMG

Anyone willing to guess?





Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website and discussion
forum

 

Hi mr. Willimas, welcome to the forum. Very good post by the way!

Oh, on Corp's post: I don't know how I was able to miss this question. Corp is right, after the Ardennes or actually during the aftermath of it the germans started operation Nordwind in the Alsace, on New Year's Eve of 1945. This wasn't even their last major counterattack, as an attack around Lake Balaton in Hungary was undertaken in early March 1945.

 

Re: ATRs

Hi Tony, and welcome to the forum. It was me who wrote that it was fully automatic. I based it on an article i found in a directory of weapons. I have no doubt whatsoever that you´re right though ( this isn´t the first mistake I´ve encountered in this directory ). In retrospect, it is rather amusing to read the article which even questions the functionality of having a fully automatic mode on the Type 97 ATR.

 

There was in fact one ATR with an auto option - the 20mm Solothurn S18-1100, which was otherwise similar to the S18-1000. Not sure that any saw service, though.

Tony Williams

 

Well, since no-one seems willing to try a guess, the cartridges in the photos are (from left to right):

Picture 1: 7.92x57 for scale, 7.92x78 (replica of Spanish ATR round, reputedly only one rifle made but used in Spanish Civil War), 7.92x107 Polish Maroszek, 7.92x94 German Panzerbusche, 13.2x92SR German Mauser M1918 (the original anti-tank rifle), 13.9x99B British .55" Boys, 12.7x108 Soviet (used briefly in the Sholoklov ATR), 14.5x114 Soviet PTRD/PTRS, 15.2x114 US .60" T17 experimental (tripod-mounted), 12.7x99 .50 Browning for scale.

Picture 2: 12.7x99 for scale, 20x72RB Oerlikon SSG, 20x105B Solothurn S18-100 series, 20x110RB Oerlikon SSG 36, 20x120 Madsen, 20x125 Japanese Type 97, 20x138B Solothurn S18-1000 and Finnish Lahti L39, 20x144R Bofors, 20x180R Carl Gustav m/42 recoilless, 24x139 Swiss Tb41. N.B. the Madsen, Bofors and Tb41 were mounted on low tripds rather than using bipods plus shoulder stocks.

Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website and Discussion forum