Most effective portable anti-tank weapon of WWII ?

Projectile Infantry Anti-Tank

We have been down this road before, see May 25th/26th 2004 on this thread.
(by a well respected old mate of mine!)

 

the best anti tank weapon no question the 88

 

portable

88? a portable anti tank weapon?

 

That would be weapon of choice for Sgt The Hulk that is

FNG

 

ah sorry portable
i would take the panzerschreck

 

Even if you meant non-portable you'd have to specify just which type of 88 you meant..

The Panzerschreck was in fact a highly effective 88mm rocket launcher, but why do you pick it as the best?

 

It's all objective anyway. I sure many a german swore at the uselessness of a panzerschreck as it bounced of a T-34, whilst 1000 miles away a para whooped it up at how good the piat is after knocking out a tiger

FNG

 

I would actualy be very shocked if a Panzerschrek rocket failed to defeat a T-34/XX at the ranges at which it was used.

 

Not half as shocked as the firer, but I bet it happened. All it requires is a poor shot, a glancing impact or numerous other factors.

FNG

 

If a PIAT only needs to be fired to re-cocking the weapon.....why not always have it cocked in the first place??
Saves a hard time in cocking this thing in battle and you got more time to fire...right?! :roll:

 

If the spring is constantly supressed, it will become loose, and ´might not fire at all. For comparison, the German Gewehr 43 magazine was to be empty when not in combat, for the same reason.

Christian

 

Point to note. the Panzerfaust was later adopted by the russians and became your every day RPG.

The Piat was not adopted by anybody if was really that good then it will have evolved into something better but it just became "extinct".

 

The problem with the PIAT was that its velocity was too low, which made its effective range too short: you get to get within 100m.

Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website and discussion forum

 

Wasn't the range of a panzerfaust 60 60 meters?

Weren't all the infantry AT weapons short range?

FNG

 

The original Panzerfaust was indeed bad, except for the humungous shaped charge warhead. But the postwar RCLs bore no relationship to this in performance terms.

The point is that the performance of the RCLs and the rockets could be improved, that of the PIAT could not. That's why it was abandoned postwar.

Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website and discussion forum

 

The only good side to the PIAT was that it could be fired in confined spaces (I believe).

 

Yes, because the jet shot out backwards by a rocket projectile when fired would incinerate a Bazooka/Panzerschreck/Panzerfaust operator in too confined a space. The spring-powered PIAT naturally didn't have this problem.

 

Errm...the PIAT wasn't spring-powered, it was fired by a small blank cartridge. The big spring was primarily there to absorb the recoil.

Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website and discussion forum

 

I'm sure I posted a link to a site stating that a while back.

Mind you, that still means that it was safer to fire in an enclosed space than a rocket.

 

I wasn't sure of it as I wrote it, thanks for the clarification.