Were rounds fired by Bazookas, PIATs, Panzershreks

Those Panzershreck rounds are massive- certainly much larger than Bazooka rounds. The site says that they were about 7 and a half pounds each.

 

I've seen the photo of the wooden backpack in the past, but in my dear friends case they were transported from spot to spot in wooden or metal carrying cases, plus other field developments. the round was heavy and large as you say Wolfy what would be the best sense to transport, certainly not canvas bags and awkward for thes econd man to carry one in each hand while his K-98 was slung over his shgulder but that did happen frequently.

that 5,000,000 figure is puzzlesome to me as well and I wonder if this includes all the Panzerfaust heads minus the firing tubes available and given in the total figure for all Panzerfausts in one lump sum ?

I weighed my own Pz-Schreck at one time at over 23 pounds with shield, it may even be more that that

 

I don't know maybe Erich will be able to inform us.

It could be a standard unit. RPG7 rockets were carried in similar backpacks during the Iran-Iraq War but I have never seen Soviet back pack like this.

Photo 1 shows men marching to their embarkation point for D.Day the Bazooka man carries a closed bag this carries 8 rounds in protective tubes. The man in front carries a 4 round open bag. Which is the same or similar to the Rifle Grenade M9 bag.
View attachment 5501

Photo2 shows a closed bag emptied note the protective tubes.
View attachment 5500

Steve

 

These tank hunting expeditions seem not only highly dangerous, but certainly- from a commanders perspective, with variable results. So the Panzershreck teams could work well, or they could utterly collapse against the enemy, no matter how many were deployed?

 

Great photos. I see 38 rounds and two launchers- so it seems like the bazooka was liberally used against infantry.

 

razin/guys I can only speak of the experience of my friend on the Ost front first hand, he never saw nor issued to any of his Abteilung the wooden backpack. it indeed from my belief must be a late war idea.......maybe not. I actually asked him about this and he thought it was strange, and thought if the men were rushed to cover lying on their faces and then up running and diving to the ground that the rounds may get dis-lodged, falling off and hitting who knows what besides the other rounds. His mentions also included any vacant storage bins and wooden, metal cases and they would take pieces of destroyed wooden buildings, bust them in the sections and place them as dividers in the casings to act as buffers - as I said you had to have some ingeniuty at the front when supplies became very scarce - aka 1945. the rounds individually, one in each hand were also rushed to the firer in the heat of battle

 

I am also curious- were the Panzerfausts also liberally issued - by the truckload to every man as early as mid 44'?

 

in any way shape or form W ~, command cars, wooden peasant carts, whatever available in 45. Normandie there still was an existing transportation system of heavy transport rigs, halftracks, ampib.vehicles, Recon, so yes

 

I'll personalize this thread abit with a pic of my good friend that I have been mentioning and his wife, sorry kinda of a crummy pic due to the copying of the original. She thankfully is still with us. Helmuth served from Poland to the end times in Ost Preußia and his escape on one of the last ships to Denmark

 

Hi Erich
I don't have a problem with what you say about the photo, it's the first/only time I've seen anything like it I just came across it while I was looking for something else and thought I should post it, it might be a one off, a late war idea or could even be a fraud.

Steve

 

Steve

in reference to you photo depicted I found it and two other pics in the old Podzun-Pallus booklet on the Pz-fst and other AT weapons by Wolfgang Fleischer.

It states that wooden back carriers were to be carried by the troops for 5 Raketenpazerbüchse grenades(rockets), and that they were made by the troops in the field ............ interesting eh ?

also it appears that the holding metal clamps were in place for each rocket at the base of the head to the body so they would not come loose in transport ...........
from the pics it sure looks like a commercially made carrier

 

you mean one of those packs where the panzerhreck rockets stick out so you can just grab them out of the pack as they are needed

 

Wolfy, in fact there was a white phosphorus smoke rocket M10 that could be fired from the bazooka. Per The American Arsenal, p. 372 (editor: Ian Hogg),

The rocket carried about 0.9 pounds of WP and had an "official" range of 600 yards.

The HEAT round carried 0.5 pounds of Pentolite as compared to a 60-mm HE mortar shell that packed 0.34 pounds of TNT.

Cheers

BW

 

In my post #2 I said

this was wrong the carrier has only 3 rounds, each projectile weigh 7lbs about the same as the PzGr 54 rocket and of course the weapon is 34lbs

In addition to the A/T projectile (in a least 4 Marks) the Piat also had a HE and a WP projectile.

View attachment 5506
Piat carrier on steel transportation box

Thanks for the information a good selection of old books is essential. I thought the carrier may have been a home made piece of equipment, it does look well made,- possibly some-one came home to find the Dinning room table had disappeared.

Again thanks for the info, I came across it as I was looking for Russian flame throwers as I noticed a strange example in a documentary (The BBC ran the World at War again), it is remarkable what turns up when you're looking for other things.

Regards

Steve

 

the Piat team, present in Platoon HQ Section comprised of:
No.1 AT Team, Pte, PIAT, Colt 1911 automatic pistol or Webley
No.2 AT Team, Pte, L-E No.4 Mk.I, 100 rounds, 6 grenades PIAT in two three-round cardboard containers, 2 smoke grenades No.77

in almost every archive footage i've seen, the No.2 AT Team soldiers carries 2 three-round cardboard containers

regards