Raketenwerfer 43 'Puppchen': German Over-Engineering At Its Finest
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.ย. 2024
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The Raketenwerfer 43, affectionately known by German troops as the "Puppchen" ("doll"), was an antitank rocket launcher introduced in 1943 to bolster the average infantryman's anti-armour capability. Built like a miniature artillery piece complete with trail, wheels, and splinter shield, it fired a fin-stabilized, rocket-propelled shaped-charge warhead similar to that used in the RPzB 43 "Panzerschreck." Around 3,000 were produced before it was realized that the weapon was over-engineered and expensive for its role, and production was halted in favour of the cheaper Panzerschreck and Panzerfaust.
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Air density does not affect the round as much as the cold propellant. We have this problem on modern rockets and artillery. Propellant is less reactive the colder it gets. That's why there is a range table on the shield of the gun. We have exactly the same thing in the artillery: it's called a TFT. That's a tabular firing table.
Interesting! I had not considered that. Thank you so much for your insight :)
@@CanadianMacGyver both Panzer Shrek and Panzerfuaust had similar temperature related problems -. These weapons all had weather dependant range issues specially due to the huge temperature changes on the Russian front -neither being around during the north african campaign. The Panzer faust were actually stenciled with optimum temperature characteristics - sort of "use by date" and added to logistical nightmare of ensuring Panzer Faust and Shreks optimised for winter and Lapland service didn't end up in an Italian summer -although one of my uncles said an Italian summer wasn't that great in 1944.
Propellant variability was especially a problem in rockets (it also effected 15 cm Wurfegranate 41 (Nebel Werfers ) and others 28 and 32 cm Wurfkorper and 30 Wurfkorper 42 (again in tropicalised format) all used ethylene glycol di-nitrate sticks bunched around a standard Cellulite igniter stick, (a case of using what was available rather than optimum) and again Tropical and Russian winter use, manufacture was required -which again was burdensome logistically. However the Glycol nitrate mixtures produced a lot less smoke than comparative cordite based rockets such as US 4.5 inch and Soviet Katyusha rockets -The German manufactured a copy of the Soviet 82 mm rocket, and in particular the parallel SS weapon procurement produced in some numbers. Obviously the SS cared less about the tatctical advanage of not making smoke, something still apparent with fanatical actors on the batlefield, death cults have remarkabvle longevity.
There is also a downside with all RCLs which Germans were early adopters for FSG troops in particular, such as the 7.5 cm LG 40. Because they were open tubes Newtons law kicks in requiring a disproportunate amount of propelant to give a resonable range, that didn't bother the US very much but it was a problem for Germany and may have been some of the design criteria behind Pupchen -the closed breech allowed saving in propellant hence the shorter rocket. This may also had been the logic behind the British PIAT developed at time when manufacturing in UK was at a financial and logistic preimium -so also had to husband their resources -but not to the same extent as Germany.
Anyhow great videos. 🤍
Any particular reason warming of the propellant isn't practical? I suppose you could never know what temperate it really was whereas one at ambient temperature would be reliably and homogeneously the same as same as a dry bulb temperature.
@@Treblaine *Any particular reason warming of the propellant isn't practical?* For some reason the idea of applying heat to propellant brings up the possibility of very unhappy side effects. Left over propellant was burned at the firing location after training and it could melt sand into glass. *I suppose you could never know what temperate it really was* Strange, the US Army gave us a propellant thermometer with a probe that was stuck in the propellant and it worked just fine.
Woo
"This is a Raketenwerfer; it werfs raketen." My mother's Dutch. I still LOL'd. English is a Germanic language, after all, so yeah; makes sense.
I once saw a military vehicle… name… that was a complete description of its capabilities down to number of troops transported and number (and calibre) of mounted machine guns and that it could lay mines or tracks and even construct small bridges. And was armoured with a specific quality of plate.
As a noun.
That covered three novel-sized pages.
I am somewhat late to the comment party but nevertheless - first of all, great video (just recently discovered your channel and been binging quite a bit!). Now while I'm by no means an expert on this gun/rocket system I am german and I believe there was a bit of a potential misunderstanding when it comes to the Range Table in particular the "Haltepunkt". I might be wrong but I believe this rather refers to the (Vor)haltepunkt, vorhalten in this case referring to leading a target. The Range Table shows the target moving at different speeds with the distance of the Haltepunkt increasing with highers speeds. At the same time I'm sure they also tried to show where best to hit a T34 so I guess its a bit of both Worlds. Hope that gave some added insight into our sometimes complicated language :)
Yes, Haltepunkte in general means "point of aim". The top tank on the table has the word "Treffpunkte" in it. That fits more his interpretation as "stopping points".
So, aim at your Haltepunkte, hit your Treffpunkte. ;-) Even with gravity drop of the projectile and everything directly in the example. That is a very nice table, someone tool quite some effort to make it clear and understandable.
Temperature affects how fast the rocket motor burns - changing how much thrust it is generating
Late to the party but Haltepunkt in this regard does not literally mean stopping point as is more aim at that area point. It is still used in German hunting language and probably the armed forces.
Because halt means stop halten means holding. So the word for word translation would be holding point.
Though yes in this regard it would still equate to stopping the vehicle. I definitely see why there was a mix up because it is a very minute detail.
The video was amazing though! The video of the soldiers cruising around in the Goliath was gold.
PS, Sorry this is a tad off-topic, but I had the urge ? Just watched (after downloading, which is VERY rare on any YT vid for me) your video on submarine escape gear and I just have to say 'credit where credit is due'. I cannot fault your presentation in ANY way. It's so nice to sit back and know what's coming is worth watching. I only found your channel a short time ago, and already you are third from the top on the list. It will be No1. My only hope is that you don't put adverts in the middle, somehow I don't think you will. OK, back to the video above - take care and best regards.
It's an older meme, Sir, but it checks out. 😆
„Haltepunkt“ is rather translated to „Holding point“ than to „Stopping point“
As in “hold your sights here”?
So slightly different context than “hit this spot to stop the tank”
Germans made special winter ammunition for Panzeschreck. The rocket propellant fired at lets say -15 celsius, vs +30 celsius gives much less V0. Winter ammo was loaded hotter, to give roughly same performance as "normal" ammo.
This is the Raketen werfer. It werfs Raketen.
'nough said!
Temperature on the ranging placard would be for taking into effect the powder temperature of of the projectiles charge used for firing.
Stay strong Gilles
this is a Haltepunkt
it halts punkts
very blunt and to the point (pun intended)
stop with your bullshit attempts at "humor"
Great video. Nice that more people can now see this rare item.
Interesting weapon. Thank you for showing all the details and how it was used. Very informative 👍🏻
Nitrocelulose or black powder burn with significant different speed depending of its temperature. Different speed of burn means different ratio of gases produced and different velocity of shot influencing ballistic arc. Hence correction table for temp. Adjustment.
Great video thanx for sharing, I instantly subscribed after seeing how high quality your content is.
I would imagine the difference in temperature would also change the combustion rate of the propellant charge.
Haltepunkt should be translated as point of aim, literally the point where you hold the aiming point.
When I saw you had a new video up I was very happy. And it's as great and informative as ever. Wishing you the best!
The military: we have a captured piece of artillery with immense historic value.
Also the military: Let´s shoot some toilet paper rolls from that sucker.
LOL it never gets old.
I always thought it used the same ammunition as the Panzerschreck. If not, it's probably a bad idea. Soviet BMP-1 combat vehicles used the same ammunition as "hand" recoilless guns. Also, when firing a cannon in a combat vehicle, the firing range was greater (although it turned out to be a rather poor weapon). As for manually guiding the barrel to the target in this German invention, well, it was the same in some British tanks. ;)
Hey You Taught About a German Weapon I Never Even heard About
Thanks!
U.K. Great video as always, so glad I found your channel. Stay well.
Wheeling around on a Goliath while having flaming rolls of toilet paper fired at you? I have been missing out not going to war museum parties!
I'll have to call you out on this one. "Haltepunkt" does not mean "halt point", it means "aiming point". That chart gives you a lead angle to hit a moving target.
Yes, but the 37 mm Pak "door-knocker" had been very effective except against thick armor. It's not a surprise that a small field gun design would be tried.
It occurs to me this might have been a useful weapon for a small armored scout car since presumably it could be mounted in an enclosed turret, not that the German's still had such a thing by the time these were produced. I wouldn't want to take on tanks with such a thing but road blocks and light bunkers, sure.
To me that doesn’t sound over engineered at all, just designed for a specification that turned out unnecessary.
Nice. Liked and subbed on the spot.
I feel that Germany was on to something here. More complex is countered by no backblast and greater effective range. Those latter two were the primary difficulties with other systems. Something like this would be far better on an SPW, for example, than the PaK35/36 or SPzB. Same with use in fortifications, fixed defenses of any kind, and for airborne and mountain troops.
11:28 I would like to buy this Goliath that you speak about. I don’t have much money but I will gladly accept a donation. I will hold my breath until it arrives. Thanks in advance.
Great review
I liked this video.
If you want something weird, find one of these:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blacker_Bombard
Canada didn't need them, though a descendent of the Blacker Bombard was the Hedgehog anti-submarine mortar and the PIAT used the same spigot launching technology.
Can you do the Goliath?
We’re they that small ?
And to think that they laughed at the PIAT
Welcome back, buddy
Not ,werfs' but ,wirft' :-)
it werfs raketens
trust me
@@kleinweichkleinweich : Your german is not ,The yellow of the egg' :-)
In what way is its over-engenering? Gun shelds was the standard for most anti-tank guns. The weel is big and "primtive" becuse of lack of rubber. The "spade" and undercarriage look very conventional.
It's over engineered for a rocket propelled anti-tank weapon (you just need a tube like a bazooka as he says), not a standard artillery piece.
@@JohnyG29 Actually it allowed to use weapon from closed compartments.
The biggest problem is inadequate performance. 450 meters of range was badly needed against moving targets.