PIAT: Britain's Answer to the Anti-Tank Rifle Problem
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
- The British began World War Two with the Boys antitank rifle, but like all antitank rifles it rather quickly became obsolete. The replacement for it was adopted in 1942 as the PIAT - Projector, Infantry, Anti-Tank. This was a unique sort of weapon which fired a 3 pound (~1.35kg) hollow charge projectile using a combination of a massive spring and a firing charge much like a rifle grenade blank cartridge - a spigot mortar, really. The large (3.25", 83mm) projectile was able to defeat almost any tank that would be developed during the war, as it could burn through 3-4 inches of hardened armor. However, it had a terrifyingly short effective range - 110 yards on paper and more like 50 yards in practice.
The PIAT would recock itself upon firing, but the initial cocking was something like a crossbow, requiring the shooter to brace their feet on the buttplate and pull the body of the weapon upwards, compressing the 200 pound (90kg) mainspring. When fired, the weapon has a pretty harsh recoil, although it did not have any flash or backblast like the American Bazooka did. By the end of the war more 115,000 PIATs had been made, and they would serve the British military into the 1950s, when they were replaced with more traditional rocket launchers.
/ forgottenweapons
Cool Forgotten Weapons merch! shop.bbtv.com/c...
If you enjoy Forgotten Weapons, check out its sister channel, InRangeTV! / inrangetvshow
Such a British thing to do--develop a really effective shaped charge warhead and then shoot it at tanks with a damn spring
Good one. There is a HS football field near me. I was over one day and looked at distance from the 50 yard line to the goal posts. I tell you it takes brass balls and a moron who would get that close to a tank to shoot this thing since most tanks move with a squad of infantry for protection from anti-tank missiles..
@@hddun However, in close terrain - particularly built up areas - and from ambush it can be quite possible to get that close under cover. Especially if you have a machine gunner to force their supporting infantry to take cover (keeps the tank closed up as well)
Very funny
Shaped charges were instrumental in developing the implosion plutonium nuclear bomb.
@@hddun or maybe your just a shitbag
I wonder if there's going to be chrome plated future Ian talking about the history and mechanics of the FGM-148 Javelin and how we can bid on it at Rock Island's December of 2117 regional auction.
bladudemovies hopefully
Unfortunately, we might be dead by then. Unless we also got chrome plated. Then that would be cool.
"You had to be a very courageous man to use this. Luckily, Americans had plenty of them during WWIII.
If you want to protect your settlement from raiders with it, you can always place a bid here in Iantown, the safest place of Wasteland!"
@WrathMachinemy god your so wise , ,no shit Sherlock,,
*Does crunches while intensely saying future*
PIAT: For the times you can't crack open a cold panzer with the Boys anymore.
This is the best comment.
Underrated af
bravo
this is perfect
This is the only dad joke that is allowed.
A British officer disabled several tanks just after D-Day, by throwing PIAT charges at them, after the spring in his projector broke. He was decorated very highly for this action. He was, after the war, TV personality Jeremy Clarkson's Father in law.
That was in Operation Market Garden, aka A Bridge Too Far. Somewhat later on than D-Day. He also used a 2 inch mortar when his PIAT rounds ran out. This after being left for dead on a stretcher when a PIAT round prematurely detonated a few feet in front of him after glancing a wall. He lay there for a while and when his sight returned he got back up and went back to leading his men and knocking out tanks. He was awarded a VC for his actions as he helped hold the line against attack while the allied forces were awaiting rescue by the river. Apparently he did it all because he was so angry about his men getting killed and went nuts like someone protecting a younger sibling from a bully.
I think the whole documentary (hosted by Clarkson himself) is somewhere in youtube. Absolutely insane story.
I swear some people in WWII had both literally guts of steel to do stuff like that...and the luck of the gods to survive ;).
ex-father in law
Robert Henry Cain was awarded a VC... one of the things he did was attack German armour with a Piat at Arnhem... when he ran out of PIAT ammo he was seen hip-firing a mortar at tanks instead.
There's a Wikipedia page about him.
Senbei01 it's why I never understand why people write war fiction - there's more than enough amazing real life stories still to be told to write thousands of books.
First used in Sicily? PIAT vs. FIAT!
the french did, not the italians
It was only a gun carrier, not an anti-tank Vespa haha ! Even if I'm sure someone tried to fire from the scooter at some point
Isnt that what that one Marine did to cheat the Iran wargame that one time?
PIAT Vs FIAT
Which is more unreliable?
FIAT = Fix It Again Tony
Several years ago we were sitting outside the Cafe Gondree at Pegasus bridge on a D Day 6 th June anniversary . We were privileged to shake the hand that fired the most important shot on D Day . The soldier who fired the PIAT knocking out the lead tank which had come down the road to investigate the bridge attack . Was Sargent " Wagger " Thornton of the parachute regiment . One of Sgt Thornton's comrades also there at the time pointed across the road and said " Yer he fired the PIAT from that door way over there ". Sitting there in the June sunshine enjoying a beer It was hard to imagine the history changing drama that had taken place on that very spot .It was humbling to realize for a short time we were in the company of heroes .
According to Ambrose, who wrote the book about the attack on Pegasus bridge. That single shot with the PIAT was the most important of D Day.
The book i read said that he only had two projectiles for the piat and the first one worked (they didnt always) and seeing this the other tank or tanks withdrew .
@@itchycooable I believe the PIAT was often confused for a slightly more formidable weapon by the Germans. Louis Hagen describes it well in 'Arnhem Lift'.
Steve Branney that was an amazing book, I hoped they would make a TV adaptation like they did for some of his other work.
@@stevebranney8937 there a bunch of things that could have spelled doom for the Allies at Normandy. The biggest which is always ignored was the 82nd holding a causeway and bridge from German armor units trying to get to the beach. The casualties there were really high. The Germans counter attacked 7 times I think. If they broke thru, there goes 3 beaches, Utah, Juno, Gold...if I'm not mistaken. So 2 bridge heads needed to be held, not one. And those guys on both held, and we won. Lol
PIAT: the answer to the question " What shall we do with all these pieces of drainpipe and bedsprings? "
People at Nerf, take notes, you could use this same system to fire those old nerf footballs.
I would pay serious cash to see them attempt something like that.
A PIAT styled Nerf gun. I mean, we already have a bloody double barreled one and an RPG looking one. So why not?
This is the basic premise of the stomp rocket.
There was a Nerf rocket launcher that basically did this minus the blank
Ya but what use would a blaster like that be in Humans vs Zombies.
Robert Henry Cain won the VC at Arnhem using a PIAT. Wikipedia - 'On 20th September (1944) a Tiger tank approached the area held by his company and Major Cain went out alone to deal with it armed with a Piat. Taking up a position he held his fire until the tank was only 20 yards away when he opened up. The tank immediately halted and turned its guns on him, shooting away a corner of the house near where this officer was lying. Although wounded by machine gun bullets and falling masonry, Major Cain continued firing until he had scored several direct hits, immobilised the tank and supervised the bringing up of a 75 mm. howitzer which completely destroyed it. Only then would he consent to have his wounds dressed.'
Hiya buddy robert henry cain is Jeremy Clarkson farther in law, there was a fantastic documentary about him, presented by Jeremy Clarkson called Jeremy Clarkson: War Stories, you can find it on youtube
Thank you.
No probs buddy
This is a great overview of how a PIAT works. Amazed how many tanks this thing knocked out. A tool for brave soldier.
My grandfather used the PIAT during the Indonesian war. He got quite proficient and was nicknamed Petey. He said that the best spot to aim for was the gap between the hull and the turret. His confirmed count was 31 tanks.
So you're suggesting that your grandfather single-handedly destroyed one in six tanks deployed during the invasion?
my dad actually tested the piat as a volunteer. he was in the 48th highlanders. attached to the British 8th army. he said they were captured after using it but were freed quickly when the jerries were overrun . he was on the Bren thru most of his tour in Italy. had a shell around the house growing up.
This is, by far, the most interesting weapons related channel. Good work, sir.
"Bloop"
-Ian McCollum
I had never heard of the PIAT until yesterday, when I saw it in a short quoting the diary of one of the British paratroopers for D-Day. And not 24 hrs later, Ian delivers like a Boss.
if anyone wants to hear about the PIAT in action, check out Jeremy Clarkson's fascinating documentary on Major Cain who won what was described as the "finest Victoria Cross of the whole war" during the Battle of Arnhem. 1 man, a PIAT and multiple Tigers.
A better way to describe a spigot mortar is that it's an inside-out gun. The "bullet" is the spigot (or rod), the barrel fits around it and is part of the projectile and ends up going downrange. As heavy as the spring was, I don't think it contributed very much to the propulsive power used to send the bomb downrange.
“BRING UP THE PIAT!!”-first words in my brain when I saw this video in my recommended playlist...quickly followed by “puh-TOING!”
Make sure it’s within range.
Nice video, interresting firearm but I have one litte complain;
its a common mistake, but hollowcharges dont create molten metal to penetrate the armor, due to the speed the metal gets by the charge in the hollwocharge, its formed so fast that it doesnt get heated in time, its cold formed (dont know if thats the right word in english, in german it would be "kaltverformt"). That way its gets realy realy hard, just like hammering a sword to make it harder, and can penetrate the, in comparisson, soft armor quite easily.
Just a thing to add from a tank fan, I enjoyed your video like always, keep up the great work :-)
Agree!
My grandfather was a PIAT operator, he was a Gordon Highlander from 1943 to 1948, saw action from Sicily up to Essen in Germany where he was stationed from 1945 to 1848 as a motorcycle dispatch rider. He hated the PIAT.
Having seen some other videos on the subject since (in particular History in Firearms has a good one), seems Ian got the loading procedure a bit wrong. The spigot should definitely NOT be exposed when you put in the projectile (you should never try to slide it onto the spigot), and you don't load it from the front, you load it from the top: Pointy end goes forward through the ring, and you lower the rear onto it so that the guide ring at the rear of the projectile slots into the two plates around the spigot hole on the PIAT.
So this is basically an anti tank spring loaded firearm?
Damienov not really, Ian forgot to mention it's actually recoil Operated meaning after firing the first shot it will discharge and be ready to fire another round.
with a compressed gas booster.
watch to the end...
It's basically a gun-crossbow hybrid.
griz312 He mentions it
It was also very effective against reinforced static positions. Buildings , etc.
Another advantage of the PIAT is that it can be used in enclosed spaces, such as in urban warfare. No back blast so no worries about anyone behind you.
"You can watch these projectiles in the air just kinda go 'bloop'."
Stop trying to dazzle us with your complex military terminology, Ian.
I have seen one of these fired with a dummy round. It is....umm...interesting. I am just going to say, not exactly a weapon I would want to use in the field for a lot of reasons, ha. Also it always struck me as something I could put together in my basement with spare junk. I mean it is a big spring in a tube. Not exactly rocket science...literally.
You have to remember that the BEF left all its wepons in France after Dunkirk and Britain needed to equip and rebuild the army quickly as we were alone and faceing invasion . The piat was an adaption of another wepon (tripod mounted) and if it wasn't the best it was at least effective. This also can explain the STEN gun cheap and nasty but can be made by any factory that can stamp metal. The sticky bomb and the delay in putting the 6pounder (57mm) anti tankgun into production.
Cobbled together is very British. And from what I hear, they were rather more effective than bazookas.
But that;s what made it so great. It was incredibly simple, gave no puff of smoke etc that could reveal your position, and was also very quiet.
It looks cheap to make one reason I imagine it was chosen. Britain was desperate for cheap weapons like this and the STEN.
Sten's are great though, virtually silent.
Cheap doesnt always mean shitty. *Looks approvingly at Kalashnikov*
Jeffries worked for the Special Operations Executive during the war. The PIAT was essentially derived from a spigot mortar intended for sabotage and partisan ambushes. It was set up at the side of the road and triggered by a passing vehicle, which got an anti-tank round in the side. Churchill was very impressed by a live-fire demonstration of the device.
My Grandad trained on these in '45. He said it was dire, heavy as hell, and the spring recoil could break your shoulder.
A late friend of mine carried a scar on his back chin until the day he died. He received from a PIAT during a training accident. He turned his head as he pulled the trigger and the recoil knocked him right out of the slit trench and into the next week!
WTF is a back chin?
At the end of the war, my father a Canadian paratrooper.He never got overseas before the war ended. He and another fellow were #1 and #2 on the PIAT. They had finished Basic, Advanced Infantry and Airborne school. They were pretty fit. But they did not want to carry around the bombs and the heavy PIAT for an exercise they were on, so they took the bombs out of their storage containers and the spring and bolt out of the PIAT and hid them under their bunks. Since they were so lightly loaded they had an easy time of it during the exercise. During the exercise however, there was an airborne drop during which the PIAT bundle thundered in. It was bent like a "V". Of course this meant an investigation was launched as to why it thundered in and was quarantined in a hangar. My dear old Dad and his partner had to sneak into the hangar that night and place the nice straight spring and bolt beside the smashed PIAT. They never did get caught.
By the way, Smokey Smith spent a good portion of his life after the war in the New Westminster Legion telling his story to anyone who would by him a drink, according to my Dad.
I knew a man who had been a Canadian infantryman in WW2. He tole me an interesting story about a PIAT, that he took to fire at a stone barn in which was a German machine gun post. The round was a dud, and the result was that he was shot by a marksman, and ended his war.
all this reminds me of is the Nerf rocket launcher I had back in like 2006, i guess the british just thought it was Nerf or Nothing.
So the titan
If i recall correctly Field Marshal Slim described the use of the PIAT in an essay "What is Courage" The incident described won the user s VC
When someone describes your gun by saying "While terrifying to use, it was an effective anti-tank weapon" you may want to get your priorities straight
Right. I want one of those "pleasant to shoot" anti-tank guns.
@@soaringvulture "We didn't break the armour sir, but it made Nigel remember his sweetheart at home"
Sounds like they did get their priorities straight. "Effective anti-tank gun." Surely better than, "It was so lovely to use, but totally ineffective at any range," don't you think?
Like the panzerschreck with its mandatory blast proof clothing?
Hollow shaped charges do NOT burn through anything. They penetrate armor by plastic deformation caused by the liner in the charge being propelled into the armor by the explosive.
There're time moments,when seeing British firearms,leaves you with a firm comprehension,that those guys have built their guns against common sense,or reasonable perception of ergonomics and aesthetics on purpose :D
"Worked" you say :) Debatable,isn't it :D
Yes of course it's deliberate in order to give Johnny Foreigner a fighting chance , building super efficient weaponry is not very sporting . .
No time for aesthetics, just get it into production. The same applies to a lot of weapons developed in wartime. The panzerfaust was such a device, a recoiless smooth-bore with the warhead tacked onto a piece of broomstick, it caused quite a few casualties though.
With the ridiculously short range that ...thing had, the fighting chance Johny Foreigner was given at that time,might have been a bit too much of advantage :) Thank God the Brits were allies with Uncle Sam :)
The sten gun mark I comes to my mind...
"Hollow Core", I think you mean a shaped-charge/ HEAT (High Explosive, Anti-Tank).
"I know whats wrong with it. Its a PiAt. You know what PiAt stands for? Stands for 'Fix it again, Tony.' hehehe"
"you're thinking of a Fiat, Dale."
Ugh. I really have stuff to do today, but I messed around and watched a Forgotten Weapons video.... That was 3 hours ago and I have a playlist with 15 videos on it, it keeps growing with each one I watch.
there was a joke in those days, that stated just firing the piat qualified you for a victoria cross, ironicaly several that did use the piat got a victoria cross.
I saw one of these in the movie " A bridge too far" and when I saw it I thought it was a made-up bazooka cause the production didn't have enough money it was a good movie tho but when the showed a leopard 1 as a tiger I laughed so hard they even put boxes at it's turret to make it look like a tiger
Mike P that's adorable poor Leppard wants to look like his grandpa.
that Guy I suggest watching that scene
Saving Private Ryan had a good mock but most films just do not bother .Kelly's Heroes did Patton did not.
if I remember correctly, these were used with success by the team who landed at Pegasus Bridge on D-Day, although they got a bit bent by the rough glider landing!
In operation Overlord, Piats accounted for 7% of German tanks destroyed, that’s more than roving air patrols. It could be fired from a small room in a building due to its lack of back blast ( unlike the bazooka which had to be fired in the open ) and was used to destroy buildings in house to house fighting. It’s shaped charge warhead was capable of penetrating the armour of any German tank at time of its development and continued to be effective until the end of the war.
How powerfull was a blank charge? Because otherwise this thing looks as a great night time weapon.
As Ian said, strong enough to cock a 200 pound spring.
It's interesting question, because if it is strong enough to wind up the spring which in turn is strong enough to propel the missile, then it is also strong enough to propel the missile itself. So why bother with the spring in the first place?
zbyszanna to let the force of the spring being cocked and the grenade being shot out cancel each other? or at least reduce. otherwise you'd have 90kilos pushing on you shoulder
The blank is what lifts the projectile. The large moving mass is used to effectively spread the recoil out over a longer time period. You feel recoil as the weight fly's forward then the firing of the projectile stops the weight and reverses it's direction and you feel the recoil as the spring compresses again. Without the recoil reducing of the spring mechanism the guns recoil would literally cripple the shooter.
To give you an idea of the recoil force involved, it would be the equivalent of firing both barrels of a 16 pound double barreled .50bmg without a muzzle brake.
The original Blacker Bombard cartridge was a 20mm Madsen autocannon case filled half and half with black powder and cordite, the PIAT cartridge I think was significantly smaller, as the projectile was lighter. (British factories had a contract to produce Madsen ammunition, but this was canceled when Germany conquered Denmark, so Madsen cases were going spare.) I think the PIAT propellant cartridge was designed for the purpose rather than adapted from something that already existed. The spring did indeed cancel out some of the recoil. The spigot went into a long tube between the fins of the round, so nearly all the flash would have been absorbed and probably not visible from the front.
George Macdonald Fraser (the Author of the incredible Flashman Series) Used a PIAT in Burma during WW2.
It's worth looking up the Home Guard several improvised weapons. The Blacker Bombard is just one of them. The Fougasse is probably the nastiest, but hard to get on target.
but late replying I know, but check out the story of D-Day pegasus bridge. one of these stopped a whole tank division
Had a friend years ago who was trained in the Canadian Armed Forces to use this weapon (The PIAT). He was trained with this weapon to fight the Japanese in the Pacific in WW2. They didn't choose just anybody to train on this weapon, you had to be a big powerful kind of guy (women were not allowed as front line soldiers then). He told me that the odds were pretty good he'd never return. He was just about to board the train to go to the Pacific Coast when they announced the Japanese surrender. He said he was in shock when he heard the news because he now had his whole life ahead of him instead of the prospect of being another corpse somewhere in the Pacific. I can't imagine what that was like but he certainly had my respect.
At the fighting in Arnhem 2 VCs were awarded to soldiers who effectively fought separate lone battles against the German Panzer divisions using the PIAT. Although Major Cain eventually ran out of rounds for his PIAT and carried on firing a 2-inch mortar like a gun at the enemy. He survived. Sadly, the other VC, Lance-Sergeant Baskeyfield was killed.
Love your take on th8ngs, keep them coming Suri!
Has the big advantage (lacking back-blast) of being able to be fired from within confined spaces, such as buildings. Which also makes getting close to the tank easier, if they're driving up the street in urban areas and the infantry are positioned in the houses.
So the Brits basically did the Fatman irl and it is quite effective as a stealth rocket launcher
I’m pretty sure the PIAT scored one of, if not the first tank kill of D-Day. The Paras securing the bridges I believe fired one at an approaching tank column, and the lead tank exploded so violently that the rest turned away assuming because of how violent the explosion was, they must of had an unseen dug in, large anti tank gun.
Dear Ian, we need a PIAT on the range video!
Whoo hoo! Spring loaded potato chucker. Only just pressed play but so excited got to make innane comment.
My dad lanaded
@@brendankelly1055 wut
I remember seeing this weapon being used in the Movie "A bridge too far"
What else would you have had in your infantry platoon in 1943? Try using a Bazooka or Panzerfaust from inside a room (well done the IRA for firing an RPG7 from inside a van.......) or dropping smoke or a warhead over a wall with one of those. When you haven't got a crew served anti tank gun in place this will do the job. What it needed was a well trained and practised gunner. Despite tales of an awesome recoil (and it was fierce) it was less than a Boys. A big chap can fire a PIAT from the hip. Try that, or offhand with a Boys; or rather, don't. I knew some Poles who used them in the Netherlands and Germany and they thought the world of them and were always asking for more ammunition, using it as an anti tank weapon, mortar and field artillery all in one package and man portable fireable from cover.
Only thing it lacks is a bayonet socket.
Why you say well done to I.R.A.scum.
@@sandemike Go back nd read what I said then read up on the RPG7.
@@johnfisk811 I fired an RPG 7 in the Ukraine and was impressed much handier than the old 84.mm Carl Gustav.
@@sandemike Just don't do it inside a van.
I saw these things in "A Bridge Too Far" and always wondered what they were.
Not a lot of people know this but a PIAT was responsible for knocking out a tank that was about to retake Pegasus bridge i.e. quite possibly preventing the failure of the entire invasio.
Thanks so much! That was a brilliant short presentation. Very informative.
I think I see where Bethesda got their inspiration for the look of the fatman launcher!
that 1/2 moon shaped dial type sight at the rear was when you were firing 2" mortar rounds from a special adapter tray at the front, just like a mortar. For a true historical version of this weapon in action do a bit of research guys (all the commentors) as this weapon knocked out a lot of german armour in Europe, with one British soldier even firing from the hip & scoring a kill around D Day or Market Garden.
Looks like somthing thats fits in fallout
yeah cause the fat man was based on this
"You can watch these projectiles in the air kinda go BLUB" 😂
Given the imminent arrival of a large German tank, having a very effective tank killer to hand is worth putting up with recoil. One of these saved the Normandy landings on Pegasus bridge, even if it did nothing else in the war, it did enough. It had no backblast, flash, or tell-tale smoke trail, which meant you could fire multiple times without being seen and it was deadly in urban fighting. The projectile was much bigger than the bazooka version. It was far safer to use than the panzerfaust, and could be used for harassing fire as a mortar and as a bunker-buster. As far as being unpleasant to fire, there were lots of things unpleasant to shoot in that war, like a 50 calibre machine gun at 30,000ft, 200mph wind-blast and -50C for eight hours in a B17.
"Bloop"
Technical terminology.
A 100 yard effective range wouldn't be too bad under certain circumstances like in Jungle warfare or cities places where the PIAT gunner would be shooting from some cover , I mean 100 yards is the length of a football field and it would be difficult for the tank crew or supporting infantry to spot a PIAT gunner from that distance if they were partially hidden and the PIAT would be able to get the first shot off then retreat quickly before getting return fire from the enemy, especially since the PIAT did not leave a smoke trail like the Bazooka for the enemy to find where the shot came from,
A boy’s own anti-tank rifle. Beats the Hell out of a single-shot .22.
There was an officer, one Major Robert Henry Cain(VC TD, from the Isle of Man 🇮🇲), who was in the thick of it, at Arnhem(and other places too), and he stood out in the open, and at twenty yards, he took out tank/StuGIII with a PIAT, and he then beat back more armoured vehicles, and when he ran out of ammunition for the PIAT, he then picked up a 2” Mortar, and he fired it from his hip, to attack tanks/armoured vehicles and the rest of the nazis around him, “with great affect”..........
And most of this was done, after he was shot by a machine gun, and blown up by a near hit from a tank/StuGIII, which demolished the house he was standing by, and covered him in bits of the wall........
This near hit, also perforated his ear drum, and meant he had most of his uniform blown off, and because he did this and more, over a few days of hellish fighting, he was awarded the Victoria Cross, and the TD(which was alongside the VC at the start, denotes that he was in the Territorial Army(part time) for at least twenty years)..............
In keeping with British tradition of underestimating how fast something needs to go to be useful.
*Cough* Churchill series tanks, muzzle velocity of all anti tank and artillery cannons ever, the fire rate and muzzle velocity of the Sten gun, *Cough*
@ 0:25 The British did not start World War 2 with an anti tank rifle, the Germans started it when they invaded Poland! :~P
I seen someone test fire this on ytube, its surprising how far the warhead will go on a spring.
In fact, the Hollow Charge Projectile or HEAT (High Explosive Anti Tank) performed better when projectile speed is slow or decreased. Towards the end of WW2 scientists came up to a figure of 800m/s as the ultimate maximum speed for a hollow charge projectile - more precisely, a cumulative warhead with a copper linen funnel, and an explosive behind the "hollow charge", which during the explosion turned copper linen into a stream of molten copper particles with a speed of up to 10 - 14km/sec and a temperature of 1100-1200C°, (depending on the material from which the funnel is made). This temperature and jet speed were more than enough to pierce homogenous tank armor by KINETIC ENERGY during WW2, according Munroe and Neumann effects. Optimal speeds for "shape charge" projectiles or AT reckoiless rockets (Bazooka, Panzerschrek, Panzerfaust..) weapons, with a cumulative warhead, ranged between 400-800 meters. British tanks retained rifled cannons because of HESH projectiles, because fired from rifled barrel guns, a spin-stabilized HESH projectile, after hitting the target, would evenly and evenly distribute the explosives, whose shock wave after the explosion would tear off pieces of armor (scabs) from inside of the opponent's turret, thus creating an inside "armour pieces torn off due to the shock wave", which flew at high speed and inflicted mortal wounds to the crew or destroyed other systems in the tank, or breaks into more smaller shrapnels for killing or wounding an enemy crew. A HESH round fired from a smoothbore tank gun caused the explosives to be scattered and thus nullified the action of those favorite British anti-tank projectiles.
To add a few points.
Effective range of abiout 75 metres isnt that bad, most panzerfausts werent effective beyond 40metres even if the nominal range of the Panzerfaust 100 was 100 metres (obviously).
The advantage of the panzerfaust was its disposability and lightness, easy to carry, easy to launch then drop it and run away. The downside was that due it being mass produced in slave facories and being cardboard in many places reliability, build quality and accuracy were not guaranteed.
PIAT and bazooka have the same weight for the system, the difference is that Bazooka has a light tube and heavy rounds, PIAT had a heavy tube and light rounds, two men, one launcher and three rounds weigh about the same.
In early bazookas you had to load the rocket then wind out the electrode, connect them and then launch, it was slow to use and had worse armour penetration but better range. PIAT had automatic recocking so as fast as the assistant gunner could load rounds in the tray you could keep up constant fire.
This means quicker follow up shots if you miss and because of the flight arc and explosive content you could use it as a mortar against infantry behind obstacles. You shouldn't, thats what 2inch mortars were for but it was an option. The lack of back blast also meant you could get off follow up rounds, with Bazooka if you had any sense you relocated.
The downside of PIAT was the horrible weight of the launcher and its painful level of recoil, they basically worked out the maximum amount of recoil the average soldier could endure, knocked 10% off and went with that as the amount of projectile they could launch.
Which meant that while PIAT was a superior weapon from 1942 - 1944 the bazooka could be upgraded and improved with larger rockets, there was no way you could increase a PIAT in size it would cripple the user.
An effective weapon for its day but an evolutionary dead end.
Does anybody else remember being able to but these from Numrich Arms back at the beginning of the 70's? It was about $40 (but that was 2 oz's of good weed back then).
It would have been nice to see a photo of the shaped charge it fired...
Older problems require older solutions 😁 thanks for the vid!!
Point. It. At.Tank. Oddly enough while doing some military advisor work in Colombia it was found some of the various paramilitary groups had somehow acquired several of these units. It was said they were seized from those units and they were using them to breach fortified compound walls. I was shocked to see them still in service in any capacity. Prior to that I had only seen them mentioned in literature.
6:50 maybe the problem with the PIAT was the launcher. they should just issue the projectile and a really long stick for them tie the projectile onto so they can boop it on tanks.
A good example of emergency engineering . It worked , it did the job and lasted into the 50s . 9 out of10 .
English Broadcaster Jeremy Clarkson's ex Father in law was Major Robert Henry Cain awarded the Victoria Cross for action... disabling a Stug III Tank with a PIAT and other action during the Battle of Arnhem from the citation ' In the next morning this officer drove off three more tanks by the fearless use of his Piat, on each occasion leaving cover and taking up position in open ground with complete disregard for his personal safety'
My Dad (1919-2014) said they were pretty good on the Japanese bamboo pillboxes in Burma.
" if you'd like to add this to your collection, it is a registered destructive device "
Me reading from 🇬🇧. 😮
One of the most hated weapons in the British Army - but surprisingly when the Ox and Buck's landed by glider to take the bridges over the canals in Normandy prior to the landings on the 6th June - they managed to blow up a panzer tank as it approached - it must have landed inside an open hatch because the tank exploded - this caused the following tank to beat a hasty retreat thinking the opposing force had superior weapons . Not bad for a spring loaded piece of junk !
Imagine being a soldier firing this thing, missing the shot, and weapon doesn't recaulk. And guess what the turret turned around and facing you and you just enough time to say "well shit" before you blasted to bits.
I feel the British moto during WW2 is we make 90% crap, but 10% absolute gold
I heard that the recoil on these was so severe that if you didn't use it exactly right, you had a very high chance of dislocating your shoulder.
Rifleman Ganju Lama 1st Battalion 7th Gurkha Rifles ;was awarded with the Victoria Cross at the village of Ningthoukong , in Burma on 12th June 1944, for attacking and destroying 2 Japanese tanks at 30 yards range , he managed to recock the PIAT for the 2nd tank kill with a broken left wrist while standing up! He finished off the Japanese tank crews with hand grenades. It took some nerve to use the PIAT.
“Penetration distance that was kinda sad”
I know your pain PIAT 🥲
Um actually, PIAT stands for Point It At Tanks.
DJ Thermite Um actually, PIAT stands for Pesky Idiots Are Terrible
edit: I would like to apologize for the lame joke I made and I know it's terrible
Wait, who got Whooshed?
No it doesn't... it stands for 'Super Army Soldiers'
No shit Sherlock
pain in the Arm!
"in theory you could run up and hit the warhead on the side of the tank and it would be just as effective"
Japan: "you guys were _launching_ warheads?"
Check out Lunge mines, essentially a mortar shell on the end of a stick
@@reece42069 in ww2 and a little in Vietnam, they would strap an AT mine to their chests and lay down in front of a tank. Not sure why they didnt just set the mine down and run tho...
@@obiwankenobi2749 vietnamese did not use suicide attack like that. Only Chinese and Japanese. Why they do that cause only soldiers who lied under tank know exactly moment to trigger the bomb. Vietnamese use lunge mine but the users usually did not die cause of explosion (cause the hollow charge will donate inside tank) they mostly die from enemy infantry and machine gun or by the shock from explosion cause them disable.
Look up Hafthohlladung. It was a German magnetic AT grenade that you had to stick it to the side of the tank. It was obsolete later in the war because Panzerfaust was plenty enough though.
There is also Panzerwurfmine and RPG-43, RPG-6. Not exactly running up to the sides, but you had to throw it yourself.
@@kdh6387 if you take the safety off an rpg7, you can just ram said tonk and it would probably work
I surprised there's not a bayonet fitting, fixture on this weapon.
It would be more effective if you just swung it like a club.
You wouldn't want that wrapped around the back of your head...
Well, its not Japanese. 😀
Lol...
It needs a blank firing adapter
Don’t worry, just hand it over to the Japanese
Americans : rockets
Germans : rockets
British : *HANDHELD MOOORTAAAAAR*
Americans: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davy_Crockett_(nuclear_device)
CROSSBOW/MORTAR WEIRD THINGY!
you do know that the first bazookas did no damage whatsoever - they were useless, and had to be fired in the open
@@baker607102 I'm guessing they never used a shaped charge then.
Americans = John Wayne.
Germans = Arnold Schwarzenegger.
British = Mr Bean
Bazooka and Panzershrek: “rocket propelled technology is the only way to go!”
PIAT: “haha spring go ping”
SIR GERMAN TANK ON THE HORIZON
PRIVATE, GRAB THE PING SPRING WE GON BLOW THIS BUGGER
"Sarge, that's not a regular ogre. That's a...
*PanzerShrek"*
@@AslanW funnily enough “Shrek” is German roughly translates into frightening or terrifying.
@@Bobbymaccys Nah, *Schreck* is, but not Shrek.
@@AslanW hence why I said roughly
"BLOOP"
-PIAT, 1944
*Blewp
*weeeeeooooowww*
-JU87D (Stuka), 1939
The sound you hear before your death!
I've repeated the "bloop" part at least 20 times by now..
I am very amused indeed..
One of these saved the day at pegasus Bridge on the glider assault to capture the bridge by knocking out the German tank guarding it on D day
"what if we pointed the mortar lower.."
"But sir, we're already at 30 degrees! I would have to either just lay it on the floor or hold it.."
"Uhmmmmmmmmmmmm"
“Now let’s head out to the range and put a few rounds through it.”
th-cam.com/video/ktp_wJW8fKI/w-d-xo.html
First Name, Last Name what’s up bro
It's a spring operated crossbow that shoots bombs😍
Jörg Sprave would like to have a word with you.
No, its better, its a giant muzzle loading nerf gun that fires HEAT rounds
A few points you missed, Ian, because they are fairly obscure.
The bubble level sight on the side is for using it for indirect fire at large, stationary targets (such as a house), and allows you to fire at up to 370 yards in that mode. Set the sight for range, turn the buttplate sideways, tilt the gun back on the buttplate util the bubble is centered in the sight, line that long white painted line with the target, and fire it to use it as a mortar.
Also, that plastic looking tray in the chamber is only for firing the training rounds, which are much skinnier than the war shots or the loading practice inert bombs. The tray makes up the difference between the diameter of the warshot rounds and the firing practice rounds (which are basically solid steel batons with a hole bored out for the rod and propelling charge.) Cheap to make (literally they are entirely lathe work), impossible to mistake for live explosive rounds, and a ballistic match to warshots.
When the RE boys get sick of that house across the river. They brake out the spring-bubble level-bomb tosser
Thank you for the clarification.
Nice 👍🏻
Don’t ever correct Ian again
I didn't know the PIAT fired bombs.
My father used a PIAT gun for a while and apparently got pretty good with it. He told me a story of the liberation of Holland where he was walking down a street with a Dutch couple after things had supposedly cooled down when they were shot at by a sniper in a house nearby. He went and retrieved his PIAT and proceeded to blow the house apart with it to the cheers of the Dutch couple. He said it fired a projectile shaped like a turnip but I never got a detailed description of the weapon itself. So thanks for this video as now I know what it actually looks like and what a pig it must have been to use. Too bad you couldn't show a projectile from it as I'd like to have seen this "turnip".
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PIAT#/media/File:PIAT_projectile_diagram.jpg
Absolute madman
@stevie fisher-Cook Projector, Infantry Assault Turnip
@@jonc8074 lol
What military was he apart of?