Panzerfausts

[Hagen]

Originally Posted by MAGNA

Could be Hagen. I've got it in a book somewhere. I'll find it if I can.

Look in the James Lucas book "Battle Group!";(

[cyberia]

Something you don't see come up too often, the Panzerfaust 150M...

Many think this advanced design Panzerfaust was only in the prototype stages, but they were deployed in the final weeks of the war.

Panzerfaust 150M in field

Unlike its predecessor, the 150m had a re-useable tube good for up to ten shots and there are those who believe that captured examples of this weapon served as the inspiartion for the Soviet RPG.

[Hagen]

Great photo cyberia! Never saw a photo of a 150 in the field. Thanks

[Kurttis Thomas]

[/quote]

Yea thats a Volkssturm member cheers.

[vitara]

Originally Posted by Jim O

Attachment 2410
Member of the Deutscher Volkssturm with a Panzerfaust.


Attachment 2411
Panzerfaust at moment of firing.


Attachment 2412
Finnish soldiers with Panzerfausts and a destroyed Soviet T-34 tank in the battle of Tali-Ihantala.


Attachment 2413
Four Panzerfausts in original casing, on display at the Helsinki Military Museum.

they look great .. wish they were in my collection .. best krieg

[KG_Panzerschreck]

Originally Posted by cyberia

Many think this advanced design Panzerfaust was only in the prototype stages, but they were deployed in the final weeks of the war.

So were several other types. Read on my friend.

Originally Posted by Cyberia

Unlike its predecessor, the 150m had a re-useable tube good for up to ten shots and there are those who believe that captured examples of this weapon served as the inspiartion for the Soviet RPG.

I am one of those. It is fairly obvious to anyone who looks at the design of the 150 & 250 PF's and doesnt see the RPG.

Check out this information -


Panzerfaust 150

The Panzerfaust 150 was a major redesign. Development began in January 1945, again at the company HASAG. The reinforced firing tube now was reusable for up to 10 shots. The completely newly designed warhead now was more pointed, resulting in a new projectile length of 56cm (22 in.). The pointed warhead increased detonation distance from the target surface, which together with a new explosive material made for an increased armor penetration performance of over 200mm (7.87 in.) although less explosive was used. Propellant amount was increased as well, which with a projectile speed of 85 m/s (280 fps) accounted for the range of 150m (490 ft.). In March 1945 orders for a first production run of 100,000 were made and production started, but only a very small number was actually delivered to the army before the war's end.

Panzerfaust 250

The last development of the Panzerfaust-series was the Panzerfaust 250. It used a reloadable tube and now featured a pistol grip. With propellants in both the firing tube and on the projectile itself it was projected to reach a projectile speed of 150 m/s (490 fps). Serial production was scheduled to begin in September 1945. However, the development of this weapon never got completed and not a single one was produced.

Grosse Panzerfaust / Hecht 10,5cm

Early 1945 rumors, mostly from prisoner interrogations, had it that the russians were about to introduce a new heavily armored superheavy tank, called the "Schtschuka" (russian; "Pike"), into service at the eastern front soon. Immediately work on a corresponding anti-tank weapon began.

The submission from the company HASAG envisioned a so-called Grosse Panzerfaust ("Large Tank-Fist") based on the tube of the Panzerfaust 250 and a warhead capable of penetrating 400mm (15.75 in.) of steel.

Dynamit Nobel, another company, suggested the Hecht 10,5cm ("Pike", obviously because of its intended target) , a combination of the old Pionierhohlladung H 15 ("Engineer Shape Charge"), of which over 6000 were still in the armories, with the rocket propellant stage of the old RZ 65, an aircraft smoke rocket the Luftwaffe had never used in action. Diameter of the warhead would have been 26.5 cm (10.43 in.), the projectile itself would have been almost 90cm (35.43 in.) long. The firing tube had a caliber of 10.5cm (4.13 in.). Besides the fact that rarely any of the RZ 65s were left (most had been scrapped), trials showed that at least two propellants would have been necessary to shoot the warhead, which weighed over 15 kg (33 lb), to a distance of 100m (330 ft.).

Finally it was agreed upon a projected compromise of a new 7kg (15.4 pounds) shaped charge that was to have a range of 100m (330 ft.). Both the russian tank with the reported armor of 300 - 400mm (11.8 - 15.75 inch) and the AT weapon intended to counter it never materialized.

Panzerfaust Developments

Many Panzerfaust modifications were undertaken. Some developments concerned the use of the Panzerfaust as a weapon against infantry. One of the projects had a small rocket, the Kleinrakete zur Infanteriebekämpfung ("small rocket for fighting against infantry") with a length (projectile) of 66cm (26 in.) use the tube of the Panzerfaust. The rocket's warhead had a length of 24.5cm (9.65 in.) and a diameter of 7.6cm (3 in.) and consisted of concrete mixed with scrap metal. It was to close the range gap between the maximum hand grenade range (up to 40m / 130 ft.) and the minimum mortar range. However this range gap was also filled with the rifle grenade; only few pre-serial samples of this anti-infantry Panzerfaust were built.

In late 1944 it was suggested to attack both the tank and the infantry riding on it ( as was custom especially among the russian Red Army ) with the Panzerfaust. This was implemented in the Panzerfaust 150 and it's projectile provided for the attachment of Splitterringe ("shrapnel rings") as an anti-personnel device, similar to the ones that could be put on hand grenades to increase their fragmentation effect.

Another development was the Schrappnellfaust ("Shrapnel Fist"), a Panzerfaust-like but reloadable weapon designed to attack infantry. It weighed 8kg (17.6 lb)and projected its warhead to a range of up to 400m (440 yd.). A time fuse detonated the warhead as an airburst at 2 - 3 meters (6.5 - 10 ft.) above ground. About hundred were undergoing weapon trials with the Wehrmacht when the war ended.

In January 1945 a new warhead for the Panzerfaust was developed under the designation Verbesserte Panzerfaust ("Improved Tank fist"). It had a diameter of 160mm (6.3 in.) with a customizable variable detonation distance. An order for 350 was placed, however due to an argument over who was to produce it the start of production was delayed. It's unclear wether any were ever delivered to the armed forces.

February 1945 saw the start of a project to manufacture the shaped charge from the new "Nipolite" explosive. This new explosive didn't require a metal casing anymore and the shaping of the warhead's explosive shape charge could be easily made out of the Nipolite on a turning-lathe. Both simplified production a lot but again the war ended before mass production begun.

Another February 1945 proposal for a modification addressed the problem that although a Panzerfaust would knock out a tank and incapacitate the crew, the tank itself often could be quickly repaired and be put back into service: if the tank did not burn out from being set afire from the Panzerfaust hit then all that remained was the little hole it had made. The idea now was to add a tank gun incindiary round (Panzerbrandgranate) to follow the Panzerfaust's shaped charge warhead into the tank and set it on fire. This project too never realized.

Other late war projects that never realized fully were the Gasfaust that was contain a chemical warhead with tear gas such as CN, the Brandfaust with an incendiary warhead and the Flammfaust that was to contain flammable liquid; the Flammfaust by the way has nothing to do with the single-use Einstossflammenwerfer discussed in connection with the flamethrowers; instead, it was to have a seperate warhead that contained the liquid and exploded into a fiery burst at impact.


The Luftfaust ("air fist") was an anti-aircraft, recoilless shoulder-fired weapon not really related to the Panzerfaust. There were two versions: the original Luftfaust-A featured four barrels of 2cm-caliber, firing 2cm-projectiles that weighed 90g and contained 19g of explosive, the projectiles were fitted to a little rocket stage. When fired in a salvo, the projectiles reached a velocity of 380 m/s.

The Luftfaust-B addressed the problem of the inaccurate and unsatisfactory hit groups achieved by the Luftfaust-A by kengthening the barrels and increasing the number of barrels to nine. The weapon now had a length of 150cm and weighed 6.5 kg. The nine projectiles were shot in one salvo with 0.2 sec. between the individual barrels. Although large orders for the weapon were placed in 1945, actually only 80 of these weapons were used in combat trials.

The Fliegerfaust ("airplane fist") had the same basic design of the Luftfaust but featured six barrels with a diameter of 3cm. It was to use the 3cm - projectiles of the Maschinenkanone MK108 machine-cannon used in fighter aircraft such as the Me262 jet. These bullets weighed 330g and contained 75g of explosives. The weapon did not advance beyond the trial stage.

All info taken from -

Panzerfaust und Faustpatrone