Most effective portable anti-tank weapon of WWII ?

I seem to remember an, erm, interesting weapon from a book a while bakc, can't really remember whether it made it to combat but it always seemed almost as hazardous to the user as the enemy.

I'm refering of course to the British "Sticky Bomb"!

Anyone got any info on how effective these were, it at all?

On a serious note though, surely one of the most prolific portable anti-tank weapons of them all would be the humble Molotov Cocktail?

 

If you're going to include the sticky bomb, then I'll have to mention the Soviet Anti-Tank Dogs!

 

Really? I heard that the spring mechanism made recoil nearly non-existant.

 

PIAT. Have only fired it once and that was in training, at only 5feet7inches
I was nearly ruptured trying to cock it, you had ti pull on two webbing straps, height was a great advantage, "Kick non existant????" you have to be joking! it pushed me about 6feet through the Catterick mud!
Mind you, it burnt a neat little hole in the target tank!
All RAC trainees had to do two weeks of "Dismounted Training"(if your tank was knocked out you fought as infantry!!!) all mud,water,cold,ropes, tunnels etc, we had two pairs of socks, tried to dry them under blankets
on bed,thank God I was a gunfitter! not tank crew.

 

The powerful spring smoothed out the recoil enough to make it bearable -without it, the firer would have had a shattered shoulder every shot.

Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website and Discussion forum

 

Bearable is hardly "non existant" as I have said I only fired it once so I bow to your experience, you have evidentally fired a few times?

 

I knew it! I knew the PIAT was a killer recoil weapon!

 

I know why now!

We had a 'history week' in the town next door, and one guy brought along his Boys Rifle. I asked him my question, and this was his answer:

The Boys was designed to be fired from a prone position, and tests showed that that was the best position for the grip. Basically, it's ergonomic designing!

 

I would rate both the Panzerfaust and Panzerschreck as very good weapons. They both had a pretty good range (up to 200 m., depending on type), and especially the Panzerfaust could be employed rapidly by one map.

The main problem with the Panzerfaust was of course that it couldn't be reloaded in the field, unlike the Panzerschreck, but had to be returned to the factory to be reused.

Christian

 

But it was cheap enough to just throw away after using it; most soldiers had more than one of them. You can see these pictures of typical Volkssturm units, old men on bycicles with a Panzerfaust on each side of the front wheel.

 

or teenagers!!!!

 

One program shown during the D-Day 60th Anniversary interviewed a British trooper who was talking about the PIAT. He said it was very inaccurate, which is what most of what I've read before seemed to indicate. The subject was the British D-Day assault on the Pegasus Bridge. By the way, it was a PIAT that destroyed the first tank sent to retake the bridge.

 

Related question. Did they have AT guns on Pegasus bridge? Did they drop a 6pdr with them or did they rely on their PIATs?

 

Relying on my memory: they just had PIATs.

But I could easily be wrong (as you all know!)

 

I don't think you'r wrong, ricky.
6 pdrs could only by glided in by horsa gliders and the troops at Pegasus bridge were glided in on normal gliders. there was simply no room in the normal gliders to fit a 6 pdr.

 

Horsa's were the standard British glider. Americans used Waco's as far as I know. I think the glider you are referring to is the Hamilcar.

 

I stand corrected

 

Now, I heard an interview on the Radio (BBC Radio 4) yesterday with a guy who worked with Mr Blacker, creator of the Blacker Bombard.
http://www.slaidburn.org.uk/blacker_bombard.htm

Apparently, the PIAT was developed as a man-portable version of the Bombard, and could (the guy reckoned) have been in production in time to smash the German armoured columns in France, 1940. He actually believes that it could have been in use in Poland, 1939, as the design was there by 1938. Any thoughts?

He also claimed that it was the best man-portable AT weapon of WW2 - including the American bazooka. He was probably just referring to Allied weaponry...

 

They had PIAT's at pegasus bridge and the consensus by the troops was that they were rubbish. Most broke on landing due to their fragility

You got one shot, they were innacurate, very difficult to load and the range given by the makers was in reality not realistic.

I have read numerous accounts that the british/commonwealth troops hated the PAIT especially when compared to the US bazooka and the german panzerfaust/shreck.

I would say that the german AT weapons were the best, especially the later shreck

FNG

 

I haven't heard anyone mention it but I reckon that the Panzerschreck must have been dreadfully heavy, being a full 88mm calibre tube with shield to protect the gunner. I can't recall anyone saying the 6cm Bazooka was light, but the German weapon must have been a lot worse...