I was actually watching a program a couple of hours ago about the Russian capture of Berlin.
The Russian veteran they were interviewing said they first tried to take the city using armor but the Germans had a weapon called the Panzerfaust which would cut right through the tanks armor.
He said they had to withdraw the tanks and lead with infantry then the tanks behind them.
They defined the word pazerfaust as meaning “armor fist” but I am not sure they got it right.
Akin to our WWLL bazooka. A forerunner of the RPG. Single infantry portable tank killer.
WWLL = WWII
A rocket-propelled shaped charge, the Germans fired it (I believe) with the tube under their arm. It was popular with German militia as Russian tanks began streaming into the Fatherland. Like the AK-47 and the Stuhrmgehwehr, the first assault rifle, after the US M-2 auto. carbine, the Rooskies copied the Germans, but fired their RPGs on the shoulder.
The Germans liked our bazooka and made their own version, the ‘panzerschrek’ or armor terror.
The Germans even had a wire-guided tank killing bomb, invented the first night vision ‘Vampyre’ and became expert in surrendering such things to Americans.
USA USA USA!
Here's a link to a site showing some WW II Germans being trained to use the Panzerfaust. Note that in the second picture a civilian woman (!) is being trained. The soldier training her must have been sick to his stomach.
There’s been multiple replies but nobody has really broke it down yet. The panzerfaust was a shape charge launched by a small explosive charge. It was a throw away weapon similar to the LAW from the VietNam era. At the end of WWII the Germans handed out panzerfausts like candy. I have read instances of US Soldiers not treating panzerfaust users kindly. Enuff said...
The Panzerschreck was the predecessor to the US bazooka. It was a reloadable anti tank rocket launcher.
The Russians after WWII took the best aspects of the panzerfaust and panzerschreck and developed the RPG. The RPG-7 is probably the most produced anti-anything rocket grenade ever, period, bar nothing. There’s been more RPG-7 rounds produced than there are stars in the sky.
“They defined the word pazerfaust as meaning “armor fist” but I am not sure they got it right.”
That’s correct, tank fist or armor fist. The weapon is a relatively lightweight man-portable recoilless gun. It was used to defeat tanks and other armored targets.
True. Savvy Russians commandeered the bed springs from as many beds as they could while moving west. A good layer of them on a tank would either keep the shaped charge from striking hard enough to go off, or have it go off far enough from the armor as to defeat the self forged penetrator.
Microsoft and Atomic games made some fantastic small unit games covering D-Day, Arnhem, The Eastern Front and the Battle of the Bulge (Close Combat series). Playing any of the latter three (East front later in war, and I don’t have the first) and you learn really fast that you are screwed taking armor into towns and villages with panzerfaust wielding defenders.
Unless I was really pressed for ammo, I usually would just level places and then mop up.
Arnhem (”Bridge to Far”) is ruthless, it is next to impossible to win that game playing the allies.