Panzerfaust

Smashing armor

We recently wrote an article on the Panzerschreck (Panzerschreck), Germany’s iconic anti-tank weapon. Less recently we also wrote about the American bazooka (The Bazooka) which the Panzerschreck was based on, and the British PIAT (The “Anti-Tank Crossbow”). This article will continue the series by describing Nazi Germany’s other iconic close-range anti-tank weapon, the cheap, ubiquitous, chronically short-ranged but very heavy-hitting Panzerfaust, the world’s first single-use anti-tank weapon.

As we had already mentioned in our Panzerschreck article, the early years of World War II forced the Third Reich (and all other belligerent nations) to acknowledge that its interwar anti-tank rifles were no longer up to the job in the face of newer, more heavily armored tanks. Development for a new weapon, the one that eventually became the Panzerfaust, began in the spring of 1942. 

Hollow charges against tanks

Germans had historically been pioneers in the development of shaped charge (also called “hollow charge”) explosives. A German mining engineer had already described the principle as early as 1792, though the technology to make an actual device did not exist yet. The first actual hollow charge effect was achieved in a German factory in 1883, and a U.S. patent was filed three years later… by a German. It was no accident that German engineers started applying the principle to their new anti-tank weapons.

The front part of a shaped charged warhead is a hollow cavity (hence “hollow charge”), with the explosive packed behind it in a specific shape. Once a fuze at the tip is triggered by impact, the charge explodes towards the cavity in such a way that the energy of the explosion is directed forward, rather than dispersed in every direction, thus creating far more penetrative power. A thin metal liner separates the cavity and the charge. It is melted by the explosion and propelled forward as a jet of molten metal that can penetrate a tank’s armor and kill the crew or ignite the ammunition. The advantage of a shaped charge over a traditional shell is that the penetrating power comes from the charge’s detonation rather than the force of impact, and does not decrease with range.

German experiments

Several devices were developed in the early years of the war in search of the optimal solution. The Haftholladung (“Adhesive Hollow Charge”), nicknamed the Panzerknacker (“Tank Breaker”) was a mine that would “stick” to the target thanks to strong magnets. Its obvious weakness was that a soldier had to get within arm’s reach of the enemy tank to attach the mine, which was easier said than done.

The Luftwaffe experimented with a smaller, lighter weapon for its ground troops, the Panzerwurfmine (“Tank Throwing Mine”). It was a stick grenade 3 lb (1.36 kg) in weight. Once thrown, fin-like vanes made of cloth opened to keep its nose pointed towards the target. It, too, was a disappointment. One, it still had too short a range; and two, it rarely hit the target at 90°, making it less able to penetrate.

The Gewehr-Panzergranate was a shaped-charge rifle grenade that could be launched for a standard service rifle with the help of a barrel attachment. It had a small warhead and a limited range.

Birth of the Panzerfaust

The weapon that eventually did take the first step on the path to the Panzerfaust was the Faustpatrone (“Fist Cartridge”), which looked like a miniature Panzerfaust. (It’s also referred to as Faustpatrone 42 after the year of development.) The “fist” in the name had nothing to do with punching through armor; it simply referenced the fact that the user held the device in his hand with his arm extended, and launched the warhead with a squeeze on a pedal-like lever. The warhead had an effective range of 30 meters (98 ft), which it could travel in slightly more than one second, and could penetrate 100 mm (3.9 in) of armor. It wasn’t very accurate due to the awkward way of firing it.

Types of Panzerfaust

The next iteration was the Faustpatrone Klein (“Fist Cartridge Small”), also known as Faustpatrone Klein (the number referencing the nominal maximum range in meters), and later Panzerfaust (“Tank / Armor Fist”) Klein 30 m and Panzerfaust I. The weapon weighed 3.2 kg (7.1 lb) and was 98.5 mm (38.75 in) long including the launching tube. The projective itself held 400 g (14.5 oz) of explosives, and was launched by a propellant charge of 54 g (1.9 oz) of black powder. The warhead, being too wide to fit, was sticking out of the barrel, but a wooden shaft attached to it was still inside. The shaft had folded stabilizing fins on it that unfolded in flight. Like the first, experimental Faustpatrone 42, this too had a nominal range of 98 ft (30 m), but it could penetrate up to 140 mm (5.5 in) of steel. A simple aiming sight was soon added to the design. The sight was a rod that could be flipped up; the user would then line up the rod, the top edge of the warhead and the target.

The Faustpatrone Klein projectile had a curved conical tip a bit similar to the ones on Panzerschreck and British PIAT ammunition. This turned out to be less than ideal: when striking armor at an angle, the projective could slide off instead of detonating. Later versions of the Panzerfaust used the bulkier, flat-topped warhead that became so iconic. The tube of the weapon was originally held under the arm, with the warhead pointing slightly upwards. Holding the barrel over the shoulder became a more common method of aiming and firing later in the war. 

The tube extended behind the user, to keep him safe from the significant backblast. The blast was still dangerous to anyone else standing behind him, though; official documentation claimed that anyone directly behind the user and within 3 meters (9.8 ft) was certain to die, and that nobody should stand behind the weapon within 10 meters (33 ft). Firing in an enclosed space, such as a building that allowed the user to hide from approaching enemies until the last moment, was also dangerous as the walls could redirect the blast. 

The weapon was designed as a single-use disposable system, with the tube simply thrown away after use. It should be noted, though, that the chronic material shortages of the late war forced the Germans to rethink this idea, and soldiers were offered cigarettes for returning spent tubes. 

 The Panzerfaust Gross 30 m (“Tank Fist Large 30 meters”) was similar but bigger, weighing 11.2 lb (5.1 kg) and being 3.4 ft (104.5 cm) long. It held more propellant, but also a heavier and bulkier warhead; the two balanced each other out and retained the 98 ft (30 m) range, albeit with the ability to penetrate 200 mm (7.9 in) of steel. To drive home the danger of backblast, the barrel had "Achtung! Feuerstrahl!"(“Beware! Fire jet!”) printed on it in large red letters.

This version was also known as Panzerfaust 30 and Panzerfaust II. According to an often repeated but unconfirmed claim, Hitler took a personal interest in the development of the weapon, and it was he who suggested the name Panzerfaust as a more inspiring alternative, and as a historical reference to one Götz von Berlichingen, also known as “Götz of the Iron Hand,” a 16th century German knight who famously had an iron prosthetic hand.

The Panzerfaust 30 had enough power to penetrate the armor of any tank at the time, and was cheap to produce and easy to use. In one informal test, the Panzerfaust punched a hole 2.75 inches (70 cm) in diameter, while a Panzerschreck and a bazooka made holes 1 inch and 0.5 inches across, respectively. Its greatest weakness, however, was its short range. The user exposed himself to danger not only by having to get close enough to the target, but also by potentially getting struck by shrapnel from the explosion.

The Panzerfaust 60 doubled the nominal maximum range to 60 meters (197 ft) by increasing the amount of propellant charge, and the Panzerfaust 100 further increased it to 100 meters (328 ft). Doing so required some engineering trickery. The amount of propellant that was needed for a 100 m range would have created an explosion strong enough to rupture the launch tube. Increasing the wall thickness of the barrel would have protected it from damage, but would have used too much steel. Therefore, the 100 held two propellant charges, each individually small enough not to harm the tube, timed to go off with a split-second difference so the stress on the barrel was distributed over time. The Panzerfaust 60 was completed in early 1944 but only reached the troops in significant numbers in September; with 400,000 produced each month, it was the most common version of the weapon.

Late war types

The Panzerfaust 150 was a major redesign, but it came too late in the war and German soldiers only saw limited numbers issued for field test. Its maximum range of 150 meters (490 ft) was close to the effective firing range of the Panzerschreck, but still lagged far behind that of the bazooka. It had a narrower, pointed, more aerodynamic projectile, and could penetrate a massive 280-320 mm (11-13 in) of armor. The warhead came with a fragmentation sleeve, a thin steel casing that was designed to break apart on detonation with the pieces flung fast and far as deadly shrapnel against infantry. A timer ensured that the projectile detonated three seconds after firing even if it missed its target and didn’t hit any other hard surfaces – this, combined with the fragmentation sleeve, allowed it to be used as an anti-infantry weapon. The designers also broke with the tradition of making the Panzerfaust a disposable weapon: the tube was reloadable and could fire ten times before it needed to be cleaned of the black powder residue that fouled up.

The last planned version was the Panzerfaust 250, which was intended to outrange and replace the heavier Panzerschreck, but it never left the drawing board. It had a reusable tube like the 150, and was going to have a pistol grip for easier aiming. Though it never saw the light of day, the plans were acquired by both the Americans and the Soviets, and it ended up influencing future weapon development. The Soviet RPG-2, specifically, took several of the Panzerfaust 250’s ideas. 

The Panzerfaust on the battlefield

The Panzerfaust was cheap, powerful and ubiquitous, but just how useful was it? Statistics, even when available, only tell part of the story. For what it’s worth, it’s known that the Red Army lost 8,148 tanks to known causes between January and April 1944. 264 of these losses were caused by Panzerfaust hits, while 1969 were caused by anti-tank guns. This might seem bad, but most of the fighting occurred in open plains where the weapon’s short range was an impediment; also, Panzerfausts were less available than ammunition for anti-tank guns. Panzerfausts, however, still took out far more tanks than Panzerschrecks or other close combat weapon.          

The ratio became very different once the Eastern Front reached Germany and most of the fighting occurred in urban environments where infantry could set up short-range ambushes. In these circumstances, about 70% of all Soviet tank losses were to Panzerfausts and Panzerschrecks. 

Another way of measuring success is to look at the other side’s reaction. Both the Western Allies and the Soviets started escorting their tanks with infantry to spot and kill German anti-tank teams. Tanks themselves started to be modified with jury-rigged armor improvements in a hope to reduce the lethality of hits. Sandbags, logs and spare track links spread over the armor (the last one a British staple) offered little extra protection. So-called “plastic armor,” using asphalt, concrete and coarse gravel or sawdust, was experimented with but arrived too late in the war to make a difference. The Soviets were fond of “bedspring armor” – not made of actual beds, but rather purpose-built wire mesh panels. Another experimental form of protection was a metal plate with spikes sticking out of it; it was hoped that the warhead might impale itself upon a spike without the fuze getting triggered. 

If you want to see original Panzerfausts or Panzerschrecks you can do so on several of our tours like the Band of Brothers Tours, the War in Poland Tour, Grand Italian Tour or the North Italian Tour.