Germany had a large array of unique small arms including the first effective
assault rifle but one of their most unique weapons was extremely simple
cheap and effective and it has become an icon in gaming and in cinema the panzerfaust was
a recoilless single-use pre-loaded tube with a high-explosive anti-tank warhead its simplicity
to manufacture and used made it an ideal weapon at the end of the war for Germany
which began arming civilians and children alike with a weapon that required little training
the weapon began production in 1942 and 6.7 million variants would be produced
the one thing the panzerfaust did require was some guts to get close enough to an allied
tank to use it the panzerfaust needed to be used within an average range of 30 meters
depending on the variant compared to the panzershrek anti-tank weapon
that had a range of almost 150 meters though with highly variable success
oh god further adding to the difficulty of using the weapon
occasionally on a successful hit many close range users of the panzerfaust risk fragmentation injury
from the very tanks they knocked out the main benefit of the panzerfaust was that
if it was used correctly and within range, it could penetrate virtually any allied tank
the panzerfaust also had the benefit of giving off less toxic smoke than the panzershrek
making the weapon mildly more usable in confined spaces
but only if there is room for the deadly backblast of three meters
the movie fury demonstrates the typical use of the panzerfaust with a youth knocking out a sherman
passing alongside concealment the panzerfaust here is demonstrating its beyond armor effect
which its unique wide and hollow warhead provided panzerfaust often create not only
larger holes in tanks but more spalling a type of fragmentation that can become superheated
along with the air and ignite both ammunition and fuel inside the tank and was deadly to the crew
though it should be noted that a spalling effect is not typical of the modern hollow heat round
which is designed to penetrate not to create spalling the panzer vow secondary spalling
effect was an added latent function of the crude charge being so close to the point of contact
this leads us to the highly unlikely end scene and fury which overall is a decent tank movie
but certainly has a few mistakes our protagonist sherman is hit with the panzerfaust at close range
with only one crewman injured which may be possible with older bazooka-fired pointed
nose rockets but certainly not possible from a panzerfaust fully penetrating the hull which would
result in shockwave and spalling injuries for the entire crew in a best-case scenario in the final
months of the war allied tank casualty ratios grew from panzerfaust and panzer shrek personal weapons
due to dwindling anti-tank guns and german armor which was one of several reasons logs
and sandbags were added to tanks adding some minor protection against these anti-tank weapons
though this was often more for peace of mind over statistically proven effectiveness
panzerfaust were also sold to Finland from Germany who desperately needed anti-tank weapons
to hold off heavy soviet armor they were effective in Finland's forests
where soldiers could ambush tanks along wooded roadways unfortunately some of the
training was rushed with the desperate need to put the weapon into immediate service
notably, there are examples of nearly every allied army and partisan
group capturing this prolific weapon and using them against the german army
sometimes even preferring them over their own anti-tank weapons
alright I'm johnny thanks for watching this quick brief on the panzerfaust if you want a complete
list of the movie clips used please check the video description if you want to support the
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