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Why Panzerfaust Infantry Usually Died | Unbelievable true stories | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: Why Panzerfaust Infantry Usually Died
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The Panzerfaust was a revolutionary, disposable, shoulder-fired anti-tank weapon developed by Germany during World War II, significantly impacting battlefield tactics and becoming a symbol of desperate last stands.
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With over 8 million panza produced,
Germany flooded the battlefield with one
of the most effective anti-tank weapons
of the war. But by the time they were
handed out in ruined cities to anyone
between 16 and 60, their use had turned
into something darker than the war
itself. You've seen this weapon in the
movies, but now you'll hear its full story.
story.
So, let's start from the very beginning
on how and why this thing was even
created. Panzer in German literally
means armor fist in their creative style
of naming weapons. Everything began on
the Eastern front by 1942 when after
invading the Soviet Union and decimating
older light BT series of tanks, the
Germans got a Houston, we have a problem
moment when the T34 and KV1 appeared.
They were for the time much better armed
and armored than most German tanks and
almost invulnerable to most early German
anti-tank weapons. The first main weapon
for dealing with armor the Germans had
was the 37 mm towed anti-tank gun, which
for its effectiveness got the not so
encouraging nickname the doorner. This
gun was also mounted on most of the
Panza 3es which were supposed to be tank
killers. While the Panzer 4s and earlier
twos and ones and self-propelled
artillery would deal with infantry and
fortifications. Now, the Germans already
knew when the war began that rapid
advancements in armor would surely make
the 37 mm obsolete, and they were
already preparing the 50mm anti-tank gun
and very soon after the 75 mm. But the
problem was pushing them out in towed
configuration or replacing the older
guns on tanks in time. Besides anti-tank
guns, there were also anti-tank rifles,
which were somewhat effective at close
ranges against the light armor found
early in the war. They were a mass-used,
cheaper solution than a towed gun,
something infantry could carry. But now
they were also very much surpassed as
ever heavier tanks arrived. The Germans
also had magnetic anti-tank charges and
mines for destroying tanks. But they
were more like lastditch solutions since
someone had to literally climb onto an
enemy tank to use them effectively. So
now the Germans wanted something cheap,
portable, mass- prodducible, and able to
give infantry protection against tanks
at some range beyond point blank. It
needed to be something they could carry
with them, use in tight spaces with
minimal training where cumbersome guns
couldn't be maneuvered. Very soon, a
concept of a recoilless launch tube
firing a shaped charge warhead was
conceived. Something that would serve as
a disposable one-shot anti-tank gun.
They struggled during testing with back
blast and armor penetration
effectiveness. But by 1943, they had
worked out the solution, and the first
model, the Panserfast 30, was pushed
into production. The Germans wanted to
arm the infantry with these as much as
possible as they faced the ever growing
threat from Soviet tanks, but also from
American Shermans, which were ramping up
their production. So they fielded the
first panzer, tried it out in combat,
and the immediate positive results
spurred an expansion of production lines
to make as many more as possible. They
wanted to give every German soldier a
chance, although not the best one in the
world, still a chance against enemy
armor. So now before describing their
actual use in combat and what they
immediately did, let's first explain how
the first one worked because it's quite
interesting. There isn't much too
complicated about it. At its core, it
was a singleshot recoilless launcher
with a pre-loaded warhead. The
disposable steel tube was factory-packed
with black powder propellant, and on top
of it sat the warhead. When a soldier
wanted to fire, he would rest the tube
on his shoulder or under his arm, flip
up the leaf sight, and squeeze the
trigger bar. This ignited a small
primer, then the main propellant charge,
which launched the warhead forward while
ejecting the blast out the rear to even
the recoil. This way, it had almost no
recoil at all, but it created a vicious
back blast behind the tube that was
actually deadly to anyone within about
10 m directly behind. The red warning
labels on the tube translated to danger,
intense fire blast. You definitely
wouldn't want to fire it from enclosed
spaces unless it was really necessary
because you get burned and concussed.
Now, the warhead itself, as we said, was
a shaped charge explosive that upon
hitting enemy armor exploded and focused
that energy into a hot jet that could go
through 140 to 200 mm of armor,
depending on the model, like butter. For
1943, this was a staggering penetration
capability that could defeat any tank
the Allies had at the time, especially
if hit from the rear or side. However,
actually hitting the tank was the
problem because of its extremely short
range. It was basically almost a point
blank weapon. Definitely better than
running up to a tank to place a mine,
but still giving you only about 30 m if
you wanted a decent chance to hit
something. The sights had notches
calibrated for fixed distances like 30,
60, and 80 m. But aiming at a moving
tank while under fire was not the
easiest thing to do, especially at such
short distance. However, the weapon's
lightweight of just 5 to 7 kg meant that
one soldier could easily carry one or
two, giving him a means of defense if
enemy armor approached that close. It
was a simple and effective weapon, and
it was about to completely change close
quarters tank combat, as you're about to
see. The first batches of Panzafs
reached German infantry on the Eastern
Front around September 1943, and they
arrived just in time. Soviet tank
brigades were spearheading offensive
after offensive, and German soldiers
more than once found themselves overrun
by tank charges. The weapon immediately
proved it could knock out T34s, and it
soon became widespread. It was great for
defending trenches when tanks
approached, but the Germans also created
tank hunter teams, or as they called
them, panzery commando. These were a few
soldiers armed with panzerasts who would
lie in ambush and wait for Soviet tanks
to turn their vulnerable sides or rear
toward them. riflemen covered them once
they fired, giving them a chance to get
away. It was a very effective tactic
since a single cheap disposable weapon
could destroy a whole tank that cost
money, time, and resources to build,
train a crew for, and send to the front.
Although effective, it was everything
but a safe job to do. And look at this.
In the final stage of the war, around
70% of Soviet armor losses were caused
not by tigers and panthers, not by the
infamous 88mm guns, but by cheap
disposable panzer. This was mostly
because combat had shifted to towns and
cities and in rubble and narrow streets.
It was hard to protect tanks from
ambushes. The panerast was just deadly
in urban combat. And the allies tried to
protect their tanks in the same way we
can see today on modern battlefields
with so-called cope cages. They welded
on sheet plates, logs, track links,
sandbags, even wire mesh and bedframe
skirts. Anything that would detonate the
warhead away from the main armor. They
also avoided sending armor into towns
without proper infantry support, which
would follow them through the houses and
make sure Panzer infantry could not get
within effective range. American and
British tankers also resented
panzafouasts in Normandy after the D-Day
landings where the bokeh carage terrain
was just perfect for such ambushes like
that one you probably remember from the
movie Fury. Shermans, Churchills and
tank destroyers were all vulnerable to
them and crews feared them quite a bit.
In Normandy, it is estimated that about
a third of tanks were knocked out by
panzerasts but also by other interesting
weapons you are going to hear about. The
Panzer Foust went through constant
improvements in both range and lethality
and the naming scheme followed its
effective range in meters. Each new
variant in theory was supposed to hit
targets that far. The first was the
Panza 30 called Klene, meaning small. It
had a 10 cm diameter warhead and an
effective range of 30 m. Enough to kill
a T34 from the side, but they quickly
needed something bigger and better. Then
came the Panzer Fast 30 Gross, meaning
big with improvements and a larger 15 cm
warhead. Range was the same, but
penetration and explosive power were
much better, making it a threat even to
heavy tanks. In 1944 came the Panzaf 60,
which became the most produced model. It
had double the range as the name
suggests, although the warhead remained
the same. The propellant charge was more
than doubled, which helped with range
and accuracy. Millions were made by 1945
and it was the most widely used version,
especially deadly in urban combat where
it was employed in ambushes against
advancing Allied tanks. But that was not
the last. The Panzer 100 followed with
even greater range and a 6 kg warhead
that could penetrate up to 220 mm of
armor. Precision at 100 m was more
wishful thinking than reality, but it
was more than capable of destroying any
Allied tank, even with frontal hits.
This version however mainly saw use in
lastditch defenses as the Nazi regime
collapsed and the allies pushed into the
capital. It was used by civilians and
the Hitler Yugand anyone desperate
enough to try to damage the Allied
effort. None of it was successful enough
to change the outcome of the war. There
was also the Panzafoust 150 which was a
major redesign. It had a sleeker pointed
warhead, 10.5 cm in diameter instead of
15, but with improved explosives that
gave it penetration of up to 300 mm of
armor. It used a two-stage propellant
ignition for much higher velocity and
better precision, extending the
effective range to 150 m. There was even
a clip-on fragmentation sleeve that
could be placed over the charge to turn
it into an anti-infantry weapon. Upon
explosion, it would create shrapnel, and
it was designed with a 3second
self-destruct fuse, so if the warhead
missed a tank, it would still detonate.
In anti-infantry use, it could even act
as an air burst. About 100,000 of them
were produced in 1945, but luckily for
Allied soldiers, they never reached
regular units as the factory was overrun
by the Soviets and production was
stopped. The final version was intended
to be the Panza 250. This was designed
as a reloadable launcher instead of a
disposable oneshot with a pistol grip
and electrical firing system. Finally
beginning to resemble the modern RPGs
that would come later. It fired its
improved charge faster and would have
been a highly effective anti-tank weapon
if its production optimistically planned
for September 1945
had ever been realized. However,
although the Germans did not have the
chance to make this panzer fast, Soviet
post-war designers took a close look at
the concept and four years later in 1949
introduced the RPG2, a design
suspiciously similar to the German
Panzer. We also have to mention other
German anti-tank weapons because the
Panzer wasn't the only one. The next
most important was the Panzer Shrek.
Panzer Shrek literally meant tank
terror, which shows how creative they
were with names, and it was essentially
Germany's bazooka. They created it after
examining captured American bazookas.
And just in the style of German
engineering, they made it better. It
fired an 88 mm caliber rocket with a
larger warhead of about 3 kg of
explosive capable of penetrating up to
200 mm of armor, which was the same or
better than the Panzer Foust. Unlike the
Panzer Foust, this was a reusable rocket
launcher with much better range and
accuracy. But instead of being operated
by one man, it required a dedicated
anti-tank team of two, a gunner and a
loader. It even had a shield on the tube
to protect the operator's face from the
powerful back blast created when the
rocket exited. Troops nicknamed it
ofenroar, meaning stovepipe. Germans
used both panzerasts and panzer shreks
throughout the war. But panzer shrekes
were more expensive and required a team
and some training to use effectively.
Then there was the telmine, a
dish-shaped metal mine filled with about
5 kg of TNT, buried under the soil and
used extensively in defensive belts. In
desperate situations, soldiers also
sometimes tried to place them directly
onto or under tanks during close combat.
And there was the magnetic mine we
mentioned earlier, which required
someone to stick it onto the tank
directly. The Allies also had similar
anti-tank weapons of their own, and some
are worth mentioning because of how
unique their operation was. The American
Bazooka was the standard reusable rocket
launcher. Introduced already in 1942. It
fired a 60 mm heat rocket and had a
decent but not impressive penetration of
about 75 to 100 mm. Effective range was
much better than the Panza, up to 150
meters, and it also required a team of
two. Reliability was a problem since
early models used a battery to activate
the rocket's propellant charge, and this
was sensitive to cold, meaning it
wouldn't always fire exactly when you
needed it while aiming at an enemy tank.
It was also more difficult to use in
urban combat because of its longer tube.
The allies actually respected the German
panserast and its simplicity and
effectiveness and used them whenever
they had the chance to capture them.
Like the Germans, they also used them
against bunkers, fortifications, and
even infantry, not just against tanks.
But the most unique of them was
definitely the British PT, short for
project, infantry, anti-tank. Unlike the
Germans with their flashy names, this
one was very plain. It was essentially a
spigot mortar that lobbed a shaped
charge using a powerful spring. This
meant no back blast, so it was safe to
fire from enclosed spaces, and it didn't
reveal the operator's position like
Panza Fousts and bazookas did with their
sparks and clouds of dust. It had
similar penetration to the American
bazooka, but its realistically effective
range was up to only 50 m. The Pat came
with a heavy recoil from the spring,
which slammed directly into the
shooter's shoulder, and it weighed 32
lb, so it wasn't exactly easy to carry.
In theory, the recoil should reccock the
spring after firing, preparing it for
the next round. So, in theory, the
operator needed to manually [ __ ] it only
once. In practice, however, this didn't
always work. When it failed, a soldier
had to stand up, place the PIAT
vertically, and step on the shoulder pad
while pulling the spring back with both
arms to reset it. Check confirm if the
PAT also used a small propellant charge
in addition to the spring energy to
launch the bomb. As some sources mention
both forces working together because of
these issues, British troops had a
lovehate relationship with the PYAT. The
Soviets didn't have their own version of
what we now know as the RPG during the
war. They used anti-tank rifles heavily,
although their effectiveness dropped
later in the conflict. They also relied
on more creative and brutal methods like
Molotov cocktails and satchel charges.
Like the Western Allies, they loved
using captured German panerasts whenever
they could. They did experiment with the
RPG one, but it came too late to see
action. Allied handheld anti-tank
weapons never matched the German ones in
quantity, simplicity, or sheer
effectiveness. But they didn't really
need to. They had more tanks anyway,
while the Germans had to come up with
ways to give their infantry the best
fighting chance. Once the war turned
against them, as the war entered its
final phase, we come to the darkest use
of the panzer. They were handed out to
the folkm, which literally meant
people's storm militia. This was
essentially anyone between 16 and 60
years old who could hold a weapon. They
were instructed that they were now the
last line of defense of the Reich. Like
in Berlin itself during the final
battle, old men, children, women, anyone
who had two working hands and could aim
and fire a panzer was armed and given
the briefest of instructions on how to
use it against Allied armor at their
doorsteps. Many of them died in
desperate attempts, but many others
accounted for a significant number of
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