page_title: Panzerfaust
section_title: Germany
hierarchical_section_title: Panzerfaust / Combat use / Germany
context_page_description: The Panzerfaust was an inexpensive, single shot, recoilless German anti-tank weapon of World War II. It consisted of a small, disposable pre-loaded launch tube firing a high-explosive anti-tank warhead, and was intended to be operated by a single soldier. The Panzerfaust's direct ancestor was the similar, smaller-warhead Faustpatrone ordnance device. The Panzerfaust was in use from 1943 until the end of the war.
  The weapon's concepts played an important part in the development of the later Russian RPG weapon systems such as the RPG-2. Most notably, the RPG-7 added a sustainer rocket motor to the projectile.
context_section_description: In the Battle of Normandy, only 6% of British tank losses were from Panzerfaust fire despite the close-range combat in the bocage landscape. However, the threat from the Panzerfaust forced tank forces to wait for infantry support before advancing. The portion of British tanks taken out of action by Panzerfäuste  later rose to 34%, a rise probably explained by the lack of German anti-tank guns late in the war and the increased numbers of Panzerfäuste that were available.
  In urban combat later in the war in eastern Germany, about 70% of tanks destroyed were hit by Panzerfäuste or Panzerschrecks. The Soviet forces responded by installing spaced armour on their tanks from early 1945 onwards. Western allied tanks were modified in the field in order to provide some protection against Panzerfaust, including to logs, sandbags, track links, and wire mesh like German skirts. In practice about 1 metre of air gap was required to substantially reduce the penetrating capability of the warhead, thus skirts and sandbags were virtually entirely ineffective against Panzerschreck and Panzerfaust, but the additions did overburden the vehicle's engine, transmission, and suspension systems.
  Later on, each Soviet heavy tank (IS) and assault gun (ISU-152) company had assigned a platoon of infantry in urban battles to protect them from infantry-wielded, anti-tank weapons and were often supported by flamethrowers. This order remained intact even during '50s and the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.
  During the last stages of the war, due to the lack of available weapons, many poorly-trained conscripts (mainly elderly men) and teenage Hitler Youth members were often given a single Panzerfaust plus any type of obsolete pistols. This caused several German generals to comment sarcastically that the empty launch-tubes could then be used as clubs in hand-to-hand combat.
caption: March 1945: Volkssturm trooper explaining the handling of a Panzerfaust to a female civilian.
exif: {}