Panzerfaust

Panzerfaust
A Luftwaffe soldier aims the Faustpatrone using the integrated leaf sight
Type	Man-portable anti-tank recoilless gun
Place of origin	Nazi Germany
Service history
In service	1943–1945 (Nazi Germany)
Used by	See Users
Wars	World War II
Production history
Produced	1942–1945
Number built	over 6 million (all variants)
Variants	Panzerfaust 30, 60, 100, 150, 250
Specifications
Weight	6.25 kilograms (13.8 lb) (Panzerfaust 60)
Length	~ 1 meter (3 ft 3 in)
Crew	infantry
Caliber	149 mm (Panzerfaust 60)
Effective firing range	60 m (200 ft) (Panzerfaust 60)
Warhead	Shaped charge
Detonation mechanism	Impact

The Panzerfaust (lit. "armor fist" or "tank fist", plural: Panzerfäuste) is an inexpensive, single shot, recoilless German anti-tank weapon of World War II. It consists 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 earlier Russian RPG weapon systems such as the RPG-2. Most notably, the RPG-7 added a sustainer rocket motor to the grenade.

A forerunner of the Panzerfaust was the Faustpatrone (literally "fist cartridge").

The Faustpatrone was much smaller in physical appearance than the better known Panzerfaust. Development of the Faustpatrone started in the summer of 1942 at the German company HASAG with the development of a smaller prototype called Gretchen ("little Greta") by a team headed by Dr. Heinrich Langweiler in Leipzig. The basic concept was that of a recoilless gun; neither the Faustpatrone, nor its successor the Panzerfaust were rockets, because the round design didn't feature a sustainer rocket motor that ignited after it left the launcher.

The following weapon model of the Panzerfaust family, the so-called Faustpatrone klein, 30 m ("small fist-cartridge") had a total weight of 3.2 kg (7.1 lb) and a total length of 98.5 cm (38¾ in); its projectile had a length of 36 cm (14¼ in) and a warhead diameter of 10 cm (4 in); it carried a shaped charge of 400 g (14 oz) of a 50:50 mix of TNT and tri-hexogen. The propellant consisted of 54 g (1.9 oz or 830 grains) of black powder, the metal launch tube had a length of 80 cm (31½ in) and a diameter of 3.3 cm (1.3 in) (early models reportedly 2.8 cm (1.1 in)). Fitted to the warhead was a wooden shaft with folded stabilizing fins (made of 0.25 mm (0.01 in) thick spring metal). These bent blades straightened into position by themselves as soon as they left the launch tube. The warhead was accelerated to a speed of 28 m/s (92 ft/s), had a range of about 30 m (100 ft) and an armor penetration of up to 140 mm (5½ in) of plain steel.