PIAT files - general maintenance 56k warning! lots of pics

TheIndifferent1

TheIndifferent1

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Hope some of you find this interesting. Sorry for the bad pictures on some, but hey, what do you want for free :D :p I realize they look small on here, but if you save them to your hd you should be able to zoom in ok. The originals are 350-400k, not sure if photobucket shrinks them or not.

To all you folks that are handy with a welder, it looks to me like it wouldn't be too difficult to make a reproduction PIAT.

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shortandlong said:
were the projectiles spring propelled by the launcher?
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According to my ex wifes Army Father yes they were, and it was quite a spring.

Also of note, back in the 50's he had access to a few for some military college studies, and almost blew his hand off with a detonator that was supposed to have been deactivated.

I can imagine having a launcher with the kit such as the cover, pad, and Gaiter and such would be worth quite abit. :)
 
They had a really tough spring. They had to be cocked by using your legs to #### the spring. Basically, you only have time for one shot.

And since it's spring loaded, it has a very short range.

What a useless piece of junk. I'd rather have a sticky bomb...
 
The theory was that you only needed to #### the spring once, upon firing, the recoil would re-#### the spring. That's how it was supposed to work, but that wasn't always so.

ilovepotatos said:
What a useless piece of junk. I'd rather have a sticky bomb...
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E.A. 'Smoky' Smith might disagree with you. ;)
 
ilovepotatos said:
They had a really tough spring. They had to be cocked by using your legs to #### the spring. Basically, you only have time for one shot.

And since it's spring loaded, it has a very short range.

What a useless piece of junk. I'd rather have a sticky bomb...
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Maximum effective range was 115m.

You would have repeated shots. The spigot would hit a cartridge sitting in the back of the bomb, which would fire, project the bomb (from both the cartridge and the spring I assume) and then recock it. If the cartridge did not go off, then you had to recock it by hand.

You only used your legs if you were trying to recock it prone. If you cocked it standing up it was easier, you just stood on the base. Tt was still a very heavy spring though.

The PIAT was very useful - it could be used indoors, which the bazooka and panzerfaust both could not. The bomb, once it got the new graze fuse, was also very effective. It was a stop gap measure til something better came, but for what it was it served us well :)
 
TheIndifferent1 said:
The PIAT was very useful - it could be used indoors, which the bazooka and panzerfaust both could not.
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Not having a back blast would have been a huge plus IMHO, as standing in the open against tanks doesn't sound like a safe option.

Some clever stuff what built back then. :)
 
airwapiti said:
That is not a long way away from anything that is armed and bulletproof like a panzer.

without that graze fuze the PIAT was about as usefull for launching a banana cream pie as putting a hole in armoured steel
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Agreed, it's not a long range. Better than the Boys though, and if memory serves the bazooka and panzerschrek didn't have a terribly far effective range either - 150 yards each according to wikipedia.

It took an average of 3 PIAT hits to kill a tank. This is averaged over every model of Panzer though, with the Tigers and Panthers being the hardest to kill of course. Can't remember when the graze fuse came into being, but it made a big difference.
 
TheIndifferent1 said:
Agreed, it's not a long range. Better than the Boys though, and if memory serves the bazooka and panzerschrek didn't have a terribly far effective range either - 150 yards each according to wikipedia.

It took an average of 3 PIAT hits to kill a tank. This is averaged over every model of Panzer though, with the Tigers and Panthers being the hardest to kill of course. Can't remember when the graze fuse came into being, but it made a big difference.
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They often aimed for the treads, mind you. Also, keep in mind that not every place Commonwealth forces utilized the PIAT as an anti-tank device was against the german forces; the ghurkas used them to good effect in southeast Asia...

The PIAT, as with many anti-materiel devices, became very popular with those wanting an improvised "force multiplier" and so it was often deployed in scenarios other than anti-tank.
 
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cyclone said:
They often aimed for the treads, mind you. Also, keep in mind that not every place Commonwealth forces utilized the PIAT as an anti-tank device was against the german forces; the ghurkas used them to good effect in southeast Asia...

The PIAT, as with many anti-materiel devices, became very popular with those wanting an improvised "force multiplier" and so it was often deployed in scenarios other than anti-tank.
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The PIAT isn't really accurate enough to 'aim' specifically at any part. But yes, tank treads, as well as the sides and back of the hull were preferred.

PIATs were also used in a pinch as mortars :) Also handy for bunkers or any other hardened target.
 
Now that I re-read some of the files, it seems as though the PIAT is fired by the cartridge in the tail, and the spring/spigot is just to reduce recoil. Can anyone confirm? I've never used a PIAT or spigot mortar.
 
TheIndifferent1 said:
The PIAT isn't really accurate enough to 'aim' specifically at any part.

Clarification, then: When they aimed at tanks, they would be contented to score a hit against the treads...;)

But yes, tank treads, as well as the sides and back of the hull were preferred.

Especially against the back of the hull, when Tigers were concerned.

PIATs were also used in a pinch as mortars :) Also handy for bunkers or any other hardened target.
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Yep, improvised bunker-busters!
 
Don't need no plans as I already have one.
Another thing about cocking it, don't DRY fire the bloody thing as it could damage it. You have to reverse the cocking procedure. Only found that out AFTER I had cocked it. Thats a 200lb spring! If you are not tall enough, you can rupture yourself cocking it. Also you want a death grip on it when you pull the trigger or you might be missing some teeth, (which happened to a lieutenant in North Africa. It broke his jaw as well)

One saving grace. Unlike a rocket launcher, you could fire it from an enclosed space, kike out the window of a room, and there was no backblast to let the other side know where you were. (rather unhealthy if they start shooting at you)
 
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