54 UNSEEN GEMAN PHOTOS&VIDEOS OF WORLD WAR 2 PART 34

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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, continuing to see service outside of Germany for a number of years.

Other countries
Many Panzerfäuste were sold to Finland, which urgently needed them, as the Finnish forces did not have enough anti-tank weapons that could penetrate heavily armored Soviet tanks like the T-34 and IS-2. The Finnish experience with the weapon and its adaptability to Finnish needs was mixed, and only 4,000 of 25,000 Panzerfäuste delivered were expended in combat. The manual that came with the weapon upon delivery to the Finns included depictions of where to aim the weapon on the Soviet T-34 and US Sherman tank (which also saw service with Soviet troops from US Lend-Lease-supplied stocks).

The Italian Social Republic (RSI) and the Government of National Unity (Hungary) also used the Panzerfaust. Several RSI army units became skilled in anti-tank warfare and the Hungarians themselves used the Panzerfaust extensively, especially during the Siege of Budapest. During this brutal siege, an arms factory, the Hungarian Manfred Weiss Steel and Metal Works, located on Csepel Island (within the city) kept up production of various light armaments and ammunition, Panzerfäuste included, all the way until the very last moment, when attacking Soviet troops seized the factory by the first days of 1945.

The US 82nd Airborne Division captured some Panzerfäuste in the Allied invasion of Sicily, and later during the fighting in Normandy. Finding them more effective than their own Bazookas, they held onto them and used them during the later stages of the French campaign, even dropping with them into the Netherlands during Operation Market Garden. They captured an ammunition dump of Panzerfäuste near Nijmegen, and used them through the Ardennes Offensive toward the end of the war.

The Soviet army only incidentally used captured Panzerfäuste in 1944, but from beginning of 1945 many became available and were used during Soviet 1945 offensives, mostly in street fighting against buildings and covers. In February 1945 such use of captured Panzerfäuste was recommended in a directive by Marshall Georgiy Zhukov. Similarly they were used by the Polish People's Army. After the war some 4,000 Panzerfäuste were adapted by the Polish Army in 1949, designated as PG-49.

Plans and technical materials on the Panzerfaust were supplied to the Empire of Japan to assist with their development of an effective anti-tank weapon. However, the Japanese went with a different design, the Type 4, loosely based upon the American Bazooka. Examples of the American weapon were captured on Leyte.

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