Infantry Survivability

[Cross]

I must however admit the damn Brits & their PIAT seem to perform well, stats show its not as acurate as most but they seem unervingly accurate somehow, strangely I fear them more than a Baz or PF.

I read a book on this, Canada at war, and in it the story teller speaks of his platoon commander having to take 4 shots with a piat to hit a tank at 50-100m. Really what was the piat but a big spring that fired a heavy charge?

Maybe he was a rubbish shot

I did quite a bit of research on the PIAT a while back; and there's a wide range of experiences and claims. For example, a Regiment in Burma claimed they were putting PIAT bombs into bunker slits with regular ease.

Quite a few heavy tanks were KO'd by this weapon, with plenty of battle reports, witnesses and citations as proof.

An analysis by British staff officers of the initial period of the Normandy campaign found that 7% of all German tanks destroyed by British forces were knocked out by PIATs, compared to 6% by rockets fired by aircraft.

The PIAT was kept in service into the 50s and the Korean war; until the USA designed the Super Bazooka, which was markedly superior.

I'm not saying this was a great weapon. All these AT weapons were primitive, but the PIAT easily held it's own, and IMHO had less weaknesses than it's contemporaries.

oops, sorry if this is getting a bit off topic.