Infantry Survivability

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You usually only had to cock it once, because the recoil would recock it for subsequent shots.

Here's a YouTube vid of the PIAT being cocked and fired:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI54_pH3C74&NR=1

The fat gentleman at the end claims it would only fire 40M, but you can see from the earlier clips in the video that the bomb really hums, flying through the air at around 450fps (compare to panzerfaust 200, bazooka 270, panzershreck 345fps) so I believe what I see in the video, and that a 3 pound bomb going 450fps is going to have enough momentum to go further than 40m.

The guy also claimed the PIAT sights only went to 110yds, but I've picked up and handled the PIAT on a few occasions and have photos of the sights, which go[/i] up to 370yds.

I recently read "Quartered Safe out Here" (recommend it BTW) where the author fired the PIAT 4 times. He hit a small target at 80yds with his second shot on two occasions. The first time an officer paced out the distance. The second time was a boat moving down a river in very poor light.

Here's another video of the PIAT being cocked while sitting/lying down:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj76mfiIa34