PWM-1 Anti Tank Grenade

[Chad1992]

I know we have severl anit tank weapons, but this one looks kinda cool to me.  Would be nice due to its longer throwing distance.  I don't know much about it, maybe someone else does.  Says it could penetrate up to 150mm of armor.


I think this guy is throwing it wrong, but atleast you can see what it looks like.

[THeTA0123]

the problem is, these were only used by Luftwaffe troops. And with only 231 000 made, the only chance of seeing this anti-tank grenade would be in Italy campaign.

[Thorondor123]

Suggested numerous times.

[Chad1992]

Suggested numerous times.

My bad 

[DocHawkeye]

*Could* penetrate up to 150mm of armor. I bet it's performance in the field was often much lower. Anti-tank grenades were finicky weapons during the war and still are. You often had to hit the tank's armor at just the right angle in order for the plasma jet to penetrate properly. That's obviously what the drogue chute at the back of the grenade is for, but they equipped these weapons to Luftwaffe Field Battalions. Who probably received little or no training at all on how to properly use it.

I could see it being useful in a pinch if they had equipped it to say, the Heer. What could this thing do that a Panzerfaust couldn't though?

[THeTA0123]

it was cheaper to construct

but its better to invest a bit more in a weapon that will always delivers it punch

[Butcher]

*Could* penetrate up to 150mm of armor. I bet it's performance in the field was often much lower.

Pretty much as with the (Normandy) Bazooka which could penetrate rather 60mm of steel reliably and not the 70-80mm stated by the factory.

[THeTA0123]

actually 110. The M9 bazooka did lived up to its factory performance however


Another problem was the Faustpatrone 30. If fired at a sandbag, often it did not penetrated the armour. This led to allied tankers throwing sandbags and stuff on there tanks

Problem was, the Panzerfaust 30 had no problems with these sandbags whatsoever.

As for anti-tank grenades, the russians got some very good AT grenades out.

Like the RPG-6. Wich detonated on impact, and often also landed on the cone. Factory settings said 120mm, it could penetrate up to 100mm often. However it had a small extra little thing wich was a effective fragmentation radius of 20 meters. Wich adds to its multi-purpose usefullness


It can supplement weapons like a Panzerfaust/Bazooka but it can never replace it with the same effects.

[DocHawkeye]

it was cheaper to construct

but its better to invest a bit more in a weapon that will always delivers it punch

Yeah but then they built millions of Panzerfausts. While only about 200,000-ish of those grenades. The material savings don't appear to have been worth the low effectiveness.

retty much as with the (Normandy) Bazooka which could penetrate rather 60mm of steel reliably and not the 70-80mm stated by the factory.

Part of the problem was that the early Bazooka warhead was found to have an incorrect fuse time. It would usually go off too late, causing the warhead to flatten against the armor it was hitting and then go off. No shaped charge effect, however this did lead to the discovery of HESH (squash head) munitions. The Bazooka also could still neutralize tanks in this manner, it just wouldn't be very apparent to the skittish GIs firing them. Spalling was I think a poorly understood phenomenon during the war and crew causalities aren't  immediately apparent.