Submarines and their Weapons - Aircraft of World War II

TANKS AND ANTI-TANK WEAPONS
Above: The Panzerfaust 30 was the simplest of all German
rocket-propelled grenade launchers. Its designation
referred to its optimum range - 30m (32.8 yards).
Below: Appearances are not deceptive. The
'Panzerschreck' was developed from the US Bazooka,
and was just as effective. Two versions were produced.
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or hollow explosive charge, which incorporated a hollow
cone or hemisphere of metal translated by the
heat of the explosion behind it into a high-speed
(around 7500m/s; 24,600ft/s) jet of molten material
and gas. This was first produced, in Germany in 1939,
as a demolition charge, and is reputed to have been
first used in combat at the storming of the fortress of
Eben-Emael in May 1940. By that time, however, its
developers had moved on, and were on the verge of
producing an artillery shell on the same principle.
The British and Americans had also made considerable
progress independently, while the Soviets had
achieved the same ends by the rather simpler means
of copying captured or stolen German munitions.
However, in this principle, there was a problem: the
act of spinning the shell to maintain its accuracy in
flight dispersed the molten jet and made it much less
effective. One answer was to stabilise the round with
fins instead, but that took some working out. Another
answer was to emulate the pyrotechnic 'sky rocket'
and fit the projectile with a long shaft for a tail. In the
successful German development of this simple principle,
the rod was surrounded by a tube upon which fins
were mounted. The rod went down the barrel of a
3.7cm PaK 36 anti-tank gun, and the tube fitted
around it, with the shaped-charge warhead, with its
copper hemisphere and 2.4kg (5.31b) of TNT and hexogen
sitting in front of the mu/zle. It was propelled by