The PIAT: Britain’s anti-tank weapon of World Warfare II

Designed in 1942, Britain’s revolutionary Projector, Infantry, Anti-Tank (PIAT) supplied British and Commonwealth troops with a much-needed technique of taking up Germany’s formidable Panzers. Changing the insufficient Boys anti-tank rifle, it was conceived within the top-secret World Warfare II analysis and growth group identified colloquially as ‘Churchill’s Toyshop’, alongside different ingenious weapons such because the sticky bomb, the limpet mine and the time-pencil fuse.

Not like the extra well-known US bazooka, the PIAT had its roots in one thing easier than rocket science. Operated from the shoulder, the PIAT was a spigot mortar which fired a heavy high-explosive bomb, with its most important spring absorbing the recoil. The PIAT had a restricted efficient vary. Troops required nerves of metal to get shut sufficient to an enemy tank to make sure a direct hit, typically approaching to inside 50ft of the goal, and no fewer than six Victoria Crosses have been received throughout World Warfare II by troopers working PIATs. A front-line weapon in each theatre of the battle by which Commonwealth troops fought, from Europe to the Far East, the PIAT remained in service after 1945, seeing motion through the Greek Civil Warfare, the Arab–Israeli battle and the Korean Warfare. This illustrated examine combines detailed analysis with skilled evaluation to disclose the complete story of the design, growth and deployment of this revolutionary weapon.