Panzerfausts in the Romanian Armed Forces ?

[Geto-Dacul]

I saw a pic of a Romanian soldier having a panzerfaust in the snow, somewhere in Czechoslovakia, early 1945... Did the Romanians had any panzerfausts during the year 1944?

[Victor]

The first AT rockets were imported in late 1943. Each platoon had several men trained as tank-hunters. The team was formed from a destroyer and a lookout. They also used Soviet AT rifles (there was even a project to build a Romanian one), but obviously the AT rockets were much more efficient.

[Geto-Dacul]

How effective was a panzerfaust against, let's say a T-34/85? I heard that the panzerfaust had 66% chances of destroying a tank... Is it true? Are there any records of Romanian soldiers using panzerfausts against Soviet tanks, during the Iasi-Chisinau campaign?

[luer]

G-D, maybe you know it already, but this is the most comprehensive site on German AT-weapons:

http://www.geocities.com/Augusta/8172/panzerfaust.htm

The PzF's on your photograph were probably PzF#s30, klein (small), the soldier is happily eating some bread ? These nust have been also the first ones delivered to Romania, and they had a range of 30 m. SO, still, the tank had to be goddamn close. When you hit, and the warhead hit with the correct angle (shaped charge warhead), you had a very good chance of penetrating the T-34's armour. So, 66% might be correct once you fired, but the chance to fire (and not loosing your nerves too early) was way lower.

L.

[Victor]

QUOTE

How effective was a panzerfaust against, let's say a T-34/85? I heard that the panzerfaust had 66% chances of destroying a tank... Is it true? Are there any records of Romanian soldiers using panzerfausts against Soviet tanks, during the Iasi-Chisinau campaign?

I remember a mention of a soldier from the 3rd (or was it the 4th?) Motorized Vanatori Regiment knocking out two Soviet tanks (most likely T-34s) on 20 August.

[C-2]

QUOTE

How effective was a panzerfaust against, let's say a T-34/85? I heard that the panzerfaust had 66% chances of destroying a tank... Is it true? Are there any records of Romanian soldiers using panzerfausts against Soviet tanks, during the Iasi-Chisinau campaign?

An uncle of mine was one of the first Romanian soldiers who fired a Panzerfaust.Not in combat but as a demonstration (he was a training oficer).He told me more than 10 years ago ,that he fired on a captured Russian tank ,from less than 30m and blew the turret.
A few weeks ago I asked him again about the this demo(I was interested about the tipe of the tank and more details)but he would't remember(or didn't wanted to remember(he's 89).I'll tray again....

[PanzerKing]

There's no doubt that if you hit a T-34/85 at close range it will be destroyed or extrely disabled. The effective range was 100 meters, so if you fire point blank (like street and city fighting) those poor blokes don't stand a chance.

[luer]

I am not sure if we talk about the same weapons here. The Panzerfaust delivered to Romania were of the 30, klein, 30 and maybe of the 60 type, so they had effective ranges of 30 and 60 m respectively (give or take a little). The PzF100 was only in production after August 44.

The Panzerschreck, or Raketenpanzerbüchse 54 had an effective (=decent hit chance) range of ca. 100 to 125 m (max range 200).

But, both weapons worked with the shaped charge principle, rather burning a hole into the tank with a plasma jet than working with momentum.

That implies two things: the effectiveness of the weapon is not affected by the distance you fire from, it does not make a difference for the armour penetration if you fire from point blank or 200 m away.

Also, it seems unlikely that you can blow away a turret of a big tank with a weapon like that. The projectiles were flying very very slow.

But something I really would like to know: did Romania receive RPzB54 from Germany ? My sources state differnt things here and remain blurry.

Luer.

[C-2]

I don't know the tipe of the tank that was used as a target and I don't know what he ment by"blowing the turret".I'm curious too.
If I remember corectly Iwas told that the proiectil hit the tank"under the turret".Si i-a smuls turela(couldn't translet that).
I'll try to get more inf.tomorow.

[inahurry]

QUOTE

I don't know the tipe of the tank that was used as a target and I don't know what he ment by\"blowing the turret\".I'm curious too. If I remember corectly Iwas told that the proiectil hit the tank\"under the turret\".Si i-a smuls turela(couldn't translet that). I'll try to get more inf.tomorow.

Maybe plucked the turret will do. Anyway, means detaching it from the chassis and throwing it away, possibly leaving it structurally intact.

[Geto-Dacul]

luer wrote :

QUOTE

G-D, maybe you know it already, but this is the most comprehensive site on German AT-weapons:   http://www.geocities.com/Augusta/8172/panzerfaust.htm

Yes, very interesting page, indeed! Thanks!

QUOTE

The PzF's on your photograph were probably PzF#s30, klein (small), the soldier is happily eating some bread ?

I do not remember the soldier eating something, but I'm nearly sure that he had a PzF-30.

[luer]

by 45, most romanian pzf will have been captured ones, so all kinds and types seem likely.

and c-2, I did not want to question anything your grandfather told you, just to make that clear.

But I know how hard it is to get hard info out of grandfathers - from my own. I can show him 4 pictures of armoured cars on 4 different days and he will say "yes, that's the one we drove in.....hmm, or not ?" ....

plucked away might be, especially if it was a smaller tank.

cheers

[C-2]

Could not talk to my uncle but I foud a veteran named Alexandru Sitaru ,who was a head of an anti tank batalion.
He talked a lot and in small details about two AT weapons used by him:
-The FAUSTPTRONNE(1944) which was fired from9-15m!!!!!! and could penetrate an armour 5-7 cm deep.was fired from an 80 cm tube.
-The OFFENROHN(I'm not so sure the name is correct-I was talking on the phone),which was fired from a tube of 12 cm diam.an 1.5 m long it was recoiless and was used from a distance of 15-17 m and could penetreit 5-7 cm .
I even got a picture by a "special messeger".
AS has a lot of details about the use of those weapons but I didn't get eny information about a "meeting" between those weapons and a T-34.....

[Geto-Dacul]

Are their any cases of soldiers destroying Joseph Stalins (IS-2) with Panzerfausts?

[Csaba Becze]

The Panzerschreck was the "Ofenrohr" (means: stove pipe) Some IS-2 was knocked out by Panzerschrecks.