Surely that’s incorrect, right? The Panzerfaust, just like all handheld AT, was used primarily to attack vehicles from the side or rear.
Why can the Panzerfaust penetrate 220mm of armor? Why can it penetrate more than a King Tiger’s gun?
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Cause it’s a shaped charge and not a cannon round
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200mm of penetration
KT only has 150mm
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I am well aware that it is a Shaped Charge, but as a handheld shape charge from WW2, there’s no conceivable way it would have more penetration than a Tiger’s barrel fired shape charge.
since when did we consider Wikipedia as a good source?
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Realistically speaking, maybe Panzerfaust deals too much damage - but the penetration values are correct.
There is a reason why we still use hand held HEAT today.
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HEAT doesn’t rely on Velocity for it’s penetration and is better against angled surfaces compared to kinetic round
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No.
Thats absolutely correct. German AT weapons of WW2 are absolutely bad ass.
The KT turret front is 185mm (iirc) and not sloped, the frontal armor is 150mm but angled 50°.
No.
Because germans.
Not true at all. The long 88mm with standard round can penetrate 235mm steel in a distance of 100 meters.
500 meters away the gun still manages to perforate ~220mm steel.
At 1000 meter the gun still penetrates ~210mm steel.
Side note: Read about the differences of hollow charge (HEAT) and standard tank ammo (APCBC).
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Apparently you are not actually well aware of much about shaped charges at all.
The primary characteristic of a shaped charge that determines penetration is the diameter of the charge. Stand off distance is the next most important aspect.
spinning the projectile has a very bad effect on penetration - which is likely 1 of the reasons the 88mm HEAT from the Tiger 1 has rather poor penetration compared to the same diameter HEAT from the Panzershrek
Pzfaust has a very large diameter warhead so penetrates a lot of armour - even allowing for the sub-optimal standoff distance.
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Also this comment is kinda ridiculous.
Sure there is alot of BS on Wikipedia, but not really when it comes down to technical stuff. Wikipedia uses alot of sources when it comes to WW2 and is quite accurate for tanks and small arms.
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Wikipedia is great for finding sources - in the references section down the bottom.
But what is written in the text it is often mis-interpreted, or unsourced opinion, or just flat out wrong.
“Technical stuff” is not exempt at all.
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Accurate enough in my opinion
Each item has to be assessed on its own merits - claiming it is always “accurate enough” makes your opinion often worthless.
Tiger has a shape charge?
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In theory yes. The round is the same as the round on the earlier flak 18, but with different driving bands.
I have not seen inaccuracies about armor and gun performance about ww2 vehicles yet, and I check Wikipedia quite often, yes in this regard it is very accurate. I stand by this.
You are aware a round coming out of a cannon and a shape charge aren’t the same, right?
The Tiger fires an AP shell, meaning that it is relying purely on the kinetic force of a fast moving, preferably denser, piece of steel concentrating all its force into a small area to brute force through the armor and damage whatever is in its path inside. Or in WT and Enlisted, get inside and explode like a nuclear bomb killing absolutely everything
A shaped charge on the other hand is a chemical round that puts so much pressure on a substance, typically copper, as to force the solid to act like a liquid and jet a stream of it through the armor
You can get a whole lot more penetration out of a smaller package with a shaped charge than you can an AP shell out of a cannon
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There is a way.
Shaped charges are very much dependent on the diameter of the warhead they originate from in their potency and unlike nomal kinetic rounds dont need speed for penetration but draw that energy from the charge in the warhead itself.
Bad HEAT rounds ( shaped charges ) have a ration of about 1 to1 for penetration to diameter but with improved designs it can reach a 3 to 1 ratio in some cases.
Due to the HEAT round having to fit into the barrel it is limited to a diameter of 88mm but a panzerfaust 60 had a diameter of 140mm for its warhead.
This means that the panzerfaust can be way more potent when compared to the smaller 88mm cannon of the tiger which is why the tiger used normal APHE rounds and not HEAT against tanks.
200ish mm of penetration for the shaped charge does sound believeable when you keep in mind that it
is a 140mm warhead which is massive compared to a bazooka with just 60mm in diameter.
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Yea, it in theory could fire the shaped charge rounds the flak 18 could fire, just with different driving bands. In practice I don’t think they were used all that often.
Gotta remember, a round fired out of a cannon has to be able to withstand the forces that being shot out of it imposes upon it. That HEAT round for the 88 probably had much thicker walls than the panzerfaust. Thicker walls = less filler. Less filler = less power. Less power = less penetration
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