Wednesday 4 June 2014

Panzerfaust Protection

Pictures of Soviet Tanks in Berlin with various methods of protection from HEAT based anti-tank rounds, both factory produced and improvised in the field, are very common. Many can be seen in this article. Finally, I have found some mention of these protective methods. From CAMD RF 233-2356-776:

"The use of anti-faust meshes in street battles for Berlin.

While fighting in Berlin, it was determined that most tanks are damaged by "Faustpatrone" type grenades. Further investigation of this issue revealed that enemy Faust units fire at the fighting compartment and driver's compartment with the aim of disabling the crew and armament or detonating the ammunition rack. On orders from the Commander of the Armoured and Mechanized Forces Anisimov, units installed meshes over tank turrets and driver compartments.

Metal meshes with bars 0.5-0.8 mm were used for this purpose, forming 4 cm by 4 cm squares. Use of these tanks in battle showed that the mesh usually saves the tank and suffers little damage (torn opening, 10-12 cm in diameter). These meshes are welded on top of special carriers made from round metal 15-20 mm in diameter, 200 mm away from armour, with the intention that the focus of the blast is aimed outside of the armour.

Practical use showed that the mesh is insignificantly damaged, and the armour suffers a small melting mark.

Conclusions: the use of meshed protection from Faust grenades has significant practical use, and should be further studied an investigated.

Attachment: diagram on two pages."

Diagram of screens on a heavy tank.

Diagram of a blast from a Faustpatrone hitting armour.

The second diagram shows the armour in green (and blue, for some reason), with the screen being in red. The rest of it should be self-explanatory.

2 comments:

  1. Huh. I thought these proved to be largely inadeqate at the task of mitigating Panzerfaust damage.

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  2. Only on german tanks. You know...

    ReplyDelete