Biltong Posted September 2, 2002 Share Posted September 2, 2002 How close to a tank does one have to get to use them; what are their penetration characteristics and WTH are they? Thanx guys - that was fast... Found this on the net: Panzerwurfmine H.C. (Munroe) 89 mm A shaped charge with 5.16 ounces of explosive, attached to a stick with spring-loaded fabric fins at the rear. When it was thrown, the fins unfolded and stabilized the warhead in flight. A pair of Swiss inventors were the first to think of using the well documented Munroe effect to penetrate armour plate. They tried to sell the design to foreign arms manufacturers, claiming that a new explosive had been discovered. Unfortunately for the inventors, explosives experts soon figured out that a shaped charge was responsible for the amazing penetration results, and they went ahead and copied it. German, British, and Soviet troops received H.C. anti-tank grenades as early as 1940. [ September 02, 2002, 02:35 PM: Message edited by: Biltong ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WWB Posted September 2, 2002 Share Posted September 2, 2002 1) About 30m will work. 2) They can take out just about anything. 3) I took a picture of one at Ft. Knox. Go here to check it out. WWB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YankeeDog Posted September 2, 2002 Share Posted September 2, 2002 You know those little things people buy to throw on the beach that have a nerf ball on one end attached to a short (maybe 15cm long) stick and then some fins or tassels on the other end? That basically what a Panzerwurfmine is. Name in German basically means "Mine for throwing at tanks." the business end of the weapon (the "ball") was a small shaped charge. The rest of the weapon basically just stabilized it and made it more likely that it would hit the tank with it's shaped charge oriented in the right direction. I'm not sure, but I think the idea was to loft the thing pretty high in the air so that it would land on the relatively thin deck armor of the tank. I have no idea what the penetration stats were, but I can't imagine they were all that great - the weapon couldn't have had that big a warhead if it was meant to be hand-thrown. I imagine the range would be pretty similar, and perhaps slightly shorter than, a regular hand grenade. Cheers, YD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gredeker Posted September 2, 2002 Share Posted September 2, 2002 Originally posted by Biltong: How close to a tank does one have to get to use them; what are their penetration characteristics and WTH are they?About 30m or less; huge (114mm shaped charge warhead); think of it as a handheld panzerfaust round. Before capturing examples of American bazookas in N. Africa, the Panzerwurfmine was one of the best infantry AT weapons the Germans had. It had folding vanes to keep it stable in flight and ensure that it hit the enemy tank correctly (sort of like a giant lawn dart). The shaped charge warhead was very similar to the later panzerfaust, the main difference being the shorter range due to the hand-thrown nature of the weapon. The charge was a fairly large shaped charge (my source says 1.126 pounds of TNT and RDX) and could thus take out nearly any tank. I can't wait to use these things in an urban setting - no backblast to give away the firer or light of the firer's building. Edit: Dang, others got there first. [ September 02, 2002, 02:36 PM: Message edited by: redeker ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwolf Posted September 2, 2002 Share Posted September 2, 2002 The wurfmine seems to do the job up to 40 meters. The multi-grenade pack 30 meters. Single grenades substancially more far. I still have no clue about the optimal movement command sequence to cross some final open ground with the tank hunter teams. Damn. Anybody interested in the victory points system? [ September 02, 2002, 04:08 PM: Message edited by: redwolf ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts