The improved Raketenpanzerbüchse 54 with blast shield
Type
Anti-tank rocket launcher
Place of origin
Nazi Germany
Service history
In service
1943–1945 (Nazi Germany)[1]
Used by
See Users
Wars
World War II
Production history
Unit cost
70 ℛ︁ℳ︁
No. built
314,895[2]
Variants
RPzB 54, RPzB 54/1
Specifications
Mass
11 kg (24 lb) empty (RPzB 54) with shield
Length
164 centimetres (65 in)
Caliber
88 mm (3.5 in)
Muzzle velocity
110 m/s (360 ft/s)
Effective firing range
150 m (490 ft) RPzB 54
Panzerschreck (lit. "tank fright", "tank's fright" or "tank's bane") was the popular name for the Raketenpanzerbüchse 54 ("Rocket Anti-armor Rifle Model 54", abbreviated to RPzB 54), an 88 mm reusable anti-tank rocket launcher developed by Nazi Germany in World War II. Another earlier, official name was Ofenrohr ("stove pipe").[3]
The Panzerschreck was designed as a lightweight infantry anti-tank weapon and was an enlarged copy of the American bazooka.[4] The weapon was shoulder-launched and fired a fin-stabilized rocket with a shaped-charge warhead. It was made in smaller numbers than the Panzerfaust, which was a light, disposable anti-tank weapon that used a system akin to recoilless rifles.[5]
^Rottman, 2014 p39
^Rottman 2014 p39
^Bishop, Chris (1998). The Encyclopedia of Weapons of World War II. New York: Orbis Publishing Ltd. p. 206. ISBN 0-7607-1022-8.
^Zaloga, Steven (22 September 2008). Armored Thunderbolt: The U.S. Army Sherman in World War II. Stackpole Books. pp. 90–93. ISBN 9780811742443.
Panzerschreck (lit. "tank fright", "tank's fright" or "tank's bane") was the popular name for the Raketenpanzerbüchse 54 ("Rocket Anti-armor Rifle Model...
Americans' original M1 60 mm bazooka and the Germans' own heavier 88 mm Panzerschreck tube-type rocket launchers based on the American ordnance piece, the...
other minor changes) and widely issuing it as the Raketenpanzerbüchse "Panzerschreck" ("rocket anti-armor rifle 'tank terror'"). Near the end of the war...
case of an invasion by the Allies. It was comparable to the German Panzerschreck and the American bazooka. By 1944 the Americans were using M1 bazooka...
two primary versions: Panzerblitz 2 (PB 2), consisting of an 88 mm Panzerschreck warhead fitted with a ballistic cap, and Panzerblitz 3 (PB 3), consisting...
and later weapon developments, such as the Panzerfaust recoilless and Panzerschreck rocket. The Sturmpistole was a multi-purpose weapon for signaling, illumination...
spot-welding machines. The Army determined that the Dassler plant would make Panzerschreck, a shoulder-fired tube copied after captured American bazookas. Like...
captured by the Germans and fitted with a transport rack for three Panzerschreck anti-tank rocket launchers; the weapons were not fired from the Bren...
Finland received large shipments of German Panzerfaust (F1 and F2) and Panzerschreck. These weapons were used after the war, but soon the need for modern...
Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop offered German hand-held Panzerfaust and Panzerschreck antitank weapons in exchange for a guarantee that Finland would not...
44-2A1 – Model 44–2 with different sight mount. Nigeria West Germany Panzerschreck – (Nazi Germany, Germany) Panzerfaust 3 – (West Germany) PSRL-1 – (United...
German Panzerfaust anti-tank grenade launcher and the 88 mm caliber Panzerschreck anti-tank rocket launcher. In the only study known to have been done...
Battle of Tornio Part of the Lapland War of World War II Finnish Panzerschreck team near Tornio Belligerents Germany Finland Commanders and leaders Mathias...
late 1944 as a target for training the Volkssturm in the use of the Panzerschreck (Raketenpanzerbüchse 54) and other anti-tank weapons.[citation needed]...
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