______The Panzerfaust was a simple weapon designed to give the German infantryman of World War II a chance against the greatest of battlefield terrors: the tank.
______The weapon was basically an explosive charge mounted on a tube. The firer aimed the tube at the enemy tank, depressed the trigger, and the charge would be hurled by a small rocket charge. Using a shaped explosive, the panzerfaust was devastating when properly used: it could penetrate 20cm of armor at a range of 30m. Later, this range was improved to 100m.
______First used at the end of 1942 the panzerfaust was in widespread use by the end of 1943. Being easy to use and easy to handle, it was given to members of the Volksgrenadiers, the old men and children raised to fight for Germany even as the Russians, the British and the Americans were sweeping their way towards the vaterland. As such, it became a kind of a symbol of desperate Nazi resistance.
