DEATH TO TANKS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 64, 16 March 1944, Page 4

DEATH TO TANKS

NEW BRITISH WEAPON

LIGHT BUT EFFECTIVE

The secret o£ a light, portable infantry weapon of entirely new design which has proved itself in battle to be a deadly counter to enemy tanks and brilliantly successful when used against pillboxes, concrete emplacements and similar targets has been disclosed by the British information Services.

The weapon is called the Piat— the word being formed from the initials of the official name "projector or infantry anti-tank." A striking feature of the Piat is that, while it fires a bomb welgning 2Jlb which will penetrate 4in of the finest armour plate and thus eliminate a crew inside its tank with the efficiency of 75 m.m. gun, the total weight of the weapon is only 331b— actually 21b less than that of the old anti-tank rifle.

"The Piat consists of a light steel tube enclosing a spring developing 2001b pressure. When released the spring carries forward a steel rod or spigot which fires the cartridge in the tail of the bomb, and the resultant explosion not only propels the bomb but recompresses the spring, automatically recocking the weapon."

A Light Recoil The spring mechanism inside the weapon ensures so light a recoil that the Piat can actually be fired from the shoulder, and infantrymen using it in this fashion with the forepart of the weapon rested, are trained to hit a moving tank in a vital part at a range of 100 yards.

A number of bombs can be fired in quick succession, the propellant charge being carried in a small brass cylinder and actuated by the recoil spring. With the butt of the weapon placed on the ground to give elevation, enemy transport, machine-gun nests and similar targets have been successfully engaged at ranges up to 350 yards.

Canadians have secured particularly successful results against tanks when using the Piat in tough, close fighting in Italy. A British division has employed it with great effect against enemy pill boxes. The British Ministry of Supply is now producing the weapon in quantity. Twenty-three Piats are at present allotted to each infantry battalion, and it is also adequately distributed among all other types of ground forces.