Panzerfaust

[Frundsberg]

here are some pics of exploded Faustpatrone 30 warhead(Gretchen) from my collection. It is interesting to see what is inside.

[blackheart0866]

How that would work, is kinda like the damn IEDs in iraq, that inverted cone on the inside, when superheated from the charge, would revert the opposite direction it is now, and shoot right out the end in a type of hot molten metal, and would cut through any armor, like hot lead being poured onto soft butter.


The most deadly IED's in Iraq, are the EFP ( Explosive Formed Projectile ) , they use a copper type cone also, and does the same thing.


Brian

[Matt L]

Yup it's what's now called an EFP. I've read that the Germans referred to what the cone became as a 'Dorn' or Thorn, because of the shape of the 'projectile' shown in photographs looks just like a plant thorn only obviously larger. Later models of shaped charge projectiles (including artillery types) used a hemisphere rather than a cone- although it is usually heavy sheet steel. Presumably sometime after the war someone realized copper was superior. It may be that these earlier forms' cones don't go molten but do form a kinetic penetrator, whereas copper could melt and burn through the armor plate?

That 30m grenade is pretty cool- not detonated but shredded presumably by artillery shell fragments. Interesting that its cone appears to be either something other than steel or it was coated to protect it- maybe galvanized? Zinc oxidizes white, so that'd fit...