by
Visniewski
Now for the production numbers: Within mere 21 months of the Panzerfaust’s mass-production vast amounts of these cheap but effective weapons were made. The 300 000 projected monthly delivery figure, ordered by HWA in 1943 was not merely a figure of speech. Although it took nine months to achieve, the production figures did not stop at that. For the whole of 1943 a total of 335 300 Faustpatronen were delivered to the HWA, but a year later there were 5.5 million launchers in the hands of the troops. Starting in November 1944 the MONTHLY delivery figure exceeded ONE MILLION. In the last two months for which the central records are known, January and February, 1945, as many as 2 056 000 brand-new Panzerfaust 100s reached the troops. The overall recoilless antitank launcher production figure between March 1943 and February 1945 reached as many as 8 000 000 units, making the Panzerfaust a Wehrmacht’s second most popular weapon, close at the heels of the ubiquitous Mauser K98k rifle! Quite an achievement, as the complete Panzerfaust launchers were supplied by just three assembly plants: two Hugo Schneider AG (Hasag) filials in Lepizig (manufacturer’s code: „wa”) and Schlieben („wk”), as well as Warz & Co. of Zella-Mehlis („cq”).
This Volkssturm rally in Berlin, March of 1945, reveals that the lacking warhead decal was not any exception - each arrow points to a warhead lacking decal: there seems to be an even number of those with and without the sticker.
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