Hi Everyone!
I've been enjoying this site for a couple years now, but this is the first time I've ever started a thread.
This is a PIAT launcher that I just rescued from a carport. One of my older brother's high school friends bought this by mail order around 1965 and when he went off to Viet Nam a couple years later he hung it from the rafters of his parents carport and it's been hanging there ever since!
I've know the gent personally for several years now, and we always talk about militaria, and somehow this never came up until just recently. We quickly did a deal and now it won't have to face the outdoor weather anymore!
Although it has taken a lot of abuse from the elements, it is still amazingly sound. All the moving parts still move, and even the canvas is still intact. It also still has the original cork for plugging the spigot hole when it's cocked, although the chain has rusted enough to break it in one place.
This PIAT has been hanging, in full view of the street, no more than a mile or two from all the homes I've lived in over the past 40+ years and I never knew it. I guess the moral is don't forget to look around in your own backyard because there's still great stuff out there!
Coloursergeant
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