The Anti-Tank Weapon Nobody Wanted to Fire

The PIAT weighed 14 kilograms. Its effective range was 110 metres. To use it against a tank, you had to get within that range — close enough to see the crew through the vision ports. Fusilier Jefferson got to 15 metres. Then he fired from the hip. The PIAT was rejected twice by the War Office. It was mocked in trials. Its spring mechanism required 90 kilograms of draw weight to cock, it could break your ribs if held incorrectly, and it had to be re-cocked manually if the recoil cycle failed — which required standing up next to a tank you had just shot at. It also produced no back-blast. Unlike the American Bazooka, you could fire it from inside a house, a trench, a cellar, an alley. In the bocage of Normandy and the rubble of Arnhem, that made it the only anti-tank weapon that could be used almost anywhere. It earned four Victoria Crosses. More than any other British infantry weapon of the war. Major Robert Cain used it to destroy six tanks at Arnhem. His eardrums burst. He stuffed bandages in his ears and kept fighting. When the PIAT was destroyed, he switched to a 2-inch mortar and fired it horizontally. IronBritain. One weapon per video. From the factory floor to the front line. 🔔 Subscribe — new video every day.