How to use a PIAT

YouTube - PIAT british antitank weapon in WW2

Interesting, Demonstrated by an Israeli for some reason. I thourght that you used the shoulder pad but hmmm.

 

i thought so as well, i have it on my reenactment group web site, still i wouldnt like to fire the thing however it is cocked!! all the best GM

 

Major Robert Henry Cain during the Battle for Arnham is documented as singularly repeatedly cocking and firing a PIAT from the hip in the engagement for which he was awarded the VC.

 

At the end of the day, if it fired and saved your life or that of your friends it dosnt matter how you cocked it or fired it, sitting, standing or lying down.War isnt like a manual book..GM

 

I reckon all he'd achieve with that method is a bomb landing at his feet. With luckily for him only a 50/50 chance of being initiated

He seems to be firing it like a true recoilless weapon, compensating for the backblast when there is none... trained on RPG's no doubt...

I must concur with you on that one

 

I have PIAT experience, It is very difficult to load, the spring is very hard to lock into place. There are self taught rules on firng a PIAT.

First after firing roll to the side the fin can come back!
second close your legs.
third make sure there is no tree behind you, the recoil is staggering.
I canot imagine anyone firing a PIAT from the hip, the combined weight of the apparatus plus the missile is massive!

If you run with it the missile will drop out.......It lays in the front, not down a barrel. What happens when you have fired? You have to stop, put the thing on the ground and tug like hell to cock the spring again, takes a
little while, then lay it down and place the missile in the Tray,
If you are tired it takes two of you to cock the spring, for that is all that fires the missile just the spring.
Firing from the hip? With a piat? Now that I would like to see. The recoil would knock you off your feet. Run with it? That again I would like to see. It must be a different PIAT to the one that I was sent out in front as the first anti-tank defence in Holland.
RUN with it? Stone me!
Sapper

 

Firing it while sitting? You are joking mate if you tried that it would kill you, probably break your neck. Laughable! PIATs here I do know what I am talking about........... used one
Sapper

 

a guy from the royal norfolks also won a vc in Burma, firing one from the hip,its amazing what adrenalin does, infact he used everything he had at hand, and held off 300 japs..the pait..well this sums it up for me..i spoke to a vet at a show who landed on d day..he threw it away in a bush..nice bloke..the video is just a demonstration..thats all...infact the vet told me that he once used it as a mortar..and if you saw that in a video no one would believe it..GM

 

If you are tired it takes two of you to cock the spring, for that is all that fires the missile just the spring.

Sapper


There was supposed to be a cartridge in the tail tube, fired by the spigot flinging forward.

British weapons designers were having a bit of a fling with spigot guns - where the 'barrel' is a shaft and the projectile is a tube - in late WW2 and we were using at least 3 of them:- the 'Flying Dustbin' mortar on Churchill AVREs, the Hedgehog anti-submarine bomb-thrower, and PIAT. The first of these at any rate was much admired for its powerful bomb.

The reaction from the cartridge firing was intended to recock the spring - though it seems to have failed frequently unless the firing position was solid and the shooter flinch-free. There may also have been a high incidence of defective ammo, because you're not the only PIAT user I've heard say the spring did the whole launch.

Regards,
MikB

 

Firing from the hip? have any of you seen a PIAT? held off Japs? Its a single shot weapon that would hold off no one. Its only use is to stop a tank or armoured vehicles. Too heavy to carry, it was kept in the three tonner. or the Bren Carrier.
Absolutely useless against troops......Anyone carrying a piat would have a hell of a job running......
OH Dear!
Sapper

 

A lot of vets I've spoken to say that it was kept in reserve (like sapper said in avehicle somewhere) and used only in desperation. That said, they reckoned it was good when they were street fighting, apparently great for breaking through walls of adjoining houses etc.

 

The very idea of running with a PIAT? For what reason would you run firing from the hip. To be quite honest, for me that would be an impossiblity.
I have been in an outpost by myself with a PIAT set up tp take out the first Panzer that rounded the bend. It was a suicide mission. luckily for me although we could hear the panzers, they never came my way.
Its damn near impossible to fire a bren on the run. I have tried the bullets are more likely to kill your own men as the gun canot be kept straight. The idea of fring a PIAT to me prompts the question. What for? the missile would drop out of the tray before you had gone ten yards.

BUtif you want to beleive it so be it.
Sapper

 

read the book thank god for the infantry, sidney bates vc 24years of age, won that medal advancing against the 10th ss in Normandy, advancing by himself firing the bren from the hip...also read the regimental history history of the royal norfolks it gives you an account of the vc winner in there firing the piat, and holding off the jap attack..the most important shot of ww2 was taken by a guy from the ox and bucks at pegasus bridge
when he knocked out the first leading panzer of a counter attack, the others retreated..if he hadnt done that the consequences are that they would have driven on to sword beach..ive been in the army and fired the LMG on the hip and at a jog, its not that hard...also i have carried a piat and its not that heavy...as for piats i have ample pictures of normal infantry guys carrying them with their section or company..you dont have to be running to fire from the hip..anti tank weapons were used against infantry and bunkers in the falklands war and recently on television a film crew were following a royal marine company in afghanistan when they fired an £80,000 milan missile to kill 3 afghan rebels who were not in a tank but were on foot..GM

 

One last word.... For I am losing patience. You do noit have to quote from the Third British Infantry Divison to me. I belonged to it.
No matter what is written, try running and firing from the hip with a Bren. The gun sprays bullets everwhere.
It seems to me that no amount of first hand knowledge is of use here.
I am wasting my time Cheers.
Sapper

 

Dosnt matter if you served with the 3rd Div, fact is fact..look at vc winners of the Royal Norfolk regiment, firing the bren from the hip, firing a 2inch mortar from the hip...people who win such awards do things that most people wouldnt...firing a sten or more modern smg on the run is no different, i know, i had an enemy patrol run across me once with the light machine gun, i didnt have time to go to ground..fire and manouvre...although i respect the veterans out there, they dont know everything..and base things on their own ecperiences..and not what was going on around them...did you ever change the spring in your sten to give it a more rapid rate of fire during ww2? i know someone who did? does that mean it never happened..did you ever throw beer bottles or rocks at the enemy..that guy in korea did, does that mean it never happened, did you ever wear german boots and cut them down because yours were worn out...i know someone who did does that mean it never happened..? did you ever collect gold teeth from the enemy dead..i know someone who did at monte cassino..does that mean it never happened because you didnt see it i think i have made my point..firing the bren whilst jogging or running is not an impossiblity..although running in full kit is almost impossible.and it happened..if you have to fire the thing whether a piat, bren, smg, Lmg..you fire it!!dosnt matter if its up your back side if it saves your life and that of your mates..then you fire the thing, the book a bridge to far when Mackays men jump out of the burning school house, running they are firing their weapons from the hip and on the move and i think it refers to the bren as well ,i think that Sidney bates vc, who advanced on the enemy by himself,,,firing from the hip was least worried about spraying..as most of his mates were behind him..thats all im saying about it...respect has to be earned vet or not

 

You certainly know more than me. I must show my Veteran mates your posting. We learn something everyday.