Infantry Anti-tank Weapons (IAT) of WW2

WW2 saw the rise of Infantry Anti-tank Weapons (IAT).

Excerpt from John Moher on Crossfire discussion forum

Anti-Tank Rifles were invariably one per platoon, or in some cases (like the Germans) 3 per company. Company level assets were usually shared out to platoons anyway. Some nations (like the Greeks) had 1 per company (because of shortages), or had erratic numbers (like the Italians who had the 20mm Solothurn issued to some units on an ad-hoc basis). Therefore I’d suggest you mount ATRs as separate teams on half sized bases… But that’s just my opinion.

The Soviets tended to have “Companies” or “Platoons” of ATRs, so again you want dedicated stands.

Bazookas, PIAT’s, Panzerschrecks replaced ATRs and generally the same holds true. Most Nations had one per platoon as their dedicated AT weapon. There are some exceptions, such as US Armoured Infantry 1943-45 who had one per rifle section plus two more in the platoon weapons section, and each Company weapons section! Overall though you are normally going to want one per platoon, so again I’d base separately on undersize bases…

When using US Armoured Infantry you are going to do what Tim and others do and just allow each Rifle squad stand to shoot as a Bazooka each initiative. You will still want the specialist Bazooka teams for the additional support weapon section Bazookas. When using normal US Infantry you will simply have 1 (or 2) of the Bazooka stands in each platoon same as any other Nation’s AT guy’s, and Rifle Squads won’t shoot as Bazookas…

Only the Germans really had Disposable IAT (Infantry Anti-Tank) in any numbers – the Panzerfaust. Initially, in 1943, these were deployed AFAIK just like Panzerschreck above, i.e. a Platoon often only had 1 or 2 of the 1-shot launchers. However as production increased and later in 1943 the Panzerschreck appeared the Panzerfaust started appearing in numbers and each rifle section might carry any number of them (probably 1-3 I’d suspect – the higher number in the East). So from the end of 1943 you will simply allow

FTR the Panzerfaust had the best penetration closely followed by the Panzerschreck. The PIAT and 60mm Bazooka were significantly inferior BUT ONLY when engaging heavier targets, like the front armour of Tiger I’s, Late model StuGs and heavier… When firing at light/medium armour they were all as effective as each other…

Oh, and don’t forget Rifle-Grenades. The French used these a lot up to 1943, and they were also used in small numbers by the British Commonwealth and Germans up until early 1941. They were also used by the Greeks and some of the other smaller nations…

These are present in each rifle squad and do provide a limited AT ability against light armour (which means virtually anything up to early 1941 except the Matilda I & II, and Char B1 & B1 bis) at short ranges. So I’d suggest you treat these like Panzerfausts in my previous post (but with weak AT factors).

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