Projector, Infantry, Anti-Tank (PIAT)

The Projector, Infantry, Anti-Tank (PIAT) Mk I was a British man-portable, anti-tank weapon developed during the Second World War. The PIAT was designed in 1942 to respond to the British Army’s need for a more effective infantry anti-tank weapon and entered service in 1943.

The PIAT was based on the spigot mortar system (see below), and projected (launched) a 2.5 pound (1.1 kg) shaped charge bomb using a cartridge in the tail of the projectile. It possessed an effective range of approximately 115 yards (105 m) in a direct fire anti-tank role, and 350 yards (320 m) in an indirect fire role. (Indirect fire enables fire from a covered position. Direct fire at a target is within the line-of-sight of the user).

The PIAT had several advantages over other infantry anti-tank weapons of the period: it had greatly increased penetration power over the previous anti-tank rifles, it had no back-blast which might reveal the position of the user or accidentally injure friendly soldiers around the user, and it was simple in construction. However, the device also had some disadvantages: a powerful recoil, a difficulty in cocking the weapon, and early problems with ammunition reliability.

Projector, Infantry, Anti-Tank (PIAT) - image1The PIAT was first used during the Tunisia Campaign in 1943, and remained in use with British and other Commonwealth forces until the early 1950s. PIATs were supplied to or obtained by other nations and forces, including the Soviet Union (through Lend Lease), the French resistance, the Polish Underground, and the Israeli Haganah (which used PIATs during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War).

A spigot mortar system is a mortar which propels a warhead larger than the bore of the mortar by a closed tube rod or spigot attached to the warhead and extending into the mortar. The force of the propellant within the mortar acts upon the tube to propel the warhead toward the target.

Projector, Infantry, Anti-Tank (PIAT) - 562B19FDLeft picture is of a PIAT anti-tank weapon.

Right picture is a PIAT mortar example in the CSS Museum.

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