2
| Home | For sale | Site map | Contact information | Guest book | The Panzerschreck Lounge |
 The
Panzerschreck manuals
|
|---|
The manuals, handbooks and publications about the Panzerschreck The most important Panzerschreck manual, the D1864/1, as it is still attached to a weapon in the FMU collection. The Panzerbeschußtafel Nr 25. included below was found inside this manual! Almost all military hardware that is
fielded comes with a manual. This is a necessity in order to pass along
vital knowledge to the soldier in the field that is supposed to use the
equipment. This was also the case with the Panzerschreck, although the
publications came in a strange order and variety. The most important
publications were the "Dienstvorschrift
1864" series, D 1864 for short. These are compatible to the US TM's
(Technical manual). The manuals were numbered D 1864/1 to D 1864/6, but
the number 3 and 4 were never published.
In addition to the technical manuals in the D 1864 series there was also the Merkblatt 77/2 that regulated the education and training on the weapon and the Bildheft 149a that accompanied the slide series that was created to educate the soldiers in the use of the Panzerschreck. A free lunch!? Indeed-i-doo! I have now managed to aquire a copy of all of the manuals ever printed for the Panzerschreck, and they are all available for download as a PDF file through the links below. By downloading the manuals you owe me a free lunch the next time we meet (depending on the hour of the day the lunch can be substituted with one or more beers!). If you do not anticipate running into me in the near future a simple "Thank you" in my Guestbook will do the trick! The Merkblatt 77/2 has untill now been unavailable for publication, but has kindly been made available for the eager reader to enjoy by a fellow collector and Liebhaber of German militaria, Mr Tom B of the Netherlands. His studies of German militaria can be found on www.mp44.nl. Please note that Tom is entitled to all free lunches associated with downloading the Merkblatt 77/2! The first official publication issued was made available even before the weapon was fielded. This was an annex to a anti-tank manual, printed as a booklet without any binding. A new version was issued nine months later, printed on a double sided piece of cardboard. The D1864/2 was the first real technical manual, and the D1864/5 was just a “upgrade” manual. With the issue of the D1864/1 both the D1864/2 and the D 1864/5 was ordered destroyed. The ultimate manual was the D 1864/6. This one covered both models of the Panzerschreck and both types of live ammunition. With the introduction of the D 1864/6 all earlier versions in the D 1864-series was made obsolete and was meant to be destroyed. The only exception was the “old” RPzB 54; the D1864/1 could still be used with this until a copy of the D 1864/6 was made available. Another interesting "manual" is the Bildheft 149a. It was part of an education package distributed to the units in the field. It consisted of the Bildheft 149a that contained the comments to each Dias, and a box of 54 Dias in cardboard frames. In instances where a light-projector couldn't be used, for example close to the front, a box of 20 Bildhefts was used instead. For more info see the page about Training and training aids There was
also a lot of technical information about the Panzerschreck published
in various forms like "Von der Front, für die Front",
Heerestechnische verordnungsblatt and as Merkblatt.
Parts from some of the documents listed above has been used in the respective parts of this article. NEW ADDITIONS  The picture above is a link to a document from the ETO (European Theatre of Operation) Ordnance Technical Intelligence Report No. 28, dated 7 October 1944. It is a translation to English of the "German Bazooka Manual D 1864/1 dated 7 june 1944". The translation was received from the Ordnance Technical Intelligence Team attached to the First United States Army.   As a "stop-gap" measure a 3-page hand-out written with a typewriter and illustrated with hand-drawn pictures copied on a stenciling machine was issued with the weapons. It is undated, but a copy was found by the Soviet army and translated into a 4 page document, and this translation was dated 1944. I guess this pamphlet followed the first weapons to be issued on the eastern front, before the official manual was ready for distribution! The complete documents can be accessed by clicking on the pictures above. |
| Home | For sale | Site map | Contact information | Guest book | The Panzerschreck Lounge |