“Splitterfaust”?

[Tanzania]

What is a “Splitterfaust”?

ese0c5ixkaijddl_orig.jpg

Source: https://www.nevingtonwarmuseum.com/panzerfaust5.html


1. Was this just a design, or prototype, or was the weapon ever used?

2. Was this just a separate warhead for the existing Panzerfaust 100?

3. Why this strange shape of the warhead. How did this one work?

4. Does the schematic drawing show a hollow charge?

Cheers Holger

[Max]

Splitterfaust (featuring a new warhead fitted with a pre-fragmented cast-iron sleeve and time-fuze to air-burst the thing 200-400 meters from the firing position). As many as 100 Splitterfausts are reported to be manufactured in April 1945 and delivered for front-line testing around Eberswalde.

https://www.nevingtonwarmuseum.com/panzerfaust-250.html

[ThatZenoGuy]

1: never mass produced, at most it was tested
2: yeah just a different warhea, probably compatible with the 150 and 250 though
3: Its basically a panzerfaust designed for use against infantry, time/impact fuzed like a big fun hand grenade you can lob a hundred meters or more.
4: unlikely, such a design wouldn't be effective against all but the lightest of armors.

[LineDoggie]

1: never mass produced, at most it was tested
2: yeah just a different warhea, probably compatible with the 150 and 250 though
3: Its basically a panzerfaust designed for use against infantry, time/impact fuzed like a big fun hand grenade you can lob a hundred meters or more.
4: unlikely, such a design wouldn't be effective against all but the lightest of armors.

Today same idea is the 40mm GL

Not meant to take the place of the Mortar or Howitzer but to place Frag HE outside thrown hand grenade range

Infantry personal armor at the time usually consisting of a wool flannel shirt

[ThatZenoGuy]

1: never mass produced, at most it was tested
2: yeah just a different warhea, probably compatible with the 150 and 250 though
3: Its basically a panzerfaust designed for use against infantry, time/impact fuzed like a big fun hand grenade you can lob a hundred meters or more.
4: unlikely, such a design wouldn't be effective against all but the lightest of armors.

Today same idea is the 40mm GL

Not meant to take the place of the Mortar or Howitzer but to place Frag HE outside thrown hand grenade range

Infantry personal armor at the time usually consisting of a wool flannel shirt

Yup, outside of a few steel bibs and helmets, the average soldier was fighting in nothing more than a heavy jacket. Any sort of fragmentation would go straight through.

[Tanzania]

Dear All,

Many thanks for helpful and interesting comments.
For me, the first textual mention and graphic representation about the Splitterfaust was interesting.

Does anyone know of any further reports, design sketches or even photos of this “Splitterfaust”?
(E.g.: I was very surprised to see even photos of the “Fliegerfaust” 1945 in Berlin.)

Splitterfaust (featuring a new warhead fitted with a pre-fragmented cast-iron sleeve and time-fuze to air-burst the thing 200-400 meters from the firing position). As many as 100 Splitterfausts are reported to be manufactured in April 1945 and delivered for front-line testing around Eberswalde.

https://www.nevingtonwarmuseum.com/panzerfaust-250.html

40 years ago I think I read in a book (Breslau 1945?) that the defenders created their own barrage
against attacking infantry with Panzerfausts. But this would only make sense with such a splinter
war head. However, the Nevington War Museum mentioned only Eberswalde in April 1945 as the
location of frontline experiments. Of course, a reference for sources would be very helpful here.

In the below-mentioned documentation``Eberswalde 1945´´ a number of armaments factories are
listed, which were also involved in the testing and production of secret weapons (e.g. solid rocket
propulsion). In addition, battles in April 1945 are described. However, I haven't read all of the 151
pages yet.https://www.museum-eberswalde.de/images ... E_1945.pdf

Cheers Holger

[Tanzania]

This, realistic looking (?) war head of a Panzerfaust doesn´t look like the other well-known designs
(30, 60, 100), but without further explanations:
https://www.flamesofwar.com/Portals/0/a ... faust2.jpg
https://www.flamesofwar.com/hobby.aspx?art_id=831


Here a graphic picture with a described Splinter warhead, but based on Panzerfaust 250.
https://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/1 ... 50Frag.jpg


Here, a design which looks realistic and based on a Panzerfaust 100, Third from above:
https://c8.alamy.com/compde/2ct497g/ove ... ct497g.jpg

Cheers Holger

[Grzesio]

When I look at the Splitterfaust, I think it had a bouncing warhead, with an ejection charge located in front of it (absent in the scheme above), ignited by an axially mounted FPZ 8001 fuze. Then, the HE charge was detonated by a side mounted booster with a delay train.

[Tanzania]

When I look at the Splitterfaust, I think it had a bouncing warhead, with an ejection charge located in front of it (absent in the scheme above), ignited by an axially mounted FPZ 8001 fuze. Then, the HE charge was detonated by a side mounted booster with a delay train.

Dear Grzesio,

Thank you for your explanation, but to be honest I didn't understand everything, maybe only misunderstanding.

You mention a bouncing warhead. Do you mean a rebound/ ricochet warhead?
Or you mean the entire warhead, which is thrown out of the tube by a solid propellant set?

You also mentioned the Fuze/detonator F.P.Z. 8001. As far as I understood this was the same
Fuze/detonator which was used in the Faustpatrone 30 (1 klein) and Faustpatrone 30 (2 groß)


Sketch of German Fuze F.P.Z. 8001 for H.C. Anti-Tank Bomb (Faustpatrone/Panzerfaust)
http://michaelhiske.de/Allierte/UK/Hand ... 13_002.htm

Sketch of German Hollow Charge Bomb for Faustpatrone/Panzerfaust
http://michaelhiske.de/Allierte/UK/Hand ... 13_013.htm

Schematic Splitterfaus & Panzerfaust 100-60-30.png

Panzerfaust Waffenrevue Band 140, Deutsche Panzernahbekämpfungsmittel 1917-1945
https://docplayer.org/58252084-Sandini- ... nannt.html

Cheers Holger

[Grzesio]

Hi,

You mention a bouncing warhead. Do you mean a rebound/ ricochet warhead?
Or you mean the entire warhead, which is thrown out of the tube by a solid propellant set?

I mean something like 8 cm Wgr 38 or 8 cm Wgr 39 mortar grenades, where an impact fuze ignites an ejection charge located in the forward part of the projectile, which sends the body of the projectile back in the air, where it explodes at the height of several metres.

I've once seen a drawing of the Splitterfaust warhead, years ago probably on an ammunition forum, sadly I cannot locate it now.
But as I had been intrigued by this weapon since I've seen it in Fleischer's book, I generally can remember some details...

Schematic Splitterfaus & Panzerfaust 100-60-30G.png

The FPZ fuze was located in the cavity in the forward part of the warhead. There was a sheet metal cap put on the front of the warhead - if you look closely at the Alamy photo above, the forward part of the warhead is smoother then the rest, probably to allow easier sliding of the cap. Then, there was something like a flat container inside the case, in front of the warhead - sadly, its description was invisible in the drawing. It could be an ejecting charge, it could be just a reinforcement, a buffer or so, also the cap on the warhead could be just a cover, allowing easy access to the fuze and to the booster for arming the projectile before use (in this case, the cap was to be removed, the fuze put from the front, the booster put from the side, then the cap was slid in place again and the weapon was ready to fire, while the cap had no other function).
So, no definite conclusions here - the complete warhead looked like I drew before, but exact purpose of all the parts is still unknown.

[Tanzania]

Hi Grzesio,
Sorry for late reply and many thanks for your efforts

Unfortunatelly I don´t know a “Munitionsforum” and “Fleischers Buch”, but your supplemented representation
on the graphic makes sense of course.

The empty area at the head of the warhead, I had originally assumed as a small hollow charge, but only at this position
does the Fuze/detonator F.P.Z. 8001 make sense as you have presented it.

This means that if the time-fuze does not work or reacts too late, the impact Fuze/detonator F.P.Z. 8001 will work.

Even if it is only a fictional representation, the theoretical application is shown here.
https://www.actionfiguren-shop.com/out/ ... F250-3.jpg

It would be interesting to know if the variants shown below are fictitious or based on actual designs.
“Flammfaust” https://fhsw.fandom.com/wiki/Flammfaust ... mfaust.jpg
“Brandfaust” https://fhsw.fandom.com/wiki/Brandfaust ... dfaust.jpg
“Gasfaust” https://fhsw.fandom.com/wiki/Gasfaust?file=Gasfaust.jpg

Cheers Holger