The appearance on the battlefield of tanks during the First World War launched the process of creating various anti-tank weapons. Including those that could be equipped with an ordinary infantryman. So soon enough, anti-tank guns and anti-tank grenades appeared. Already during the Second World War, the armies of the belligerent countries began to use hand-held anti-tank grenade launchers, everyone knows the German disposable Faustpatron grenade launchers or the American M1 Bazooka hand-held anti-tank grenade launchers.
In the USSR, during the Second World War, the main anti-tank weapons of an infantry soldier were anti-tank rifles and anti-tank hand grenades. During the war, improvised means of fighting enemy armored vehicles were also widely used, to which the famous Molotov cocktails could be attributed. The first samples of hand-held anti-tank grenades, which were created on the basis of the experience of the First World War, with a successful throw due to the high-explosive action, could provide penetration of armor up to 15 mm thick.
After the outbreak of World War II, it became clear that the infantryman needed a grenade with a more powerful penetrating effect. In 1940, the RPG-40 hand-held anti-tank grenade of shock action began to enter service with the Red Army. RPG-40 (hand-held anti-tank grenade model 1940) - high-explosive anti-tank grenade created by GSKB-30 specialists at the Voroshilov plant number 58, designer - MI Puzyrev. The grenade created by Puzyrev was used by Soviet soldiers throughout the war, it was intended to combat enemy armored vehicles: armored vehicles, armored personnel carriers, light tanks with armor up to 20 mm.
RPG-40 grenade
The RPG-40 grenade was equipped with an instantaneous impact fuse, which was responsible for detonating the grenade when it meets a hard surface and hitting the target due to the high-explosive effect. Armor up to 15-20 mm thick was pierced by this grenade through penetration. Depending on the position of the anti-tank grants at the moment of contact with the aim of its armor penetration could decrease. With tears on the armor with a thickness of more than 20 mm, only small dents remained on it. At the same time, in some cases, targets with thicker armor were also limitedly hit, this was due to the spalling of the inner layer of armor and the formation of secondary damaging elements.
RPG-40 weighed 1200 grams, the mass of the bursting charge was 760 grams. The hand grenade consisted of a tin case in which an explosive charge was located - pressed or cast TNT. When loading the grenade, the body was screwed onto the handle, which contained the safety and percussion mechanisms. In the handle of the RPG-40, an instantaneous inertial fuse with a percussion mechanism and a safety check was placed. Before throwing a grenade through a hole in the lid, a detonator was inserted into the axial channel of the body. The maximum throw range of such a grenade was 20-25 meters. It was necessary to throw a grenade from cover. The infantryman had to try to hit the most vulnerable places of the armored vehicle or tank (drive wheels, tracks, turret roof, engine compartment roof). In addition, throughout the war, the grenade was used by Soviet infantrymen to destroy various shelters and firing points of the field-type enemy.
The RPG-40 anti-tank hand grenades remained in service until the end of World War II and even for some time after its end. At the same time, even before the war itself, a more powerful RPG-41 grenade was developed, the creator of which was also M. I. Puzyrev. It was a variant of the RPG-40 with an increased bursting charge weight. This grenade was successfully tested in April 1941 and was put into service.
RPG-40 and RPG-41 grenades
The mass of the explosive in the grenade was increased to 1400-1500 grams, and the weight of the grenade itself was 2000 grams. Like its predecessor, the RPG-41 had a non-directional high-explosive effect on the target and could penetrate armor up to 25 mm thick. Thus, its armor penetration has grown by only 5 mm. But the significantly increased weight of the product reduced the throwing range to only 10-15 meters, which all the more suggested its use exclusively from cover.
Usually, when detonated on the surface of armor with a thickness of 20-25 mm, the grenade provided a through penetration. RPG-41 could also be used to a limited extent to combat medium, heavy tanks, but only with a successful hit in the most vulnerable places. Despite being put into service, this grenade in its armor penetration was only slightly superior to its predecessor, while the throwing range due to the increased mass was significantly reduced. This grenade did not receive wide distribution, it was produced only for a short period of time from 1941 to 1942, while in the troops already in 1942 they again returned to using the RPG-40 grenade, which had a lower weight.
The RPG-41 Puzyrev grenade should not be confused with the grenade of the designers Dyakonov and Selyankin, which was developed in July 1941 for production at the enterprises of Leningrad. The grenade also received the designation "hand-held anti-tank grenade model 1941" - RPG-41, but it was also called the RGD-41. To create an anti-tank grenade, the designers used the handle from the Dyakonov RGD-33 fragmentation grenade. At the same time, the fuse was lengthened and the mass of the explosive was increased to 1000 grams (for this reason, this grenade received the unofficial nickname "Voroshilovsky kilogram"), the explosive was located in a cylindrical body. With a total weight of 1300 grams, the grenade provided armor penetration at the level of 20-25 mm, the throwing range of the grenade did not exceed 15 meters. This ammunition was used mainly during the battles for the defense of Leningrad; in 1941, the city's enterprises produced almost 800 thousand of these grenades.
At the same time, the designers of German armored vehicles consistently followed the path of strengthening the armor of tanks. The RPG-40 and RPG-41 grenades quickly ceased to meet the requirements of the infantry, against the appearance of a large number of tanks, in the design of which armor plates of 30 mm and higher were used, these grenades were frankly weak. And with the massive appearance on the battlefields of medium tanks "Panther" and heavy tanks "Tiger", the need for new anti-tank weapons for the infantryman became even more obvious.
Reacting to the situation at the front, already in 1942, the designer N. P. Belyakov, working in KB-30, began work on the creation of a manual anti-tank cumulative directional grenade. Due to the urgent need of the active army for manual means of fighting German tanks, the tests of the new grenade were carried out in a short time. Field tests were completed on April 16, 1943, and military tests were completed from April 22 to April 28 of the same year. After their completion, a new grenade under the designation "hand-held anti-tank grenade model 1943" - RPG-43 was put into service. By the summer of 1943, she began to enter the troops and was used by the Soviet infantry until the end of the war. The grenade weighed about 1200 grams, which provided a throw range of up to 20 meters. TNT was used as an explosive, the weight of the warhead was about 650 grams.
The RPG-43 grenade consisted of a body, an explosive charge, a handle with a safety mechanism, a tape stabilizer (two slings made of canvas fabric), and a shock-ignition mechanism with a fuse. The body of the grenade was made of metal, the explosive inside the body was placed in such a way that it formed a cone of a cumulative funnel directed downward. On the wooden handle of the grenade there is a check, a tin funnel (under which there was a stabilizer), a spring and two canvas tapes. After the infantryman pulls out the pin of the grenade and throws it at the target, the following happens: the spring shoots back a tin funnel, which pulls out two fabric bands that form a kind of parachute, such a stabilizer unfolds the grenade with a cumulative funnel forward towards the target's armor. On contact with an obstacle, the inertial striker breaks the primer, followed by an instant explosion of the grenade. At the moment of the explosion, a cumulative jet is formed, the speed of which reaches 12000-15000 m / s, and the pressure inside the jet is 100,000 kgf / cm², with a grenade body diameter of 95 mm, this provides armor penetration at the level of 75 mm.
RPG-43 grenade
The appearance of the RPG-43 grenade in the troops significantly expanded the capabilities of the infantry to combat enemy armored vehicles. However, it was soon found that it was better to detonate not on the armor itself, but at a distance from the target, equal to approximately the diameter of the hull. After that, work on the development of new hand-held anti-tank grenades was continued. As a result of these works, the most advanced Soviet hand-held anti-tank grenade RPG-6 was created.
This grenade was intended to destroy various armored vehicles, its crew, equipment, weapons, ignition of ammunition and fuel. The development of the grenade was facilitated by the appearance of the German Tiger and Panther tanks, as well as the acquaintance with the Ferdinand assault gun. In 1943, in the Moscow branch of NII-6, work began on the creation of a new ammunition. Designers M. Z. Polevikov, L. B. Ioffe and N. S. Zhitkikh worked on the grenade with the participation of G. V. Khrustalev, A. N. Osin and E. I. Pykhova. They created an RPG-6 hand-held anti-tank cumulative grenade equipped with a shock detonator. Military trials of the novelty took place in September 1943. The captured assault gun "Ferdinand" (frontal armor up to 200 mm, side armor about 85 mm) was used as a target. The tests carried out showed that when struck by the head of the grenade, it penetrates armor up to 120 mm thick, while the RPG-43 did not penetrate armor thicker than 75 mm. Upon completion of the tests, the grenade was recommended for adoption by the Red Army and was used until the end of the war. The production of the RPG-6 grenade continued in the USSR from 1943 to 1950.
RPG-6 grenade
The mass of the grenade was about 1100-1130 grams, the mass of the explosive was 580 grams. The shooter could throw such a grenade at a distance of up to 20-25 meters. Like the RPG-43 grenade, the novelty had a stabilizer, which was designed to give the ammunition the direction of flight in order to ensure the impact on the armor with the convex bottom of the hull. The RPG-6 grenade stabilizer consisted of two small and two large cloth belts. One of the features of the RPG-6 grenade was the simplicity of its manufacture - all parts of the grenade were made by stamping from sheet steel, and threaded connections were obtained by knurling. There were no threaded and turned parts in its design. The grenade handle was made of half a millimeter thick sheet steel. TNT was used as an explosive, and a grenade was filled by pouring. The simplicity of the design made it possible to organize the mass production of the RPG-6 grenade in a short time, providing the Soviet infantrymen with a sufficiently powerful anti-tank melee weapon.
