Japanese Panzerfaust?

Just started reading the book Nemesis by Max Hastings. He mentions various examples of how Germany and Japan failed to cooperate as allies during the course of the war, including one minor one:

One of Japan's most serious deficiencies in 1944-45 was lack of a portable anti-tank weapon, but no attempt was made to copy the cheap and excellent German Panzerfaust.

Obviously, if Japanese industry, already in a pretty parlous state, makes Panzerfausts, it isn't making something else, and I'm not sure of their ability to supply them to the various armies outside Japan, given the US naval blockade/generally rubbish IJA supply situation etc. So, probably doesn't make that much difference really. It'd save Japanese troops having to muck around with those mines-on-poles or sitting in a foxhole with an artillery shell and a hammer etc, I guess, and would make just the ideal thing to hand out to those 28 million civilian militia people they had ready to meet the expected invasion of the Home Islands...

The main thing I was thinking though was that anything that delays the Soviet advance into Manchuria, even a little bit, might have a big impact on the post-war world. Or possibly not...

Anyway, thoughts?
 
Just started reading the book Nemesis by Max Hastings. He mentions various examples of how Germany and Japan failed to cooperate as allies during the course of the war, including one minor one:



Obviously, if Japanese industry, already in a pretty parlous state, makes Panzerfausts, it isn't making something else, and I'm not sure of their ability to supply them to the various armies outside Japan, given the US naval blockade/generally rubbish IJA supply situation etc. So, probably doesn't make that much difference really. It'd save Japanese troops having to muck around with those mines-on-poles or sitting in a foxhole with an artillery shell and a hammer etc, I guess, and would make just the ideal thing to hand out to those 28 million civilian militia people they had ready to meet the expected invasion of the Home Islands...

The main thing I was thinking though was that anything that delays the Soviet advance into Manchuria, even a little bit, might have a big impact on the post-war world. Or possibly not...

Anyway, thoughts?

I think the Japanese army preferred the man-portable version. the one with the bomb strapped to the man...:p:D
 
Japan received 800 MG 151/20 aircraft cannons and installed them on 388 Ki-61 fighters. They did not make a copy. They relied on a license-built version of the German Daimler-Benz Db-601 engine for all their in-line engine needs. They built a Me-262 clone (as a bomber) and a Me-163 rocket fighter. Considering the difficulty in delivery, there was communication and transportation of weapons. Personal hand-held anti-tank weapons have less effectiveness in the Pacific theater where tanks were used primarily as infantry support vehicles in an infantry-rich environment. The degree of damage done would not, apparently, have been worth the effort of delivery, and would not alter the outcome of any battle.
Indeed, they could have built their own panzerschreck the same way the Germans did, by copying the bazooka.
 

CalBear

Moderator
Donor
Monthly Donor
There would have been no tactical difference at all. None.

It would have been a tragedy for the individual tank crews families, but overall it would be like trying to empty the Pacific Ocean with a teaspoon.
 
I agree with Calbear, the Soviets only stopped in OTL when they outran their supply lines period (even airdrops became impossible). If the Japanese had the RPG-7 they still couldn't hold back that juggernaut.
 

archaeogeek

Banned
and would make just the ideal thing to hand out to those 28 million civilian militia people they had ready to meet the expected invasion of the Home Islands...

Assuming said militia fights or doesn't rise up if it seems like fighting might reach the mainland: Japan is not Okinawa and the political situation of the home islands in 1945, from what I've read, was pretty volatile.
 
Top