The Double Edge of Simple Weapons
One of the most oft-retold tales of military equipment is that the spear used by the Roman Legions, the two-part composite pilum, was easy for a legionnaire to master as a thrusting weapon and, if thrown, the soft iron shank would warp and deform on impact, preventing its further use by the enemy.
Panzerfausts were no pila.
Easy to make in quantity and even easier to use, the Germans dutifully included with each crate a two-page instruction sheet that you didn’t need to know German to grasp.
They even distilled the knowledge to a simpler pictograph on the side of the Fausts themselves.
Vorsicht!
This allowed last-ditch Volkssturm to field the disposable anti-tank rocket with about five minutes of instruction.
“The Volkssturm” Painting by Franz Kleinmayer, showing the typical make up and arms of the doomed militia.
And, as seen in these images from recently Soviet-occupied Danzig in March 1945, it was just as easily translated to Red Army inheritors.
