The attached is taken from a Canadian Army document issued by the Chief of Staff on 10 May 1944, which is a recommendation to see and retain the attached report dated 12 January from the 8th Army based on research undertaken during the Italian campaign. I found it at War diaries : T-6680 - Héritage. Brave men to get 20 yards from a tank to fire, but many did it.
A prime example of its use: "Fusilier F Jefferson of 'C' Company, 2nd Lancashire Fusiliers in front of a German StuG III assault gun which he knocked out with a PIAT, May 1944." THE BRITISH ARMY IN ITALY 1944 Fusilier Jefferson with his P.I.A.T. mortar: THE BRITISH ARMY IN NORTH AFRICA, SICILY, ITALY, THE BALKANS AND AUSTRIA 1942-1946 More here: jeffersonVC
Alternatively it can be used very successfully for blowing holes in walls when House Clearing.!!! Especially terraced type buildings.
Gonads of steel. I cannot imagine how scary using a PIAT, or any over WW2 infantry anti tank weapon, at such close range must have been.
War is an unhealthy environment. At least PIAT had no back-blast and could be used in confined spaces. The ranges of RPGs or other light A/T weapons are still fairly short. In mid 70s our recoilless light A/T weapon 55 S 55, somewhat like Swedish Carl Gustav, had about twice the muzzle velocity and twice the max range against a moving AFV than that of PIAT but its backblast and frankly brutal noise could easily reveal the location of the user but its arched trajectory at least somewhat diminished the slope effect of the sloped upper nose plate of Soviet tanks. The instructors forbade us to try to shoot from the front arch of tanks but looking the armour thickness of T-54/55/62 it seems that the reason was to make its use a bit less suicidal, not necessarily that the HEAT round was ineffective against the glacis plate of the Soviet tanks in mid 70s. It is not nice to be at the receiving end of a 100/115 mm HE-Frag shell. The HEAT Shell of the 55 S 55 could penetrate the 160 - 125 mm turret side armour of the 70s Soviet T-tanks. The hit number 3 on a T-54 turret on the photo
