"Did the British ever use the Bazooka during WWII?" Topic

My Airfix 1/32 British Infantry and Infantry Support Group sets both contain figures in British Battledress firing bazookas. Not a PIAT in sight. Admittedly, Airfix is known for some odd choices in poses and equipment. But it brings up the question as to whether there was ever an exchange of weapons in the field when the two armies were fighting alongside one another. The PIAT has always struck me as a bit of a joke weapon when compared to the bazooka. Yes, it was light and did not have a rocket blast to give away its position, but it's range was limited and it was very difficult to load under fire. Any references to British troops trying bazookas instead?

the bazooka was used by odd units of the british army, i think it may have been commandos or in italy or in the far east.
i can't remember who though.

Years ago I remember reading the armour penetration tables in Quarrie, and being bemused that the PIAT's round was the only hollow charge round in the game whose performance deteriorated with range. I couldn't figure out why.

Much later I read that one of the problems with the PIAT was that it was so low-velocity it needed elevation to reach its maximum range and the bomb was then quite likely to glance off.

I guess short range was not a problem for the Panzerfaust but you do wonder why nothing similar was developed by the Allies. Maybe German tanks were too rare for this to matter; or maybe the Allies had air and artillery supremacy to deal with tanks and didn't need to equip infantry to do so.

I have some of those 1/32 Airfix too. The sculpting is uniformly excellent but the weapon choices are highly variable. The Japanese have an excellent machine-gunner with a very nice Nambu 11 ( link ) LMG. The German paras have a nice FG42 guy and the Mountain Troops make nice late war infantry. On the other hand one of the regular German infantry carries a non-existent SMG and there are the British with bazookas.

<shrug>

They are still the best-sculpted, best-animated wargames figures ever made.

Matchbox also joined in with the British bazooka craze

They were issued post war as the 3.5" Rocket Launcher (Super Bazookas) Id always thought Airfix just thought they were issued earlier.
Britain did receive 2100 Bazookas during WWII but I don't know who received them, if anyone. They received 38000 Garands but never issued them overseas. Apart from a few to Commando units late war in the Far East. (N0.1 & 6 Commandos received Garands for Torch but these came straight from US stocks I think.)

The PIAT has always struck me as a bit of a joke weapon when compared to the bazooka………………………. Much later I read that one of the problems with the PIAT was that it was so low-velocity it needed elevation to reach its maximum range and the bomb was then quite likely to glance off

The PIAT was rated by troops as "outstandingly effective".
link

page 97/98

A few particularly prevalent patterns of weapons use stand out, however. The PIAT was listed as being "outstandingly effective" far more than any other weapon (it was listed as such in 74 surveys). This was due not only to its tank-killing power, but also owing to the fact that
its high-explosive bomb could also be put to good use against "soft" infantry targets, either in direct or indirect roles, making it a good source of suppressing fire.
Furthermore, only three officers listed the PIAT as being an "ineffective" weapon.

Page 103.

"Infantry weapons," commented
Captain Yuile, "are sufficient and very effective. The PIAT as we learnt by bitter
experience should always be carried by platoon.

The only poms to use the bazooka would have been those in the OSS Jedburgh teams.