The Projectile, Infantry, Anti-Tank. Or the PIAT

[AToastTooFar]

So I am a huge military history buff, especially WW1-WW2 and the Korean/Indochinese conflicts. Really anything before the '60s. So when I played my first Fallout game (FO3) and finally got my hands on the one-hit-f*#@-you that was the Fat Man Launcher system, my immediate thought was that it worked kinda like the PIAT. Fo4 and the terminals at that fort where you pick up the fat man shells for the BoS literally confirmed that the fat man used a modified spigot mortar in conjunction with a manual propulsion device- which is pretty much the exact same mechanism that the PIAT uses!

 

A brief history lesson- the PIAT launcher was developed in Britain during WW2 as a cheap yet effective anti-tank launcher for use (originally) by the Home Guard- a rag-tag militia set up in expectation of a German invasion of the British Isles. Originally designed as the 'Blacker Bombard' (an AWESOME name for a unique version btw), the PIAT started life as a towed mortar, which by nature of the spigot mortar operating principles (doesn't need a barrel for the projectile) could launch a 20lb warhead up to 100 yards. A prototype was made using experimental ammunition, but was rejected on account that none of said ammunition managed to actually detonate.

 

The designer was moved onto different projects, and left his friend with the early PIAT, dubbed the 'Baby Bombard' (another great name). said designer managed to take apart his colleague's weapon, and design a proper HEAT warhead for it to use. The Ordnance Board in Britain approved the design after several successful test firings, and the PIAT was put into production in August 1942.

 

The design was remarkably successful, serving with distinction all the way to the 1950s without being replaced or upgraded. The charge on the warhead could easily handle most all the tanks and other armor fielded by the German Army in theatre, with the added bonus of not having a loud report, smoke trail, or muzzle signature. It wasn't without a few glaring issues, however. First and foremost was the range- it could only accurately fire on targets 150yds or closer, due to the slow velocity of the projectile. Second was the cocking mechanism- although it was self cocking, it had to be manually charged first. This was done by unlocking the buttpad, and then standing on it while pulling up on the main housing. The spring that partly launched the projectile (think Fat Man's pneumatic rail) was in excess of 200lbs however, making it a complete b&@*$ to load if the self-loading mechanism failed to work properly. Other than that, though, it was pretty decent, with even a few Panther kills to its name. Pretty good for an anti-tank weapon primarily built in bicycle factories.

 

History is done now, don't worry. My proposal is to introduce the PIAT to our favorite game. Functionally speaking, the reload animations would be rather simplistic (provided you don't choose to introduce the ACTUAL reloading mechanism), as all you need to do is slot a shell into an open-top tray. Even the projectile would be easy to do- it had such a notoriously slow muzzle velocity you could track it in flight, much like a fat man (another reason why it reminded me so much of it) so prospective modders (like yourself, hopefully) would be able to reuse the fat man projectile arc with simply a new skin. If i could have one request, it would be to have one of the weapon mods be a offset foregrip (similar to the old missile launchers) mounted instead of the traditional baseplate. That thing is ugly. Ok, I'll admit the whole thing is sorta ugly but I still love it, so can that.

 

So if any of y'all want to make a pretty unique forebear to what is quite possibly one of the most well-known weapons in the fallout series, and perhaps maybe even gaming on a whole, you'd have my deepest thanks. And besides, I think its well past time that we gave the rest of the world a peek in our favorite series' lore.

 

Wiki Link for the PIAT: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PIAT

Link to a few videos for some easier modeling:

This one has a guy for scale, but the wiki has some dimensions on it