Hi Deputy
Yes the Bazooka seems to be overrated in its effectiveness in the game,
from
http://boards.historychannel.com/thr...geID=100030677
"Gavin experimented with all three, using a knocked out Sherman tank I believe. He found the bazooka produces a 1/2 inch hole in the frontal armor, the Panzerschreck (the German Bazooka) made a 1 1/2 inch hole and the Panzerfaust a 3 1/2 inch hole, which would have killed all of the occupants in all likelihood. The bazooka could be effective if a German tank could be hit from the side, with some luck."
and
"Ian Hogg gave these figures for the penetration of various shaped-charge weapons:
PIAT= 75mm
2.36" Bazooka = 80mm
Panzerfaust 30/60 =200mm (at 30 degrees)
88mm Panzerschreck = 100mm"
from I believe
Ian V. Hogg 'The Encyclopedia of Infantry Weapons of World War II'
The Ian Hogg penetration value does agree with this 'testimonial' from
http://www.army.mil/cmh/books/wwii/7-8/7-8_6.htm#p127
"The 1st Battalion refused to panic and set to work with bazookas against the flanks of the blinded tanks. One of the panzers was crippled, but the crew compartment proved impervious to bazooka rounds (perhaps this was a Tiger)"
Apparently bazooka couldnt penetrate tiger side armour, this makes sense as Tiger side armour is 80cm coinciding with Ian Hoggs penetration value for bazooka.
also
from
http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita...m9-bazooka.htm
"One officer fired 22 -bazooka- rounds at about 15 yards range against the rear of the -t34- tanks where their armor is weakest, but to no effect"
So possibly under lab conditions the bazooka could "penetrate" 5 inches of armour but maybe the hole was just big enough to get a needle through and so did little or no "plasm jet" got through or maybe the heat of the plasma jet after 5 inches of armour was much lower and hence less damaging.
anyway, from
http://www.100thww2.org/support/776tankhits.html
Note from test "e" that after penetrating only 50mm af armour the hole has already decreased to the size of a pencil.
Certainly a lot of sites say the bazooka wasnt very effective against german armour but was more commonly used against bunkers.
various sites give the bazooka various penetration values
http://www.geocities.com/Augusta/8172/panzerfaust13.htm
for instance quotes a penetration of 100mm ie 10.
This site quotes hoggs penetration of 100mm for panzershreck
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panzerschreck
In-game Panzerschreck has penetration of 20 twice Ian Hoggs figure, again the difference may in some way be explained by little effect after penetration is achieved through the thicker armours. Perhaps like antitank rifles HEAT warheads should be given more "star" results rather than outright kills, and possibly have their penetrations reduced somewhat to confirm to the "real-life" testimonials and Ian Hoggs figures?
Best Regards Chuck.