The Projector, Infantry, Anti-Tank or PIAT was Britain’s primary infantry anti-tank weapon during the latter half of the Second World War. Firing a 2.5lbs bomb containing a shaped charge warhead capable of penetrating armour up to 4 inches thick. During the Second World War, it equipped British and Commonwealth troops as well as arming resistance and partisan fighters behind enemy lines in Nazi-occupied Europe. Based on a spigot mortar system of operation it was largely obsolete with the refinement of rocket launched and recoilless rifle systems. Despite increasing obsolescence, it continued to see use after the war. In this article, we will examine its use by the Israeli Haganah during the 1947–49 Arab-Israeli conflict.
WWII
Operation Balak: The IDF’s Star of David on Nazi Rifles
“All is fair in love and war” is an idiom in English that refers to the practice of otherwise questionable actions being considered acceptable under exceptional circumstances. When talking about weaponry in general, one example to illustrate the aforementioned saying would be the direct use of an enemy’s arms of war to forward one’s own agenda. Anti-Communist Afghan Mujahideen fighting their Soviet enemies with Soviet-made weaponry, Islamic State attacking regional adversaries with US M4’s and M16’s or the post-war US government employing former German and Japanese scientists and technologies for their fight against the Red Menace are all examples of this common practice. The Israeli Defense Forces‘ hexagram emblem on Nazi Mauser-manufactured Kar98k carbines is another interesting manifestation of this idiom.