The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - Boys Anti-Tank Rifle

James K · January 28, 2014, 07:37 PM

Poking fun at the enemy can be effective in boosting morale, but it might also lead us into minimizing the threat and underestimating the forces arrayed against us. Hitler was neither a silly man nor a cartoon clown. He was deadly serious and Nazi Germany was a deadly menace, defeated, not by a few Boys rifles, but by the full power of the British Commonwealth, the United States, and the Soviet Union. And it was a close run thing at that, requiring six years of all-out war.

That movie was made in 1942, by which time the Boys had been made obsolete by heavier German tanks, against which no rifle like the Boys was effective. Only shaped charge projectiles such as those fired by the PIAT and the "Bazooka" could defeat heavy armor.

Jim

January 28, 2014, 07:37 PM	#2
James K Member In Memoriam Join Date: March 17, 1999 Posts: 24,383	Poking fun at the enemy can be effective in boosting morale, but it might also lead us into minimizing the threat and underestimating the forces arrayed against us. Hitler was neither a silly man nor a cartoon clown. He was deadly serious and Nazi Germany was a deadly menace, defeated, not by a few Boys rifles, but by the full power of the British Commonwealth, the United States, and the Soviet Union. And it was a close run thing at that, requiring six years of all-out war. That movie was made in 1942, by which time the Boys had been made obsolete by heavier German tanks, against which no rifle like the Boys was effective. Only shaped charge projectiles such as those fired by the PIAT and the "Bazooka" could defeat heavy armor. Jim