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wz.35: Poland's Remarkably Misunderstood Antitank Rifle (Ad-free)
🕑 Added 2024-08-26 12:00:03 +0000 UTCIn the 1930s, Poland decided to develop an anti-tank rifle, and the young designer Józef Maroszek came up with the winning system be scaling up a bolt action service rifle he had already drawn up. The project was kept very secret, out of concern that Germany or Russia would up-armor their tanks if the Polish rifle's existence and capabilities became known. This secrecy has led to a lot of misconceptions about the rifle today...
Interestingly, the ammunition for the wz.35 used a plain lead core. Polish engineers found that at its incredible 4200 fps (1280 m/s) muzzle velocity, the lead core had excellent armor penetrating capacity. When the German Army later captured and reused the rifles, they didn't trust this, and reloading captured Polish ammunition with German tungsten-cored projectiles made for the PzB-39.
Rather than explain the full story of the wz.35 in detail here, I will refer you to http://www.forgottenweapons.com/wz-35/ , where I have posted a full monograph on the rifle written by Leszek Erenfeicht.
Many thanks to the Royal Armouries for allowing me to film and disassemble this rifle! The NFC collection there - perhaps the best military small arms collection in Western Europe - is available by appointment to researchers:
https://royalarmouries.org/research/national-firearms-centre/
You can browse the various Armouries collections online here:
https://royalarmouries.org/collection/
Comments
Atoom
Looks like one design thought was "if you make the barrel long enough it's a point blank shot every time" xD
Thomas Batha
I wondered why no recoil pad. But then I realized that a 190gr bullet fired from a 22 pound gun would probably have less recoil than a 150gr bullet from an '03 Springfield, even allowing for the powder capacity difference. Just basic physics. The muzzle device is just frosting on the cake.
Brian Rutherford
This is a really informative and historical video. I've never seen one up close like this, only in pictures.
Forgotten Weapons
Unfortunately, I don't know.
Robert Beattie
wonderful presentation of a really "forgotten weapon." I like the stories of the old stuff rather than current production. Thanks for full history and disassembly. Are there any reports of successful nazi use of these?
Mark H. Smith
Thank you as always for another fascinating tale of development. Folks tend to not truly understand or respect velocity when discussing projectiles. Kinetic energy increases by the square of the velocity. KE=1/2mv^2. Folks tend to want to add a "bigger bullet" but if you increase the speed by approx 40% you double the kinetic energy. That is a powerful lever to operate. Easier said than done though.
Tore Martinussen
Out of curiosity, how was the armor penetration with the German reloads? Did they see significant improvement?
Jeffrey Hartman
Ian, an anti-tank rifle show with C&Rsenal. Please make it happen.
Wayne S.
OK, light yes. Handy? Maybe compared to a Boys.
Guido Schriewer
giving the pretty huge power of a 8x57 I wonder what a 8x86mm(!) would do on "soft" targets. if I happen to find myself heading to some jurassic island..... impressive they went with a standard caliber diameter and then keep the rifle that light for what it is. ---off totic. §you know, native and polish are the most beautiful women."_"what! who are you?" _"pocahontas koslowsky,"
z c
Reminds me of the hot shot long las in the Gaunt's Ghost series where they have to swap low life barrels due to the hotter loads.
Will Sanders
Working now
Glenn Miller
Gotta love anti-tank rifles that use bullets rather rockets. Thanks for the backstory on this!
Forgotten Weapons
It appears to be working fine...
Will Sanders
Ian, the Wz. 35 link is dead
