The Projector, Infantry, Anti Tank (PIAT) was a spigot mortar designed by British Major Millis Jeffries in 1941 as a replacement for the obsolete Boys anti-tank rifle, and issued to field units in 1943. While difficult to use due to the vicious recoil and sheer amount of force required to cock the action, the weapon was capable of throwing a two-and-a-half pound bomb with a HEAT warhead anything up to 330 yards. The weapon used a large coil spring fired spigot cocked by rotating and pulling back on the padded buttplate and then rotating it back and sliding it forward, which was used to ignite the bomb's primer and thus the propellant charge. This generally required the user to brace the buttplate with both feet and pull the rest of the weapon upwards. On firing, the force of the recoiling spigot would re-cock the spring; practical rate of fire in combat was roughly 5 rounds per minute for a two-man crew. The weapon could be used effectively by an experienced crew, but was heavy, inaccurate, had a progressively shorter effective range as German tank technology improved, and rushed wartime production resulted in many defective projectiles which failed to fire or detonate.
