Hey fine folks;
I'm trying to get a more detailed understanding of some of the early anti-tank weapons of WWII. While I understand how various types of ammunition and devices worked against tanks, I've yet to find much detailed information as to how these weapons effected non-tank targets.
In particular, I'm looking at shaped charge or HEAT weapons. For example, would a soldier throwing an RPG-43, or firing a panzerfaust at enemy infantry have any hope of inflicting harm, via explosive force or shrapnel, or are weapons of this ilk totally, hopelessly ill-suited for this kind of role?
Shaped charges would be ineffective vs infantry in most circumstances, with an exception being if they are hiding behind some cover that the explosive can penetrate. The design of shaped charges is such that the explosive force is narrowed into a very small "needle" to focus the energy. Once through a vehicles armor, the energy expands causing damage inside the vehicle.
HEAT rounds would work better than a shaped charge because their explosives would not be focused into that "needle", but to be truly effective antipersonnel rounds would have a timed fuze so that they burst while still airborne as well as something like ball bearings to spread as shrapnel. I'm not familiar enough with specific HEAT rounds to say whether or not they would have had a timed fuze vs an impact fuze.