Panzerschreck

"Fire the Panzerschreck!"

- A common phrase from Sgt. Reznov

The Panzerschreck, German for "tank terror," It is an anti-tank rocket launcher, similar in function to the M9A1 Bazooka and the Panzerfaust. The Panzerschreck appears in all WW2 set Call of Duty installments.

Singleplayer
The Panzerschreck appears in almost all levels except Bomber. However, the harder the difficulty, the less locations they appear in. Ammunition can be found in whenever the player is required to take down multiple enemy vehicles, such as in Noville. Panzerschrecks will continually respawn in their boxes.

Multiplayer
Players cannot spawn directly with Panzerschrecks; they must be picked up in boxes lying around in houses and bunkers. Only German bunkers spawn with Panzerschreck boxes, while American, Russian, and British bunkers spawn with Bazookas. The Panzerschreck is one of four infantry weapons that can damage tanks and bunkers, the others being the Bazooka, the Panzerfaust, and the Satchel Charge. The Panzerschreck has a very simple sight offset to the left of the rocket. Because of its large spread, it is not particularly accurate at long range.

In terms of attacking armor, it takes one rocket to destroy a tank from the rear and at least two rockets to destroy a tank at full health on the front and the sides, depending on the range from which the rocket was fired. In the time it takes to fire and reload the two rockets, however, a tank driver will probably already have figured out where the attack is coming from, either killing the Panzerschreck wielder with the tank turret, or bailing out of the tank and using small arms to eliminate the Panzerschreck wielder. Because of this, it is preferable to have two people fire Panzerschrecks from different angles with infantry support. The Panzerschreck is, however, capable of destroying jeeps with a single rocket to the front or to the side.

In terms of attacking infantry, the Panzerschreck is extremely ineffective. As noted in the damage section, only a direct hit from the rocket or an extremely close hit will kill an enemy. The blast radius is not very large; in fact, it is almost 100in smaller than that of a grenade. However, an enemy that takes splash damage from the rocket will be shell-shocked, making them an easy target to be picked off with the pistol or another primary weapon.

Call of Duty: Finest Hour
The Panzerschreck is seen in all levels that feature tanks. It's effective against tanks but is a terrible choice against infantry. It's nearly useless in any action other than anti tank, as groups of infantry can shrug off rounds. The Panzerschrek can also be used to destroy enemy machine gun nests during the mission Last Bridge Standing to moderate effectiveness.

Call of Duty 2: Big Red One
The Panzerschreck appears in a few levels where enemy armor is present, and the player also uses it to destroy enemy tanks in the level The Desert Fox. The heat shield on the weapon is very small in Big Red One compared to the Panzerschreck models used in other Call of Duty titles.

Call of Duty 2
The Panzerschreck in Call of Duty 2 is portrayed in use by both Allied and Axis forces (The British PIAT launcher and American Bazooka are not present). It is difficult to use without being close to an enemy vehicle, though it can often disable enemy vehicles in one shot--even the massive Tiger Tanks.

Call of Duty: Roads to Victory
In Call of Duty: Roads to Victory, the Panzerschreck is the only anti-tank weapon available. It takes about 3 hits to destroy a Panzer, and about 5 to destroy a Tiger.

Call of Duty 3
In Call of Duty 3's multiplayer mode, both the Bazooka and Panzerschreck are practically interchangeable, and defeat most armor within two-three shots, however the Panzerschreck is slightly more powerful when targeting heavy armor, but with the cost of a longer reload time.

It is interesting to note that the Axis forces in Call of Duty 3 apparently use Panzerschrecks with face-shields to protect against the forward blast of the weapon, but do not wear any face protection, which is a contradiction.

Call of Duty: World at War
In Call of Duty: World at War in the Russian campaign the Russian forces use them for German tank destruction. It takes, on average, two rockets to take out enemy tanks which is very odd considering the player is fighting against Tigers and King Tigers, which had some of the best armor in World War 2. The splash damage is great and deadly in the campaign, much like the M9A1 Bazooka. The only difference between the Panzerschrek and the M9A1 Bazooka would be that the Panzerschrek has a bulky metal shield and the M9A1 has a scope. It is absent from the multiplayer. This is probably because the M9A1 Bazooka is a perk, not a primary or secondary weapon, and it would make no sense to put a perk for the Panzerschrek as well, seeing as they are both equally effective at destroying tanks. The Panzerschrek, however, is available in Nazi Zombies from the Random Weapon Box and although it is very good a taking out multiple zombies at a time, it does become a bit of a problem to use in later rounds due to the damage the player can do to him self with it, if he fires it a too closer range. On the Nazi Zombie map Verruckt its maximum ammo count is 16 rockets and 20 in Shi No Numa and Der Riese.On the PC version of World at War the player can activate infinite ammo whilst playing Nazi Zombies, giving the Panzerschrek rapid fire capability. If the Panzerschrek becomes upgraded using the Pack-a-Punch machine in Der Riese, it becomes the Longinus, which has three rockets in its magazine, does more damage, has bigger splash damage, and weighs as little as a shotgun or the Ray Gun.

Call of Duty: World at War (Nintendo DS)
The Panzerschreck appears Call of Duty: World at War (Nintendo DS) in as one of the two anti-tank weapons in-game. It is much weaker than the console versions, taking 3-4 shots to destroy a tank. In some aspects, it is similar to the console versions, as it can't be fired from the hip. However, the player must manually aim down the sights themselves, the game will not do it for them.

In multiplayer, the Panzerschreck appears in some maps, available for pickup. Like in singleplayer it cannot be fired for the hip, but deals high explosive damage and a high blast radius, enough for clearing a room with a single missile.

Trivia

 * On multiple Russian levels on Call of Duty, up to 5 rounds can be fired into the back of a Russian tank, but it won't be destroyed. This is probably because Treyarch turned off friendly fire for tanks in campaign mode.
 * In World at War, the Panzerschrek's name is frequently misspelled in subtitles and death messages. When the player equips it and when Sgt. Reznov yells "Fire the Panzerschreck!" it is spelled Panzerschrek. When the player dies from a direct rocket shot, the death message says "You were killed by a Panzershrek!". In game weapon files, the weapon is called Panzerschrek.
 * In the Shi No Numa trailer, Nikolai Belinski is seen using one.
 * In Call of Duty: World at War (DS), melee is impossible while holding this weapon, just like with the M2 Flamethrower. It is also possible to kill teammates with the Panzerschrek.
 * The Panzerschreck in World at War is not present in multiplayer.
 * The metal shield on the Panzerschrek does seem do block bullets to some extent. In the campaign, if the player fires at a German soldier holding one up in the firing position, the metal shield protects the head, preventing head shots if he is directly in front of them.
 * In World at War game files, the secret weapon called "Panzershark" can be found. It is similar to Panzerschreck, but shoots sharks instead of missiles. In can be used in singleplayer by default by enabling cheats and using "give panzershark" console command.