Panzerschreck

The Panzerschreck (German for "Tank Terror" ) is an anti-tank rocket launcher, used by the Wehrmacht. The Panzerschreck appears in all WWII era Call of Duty installments. It is mainly used for eliminating tanks, but can also be used as an anti-personnel weapon to some effect.

Appearance
In all Call of Duty games that it appears in, the Panzerschreck is a yellowish color with a bulky metal shield on the left side that looks very similar to its real life counter-part. The Panzerschreck's metal shield is very obstructive to the user's vision. Many players opt for the Bazooka, as it is considered a better weapon.

Campaign
In Call of Duty: United Offensive the Panzerschreck appears in almost all levels except Bomber. However, the harder the difficulty, the fewer locations they appear in. Ammunition can be found 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 yet obtrusive sight offset to the left of the rocket. Because of its large hip 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 likely 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 fire to eliminate the Panzerschreck wielder. Because of this, it is preferable to have two or more people attack the tank at the same time from different angles. 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. The blast radius is not very large; in fact, it is almost 100in smaller than that of a grenade. Only a direct hit from the rocket or an extremely close hit will kill an enemy. However, an enemy that takes splash damage from the rocket will become shell-shocked, making them an easy target to be picked off with the pistol or another primary weapon.

Call of Duty: Finest Hour
In Call of Duty: Finest Hour the Panzerschreck is seen in all levels that features 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 Call of Duty: 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 used by both Allied and Axis forces, as 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.

Campaign
In Call of Duty: World at War the Panzerschrek is only available in the Russian campaign. It is first used in "Their Land, Their Blood" to disable German tanks, and is used continuously throughout the rest of the Russian campaign. It takes, on average, two rockets to take out enemy tanks. In the campaign mission "Downfall", the Panzerschrek is used for taking down the Nazi Eagle in the Reichstag and to destroy a machine gun nest. The Panzerschreck can also be used as an alternative to using explosives to destroy the Flak 88s in the campaign mission "Heart of the Reich", but only if the soldiers manning the gun are killed first. The splash damage is deadly, much like the M9A1 Bazooka. The only difference between the Panzerschreck and the M9A1 Bazooka would be that the Panzerschreck has an additional bulky metal shield in addition to the iron sights, while the M9A1 Bazooka features just a sighting scope. It is absent from the multiplayer. This is probably because the M9A1 Bazooka x2 is a First Tier Perk, not a primary or secondary weapon, and it would make no sense to add a perk for the Panzerschreck as they both are used to the same effect.

Zombies
The Panzerschreck is available in Nazi Zombies from the Mystery Box. In Nacht der Untoten, it is good for taking out multiple zombies, but only has 4 rockets in reserve ammo. Although it is very good a taking out multiple zombies at a time, splash damage becomes a serious issue due to its reloading time and the speed of the zombies in the later rounds. 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 Call of Duty: World at War the player can activate infinite ammo whilst playing Nazi Zombies, giving the Panzerschreck rapid fire capability. If the Panzerschreck 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 greater splash damage, and increased mobility. However, the still slow movement can be a problem.

Call of Duty: World at War (Nintendo DS)


The Panzerschreck appears in Call of Duty: World at War (Nintendo DS) 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 the campaign 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.

Call of Duty: World at War: Final Fronts
The Panzerschreck appears in the British campaign in which it is used to take down Half-Tracks and Tiger Tanks. It is similar to its Call of Duty: World at War counterpart; the only difference being the structure of the iron sights.

In this game, to correctly use the Iron Sights, the player must aim with the middle hole.

Call of Duty: Black Ops
The Panzerschreck only makes an appearance in the campaign level, "Project Nova," since the level is a flashback. Like all other reappearing weapons, the Panzerschreck's graphics have been improved slightly, but all the other original features have been recycled from Call of Duty: World at War. The Wehrmacht can use them somewhat effectively, although the Panzerschreck's rocket moves slower than the RPG or LAW rockets.

The Panzerschreck also appears in the multiplayer emblem editor as a layer called "Bazooka."

Call of Duty

 * On multiple Russian levels, up to five rounds can be fired into the back of a Russian tank, but it won't be destroyed. This is probably because Infinity Ward turned off friendly fire for tanks in campaign mode.

Call of Duty: Finest Hour

 * When firing the Panzerschreck at the long distance,the rocket will drop a few feet from target.
 * It appears to be replace the American anti tank launcher, M1 Bazooka, throughout the American campaign.

Call of Duty: Roads to Victory

 * Kills with the Panzerschreck do not count towards your overall kill count.
 * With the unlimited ammo cheat on, the Panzerschreck can fire semi, or even full auto.

Call of Duty: World at War

 * The Panzerschreck'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 Panzerschrek!". In game weapon files, the weapon is called Panzerschrek.
 * The metal shield on the Panzerschreck does seem to 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.
 * The Panzerschrek is used in all Red Army missions except for Vendetta.
 * The Panzerschrek is the best weapon to get down Peter McCain from where he's hanging in Shi No Numa. It takes almost the 20 rockets.

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 Panzerschreck.