Rocket, Anti-Tank, 88mm Raketenpanzerbuechse 54 (Panzerschreck)

This 88 mm (3.46 in.) rocket-propelled, hollow-charge, anti-tank grenade, which was fired from a tube, became operational with German Army and SS field units in August 1944. Nicknamed the Panzerschreck (Tank Terror), this weapon's development had been heavily influenced by American bazookas of 60 mm (2.4 in.) caliber captured in North Africa in spring 1943. Effective range was 150 to 180 m (500 to 600 ft), and it could penetrate 16 cm (6.3 in.) of armor. It was usually operated as a two-man weapon: a loader carried and loaded the projectiles into the tube, which was aimed and fired by the operator.

As a result of the desperate situation for Nazi Germany in the last phase of the war, the Panzerschreck was cancelled in favor of mass producing larger number of small Panzerfaust anti-tank grenades. In 1989 the U.S. Army Ordnance Museum transferred this projectile to the Smithsonian.