"Bring up the PIAT!" is one of the most quoted lines in any war film, from the 1977 Arnhem epic A Bridge Too Far. It's shouted as the paratroopers at Arnhem road bridge face German armour closing in.
The real story behind it is even better. In September 1944, during Operation Market Garden, Lt Col John Frost's 2nd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, with other men of the 1st Airborne Division, seized the north end of the Arnhem road bridge. They held it for three days and four nights against SS armour and infantry, far longer than they had ever been expected to hold out alone. Their anti-tank weapons were 6-pounder guns, grenades and the PIAT.
The PIAT (Projector, Infantry, Anti-Tank) was the British infantryman's answer to enemy tanks. It was a heavy, spring-powered spigot launcher, notoriously hard to cock and with a brutal kick, and it took real nerve to use at close range. At Arnhem and Oosterbeek, airborne soldiers used it against tanks and self-propelled guns, including Major Robert Cain, who was awarded the Victoria Cross for repeatedly taking on German armour with a PIAT.
"Bring up the PIAT!" is one of the most quoted lines in any war film, from the 1977 Arnhem epic A Bridge Too Far. It's shouted as the paratroopers at Arnhem road bridge face German armour closing in.
The real story behind it is even better. In September 1944, during Operation Market Garden, Lt Col John Frost's 2nd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, with other men of the 1st Airborne Division, seized the north end of the Arnhem road bridge. They held it for three days and four nights against SS armour and infantry, far longer than they had ever been expected to hold out alone. Their anti-tank weapons were 6-pounder guns, grenades and the PIAT.
The PIAT (Projector, Infantry, Anti-Tank) was the British infantryman's answer to enemy tanks. It was a heavy, spring-powered spigot launcher, notoriously hard to cock and with a brutal kick, and it took real nerve to use at close range. At Arnhem and Oosterbeek, airborne soldiers used it against tanks and self-propelled guns, including Major Robert Cain, who was awarded the Victoria Cross for repeatedly taking on German armour with a PIAT.
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