The Panzerfaust-design consisted of a light recoilless launcher tube outfitted with a single pre-loaded high-explosive anti-tank warhead protruding from the muzzle.

The launch tube was made of low-grade steel 44 millimetres (1.7 in) in diameter, containing a 95-gram (3.4 oz) charge of black powder propellant.

The oversize warhead (140 mm (5.5 in) in diameter) was fitted into the front of the tube by an attached wooden tail stem with metal stabilizing fins.

[9] The Panzerfaust often had warnings written in large red letters on the upper rear end of the tube, the words usually being "Achtung.

[10] To use the Panzerfaust, the soldier removed the safety, tucked the tube under their arm, and aimed by aligning the target, the sight and the top of the warhead.

Because of the weapon's short range, not only enemy tanks and infantry, but also pieces of the exploding vehicle, posed dangers to its operator.

Compared to the bazooka and the Panzerschreck, it made a larger hole and produced massive spalling that killed or injured the crew, due to burns and shrapnel, and destroyed equipment.

[citation needed] The design was later copied in the modern-day AT-4 anti-tank weapon, producing the same effect against modern main battle tanks.

In the Battle of Normandy, only 6% of British tank losses were from Panzerfaust fire, despite the close-range combat in the thick bocage landscape.

Defensive measures included the use of logs, sandbags, track links, and concrete and wire mesh, along with bed frames with springs (bedsprings), similar to expanded metal-type German tank sideskirts.

In practice, about a meter of air gap was required to substantially reduce the penetrating capability of the warhead, so sideskirts and sandbags, along with other improvised armor, were virtually ineffective against both the Panzerschreck and Panzerfaust.

[15] Later on, each Soviet heavy tank (IS) and assault gun (ISU-152) company was assigned a platoon of infantry in urban battles to protect them from infantry-wielded anti-tank weapons, often supported by flamethrowers.

[15][16][17] During the last stages of the war, due to the lack of available weapons, many poorly-trained conscripts, mainly elderly men and teenage Hitler Youth members, were often given a single Panzerfaust, plus any type of obsolete pistol or rifle.

Many Panzerfäuste were sold to Finland, which urgently needed them, as Finnish forces did not have enough anti-tank weapons that could penetrate heavily armoured Soviet tanks like the T-34 and IS-2.

Finding them more effective than their own bazookas, they held onto them and used them during the later stages of the French Campaign, even dropping with them into the Netherlands during Operation Market Garden.

[20] Plans and technical materials on the Panzerfaust were supplied to the Empire of Japan to assist with their development of an effective anti-tank weapon.