The PzB-39 was a slight improvement over the earlier PzB-38. It was lighter, less costly (about the cost of a Sten), and simplified. But one really strange thing the Germans did with it was add a tear gas tip, the idea being that after penetration of light armor the gas would force the crews out. What happened most of the time was that the tip broke off from the tungsten pentrator and landed on the ground outside the tank making a close assault hazardous to German troops who had to put on gas masks when the shouldn't have! The PzB-39 was mass-produced, some 40,000 of them made for fighting on all fronts. They used steel, tungsten, titanium, and vanadium rounds to punch through 1" of armor at 300m at 30o! As the war progressed, however, the Germans discarded the weapon for the massive S-18-100 20mm AT gun and eventually Panzerfausts and Panzerschrecks. The tear gas round was discarded as well...

http://www.lonesentry.com/manuals/german-infantry-weapons/pics/23-pzb-39-antitank-rifle-in-position.jpg http://world.guns.ru/userfiles/images/atr/atr006/pzb_39_4.jpg S-18-100: http://img161.imageshack.us/img161/6272/solo7kw.jpg