Nomenclature
The Panzerabwehrwerfer 600 ("anti-tank thrower") designation was used by Rheinmetall during the design phase. The service designation was 8H63 in accordance to the new designation system used during the last year of the war. In 1944-5 the Germans changed their system of artillery designations from the old "year" system. Each weapon was to have a number showing their caliber group, a letter denoting ammunition group, and the last two digits were from the weapon drawing number. In this case 8 denoted 81.4 mm caliber using the H group of ammunition. The shells were all to be designated as H with a 4 digit number, the first three were the drawing number and the last was the shell's category from the following list:
| # | Shell type | # | Shell type |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | high explosive | 6 | gas |
| 2 | hollow charge anti-tank | 7 | incendiary |
| 3 | armor-piercing | 8 | leaflet |
| 4 | high explosive, high capacity | 9 | practice |
| 5 | smoke | 10 | proof projectile |
Read more about this topic: 8 Cm PAW 600