Anti-tank rifle
The anti-tank rifle is one of the anti-tank hand weapons and used to fight of tanks and armored vehicles. These weapons were developed between the two world wars , shortly after the appearance of the first tanks in the First World War . These are heavy, large-caliber rifles that fire armor-piercing projectiles with a particularly powerful propellant charge. The goal is to penetrate the armor and incapacitate the crew or important parts of the tank.
Due to the strong ammunition, the recoil for the shooter is enormous. Later developments tried to reduce the recoil with mechanical measures (for example movable barrels) and muzzle brakes .
development
Already at the beginning of the Second World War it became clear that the anti-tank rifles could not win the race against the increasingly thick armor. They no longer achieved the required penetration performance, as this increases proportionally with their weight (caliber and tube length). The limits of portable weight and acceptable recoil have been reached. For this reason, weapons of this type were hardly produced any more in the second half of the Second World War. They were replaced by reactive anti-tank rifles that fired shaped charge ammunition. The hollow charge projectile flies here at a significantly lower speed than the projectile of an anti-tank rifle.
history
High-performance rifles first appeared around 1800 for hunting large game. The term elephant rifle comes from that time . Anti-tank rifles follow the same path - to bring the largest possible (= massive) projectile to the target at the highest possible speed.
The anti-tank rifles were developed after the first tank missions of the First World War, intended as a suitable defense weapon of the infantry against tanks. In the absence of alternatives, the tanks were initially attacked by direct fire with conventional artillery cannons and improvised explosives. It quickly became apparent, however, that the new “Panzer” weapon also required the development of a corresponding defense weapon.
The first anti-tank rifle was the German M1918 tank rifle from Mauser in caliber 13 × 92 mm HR , which came into use shortly before the end of the First World War after a development period of only four months. The weapon was basically an enlarged Gewehr 98 and could penetrate armor around 20 millimeters thick at a distance of 100-200 meters at an angle of impact of 90 degrees. Due to its size (about 180 centimeters long and 17 kilograms) it was very unwieldy. The recoil was also tremendous, after just a few shots the shooter got headache and limbs and had to be relieved.
A large number of other anti-tank rifles were introduced between the world wars. Some of the projectiles consisted of certain metals (for example tungsten ), which gave them a higher penetration power . The largest caliber used was 20 millimeters, such as the Finnish Lahti L-39 , which weighed over 50 kilograms. The limit of what was technically feasible had been reached. Germany was banned from developing anti-tank rifles by the Treaty of Versailles; existing tank guns had to be delivered. After the National Socialists came to power, the Panzerbüchse 38 with a caliber of 7.92 × 94 mm was developed.
The Red Army fought with the PTRD and PTŘS in the early years of World War II partially successful German tanks such as the Panzer III . Since one hit was usually not enough to put the tank out of action, the Soviet soldiers often used several anti-tank rifles at the same time. The PTRS self-loading rifle enabled a higher rate of fire.
Some of the anti-tank rifles were also used in house-to-house combat against infantry.
With increasing armor, these weapons were no longer effective, so more effective anti-tank weapons were developed.
At the end of the 1980s, anti-tank rifles were rediscovered. Deviating from their original form, they are now used by military and police special forces as anti-materiel rifles for combating light and unarmored targets and for fighting against snipers .
List by country of manufacture
| country | Anti-tank rifle | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| First World War | |||
| Germany | Tank rifle M1918 | ||
| Second World War | |||
| Soviet Union | PTRD | ||
| PTRS | |||
| Germany | Anti-tank rifle 38 | ||
| Anti-tank rifle 39 | |||
| Heavy anti-tank rifle 41 | |||
| Poland | Karabin przeciwpancerny wz.35 | ||
| Great Britain | Anti-tank rifle Boys | ||
| Finland | L-39 20mm Lahti | ||
| Japan | 97-Shiki ( Type 97 Automatic Cannon ) 20 mm | ||
| Czechoslovakia / German Empire | Anti-tank rifle M.SS41 7.92 × 94 mm | ||
| Switzerland | Heavy anti-tank rifle Oerlikon | ||
| Solothurn S18 20 mm | |||
| Anti-materiel rifles | |||
| United States | Barrett M82A1 | ||
| Croatia | RT-20 | ||
| Hungary | Cheetah 12.7 mm | ||
| South Africa | NTW-20 | ||
| Austria | Steyr HS | ||
Reactive anti-tank rifles
Since the conventional anti-tank rifles described above were less and less able to align with the increasingly thick armor, more and more reactive anti-tank rifles were developed since the Second World War . These are not rifles in the true sense of the word, but portable large-caliber weapons in which part of the combustion gases of the propellant charge is ejected backwards from the tube, which is open at both ends, so that no recoil occurs. Mostly HEAT or shaped charge projectiles are fired , which have a high penetration power even at low projectile speeds.
literature
- Gordon L. Rottman: World War II Infantry Anti-Tank Tactics Osprey Publishing, 2005, page 47, ISBN 978-1-84176-842-7 . (67 pages online PDF)
Individual evidence
- ↑ www.waffenhq.de: The M1918 tank rifle
- ↑ Maxim Popenker: anti-tank rifles. In: Modern Firearms. world.guns.ru, accessed October 5, 2015 .
- ↑ Reiner Lidschun, Günter Wollert: Infantry weapons - Illustrated encyclopedia of infantry weapons from around the world , Brandenburgisches Verlagshaus, 1998, ISBN 3-89488-057-0 . P. 41
