Everyone had tanks, and they were miles better than the standard WWI tank. Going into World War II, we saw some major shifts. Related: This is the fascinating history of grenadiers, a centuries-old elite unit World War II: Electric Boogaloo Also, the Americans and Germans developed heavy machine guns for anti-tank roles in the form of the MG 18 TUF and the M2, but they were produced and designed too late in the war to make an impact. This single-shot, 35-pound rifle would send big rounds through tiny tanks aiming to kill the crew, disabling mobility, or killing the engine.īesides the anti-tank rifle, the Germans used several grenades bound together to attempt to destroy tanks. This behemoth fired a 13.2 mm round designed to pierce up to an inch of armor within 100 yards. One of the first anti-tank weapons was the Mauser 1918 T-Gewehr (T standing for “tank” and Gewehr being German for “rifle”.) The Mauser also brought us the first anti-material rifle. Once tanks started rolling in World War I, militaries realized they needed anti-tank weaponry to take them out. For artillery and aircraft it’s easy to kill tanks, but for infantry, it’s like taking on the sacred boar. Yet, if your infantry forces can kill tanks, you’ll have a versatile, tactically flexible force that’s always valuable.

Infantry tank killers can change the tide of a war or battle, and we are seeing that right now in Ukraine. Today, we will examine anti-tank weapons throughout the ages, specifically anti-tank weapons for the infantry. Every time tanks have gotten better anti-tank weapons have also gotten better. This started a tit-for-tat-like development of armor and weapons that have continually evolved. So, the infantry needed anti-tank weapons to combat them. Tanks were big, expensive, and logistically a nightmare, but they were effective. Tanks represented an early armored threat that stood up easily to the small arms of the time.

It was a brutal and vicious war filled with innovations that made it easier for man to kill man - machine guns, poison gas, and of course, tanks. World War I changed the nature of warfare.

Modern american anti tank guns