"World of Tanks History Section: Infantry's Fangs " Topic

"Anti-tank rifles were invented at the end of WWI. They had a brief golden age during WWII, but as tanks with thick armour and man-portable rocket launchers became common, they quickly disappeared. These rifles were used by all combatants of WWII and were infantry's best friend when facing lightly armoured threats. What rifles did various countries use?

Mauser T-Gewehr (Germany)

This was the first anti-tank rifle in history, developed in Germany to use the 13x92SR cartridge and accepted for service in early 1918 as a temporary measure pending the adoption of the TuF high caliber machinegun. As this rifle had no muzzle brake or recoil dampening system, the crew had to rotate after 2-3 shots. Nevertheless, no less than one thousand of these rifles reached the front lines before the end of WWII. Despite their limited effectiveness, they took down more than a dozen Allied tanks.

7.92 mm karabin przeciwpancerny wz. 35 (Poland)

This rifle, designed by Maroszek, was adopted by the Polish army in 1935. It used a regular Polish army caliber, but with a lengthened casing (to 107 mm) which resulted in a muzzle velocity of 1200 m/s. Due to its secrecy, the project was referred to by its codename, "rifle for Uruguay", resulting in several sources calling it the "Ur" rifle. The secrecy and limited number produced results in a very limited effect against German forces in 1939…"
Full article here
link

Wonder to know how many of you used Anti-tank rifles in your wargames and how effectively they performe.

Amicalement
Armand

ASL has them, practically worthless against any tank. Useful against Halftracks. Same goes for almost every other ruleset I've seen with them.

A fair number of them for both sides in Malaya 1941-2. Using Rapid Fire rules the British/Indian Australian ones are n't too bad against the lighter Japanese tanks and armoured cars if you can get them into action and the Japanese ones are reasonably effective against Bren carriers.

In Bolt Action they are quite useful. They are cheap, provide an extra activacion dice and they are a menace for armoured cars and light vehicles. And they can also pin heavier ones.

France 1940 so they have taken out quite a lot of armoured cars & a fair few Panzers. Part of why I like the period, infantry is more effective against tanks.

Seems many rulesets may have this wrong. I can recall being instructed back in Cold War times on the Soviet 14.5mm KPVT machine gun mounted in the BRDM and BTR60. It has very respectable performance and even in the 1980s we assessed would be able to penetrate our lighter armoured vehicles such as CVR (Scorpion) family and FV-432, nb on flanks and rear armour. Of course it would have been ineffective against a heavy tank at that point, but that was 50 years after the 14.5mm round had been designed – for anti-tank rifles.

Close and to the rear of early war vehicles, the ATR could be quite effective. Armored cars and half tracks (mentioned above) are especially susceptible to these weapons. They were discarded in the desert because the infantry had no real way of sneaking close to the target.

" …they quickly disapeared."
I thought the soviets used them in fairly large numbers up to the end of the war?

Widely used by Red Army in 1945, often as an Anti Sniper tool…

Thanks boys.

Amicalement
Armand