anti-tank gun
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An anti-tank gun is a form of
artillery Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during siege ...
designed to destroy
tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engin ...
s and other
armored fighting vehicles An armoured fighting vehicle (AFV) is an armed combat vehicle protected by armour, generally combining operational mobility with offensive and defensive capabilities. AFVs can be wheeled or tracked. Examples of AFVs are tanks, armoured car ...
, normally from a static defensive position. The development of specialized anti-tank munitions and anti-tank guns was prompted by the appearance of
tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engin ...
s during
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. To destroy hostile tanks, artillerymen often used
field gun A field gun is a field artillery piece. Originally the term referred to smaller guns that could accompany a field army on the march, that when in combat could be moved about the battlefield in response to changing circumstances ( field artille ...
s depressed to fire directly at their targets, but this practice expended too much valuable ammunition and was of increasingly limited effectiveness as tank armor became thicker. The first dedicated anti-tank artillery began appearing in the 1920s, and by
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
was a common appearance in many European armies. To penetrate armor, they fired specialized ammunition from longer barrels to achieve a higher muzzle velocity than field guns. Most anti-tank guns were developed in the 1930s as improvements in tanks were noted, and nearly every major arms manufacturer produced one type or another. Anti-tank guns deployed during World War II were often manned by specialist infantry rather than artillery crews, and issued to light infantry units accordingly. The anti-tank guns of the 1920s and 1930s were of small caliber; nearly all major armies possessing them used 37 mm ammunition (the
British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
used the slightly larger 40mm 2-pounder gun). As World War II progressed, the appearance of heavier tanks rendered these weapons obsolete, and anti-tank guns likewise began firing larger and more effective armor-piercing shot. The development of the compact
hollow charge A shaped charge is an explosive charge shaped to form an explosively formed penetrator (EFP) to focus the effect of the explosive's energy. Different types of shaped charges are used for various purposes such as cutting and forming metal, init ...
projectile permanently altered anti-tank warfare, since this type of ammunition did not depend on a high muzzle velocity and could be fired from low-recoil, man-portable light weapons, such as the ''
Panzerfaust The ''Panzerfaust'' (, "armour fist" or "tank fist", plural: ''Panzerfäuste'') was a development family of single-shot man-portable anti-tank systems developed by Nazi Germany during World War II. The weapons were the first single-use light an ...
'' and the American series of
recoilless rifle A recoilless rifle, recoilless launcher or recoilless gun, sometimes abbreviated "RR" or "RCL" (for ReCoilLess) is a type of lightweight artillery system or man-portable launcher that is designed to eject some form of countermass such as propel ...
s. Although several large-caliber guns were developed during the war that were capable of knocking out the most heavily armored tanks, they proved expensive and difficult to conceal. The later generation of low-recoil anti-tank weapons, which allowed projectiles the size of an artillery shell to be fired from the shoulder, was considered a far more viable option for arming infantry. Recoilless rifles replaced most conventional anti-tank guns in the postwar period; nevertheless, the development of new anti-tank guns exhibiting similar low-recoil performance continued until the late 1950s in France, Belgium, and the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
. A few Soviet designs saw combat well into the 1980s. The
People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
was still producing large-caliber anti-tank guns as late as 1988. In the 2000s, armies have increasingly preferred guided anti-tank missiles to guns.


History


World War I and Interwar period

The first specialized anti-tank weaponry consisted of
anti-tank rifles An anti-tank rifle is an anti-materiel rifle designed to penetrate the armor of armored fighting vehicles, most commonly tanks, armored personnel carriers, and infantry fighting vehicles. The term is usually used for weapons that can be carried ...
. These emerged from the mixed results of deploying
field artillery Field artillery is a category of mobile artillery used to support armies in the field. These weapons are specialized for mobility, tactical proficiency, short range, long range, and extremely long range target engagement. Until the early 20t ...
against tanks during World War I, and the need to produce a more economical weapon to destroy them. Most anti-tank rifles were over 1.3 m in length, however, and difficult for infantrymen to operate in the confines of their trenches. They could penetrate a tank's armor at long range, but without explosive firepower, often failed to cause catastrophic damage, kill, or even seriously injure the crew, or disable the tank. A number of
infantry support gun Infantry support guns or battalion guns are artillery weapons designed and used to increase the firepower of the infantry units they are intrinsic to, offering immediate tactical response to the needs of the unit's commanding officer. They typicall ...
s designed to defeat hard targets such as fortified machine gun emplacements were used as makeshift anti-tank weapons, including the French
Canon d'Infanterie de 37 modèle 1916 TRP Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western can ...
. The 3.7 cm Tankabwehrkanone 1918 im starrer Räder–lafette was probably the first dedicated anti-tank gun in service. However, its gun barrel was based on an earlier Hotchkiss 5- barrelled rotary-cannon. The 3.7 cm TAK 1918 was designed and built for the
Imperial German Army The Imperial German Army (1871–1919), officially referred to as the German Army (german: Deutsches Heer), was the unified ground and air force of the German Empire. It was established in 1871 with the political unification of Germany under the l ...
in 1918. The 3.7 cm Pak 36 which first appeared in 1928 was probably the first purpose-built anti-tank gun. Weighing some 160 kg, the Pak 36 could inflict a
catastrophic kill A catastrophic kill, K-Kill or complete kill is damage inflicted on an armored vehicle that renders it permanently non-functional (most commonly via fire and/or an explosion). Among tank crewmen it is also commonly known as a ''brew up'', coined ...
on a tank rather than merely penetrating its armor plate. Towed guns similar to the Pak 36 were the only anti-tank weapon issued to European armies during the 1930s, and a number of influential designs proliferated, such as the Böhler gun. By the late 1930s, anti-tank guns had been manufactured by companies in Germany, Austria, France,
Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...
, Belgium, Great Britain, Denmark, and Sweden. A few countries, such as the Soviet Union, also manufactured foreign designs under license.


World War II

At the outbreak of World War II, most armies were fielding light anti-tank guns firing 3.7-cm (37-mm) ammunition. The guns were usually mounted on two-wheeled carriages so they could be towed into position, then withdrawn and repositioned rapidly. Since they weighed only a few hundred pounds on average, they could also be manhandled into position. All fired
high-explosive An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An expl ...
and solid armor-piercing shot effective at ranges up to roughly 500 m, and an increasing number were manufactured with protective
gun shield A U.S. Marine manning an M240 machine gun equipped with a gun shield A gun shield is a flat (or sometimes curved) piece of armor designed to be mounted on a crew-served weapon such as a machine gun, automatic grenade launcher, or artillery piece ...
s in addition to a split rail mounting. They were able to destroy tanks fielded by both sides during the first two years of the war, but soon proved impotent against the heavier tank armor that debuted in 1940. French doctrine was for their infantry to let enemy tanks pass through then stop the accompanying enemy infantry leaving the unsupported tanks to be engaged by anti-tank guns deployed in three echelons. The issue of 58 guns per division provided 10 guns per kilometre of front which was expected to be able to deal with enemy tanks at a concentration of 50 tanks per kilometer. In practice the German invasion of France concentrated tanks in select divisions at up to 100 per kilometer. Introducing improved ammunition and increasing muzzle velocity initially helped compensate for their mediocre performance, but small-caliber anti-tank guns clearly would soon be overtaken by yet more heavily armored tanks. Medium-caliber guns in the 40- to 50-mm range began to appear, some of which simply used rebored 37-mm barrels. Although they, too, were soon approaching obsolescence, most remained in use with infantry units until the end of the war. Anti-tank guns remained ineffective against
sloped armor Sloped armour is armour that is neither in a vertical nor a horizontal position. Such angled armour is typically mounted on tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles (AFVs), as well as naval vessels such as battleships and cruisers. Sloping an ...
, as demonstrated by an incident in 1941 when a single Soviet
T-34 The T-34 is a Soviet medium tank introduced in 1940. When introduced its 76.2 mm (3 in) tank gun was less powerful than its contemporaries while its 60-degree sloped armour provided good protection against Anti-tank warfare, anti-tan ...
tank was hit more than 30 times by a battalion-sized contingent of German 37 and 50-mm anti-tank guns. The tank survived intact and was driven back to its own lines a few hours later. This helped earn the Pak 36 the moniker of ''Panzeranklopfgerät'' ("tank door knocker") because its crew simply revealed their presence and wasted their shells without damaging the T-34's armor. Anti-tank gunners began aiming at tank tracks, or vulnerable margins on the turret ring and
gun mantlet A gun mantlet is an armour plate or shield attached to an armoured fighting vehicle's gun, protecting the opening through which the weapon's barrel projects from the hull or turret armour and, in many cases, ensuring the vulnerable warhead of a ...
, rather than testing their lighter cannon against bow and turret armor. These difficulties resulted in new types of ammunition being issued, namely
high-explosive anti-tank High-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) is the effect of a shaped charge explosive that uses the Munroe effect to penetrate heavy armor. The warhead functions by having an explosive charge collapse a metal liner inside the warhead into a high-velocity ...
(HEAT) and
armor-piercing discarding sabot Armour-piercing discarding sabot (APDS) is a type of spin-stabilized kinetic energy projectile for anti-armour warfare. Each projectile consists of a sub-calibre round fitted with a sabot. The combination of a lighter sub-calibre projectile wi ...
(APDS) projectiles. Towards the end of World War II, armor plating became still thicker, with tanks such as the
Tiger II The Tiger II is a German heavy tank of the Second World War. The final official German designation was ''Panzerkampfwagen'' Tiger ''Ausf''. B,'' Panzerkampfwagen'' – abbr: ''Pz.'' or ''Pz.Kfw.'' (English: "armoured fighting vehicle"), ''Ausf.' ...
being fitted with armor over 100 mm in thickness, as compared to the 15 mm more typical in 1939. This prompted the development of a third generation of anti-tank guns, large-caliber pieces in the 57- to 100-mm range. The British Army adopted the
Ordnance QF 6-pounder The Ordnance Quick-Firing 6-pounder 7 cwt,British forces traditionally denoted smaller ordnance by the weight of its standard projectile, in this case approximately . The approximate weight of the gun barrel and breech, "7 cwt" (cwt = hundredwe ...
and Ordnance QF 17-pounder, which were then considered great advances in firepower, and the
Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previous ...
fielded the even larger
7.5 cm Pak 41 The 7.5 cm Pak 41 was one of the last Nazi Germany, German anti-tank guns brought into service and used in World War II and notable for being one of the largest anti-tank guns to rely on the Squeeze bore, Gerlich principle (pioneered by the G ...
and
8.8 cm Pak 43 The Pak 43 (''Panzerabwehrkanone 43'' and ''Panzerjägerkanone 43'') was a Nazi Germany, German 88 mm anti-tank gun developed by Krupp in competition with the Rheinmetall 8.8 cm Flak 41 anti-aircraft gun and used during World War II. The P ...
. While the early 37-mm anti-tank guns were easily concealed and moved, the large-caliber weapons available late in the war required equally large vehicles to tow them into place, and were difficult to conceal, dig in, withdraw, or reposition. By 1945, large anti-tank guns had become almost impractical in their role, and their size and weight were considered liabilities. They were also expensive to produce and although they were capable of defeating the most formidable of opponents, most tank units still consisted of less heavily armoured models that remained vulnerable to less expensive and more practical guns, as well. Many heavy anti-tank guns were issued, at least initially, on the divisional level, but gradually made their way to individual infantry battalions. Meanwhile, the effect of very compact
hollow charge A shaped charge is an explosive charge shaped to form an explosively formed penetrator (EFP) to focus the effect of the explosive's energy. Different types of shaped charges are used for various purposes such as cutting and forming metal, init ...
warheads was being noted, and a number of countries began producing man-portable anti-tank weapons using this ammunition. The development of man-portable, shoulder-fired, anti-tank rocket launchers began in 1941; most could be reloaded, but a few, such as the German
Panzerfaust The ''Panzerfaust'' (, "armour fist" or "tank fist", plural: ''Panzerfäuste'') was a development family of single-shot man-portable anti-tank systems developed by Nazi Germany during World War II. The weapons were the first single-use light an ...
, were fired from disposable tubes. Unlike anti-tank guns, their light weight made them easily portable by individual infantrymen on the battlefield, and they offered similar degrees of firepower whilst being quicker and cheaper to produce. Towed anti-tank guns disappeared from most Western countries, such as the United States, after World War II, to be replaced by shoulder-fired rocket launchers, recoilless rifles, and eventually, guided anti-tank missiles.


Postwar period

At the end of the war, German engineers had proposed a new, large-caliber anti-tank gun that used less propellant than a rocket or recoilless weapon, yet fired similar compact hollow-charge shells. German forces subsequently fielded the 8 cm PAW 600, which was an extremely lightweight, low-pressure weapon still able to fire the same ammunition types as higher-velocity anti-tank guns. In the 1950s, this idea was revived by a Belgian firm,
Mecar Mecar is a Belgian weapon and ammunition manufacturing company headquartered in Petit-Roeulx-lez-Nivelles, Hainaut Province. Mecar is responsible for creating weapons ranging from grenades to lightweight anti-tank cannons. The company was establishe ...
, which subsequently improved on the concept and developed a low-pressure, smoothbore, 90-mm anti-tank gun. Because of its low recoil forces and light construction, the gun was particularly useful for being mounted on armored cars or small gun carriages. Its design inspired the lightly rifled French DEFA D921 anti-tank gun, which fired fin-stabilized shells and was available on a towed carriage or as a vehicle mount. It was later mated to the AML-90 and EBR series of French armored cars. The Soviet Union also adopted a similar design around the same time, the 100-mm T-12 anti-tank gun, which was smoothbore and fired fin-stabilized shells. Switzerland developed a postwar 90-mm anti-tank gun of its own, the Pak 50/57, firing shells with an even lower velocity than the Mecar or DEFA guns. Apart from the T-12, which used APDS rounds, these weapons could only use HEAT shells for armor-piercing purposes. France did introduce an
APFSDS Armour-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot (APFSDS), long dart penetrator, or simply dart ammunition, is a type of kinetic energy penetrator ammunition used to attack modern vehicle armour. As an armament for main battle tanks, it succeeds A ...
shell for the DEFA D921 at some point in the 1980s. The last country known to have produced a dedicated anti-tank gun was the People's Republic of China in 1988. The Chinese gun was known as the Norinco Type 86 and was probably manufactured as a replacement for the aging Soviet-sourced T-12. Anti-tank guns continued to be used in a number of conflicts around the world, such as the
Six-Day War The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states (primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, S ...
and the
South African Border War The South African Border War, also known as the Namibian War of Independence, and sometimes denoted in South Africa as the Angolan Bush War, was a largely asymmetric conflict that occurred in Namibia (then South West Africa), Zambia, and Angol ...
. Soviet anti-tank guns in particular were exported to at least 18 other countries after being retired from service, and have continued to see action.


Self-propelled anti-tank guns

Although still being drawn by horses or towed by trucks, towed anti-tank guns were initially much lighter and more portable than field guns, making them well-suited to infantry maneuvers. As their size and caliber increased, though, the guns likewise became increasingly heavy and cumbersome, restricting their role to static defense. In consequence, during World War II, both sides were compelled to make anti-tank guns self-propelled, which greatly increased their mobility. The first self-propelled anti-tank guns were merely belated attempts to make use of obsolete tanks, such as the
Panzerjäger I The Panzerjäger I ("English: tank hunter number 1") was the first German ''panzerjäger'' (a self-propelled anti-tank gun, or "tank destroyer") to see service in the Second World War. All mounted the Czech Škoda-built 4.7 cm KPÚV vz. 38 (Ger ...
, which was a Czech 4.7-cm Pak (t) gun mated to a
Panzer I The Panzer I was a light tank produced in Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Its name is short for ( German for " armored fighting vehicle mark I"), abbreviated as . The tank's official German ordnance inventory designation was '' Sd.Kfz. 10 ...
chassis. and were used in the Battle of France The trend continued with older tanks and captured vehicles, which were available in large numbers for conversions to self-propelled guns when they were replaced by heavier and better-armed (and armored) tanks. Although just a makeshift solution, these initial experiments proved so successful, they spawned an entire class of new vehicles: dedicated
tank destroyer A tank destroyer, tank hunter, tank killer, or self-propelled anti-tank gun is a type of armoured fighting vehicle, armed with a direct fire artillery gun or missile launcher, designed specifically to engage and destroy enemy tanks, often wi ...
s. The US Army's early self-propelled anti-tank guns were 75mm on M2 half-tracks (entering service in 1941) to complement towed artillery and
M6 Gun Motor Carriage The 37 mm Gun Motor Carriage M6, also known as M6 Fargo, and under the manufacturer (Dodge)'s designation WC55, was a modified Dodge WC52 light truck mounting a light anti-tank gun. It was used by the United States Army for infantry support ...
a 37mm on 4-wheel drive Dodge truck (1942). US Tank Destroyer doctrine emphasised mobility to place the tank destroyers into positions to ambush tank attacks. Tank destroyers offered some advantages over towed anti-tank guns, since a static gun emplacement sacrificed concealment and surprise after firing the first shot, but the same gun mounted on a tracked or wheeled chassis could open fire and throw a tank formation into substantial disarray before quickly withdrawing to repeat the same tactic elsewhere. The introduction of tank destroyers also put an end to the traditional tactic of suppressing anti-tank gun batteries with heavy artillery bombardments, as their crews were now well-protected under armor. They were not without their own series of disadvantages, however, namely presenting a much larger target than a towed gun, the added responsibilities of vehicle maintenance and logistical support, and the limited spaces in which the crew had to operate and stow all their available ammunition. By the end of the war, dedicated tank destroyers had been superseded by tanks, which were just as effective at destroying other tanks, and little incentive remained to continue their separate development. Nevertheless, much like towed anti-tank guns, they were widely exported and are still in service with some armies in the late 20th and early 21st century.


See also

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Anti-tank grenade An anti-tank grenade is a specialized hand-thrown grenade used to defeat armored targets. Although their inherently short range limits the usefulness of grenades, troops can lie in ambush or maneuver under cover to exploit the limited outward vis ...
*
Anti-tank warfare Anti-tank warfare originated from the need to develop technology and tactics to destroy tanks during World War I. Since the Triple Entente deployed the first tanks in 1916, the German Empire developed the first anti-tank weapons. The first devel ...
*
List of anti-tank guns Anti-tank guns are typically high-velocity guns designed to fire anti-tank shells. They are usually designed to be easily transported and concealed to maximize responsiveness and surprise. Towed anti-tank guns Self-propelled anti-tank gun ...
*
Tank gun A tank gun is the main armament of a tank. Modern tank guns are high-velocity, large-caliber artilleries capable of firing kinetic energy penetrators, high-explosive anti-tank, and cannon-launched guided projectiles. Anti-aircraft guns can also ...
*
Man-portable anti-tank systems Man-portable anti-tank systems (MANPATS or MPATS) are traditionally portable shoulder-launched projectile systems firing heavy Shell (projectile), shell-type projectiles (although throwing and lunge weapons have existed), typically designed to com ...


Notes


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anti-Tank gun Cannon Anti-tank guns Anti-tank weapons