With the introduction of armor and tanks on the battlefields of WW1, standard rifle and pistol rounds would do very little against such technology. So, with that in mind, the first anti-tank rifle was created; the German 1918 Mauser Tankgewehr.
This .54 cal bolt action beast weighed 41 pounds (loaded with bipod) and launched a 13.2 mm 795 grain armor piercing bullet at almost 2600 feet per second and stretched over 5 feet long and capable of piercing 22 mm of armor at 100 meters.
The rifle was operated by a two-man crew, consisting of a gunner and ammunition bearer, who were both trained to fire the weapon. A good crew could fire 10 rounds x minute.
With the lack of any recoil management, the unpadded stock and lack of a muzzle break meant the full force of every shot went through the user. The reality was that users complained of headaches, temporary deafness, nausea, stiff neck and bruising/dislocated shoulders and broken collar bones.
It wasn't a one shot one kill weapon, but it was designed to work with combined anti tank teams in order to neutralize a tank.
A total of 15800 were produced, some still in existence today. #stayzero
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#ww1 #guns #tank #armor