The World’s First Anti-Tank Rifle —The Mauser Model 1918 TankgewehrWhen the British intr

The World’s First Anti-Tank Rifle —The Mauser Model 1918 TankgewehrWhen the British introduced tanks during World War I, German infantry found themselves terribly vulnerable as rifle and machine gun fire were useless against the armored beasts.  To give the footsoldier a fighting chance, the Germans developed special armor piercing ammunition for the standard Gewehr 98 bolt action rifles.  One of the firsts was the weird “reversed bullet”.  As its name suggests, the reversed bullet was a standard caliber cartridge (8x57) which had the bullet inserted into the casing backwards.  This allowed for the loading of more gunpowder while the bullet would travel butt first towards it target.  When it struck a tank’s armor butt first, it imparted more energy than a regular rifle round.  The reversed bullet had a low success rate, especially since it could barely hit the broad side of a barn, let alone the weak spots of a tank’s armor. The reverse bullet didn’t exactly have sound ballistics.  Later the Germans created the K Bullet, a high velocity cartridge which used a bullet with a steel core.  With a success rate of 30% it was a great improvement to the reverse bullet.  However the extra pressure created by the round sometimes caused rifles to explode.By 1917 the armor on British tanks increased in thickness to the point that all ammunition for standard small arms was useless.  It was then that the German Army realized that it needed a new approach in anti-tank weapons.  In February of 1918, the Mauser Works of Obendorf introduced the Model 1918 Tankgewehr, which holds the honor of being the world’s first anti-tank rifle.  Essentially, it was nothing more than an overgrown Gewehr 98 (the standard infantry rifle) which fired a 13mm (.525 inch) cartridge.  Early models even look like a regular rifle.Later models would be upgraded to include a bipod and a pistol grip for better control of the rifle.  For the most part the T-Gewehr was a single shot rifle.  A rare model was made with a five round magazine.  The 13mm cartridge of the T-Gewehr was made specifically to be an armor piercing round, with a solid steel core which was rated to pierce 1 inch of armor at 250 yards.  One downside of the T-Gewehr was its enormous recoil, which planners had not taken into account since they have never built such a weapon before.  There were even instances of soldiers suffering broken collar bones and dislocated shoulders from the recoil.  Many models produced in the closing weeks of the war feature a buttplate with springs to absorb the recoil.  Typically the T-Gewehr was operated by a two man crew, a gunner and a loader, both of which were specially trained to operate the weapon.The T-Gewehr was an effective weapon against World War I tanks, but by then it was too little too late.  By November of 1918 it was very clear that Germany was going to lose the war.  The T-Gewehr was not used for World War II, as by then tank armor had surpassed its piercing ability.  Around 15,800 were produced.Source: Mauser Bolt Rifles by Ludwig Olson -- source link
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