Anti-Tank Rifles

There have been lots of different at rifles and also in all kinds of calibres.

For instance the swiss developed a 20 mm at rifle and the french had a 25 mm at rifle. (I know 20 mm is more like a light at gun but that is how they were called)

These at rifles were quite effective in the first years, for example in the spanish civil war the german pzkwI were defeated in a combination of the french 25mm at rifle and russian bt-5 and t-26 tanks.

Kind regards,

 

The last gun in this list does not match the penetration of the other two. The 88mm and the 90mm both get almost 20% more penetraton at 30 degrees/1000 meters.

 

Those results are probably from different testing systems. Livingston & Bird's calculated results show that the Russian 100 mm. using APBC and the German 88 mm. using APCBC have almost identical penetration. US 90 mm. penetration is about 10 % inferior.

 

I've heard that the AT rifle might in a small way be making a comeback in the guise of an anti material sniper rifle.

 

It isn't an anti-tank rifle any more: the current breed would have some difficulty in penetrating an armoured personnel carrier, let alone a tank.

Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website and discussion forum

 

Isn't that what I said?

 

No, you said that the anti-tank rifle might be making a comeback

Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website and discussion forum

 

In the guise of an anti material weapon. I would have thought that the actual weapons aren't all that different from the WW2 AT rifles but their intended targets are. (ie any piece of equipment that isn't armoured but reacts badly to having holes shot in it)

 

Welcome everybody

Ant-tank rifles were wiedly used during Polish campaign in 1939. Polish Army had that kind of equippment since 1935. As far as I am concerend German Army did not have such in this time.

German panzer forces suffered relativly big losses during this short campaig (about 600 vehicules alltougether), probabl thanks to this rifles and anti-tank cannons.

source http://hem.passagen.se/dadkri/Wz35.htm

 

The Swiss actually developed four different 20mm AT rifles ((plus some variations):

Oerlikon SSG in 20x72RB calibre
Oerlikon SSG-36 in 20x110RB
Solothurn S18-100 series in 20x105B
Solothurn S18-1000 series in 20x138B

However, the one the Swiss Army used was the Tb 41 in 24x139 calibre - the biggest which might reasonably be called a "rifle", because it was designed to be fired from a tripod (although it had a pair of wheels for moving it around - it could be towed by a man on a bicycle). It weighed 131.5 kg.

The French 25mm in 25x194R calibre, OTOH, was definitely a light artillery piece, fired from its wheeled mounting. It weighed 480 kg.

See the photo below of 20+mm ammo used in anti tank rifles, from THIS article on my website.

Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website and discussion forum