German Anti-Tank Guns Of WW2
On The 15th September 1916, the British released the first effective tanks upon the battlefield against the Germans. Initial only 49 tanks were released against the Germans and they had little effect as they were bogged down with mechanical difficulties and simple just not enough numbers to effective make a difference in the battle. However, it did prove one thing; they could be formidable beasts of future war.
It wasn’t until Cambrai on the 20th November 1917 that conditions came to be perfect for the tanks to really prove their worth. During the course of the battle approximate 400 or so tanks managed to penetrate a line 7 miles long around 6 miles deep. Ultimately this proved to be useless as the infantry failed to follow up the effort, which went along way to show the need for improved co-operation between the armour and infantry. On the other hand, the tanks achieved what would have been impossible with just infantry, they push back the enemy quickly and effectively and with proper backup they could have achieved a breakthrough.
Consequently, it became clear to German High Command that something needed to be done about the situation. They attempted to solve the problem by following two different branches; firstly, they started development on their own armoured program. Secondly, and the branch which this book follows is the development of their own anti-tank guns.
During the First World War the German anti-tank effort was somewhat poor and took a very limited route. One tactic was to bundle together large amounts of hand grenades and use it to attack the tracks of the tank. The Germans also tried to use their artillery to counter the tanks. However, they were not well suited to this roll and lacked the manoeuvrability and accuracy to effectively take them on, although an AP shell was developed and sent to the guns for anti tank use.
A further development by the Germans in their anti-tank weapons capacity was the 13mm mouser anti-tank rifle which proved to be a massive flop as the recoil was two large and they were often prone to breakdowns and general failings.
With the end of the First World war Germany had very heavy restrictions placed upon its military capacity by the Treaty Of Versailles which heavily restricted anti tank development thus for the Germans very little happened after the First World war and it wasn’t until the 1930’s that Anti-Tank Gun development started to take off for properly for the Germans. However, we will now look at the 37mm Anti-tank guns who’s development did start in the mid 20’s.