Anti-tank gun

Anti-tank guns are a form of artillery designed to destroy armored fighting vehicles, normally from static defensive positions. The development of specialized anti-tank munitions and anti-tank guns was prompted by the appearance of tanks during World War I. To destroy hostile tanks, artillerymen often used field guns depressed to fire directly at their targets. However, 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 was a common appearance in many European armies. In order 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 manned by specialist infantrymen rather than artillery crews, and issued to light infantry units accordingly. The anti-tank guns of the 1930s were of small caliber; all armies possessing them used 37mm ammunition, except for the British Army, which had developed the 40mm Ordnance QF 2-pounder. 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 armour-piercing shot. The development of the compact hollow charge 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 and the American series of recoilless rifles.

Although a number of 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 latter generation of low-recoil anti-tank weapons, which allowed projectiles to size of an artillery shell to be fired from a man's shoulder, was considered a far more viable option for arming infantrymen. Recoilless rifles replaced most conventional anti-tank guns in the postwar period; nevertheless, development of new anti-tank guns exhibiting similar low-recoil performances continued until the late 1950s in France, Belgium, and the Soviet Union. A few Soviet designs saw combat well into the 1980s. The People's Republic of China was still producing large caliber anti-tank guns as late as 1988.

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