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![]() ![]() It's only in the later war when the T-34 and KV-1 appear that guns and armor begin a rapid arms race. The Panzer II carried a 20 mm autocannon. The Panzer III's 37 mm was considered a good anti-tank gun in 1940. Panzer IV, about 30 mm on the front, 20 mm on the sides.Ĭontemporary anti-tank weapons, too, were very small.Panzer III, started with 15 mm, upgraded to 30 mm.Here's the armor thickness of some of the main armored vehicles used by the Germans during the Battle of France mid 1940. But in the early stages of WWII the situation was quite different. When we think of tanks in WWII we think of great big hulking Tigers and well angled T-34s. They did so because only the Soviets employed them in large numbers in WW2. Modern "spaced armor" is used to defeat shaped charges used by many anti-tank grenades and rockets, but we know these were added to protect against anti-tank rifles. The Germans considered anti-tank rifles to be such a threat to the sides of their tanks they added armored skirts, schürzen, to the sides of their tank hulls and turrets to protect against them. Even late in the war, tanks were designed with less armor in the sides and rear to save weight and so were still vulnerable to ambush. Once WWII started, plenty of these anti-tank rifles were available and tank armor was thin enough that they were still effective. These tests were conducted in November 1939, two months after the invasion of Poland. To give you an idea how desperate the US army was for anti-tank weapons, they tried shoving rifles and even rocks into the running gear of tanks to hilarious lack of effect (except on the rifle or rock). The infantry needed something to stop a tank smaller than an artillery piece, and from further away than you could throw a grenade. Anti-tank rifles were made as a stopgap measure during and after WWI. ![]()
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