![]() Smaller devices, the sort of device which could be issued to a standard soldier making him capable of knocking out a standard enemy tank were, and still are, the gold standard for infantry anti-tank weapons. Only thinly armored vehicles were vulnerable and anything with armor about 30 mm thick was relatively impervious to them. On top of this, the performance was relatively modest. The rifles were so large and heavy they would take at least one (often two) men to carry without being able to carry the usual accouterments of infantry work. More anti-tank rifles followed in the decades afterward up to the first years of WW2, but they all suffered from the same drawbacks. One of the first, the Mauser Panzergewehr M1918 was little more than a scaled-up rifle designed to defeat relatively modest armor. Anti-tank guns are large, cumbersome, and heavy and so, right from the first days of the tank in WWI, the goal has been to produce a man-portable anti-tank weapon. Infantrymen are, after all, mainly equipped with weapons primarily intended for killing enemy infantry. Infantry taking on tanks is a real challenge. ![]()
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