In the previous article on anti-tank guns, one could get acquainted with the PTR, created in the UK and bearing the name of the head of the weapons project. It's about the Boys anti-tank rifle. But this is far from the first PTR, and it is precisely those models that are a kind of pioneers that are of particular interest. In this article, it is with such a weapon that I invite you to get acquainted, especially since this sample showed all the positive and negative qualities of such weapons as an anti-tank rifle and quite strongly influenced the further development of this type of firearm. This is, in fact, the first PTR, which was produced in Germany back in 1918, namely the Mauser T-Gewehr M1918.
There is nothing surprising in the fact that the first anti-tank rifle was created in Germany, since it was in this country that the first had to get acquainted with tanks in battle. Naturally, the tanks of the First World War had characteristics that were far from the highest, especially by modern standards, and many models of that time can now cause a smile. Nevertheless, it was a rather formidable weapon both then and now, and it would be completely inappropriate to smile when meeting them. In view of the fact that tanks were becoming more widespread, it was urgently required to create a means of dealing with them, which would be simple to manufacture and maintain, effective and at the same time cheap. Large-caliber machine guns were perfect for these purposes, however, their weight did not allow to quickly change the position of the machine-gun crew on the battlefield, therefore a more maneuverable means of fighting armored vehicles was required, and the Mauser T-Gewehr M1918 anti-tank rifle became just such a means.
Unfortunately, nothing is known about exactly whose idea it was to create the first anti-tank gun, since in November 1917 the Mauser arms company received a specific task to adapt the Mauser 98 to a more powerful 13x92 cartridge, and on January 21 of the following year the weapon was presented to the military as a completely finished sample. The weapon retained the common features of the Mauser 98, but it's still not worth calling the models similar. The presented sample differed in quite a few points from its progenitor. Naturally, first of all, it was the dimensions and weight of the weapon, but not only them. The weapon was based on a sliding bolt that locks the barrel bore when turning, but unlike the Mauser 98 bolt, the bolt of the Mauser T-Gewehr M1918 anti-tank rifle had 4 stops on which the barrel bore was locked. Two of them were located at the front of the shutter, and two more at the rear. The weapon did not have a magazine, that is, in fact, it was single-shot. The supply of new ammunition was carried out through the window for ejection of spent cartridges. Despite the seeming simplicity of this simple manipulation of the weapon, the practical rate of fire was only 6 rounds per minute. The anti-tank gun did not have any devices that would extinguish the recoil when firing, even the butt plate was not on the butt. Interestingly, the weapon had a separate pistol grip for easy grip. In addition, the Mauser T-Gewehr M1918 anti-tank rifle also had a bipod that was attached to the front of the forearm. The sights of the weapon consist of a rear sight and a front sight designed for firing from 100 to 500 meters. In general, the PTR had a lot of differences from its progenitor, although given the general simplicity of a bolt-action weapon, one cannot say that the weapon was fundamentally different from its smaller-caliber prototype.
The weight of the weapon was 17, 7 kilograms, while the length of the anti-tank rifle was 1680 millimeters. Barrel length PTR 984 mm. In general, it turned out to be a rather serious fool in size and weight, although what is 17 kilograms when you want to live, especially since 2 people were included in the calculation of the anti-tank gun, so this weapon moved around the battlefield quickly enough.
The weapon itself without a cartridge is only iron, the fighting qualities of which are zero, and the ammunition of the Mauser T-Gewehr M1918 anti-tank rifle was interesting at that time. The development of this cartridge was entrusted not to Mauser, but to Polte, and the company coped with this task quite well. True, the cartridge was developed not for the Mauser T-Gewehr M1918 anti-tank rifle, but for the MG 18 large-caliber machine gun. Although they usually say that the cartridge was developed taking into account the use of both a machine gun and an anti-tank rifle, I personally hardly believe what the Germans did a stake on two types of weapons at once, one of which has not yet proven itself in any way. Therefore, I think it is more logical that the cartridge was developed specifically for a machine gun, and in the PTR it was already used as an ammunition suitable for weapons. The metric designation of this ammunition is 13x92, however, the better known name is T-Patron. The ammunition consisted of a bullet with an armor-piercing core, packed in a lead jacket and a bimetallic shell, a brass sleeve with a groove and a protruding rim with a central battle cap, and a charge of nitrocellulose gunpowder weighing 13 grams. The bullet of the cartridge had a weight of 62.5 grams.
A notable feature of this ammunition was that it was designed for a machine gun, and was most widely used in anti-tank rifles. The number of machine guns was limited to only fifty units, but the Germans managed to rivet a huge number of PTRs, namely 15,800 rifles, and this was only until the end of 1918, that is, in less than a year. However, there is nothing surprising here, since the Mauser T-Gewehr M1918 anti-tank rifle, in comparison with the MG 18 machine gun, is a weapon, one might even say, primitive and very cheap.
Of course, like any other weapon, the main issue when considering the Mauser T-Gewehr M1918 anti-tank rifle is its effectiveness, that is, how well this weapon coped with its tasks. The armor-piercing of this PTR was at that time more than satisfactory. So, at a distance of 100 meters, an anti-tank rifle successfully pierced a sheet of armor 26 millimeters thick. With an increase in the distance to the target up to 200 meters, the thickness of the penetrated armor was already reduced to 23.5 millimeters. At a distance of 400 meters, the weapon pierced armor with a thickness of 21.5 millimeters, and at five hundred meters - 18 millimeters. It would seem that the indicators are more than good, but they are all calculated on the fact that the bullet hits at an angle of 90 degrees in relation to the pierced armor plate, so not everything is as great as it might seem at first glance. However, for the tanks of the First World War, this was more than enough, so there were no special claims to the weapon.
But a significant disadvantage was that the weapon was new in its kind, and the shooters often did not understand much how to use it effectively. The fact is that the bullet of the anti-tank rifle remains a simple bullet with high penetration. Thus, in addition to the fact that it was necessary to get into the tank, which is not so difficult, it was necessary to get to certain places, which was already much more difficult. The calculations of the Mauser T-Gewehr M1918 anti-tank rifles should have thoroughly known the design of their targets, and even be able to shoot from the anti-tank rifle with not the highest accuracy so as to hit the main nodes, the places where the crew is located, and so on. Actually, this was the main problem of the PTR. A striking example is those situations when the tanks were a sieve, but their crew was alive, and the equipment itself was still functioning. Naturally, it was also of considerable importance that the anti-tank crew was simply lost in a situation when more than ten shots were fired at the tank, and he was still moving and fighting. Thus, it was necessary to completely revise the approach to training the calculations of anti-tank rifles, spending many hours on training, most of which was devoted to the device of tanks, their weak points, as well as the location of the crew in the car. As a result, it was possible to multiply the effectiveness of the weapon, which once again proves that even the most perfect model is useless in untrained hands.
If we talk about the negative qualities of the Mauser T-Gewehr M1918 anti-tank gun itself, then there is a decent list here. The main negative point was that the weapon had a very strong recoil. Naturally, they tried to fight this, but already at the level of calculations of anti-tank rifles, and not by the forces of gunsmith designers. Any available means were used to partially compensate for recoil when firing. Most often, the butt of the weapon was wrapped in rags, which created a shock-absorbing layer between the butt and the shooter's shoulder, although there was little sense from this. A more interesting option was to screw a steel plate curved to the shape of the shoulder from the back of the butt. This plate increased the area of contact of the butt with the shooter's shoulder, in addition to this, the plate itself was wrapped back with a thick layer of rags. All these measures partially compensated for the recoil when firing, but even despite this and the decent weight of the weapon, recoil was still on the verge of being carried by a person. In general, the blue shoulder was a clear sign that the person was firing with a Mauser T-Gewehr M1918 anti-tank rifle. Also, a fairly common phenomenon was the change of shooters within the crew, so after 3-5 shots were fired, people changed each other, which had a positive effect on the effectiveness of the use of weapons. True, here it is necessary to note the moment that it was far from always possible to change the shooter and enough, many people died exactly at the moment when one shooter replaced another, so it was far from always possible to change without risk.
The second serious drawback of the weapon was that the high pressure in the bore of the anti-tank rifle led to very rapid barrel wear. This was especially noticeable during the first applications of the PTR, when people, not knowing where to shoot, made too many ineffective shots and very quickly the resource of the barrels exhausted itself. Well, since the barrel in the weapon was in fact one of the most labor-intensive parts to manufacture, we can say that it was necessary to do half of the anti-tank rifle again in order to reanimate the weapon. Numbers speak about this problem best of all. In total, it was planned to produce 30,000 Mauser T-Gewehr M1918 anti-tank rifles, but they managed to make only 15,800, while by the end of 1918, less than a third, namely 4,632 guns, were in working order.
Well, the third drawback of the weapon was that the accuracy of the Mauser T-Gewehr M1918 anti-tank rifle left much to be desired, of course, you can safely talk about a confident hit on a tank at a distance of 500 meters, but it's better to keep silent about an effective hit at this distance. Naturally, when a shooter knows that his weapon can be used to fire at a tank at a distance of half a kilometer, he tries to adhere to this distance so as not to come close to the formidable armored vehicles of the enemy. Well, since not all people are familiar with such a word as "courage", most of the crews of anti-tank rifles tried to stay at the maximum possible distance, which, of course, also affected the effectiveness of the use of such weapons as the Mauser T-Gewehr M1918 anti-tank rifle.
In general, despite all of the above disadvantages, the Mauser T-Gewehr M1918 anti-tank rifle has established itself as a fairly effective weapon in the fight against armored vehicles. Even taking into account the fact that its effectiveness largely depended on the skills and knowledge of calculating an anti-tank rifle, in most cases on the battlefield this weapon coped with its tasks, relatively quickly disabling armored vehicles and hitting the crew of the vehicle. Actually, it is precisely for this reason that the idea of using PTR in the fight against armored vehicles was further developed. And although most of the subsequent models of anti-tank rifles differed slightly in their design and had all the same shortcomings as this first German anti-tank rifle, some development can be observed not only in ammunition, but also in the weapon itself. Even if we take specifically the Mauser T-Gewehr M1918 anti-tank rifle, then they tried to develop it into a more convenient model. In particular, at the end of 1918, the Mauser company presented a new version of the weapon, which was equipped with a detachable magazine with a capacity of 5 rounds, as well as an improved butt with a spring shock absorber. But this version of the PTR did not go into the series, and remained a prototype.
The fact that the Mauser T-Gewehr M1918 anti-tank rifle was a very good weapon for its time is also evidenced by the fact that during the period between the two world wars, this weapon was actively used by other countries. The distribution of this gun in Germany was also quite wide during the war. Initially, it was planned to issue one anti-tank gun per battalion, but by August 1918, the plans were revised and began to equip each infantry company with one PTR unit. After the end of the war, Germany was shackled by the Versailles Treaty, according to which it was forbidden to develop and produce weapons of new systems, to which anti-tank guns were also attributed. However, here you can argue how much the system of this anti-tank gun can be called new. In general, despite the treaty, in 1932 Germany was armed with 1,074 Mauser T-Gewehr M1918 anti-tank rifles. Actually, this was the finale of the weapon in Germany, since after 1932 the Mauser T-Gewehr M1918 was replaced by more advanced models of anti-tank rifles, although before the Second World War and at its initial stage, these guns were still used, though already for training in firing on armored vehicles. This was the end of the life of weapons in Germany.
Despite the fact that in Germany the Mauser T-Gewehr M1918 anti-tank rifle was considered obsolete and was not used in hostilities, it does not mean that the anti-tank rifle was forgotten. In July 1941, this sample was born again, this time on the territory of the Soviet Union. As you know, at the time of the German attack, we did not have at our disposal designs of anti-tank rifles, the mass production of which could be deployed quickly and at minimal cost. Everything that was proposed by the designers since 1936 either required improvement, or was very difficult to manufacture, in addition, do not forget that the new samples were still untested in action. The Mauser T-Gewehr M1918 anti-tank gun went through the war, proved itself well, and most importantly, production was nowhere easier. Having weighed all the pros and cons, it was decided to expand the production of the Mauser T-Gewehr M1918, but under the domestic cartridge and with some changes in the weapon itself. Do not think that the domestic designers simply "ripped off" the German anti-tank rifle, a lot of work was done before launching the weapon. First of all, it should be noted that the anti-tank rifle began to use the 12, 7x108 cartridge, which means that the PTR barrel was completely different, and the characteristics of the weapon itself changed completely. A muzzle brake-recoil compensator was developed for the weapon, a shock-absorbing butt plate appeared on the butt, and the sighting devices were also changed. The rear sight received a graduation for firing at 200, 400 and 600 meters. The production of anti-tank rifles was deployed on the basis of the Moscow Higher Technical School. Bauman, where several hundred of these anti-tank rifles were created. Despite the fact that times were turbulent, the domestic versions of the Mauser T-Gewehr M1918 were much more accurate and more comfortable to use in comparison with the German ones. However, one should not forget about the time gap of more than 20 years. With the advent of more advanced and effective ATGMs and ATGMs, the production of this anti-tank rifle was curtailed and on this Mauser T-Gewehr M1918 anti-tank rifle they were finally sent to rest.
The Mauser T-Gewehr M1918 anti-tank rifle can be safely called the pioneer among anti-tank rifles. It was this weapon that showed that in skillful hands, even a relatively small rifle can cope with a tank. Despite the absurdity of the idea itself, the anti-tank rifle has repeatedly prevailed over armored vehicles. Of course, this weapon also has its drawbacks, and in terms of efficiency, even with a large-caliber machine gun, it cannot be compared, but such advantages of weapons as mobility, simplicity and low cost of production make it an ideal option when you need to defend yourself, and money and time for more complex and effective samples no. Despite the fact that many mark such a weapon as completely ineffective, in my opinion, for its time, the PTR was an excellent means of fighting armored vehicles, because the armored vehicles of the beginning of the war and its end were very different. If we take the negative qualities of the weapon, then it seems to me that the main one was not great recoil, not ammunition, not weight and not dimensions. The main disadvantage of this weapon was that the anti-tank crew needed to know the design of the enemy's tank, almost better than the crew of this tank, and after all, the tank models were different even at the initial stage of the war, so training the calculation of the anti-tank rifle took too much time, and time as always, it was not. As a result of little knowledge about the design of the enemy's tank, the crew could not use their weapons with maximum efficiency, however, the missing knowledge was very quickly obtained empirically, and if all the experience of the fighters were completely systematized and promptly transferred to replenishment, then the effectiveness of the use of the PTR, in my opinion, would increase several times.
