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The Range
Military Surplus
The Mauser Tankgewehr model 1918- The AT rifle to start them all.
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<blockquote data-quote="HoLeChit" data-source="post: 3821146" data-attributes="member: 35036"><p>The world's first anti-tank weapon Part 2: The ammo.</p><p></p><p>8mm Mauser armor-piercing "K" bullets fired from Gew.98 rifles were not cutting it against evolving World War 1 tank armor. Polte in Magdeburg developed a new cartridge in 1917 for a new weapon: 13.2x92mm Semi-Rimmed Tank-und-Flieger aka "13.2mm TuF"</p><p></p><p>British Mk.I armor: 8mm, Mk.IV armor: 12mm, Mk.V armor: 16mm. French FT-17 frontal armor was 22mm. </p><p></p><p>The 8mm "K" bullet penetrated 12mm of armor 1/3 of the time at 100m.</p><p></p><p>The basic 13.2mm TuF bullet was another "K" round: K for kern; German for (penetrator) "core". The 795gr (52g) steel-core bullet could penetrate 26mm (1 inch) of armor at 100m, 23.5mm at 200m, 21.5mm at 400m and 18mm at 500m. Standard combat load for the 2-man Tankgewehr crew was 3 20-round pouches each. It was a game changer that killed a lot of tanks and stopped tactical attacks, but too little too late to change the war.</p><p></p><p>Had World War 1 gone any longer the Germans would have fielded a Maxim-based 13.2mm TuF heavy machine gun called MG.1918. It was essentially a MG.08/15 scaled up: Water cooled, toggle-lock, fired from the closed bolt and fired from cloth belts. A semi-rimmed cartridge limited the gun's ability to fire fast so it had a slow rate of 500rpm, but it would have been a very heavy hitter. The German Army ordered 4,000 MG.1918 HMG's but only ~50 were made before the war. The guns ended up scattered among the victorious nations for examination and a few are in museums today.</p><p></p><p>Other heavy machine guns and cartridges may have derived different data from the 13.2 and it's weapons and its effect on World War 1 tanks. 13.2mm TuF ammunition production was actually re-started in the 1930's to supply countries using ex-German Tankgewehrs until the 1940's like China, Finland, Sweden, Belgium and Poland. 13.2mm TuF was reproduced in Germany, Belgium, Sweden and Switzerland to satisfy those markets. </p><p></p><p>By World War II other 13.2mm cartridges were in use by the Axis nations, and the Allies had their 12.7 cartridges. The 13.2mm TuF caliber weapons were already being sent to museums in 1944, like in Sweden. </p><p></p><p>13.2x92mmSR TuF is the first purpose-built anti-tank munition, the great grand-dad of anything shooting at tanks on the battlefield today.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]287978[/ATTACH]13.2x92mmSR TuF cartridge and a Tankgewehr breach</p><p>[ATTACH=full]287977[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]287979[/ATTACH]Original German World War 1 20-round ammo pouch. The gunner and assist gunner would wear 3 each.[ATTACH=full]287980[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]287981[/ATTACH]Cut-aways of different German 13.2x92mm TuF rounds</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="HoLeChit, post: 3821146, member: 35036"] The world's first anti-tank weapon Part 2: The ammo. 8mm Mauser armor-piercing "K" bullets fired from Gew.98 rifles were not cutting it against evolving World War 1 tank armor. Polte in Magdeburg developed a new cartridge in 1917 for a new weapon: 13.2x92mm Semi-Rimmed Tank-und-Flieger aka "13.2mm TuF" British Mk.I armor: 8mm, Mk.IV armor: 12mm, Mk.V armor: 16mm. French FT-17 frontal armor was 22mm. The 8mm "K" bullet penetrated 12mm of armor 1/3 of the time at 100m. The basic 13.2mm TuF bullet was another "K" round: K for kern; German for (penetrator) "core". The 795gr (52g) steel-core bullet could penetrate 26mm (1 inch) of armor at 100m, 23.5mm at 200m, 21.5mm at 400m and 18mm at 500m. Standard combat load for the 2-man Tankgewehr crew was 3 20-round pouches each. It was a game changer that killed a lot of tanks and stopped tactical attacks, but too little too late to change the war. Had World War 1 gone any longer the Germans would have fielded a Maxim-based 13.2mm TuF heavy machine gun called MG.1918. It was essentially a MG.08/15 scaled up: Water cooled, toggle-lock, fired from the closed bolt and fired from cloth belts. A semi-rimmed cartridge limited the gun's ability to fire fast so it had a slow rate of 500rpm, but it would have been a very heavy hitter. The German Army ordered 4,000 MG.1918 HMG's but only ~50 were made before the war. The guns ended up scattered among the victorious nations for examination and a few are in museums today. Other heavy machine guns and cartridges may have derived different data from the 13.2 and it's weapons and its effect on World War 1 tanks. 13.2mm TuF ammunition production was actually re-started in the 1930's to supply countries using ex-German Tankgewehrs until the 1940's like China, Finland, Sweden, Belgium and Poland. 13.2mm TuF was reproduced in Germany, Belgium, Sweden and Switzerland to satisfy those markets. By World War II other 13.2mm cartridges were in use by the Axis nations, and the Allies had their 12.7 cartridges. The 13.2mm TuF caliber weapons were already being sent to museums in 1944, like in Sweden. 13.2x92mmSR TuF is the first purpose-built anti-tank munition, the great grand-dad of anything shooting at tanks on the battlefield today. [ATTACH type="full"]287978[/ATTACH]13.2x92mmSR TuF cartridge and a Tankgewehr breach [ATTACH type="full"]287977[/ATTACH][ATTACH type="full"]287979[/ATTACH]Original German World War 1 20-round ammo pouch. The gunner and assist gunner would wear 3 each.[ATTACH type="full"]287980[/ATTACH][ATTACH type="full"]287981[/ATTACH]Cut-aways of different German 13.2x92mm TuF rounds [/QUOTE]
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