Tankgewehr M1918

The Tankgewehr M1918, also called the T-Gewehr or the Mauser 13mm anti-tank rifle, was a German single-shot bolt-action rifle built solely to destroy armored targets, the first rifle of its kind. It was developed after the standard German 7.92mm armor-piercing rifle round proved unable to defeat the British tanks introduced from 1916, and Mauser answered with a heavy 13.2mm TuF cartridge fired from a purpose-built rifle; mass production began at Oberndorf am Neckar in May 1918, and around 16,900 were built before production ended in April 1919. The weapon was operated by a two-man crew from a static firing position, since its recoil was severe and the rifle had no recoil-reduction system, and it was the only anti-tank rifle to see service in the First World War. After the war Sweden purchased examples, the Reichswehr kept some in service into the 1930s, and the Soviet Union reverse-engineered the design in 1939 for its own ammunition.