Posted on 01/22/2021 7:12:16 AM PST by Onthebrink
The Second World War saw significant advances in tanks, and throughout the war, all of the major powers sought to build bigger, heavier, and more powerful tanks. Keeping in step with those efforts was another move to develop better weapons to then take out and destroy the enemy’s tanks.
When the war began the Germans and British, as well as other nations such as Finland, employed oversized rifles, and these were largely antiquated against even the earliest tanks of the war. Soon new efforts were developed to counter the tanks.
Here is our effort to lay out what we consider some of the best anti-tank weapons of the period:
(Excerpt) Read more at 19fortyfive.com ...
I would have placed the Panzerfaust ahead of the lunge mine. There is very little in the history books about successful lunge mine attacks. Had we invaded mainland Japan it would have earned a spot on this list via suicide attacks on armor, but we did not.
However, the Panzerfaust was the most produced by the end of the war and it changed Soviet tactics in the urban environment because it was highly effective. Based on numbers of tanks destroyed it should be on this list.
You could also make a very strong argument that based on numbers of tanks destroyed, primarily in the early years on the Eastern front, the Molotov cocktail earned a place on the list.
Long live sticky bombs!
I’m sure they left out a wine bottle full of gasoline and a rag.
WWII antitank weapons are very crude with current standards.
Ask the Turks, how solid those German Leopard tanks are. They lost a slug of them in Syria. Destroyed by ISIS and other forces.
You beat me to it.
Top killer of tanks? Aircraft, artillery, other tanks, running out of parts/fuel, capture
But I'm out of socks!
I would have included the German 88mm Flak gun. That was lethal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8.8_cm_Flak_18/36/37/41#Support_of_ground_troops
The Panzerfaust definitely should have been on this list. Someone didn’t do their homework.
“Top killer of tanks? Aircraft, artillery, other tanks, running out of parts/fuel, capture..”
My late father in law was an old school Danish industrial engineer for many years with International Harvester. During the war he designed factories for the war effort. Told me he saw many destroyed tanks brought back for analysis that had been hit in the star by 88’s.
So far, that seems to be about average for '19FortyFive'.
My list would be:
American Bazooka
German 88mm
German 88mm in a Tiger Tank
German 75 on a Panther
PanzerFaust
Having lost WAY to many tanks to these weapons playing Squad Leader...
I would agree with your list.
the list at the link was stupid
the 88 was lethal to anything and anyone it was used against.
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