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Mauser 13mm Antitank rifle M1918

#guns #weapons #ww1 #rifle #antitank #M1918 #germany

Mauser TGewehr (Tank abwehr Gewehr M1918 = antitank rifle, model 1918) weapon is the first of its kind ever to be adopted and see the combat. It was designed in Germany during the closing stages of World War 1, to provide German infantry with inexpensive and manportable weapon, capable to defeat the armor of the newest British invention, the battle tank. It was adopted in 1918 and manufactured by Mauser Werke arms factory until the Armistice, with total production estimated at about 15 thousand rifles. The Mauser Tgewehr antitank rifle proved to be effective enough against earliest British tanks, as their armor was designed to withstand only riflecaliber ammunition and shrapnel, and the TGewehr fired purposedesigned large caliber cartridge loaded with steelcore AP bullet (52 g at 770 m/s). The major drawbacks of the Tgewehr were heavy recoil, heavy weight and huge size – features, later inherited by most weapons of similar class and purpose. It is rumored that normally Tgewehr crew members fired only about 2 or 3 rounds before passing the gun to the teammate, as they suffered heavily from excessive recoil – the rifle had no recoil mitigation means, such as buffered buttstocks, soft buttpads and muzzle brakes, which became the must for latter weapons of the same class.
Mauser Tgewehr antitank rifle is a manually operated, single shot bolt action rifle. It uses more or less traditional Mausertype rotary bolt with frontal locking lugs. Cartridges are loaded manually directly into the chamber. Rifle is fitted into the wooden stock with pistol grip, and an MG08/15type bipod is fitted to the front of the stock. The iron sights consisted of the blade front and tangenttype rear, with settings from 100 to 500 meters.

The armorpiercing hardened steel cored 13.2×92mm (.525inch) semirimmed cartridge, often simply called "13 mm", was originally planned for a new, heavy Maxim MG.18 watercooled machine gun, the Tank und Flieger (TuF) meaning for use against "tank and aircraft", which was under development and to be fielded in 1919. The rounds weighed 51.5 g (795 gn) with an initial velocity of 785 m/s (2,580 ft/s)