Anti-Tank Weapon- Any weapon used to destroy or inhibit armored vehicles
Grenade- A small explosive that is thrown by hand or mechanically launched
Anti-Tank weapons have been used since people have made armored vehicles. This will cover the history of them from their genesis to WW2. Anti-Tank weapons have been around since WW1. They were first used in 1916 by the Allies, but were not used much until 1917. The first recorded anti-tank weapon made was made by Germany. It was a scaled-up bolt-action rifle called the . Its bullet could penetrate the relatively light armor of the time and ricochet around the engine; killing the its occupants. From there the idea took off. Because the tank was the most intimidating presence on the battle field at the time, many industrialized countries decided to make them. When WW2 came along, there were multiple types of anti-tank weapons. One of these was a grenade. They worked by causing an explosive chemical reaction after the pin is pulled on a grenade. The next type was used in a tank-v-tank battle. It is a high caliber gun mounted on the tank. It was used to directly penetrate the armor on vehicles. The final version as of WW2 were anti-tank infantry guns. These guns were heavy, clunky weapons that were lugged around and took awhile to set up. More weapons appeared as WW2 progressed. One notable one is the RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenade). This was made because the anti-tank guns were too clunky and heavy to be efficient. So, the US Army's Rocket Division came up with a solution: The RPG. It was as the name implied; a grenade propelled by a small rocket. It was much lighter than an anti-tank gun, but also did lots of damage. Another development was air-to-ground combat. The way this worked, as the names implies, was specialized planes would be brought in with weapons meant to dead damage to any ground units. That was all of the recorded developments of anti-tank weaponry as of WW2.