In this video you can see just how powerful the rifle was. Interestingly the design incorporated a number of elements from earlier Mauser rifles and the 1888 Commission Rifle. There was no recoil pad or method of reducing the rifles massive recoil and gunners often added padding to the shoulders of their uniforms. The rifle was fitted with a pistol grip and a forward bipod to support barrel which was just under a metre long. The T-Gewehr was a single shot rifle firing a huge 13.2x92mm TuF (Tank & Aircraft) round. The T-Gewehr or Tankgewehr M1918 (tank rifle) was essentially scaled up version of Mauser’s Gew. With the armour piercing K round no longer effective the German army began development of a new heavy calibre rifle, the Mauser T-Gewehr, which could penetrate the ever increasing armour of the British Tanks. However, as newer British tanks entered service their armour thickness also increased and by 1917 the K bullet was obsolete. The first of which was a armour piercing 7.92mm Mauser round, known as the K bullet, the round had a hardened steel core and could be fired from the MG08 and the average infantryman’s rifle. However, they quickly adapted and by 1917 had begun development of a number of weapons to combat the new tanks. The Germans were completely surprised by the British Mark I Tanks (see photograph #2) in 1916. While they were used in small numbers and many suffered from mechanical difficulties the concept had been proven. In September 1916 the first British tanks saw action during the Battle of the Somme. The First Anti-Tank Rifle: Mauser T-Gewehr