Defense Articles

The Government, perhaps sensing public support for the princess’s remarks, quickly distanced itself from the criticism of her and made clear that it advocated a ban on most anti- personnel mines. Government officials point out that Britain has not manufactured such mines for years and that China and Russia are the world’s largest producers and exporters of landmines. The Clinton administration put forward its initiative at the United Nations- sponsored Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, but without much expectation that it would achieve rapid results. Diplomats said the 61-nation conference was likely to get bogged down in the next few weeks over the demands of non-aligned and developing countries for total nuclear disarmament before there was any progress on landmines. However, the US approach, which is supported by France as well as Britain, may produce results in the longer term. This is because Russia and China, whose support would be essential to the effectiveness of a world-wide ban, have indicated that they are at least prepared to discuss the issue in Geneva. US officials said it made more sense to push for a landmines ban at a conference where the Russians and Chinese were taking part. The US ban would cover mines designed to kill or injure people, but would exclude anti-tank mines. The International Committee of the Red Cross, one of several humanitarian groups pressing for a world-wide ban, estimates there are more than 100 million landmines in 64 countries.

Anti-tank guns are guns designed to destroy armored vehicles. In order to penetrate the armor of tanks and other armored vehicles they fire high-velocity shells.

Prior to World War II, anti-tank guns were relatively small, with anti-tank rifles primarily used for destroying tanks. Few had calibres larger than 50 mm. With the rapid improvement in tank armor and guns, anti-tank guns increased in calibre, firing larger shells at greater velocities. One of the most widespread and successful of these was the German 88 mm gun, which was originally developed as an anti-aircraft gun but later found widespread use in destroying tanks. Likewise, by the end of the war, all sides were using guns with diameters of 90 mm and up.
World War II also saw the mounting of antitank guns on vehicle chassis, sometimes armored, as a cheap substitute for a full-fledged tank. Some had open turrets, while others did not have rotating turrets at all, meaning that the whole vehicle had to be rotated to aim the gun. Americans called these vehicles tank destroyers.
At the start of World War II many of these weapons were still being used operationally, along with a newer generation of light guns that closely resembled their WWI counterparts. In combat both proved entirely useless against the larger and better armored tanks they faced. For instance, the German army had recently introduced a new lightweight 37-mm gun, whose users quickly nicknamed it the “armored door knocker” because all it seemed to do was announce its presence.

All combatants quickly introduced newer and more powerful guns, and the anti-tank rifle had largely disappeared by 1942. The “average” gun by 1943 was 50 mm or larger, the Germans had an excellent 50-mm high-velocity design, while the British introduced the “6-pounder” which was also adopted by the US Army as the 57 mm. A year later, sizes had grown due to pressure on the Eastern Front, German guns were now 75 mm and the famous 88 mm. The Soviet Red Army used a variety of general-purpose 100-mm and 122-mm guns. The British 17 pounder was less at 77 mm but delivered its amour piercing shell at high speed.