To all British - just don't think that I want to attack you, cause I don't - I think that during WW2 you have created some really good weapons, but to be fair, if means about British "Boys" anti-tank rifle, then... so sorry, but comparing to the Polish "wz. 35 UR" anti-tank rifle or German "Panzerbüchse 38" anti-tank rifle - your "Boys" seems to be a funny toy for little... boy. So again - greetings and respect for every defender of peace in Europe, who fought in WWII.
@glitchbreaker Yes, a 20mm well thought out mostly, but had a very harsh recoil,was very heavy, even for what it was, and needed a large crew to move, and serve it. It was, as were many a.t. rifles, retasked as anti-aircraft once tanks became to heavy for it.
@kpbotbot The anti materiel rifle was an outgrowth of the a.t. rifle, once tanks were too thick for them, they were put to any other job they could do. No sense ignoring a perfectly good, and accurate rifle.
I gotta say I fav'd this video about 2 years ago, and I've watched it at least 300 times, I like to think the rifles shown in the reel are just a hundred numbers off the serial on my BATK rifle. And I bet I'm right! Great video, thanks for posting.
They may have built some in 42 during development, but neither the Faustpatrone,later PanzerFaust, or the Panzer schreck were put into the field until 1943.And even once they were in the field, their range was very limited, so the a.t. rifles still had use. I know the Tank Gewehr 1918 very well, tho its one I have not (yet) fired. Considering its punishing recoil, I'm not sure I would want to fire one.. :)
@tj00139 The first rocket launcher was the U.S. Bazooka which first came along in 1942. Germany followed with their stuff in 1943. There were shaped charge weapons prior to 42', but they were mines, and other types of hand placed munitions requiring the user to get up next to the target vehicle in order to place it. Then there was the pole mine, another shaped charge weapon on a pole, and was used by running up to the target, and jamming it against the tank, problem was the pole was very short.
@whathefuhman The U.S. was the first to issue an RPG type weapon, (Bazooka)in 1942. Germany began developing their versions in 1942. The Faustpatrone was issued first in 1943 (6yrs after the Boys Rifle in this video. The Faust was issued in several models up until 44' the last version never being issued. The Panzer Schreck was an improved copy of the Bazooka, also first being issued in 1943.
Anti Tank rifles were in production and use several years before the Faust, or Schreck came to be.
@beardo52 I am documenting for when the Panzerfaust was first manufactured, it was in 1942. The first succesfull anti-tank rifle was German "The first purposely-designed infantry anti-tank rifle was designed by Germany. This Mauser 1918 T-Gewehr large-calibre rifle was capable of penetrating the armour of the newer generations of tanks and allowed a chance at stopping them." -Source: Wikipedia.
My dad had these in Norway and said they were useless. An officer decided it could also be used as an anti aircraft gun and decided to personally demonstrate his idea to the men when they showed dissatisfaction. It blew him off his feet when he fired it standing up and badly bruised his should. Much to the amusement of his men. Dad had no idea what happened to them after that as he never saw them used in action again.
@binaway The home guard got them along with the spiget and some other crap weapons. I used to shoot one on a farm back in the 80s. We used it to knock over 45galon drums in the quarry. Very good fun :-)
Ever seen a custom Rem in .338 Lapua lose its erection? My Boys seems to do this to my mates rifles! But its not about the size though......HA! Its ALL about the size!!, I really really want a 20mm rifle!!
Early German armor was very thin, and the Panzer 1 wasnt even supposed to be in the war, but intended as a training vehicle.
Pzr1 had 7-13 mm armor
Pzr 2 had 10-14 mm
Pzr 3 had 5-70 mm
Pzr 4 had 10-80 mm All of these vehicles were vulnerable to A.T. rifle fire, as were those you have mentioned earlier. Many A.T. rifles were more powerful than the Boys in this clip. I had mentioned German armor, as most folks considered them to be the best at the time.
@Detoyato Many countries had a.t. rifles, the Swiss T.B. 41 was a large 24mm rifle, There was also the Solothurn rifle,(S18-1000) probably the best ever built. The Bofors M-40 20mm .The Madsen 20mm The Japanese Type 97 20mm was well made, but very heavy. The PTRS, &D rifles were good solid guns, and did very well for their time, and were laudable designs.
@beardo52 I knew other countries had them but the russian designs were meant to be simple, plus they also incidentally had the best penetration/gun weight ratio about except for the PzB 35 of Polish origin which was bolt action, 4 rounds, and weigh 9 kg and was capable of 30mm penetration at 100m
@Detoyato The Polish Mod. 35 rifle was a well made weapon, but could not penetrate 30mm @ 100 m. It was able to perf 22mm @50m, but only 15mm @100m. It had a 5 round capacity, and while it could deal very easily with German armor in the opening months of the war, it was not issued in any serious numbers, nor were many troops trained to use it. This was because of its being a "secret" . Germany captured them, and gave them to the Italians ControCarro 35P was their name for it.
@MIMALECKIPL It may have had a very high velocity, but using bullet of only 7.92 mm, it just didnt have the strength to deal with the later tanks, any more than the Boys did. The PZB35 was not deployed against the German military, as no one knew they were there. (too secret) so the Germans captured nearly all of them, and gave them to the Italians. They called it the Sul fucile Controcarro 35 (P). It had a limited barrel life of 300 rounds
@beardo52 Correct. One of KB-Ur's has emerged in Iraq few years ago, it was kept in some Saddam's followers gun collection. I wish i knew its late fate...
@beardo52 Well to be honest... KB-UR wasn't designed to deal with Tiger or Panther for the one reason, they didn't exist at the time it was created. And later in war there was no one to produce those guns and to upgrade them. Reverse Engineering wouldn't do much good anyway... would take too much time to reverse engineer and then to devise upgrades
@MIMALECKIPL You are correct, none of the A.T. rifles were built with the Panther, or Tigers in mind, and the 7.92mm a.t. guns were produced only because Germany was not allowed by it's treaty obligations (WW1) to build anything of a larger caliber. They are respectable pieces of engineering, deserving of a place in firearms history. There are not many of them in private hands here in the States. (Though I wish there were....)
@beardo52 In Poland KB-UR is a Legend... Our design, used at the begining of the war, and despite what later communist propaganda said, it was effective and quite modern at the time. Only few of those still exist and most of them in Poland.
@CaptHawkeye It is weird that they would put so much armor in some areas, and so little in others. 15mm was the thinnest armor on the Panther, probably behind the road wheels., or the horizontal plates above them. If one was close enough, the Boys would be able to do some damage.
@beardo52 Well it was side armour, and the logic for any tank was if you got flanked, you did something wrong. At the kind of ranges the Panther was supposed to engage targets at, 600m to 1.5km 40mm of side protection is fine because the enemy is restricted to random hit placement. Even the heaviest tanks can be mission killed by surprisingly light weapons if they're so close you can pick and choose parts of the tank to shoot.
@beardo52 and does a light tank armored with a staggering 70MM plating sound weak? no. and does 20MM sound good for an AT rifle? no. look up the japanese, they made a rifle capeble of penetrating 30MM at medium ranges, those brit AT rifles suck arsehole.
@dividednation44 The 70 mm stuff was only on the front, not at the sides or back. The rest of it was vulnerable to the boys rifle. The type 97 rifle was not the best of the 20mm rifles, it ranked well behind the Lahti, and Solothurn rifles, and certainly behind the Swiss TB-41. Further, it was the heaviest of the 20 mm's, and needed 3-4 men to crew it, where the Boys needed only one man.
all sides of the pzr 4 were later in the war to much protected that a a.t rifle could deal with. The weak armour was on the botten and top. The tanks also used sloped armour. Than the armour is even thicker to penetrate. The A.T rifle was not a great succes. . because you must be very close range to damage the vehicle. The A.t rifle only workt early in the war.
This made the Boys a good candidate for conversion to U.S. .50 BMG both to remove it from needing papers, and the ammo cost less, and would remain in production. One could either reline the existing barrel, or replace the barrel entirely. Now, you folks that may have an old boys in the attic, or closet, if its not papered, you need to have it converted. or at least have the barrel removed. The BATFE has little humor about these things, and will take it from you if its discovered.
There are plenty Boys rifles in the U.S. they sold for less than 80.00 USD, and were very popular. Once the Gun Control Act of 1968 passed, it was classified as a destructive device requiring paperwork just as full auto guns need. Anything now considered a D.D. had to be papered, which was for the purpose of the amnesty, a cost free transaction. (most people still oppose the very idea of registration) Any weapon not papered was then branded as contraband, subject to siezure.
Most tanks at the beginning of WW 2 were very thinly armored, even the German tanks. A.T. rifles were useful for a couple years, then began to do the jobs of modern A.M. rifles as tanks grew too heavy. The Boys had a particularly harsh recoil, and were not well liked because of it.
Paciat : I had meant that they were thin by comparison to late ww2 tanks. But, Most designs in use at the beginning of the war were from the early 30's , some even from the 20's, and had little armor. as thin as 6mm in some areas. The 3 you mentioned did have some nice max armor specs, but had little as 15 mm in other areas, so they were still more than vulnerable. The Soviets were using mostly Bt 5's and 7's with some T-26's early on ,all thinly armored, and vulnerable.
All good it did during Dunkrirk, some of the rounds literally ping off the German panzers, the anti-tank rifle is a weapon of the preWW2 age where tank amour was weaker.
As you said "some of the rounds literally ping" but if well aimed some could penetrate the armor (thru vision slicks) disable the turret or breake tracks.
Its a weapon for disabling a tank. Not blowing it up.
My uncle was trained to shoot this gun in about 1939,the target was a dustbin half filled with bricks,hit with his first shot made a small hole he said he made very sure he missed with the second in case we got the 36lb thing to Carrie.
To all British - just don't think that I want to attack you, cause I don't - I think that during WW2 you have created some really good weapons, but to be fair, if means about British "Boys" anti-tank rifle, then... so sorry, but comparing to the Polish "wz. 35 UR" anti-tank rifle or German "Panzerbüchse 38" anti-tank rifle - your "Boys" seems to be a funny toy for little... boy. So again - greetings and respect for every defender of peace in Europe, who fought in WWII.
Stanislaw93 1 month ago
Comment removed
russfromdodge 2 months ago
Anyone know of the Japanese type 97?
glitchbreaker 5 months ago
@glitchbreaker Yes, a 20mm well thought out mostly, but had a very harsh recoil,was very heavy, even for what it was, and needed a large crew to move, and serve it. It was, as were many a.t. rifles, retasked as anti-aircraft once tanks became to heavy for it.
beardo52 2 months ago
WW2 Barrett?
kpbotbot 6 months ago
@kpbotbot The anti materiel rifle was an outgrowth of the a.t. rifle, once tanks were too thick for them, they were put to any other job they could do. No sense ignoring a perfectly good, and accurate rifle.
beardo52 2 months ago
Man, I hope the Allies will defeat the Nazi war machine. I think the war will be over in maybe ten years.
amazingdany 9 months ago
@amazingdany It'll be over by Christmas
seanmorris 9 months ago
I gotta say I fav'd this video about 2 years ago, and I've watched it at least 300 times, I like to think the rifles shown in the reel are just a hundred numbers off the serial on my BATK rifle. And I bet I'm right! Great video, thanks for posting.
shotfirer1972 1 year ago
They may have built some in 42 during development, but neither the Faustpatrone,later PanzerFaust, or the Panzer schreck were put into the field until 1943.And even once they were in the field, their range was very limited, so the a.t. rifles still had use. I know the Tank Gewehr 1918 very well, tho its one I have not (yet) fired. Considering its punishing recoil, I'm not sure I would want to fire one.. :)
beardo52 1 year ago
very little anti-tank rockets existed in 1940 so this was a good option (if not the only) and was able to knock of tracks from things like a tiger!
tj00139 1 year ago
@tj00139 The first rocket launcher was the U.S. Bazooka which first came along in 1942. Germany followed with their stuff in 1943. There were shaped charge weapons prior to 42', but they were mines, and other types of hand placed munitions requiring the user to get up next to the target vehicle in order to place it. Then there was the pole mine, another shaped charge weapon on a pole, and was used by running up to the target, and jamming it against the tank, problem was the pole was very short.
beardo52 1 year ago
@beardo52 The Germans had the panzerfaust at that time, it could penetrate 200mm of armor.
whathefuhman 1 year ago
@whathefuhman The U.S. was the first to issue an RPG type weapon, (Bazooka)in 1942. Germany began developing their versions in 1942. The Faustpatrone was issued first in 1943 (6yrs after the Boys Rifle in this video. The Faust was issued in several models up until 44' the last version never being issued. The Panzer Schreck was an improved copy of the Bazooka, also first being issued in 1943.
Anti Tank rifles were in production and use several years before the Faust, or Schreck came to be.
beardo52 1 year ago
@beardo52 I am documenting for when the Panzerfaust was first manufactured, it was in 1942. The first succesfull anti-tank rifle was German "The first purposely-designed infantry anti-tank rifle was designed by Germany. This Mauser 1918 T-Gewehr large-calibre rifle was capable of penetrating the armour of the newer generations of tanks and allowed a chance at stopping them." -Source: Wikipedia.
whathefuhman 1 year ago
My dad had these in Norway and said they were useless. An officer decided it could also be used as an anti aircraft gun and decided to personally demonstrate his idea to the men when they showed dissatisfaction. It blew him off his feet when he fired it standing up and badly bruised his should. Much to the amusement of his men. Dad had no idea what happened to them after that as he never saw them used in action again.
binaway 1 year ago
@binaway The home guard got them along with the spiget and some other crap weapons. I used to shoot one on a farm back in the 80s. We used it to knock over 45galon drums in the quarry. Very good fun :-)
tina6581 1 year ago
pointless weapon became obsolete as soon as it came off production line.
yugster78 1 year ago
@yugster78 OOH, not correct.
beardo52 1 year ago
Ever seen a custom Rem in .338 Lapua lose its erection? My Boys seems to do this to my mates rifles! But its not about the size though......HA! Its ALL about the size!!, I really really want a 20mm rifle!!
shotfirer1972 1 year ago
xD versus the infantry lol
11251309 2 years ago
Early German armor was very thin, and the Panzer 1 wasnt even supposed to be in the war, but intended as a training vehicle.
Pzr1 had 7-13 mm armor
Pzr 2 had 10-14 mm
Pzr 3 had 5-70 mm
Pzr 4 had 10-80 mm All of these vehicles were vulnerable to A.T. rifle fire, as were those you have mentioned earlier. Many A.T. rifles were more powerful than the Boys in this clip. I had mentioned German armor, as most folks considered them to be the best at the time.
beardo52 2 years ago 5
@beardo52 The Russian AT Rifles wer by far and away the Best
able to penetrate 40mm@100m and they used it in an urban setting so ranges were much closer than that.
Detoyato 1 year ago
@Detoyato they were not the best, but they were very good, and did the job they were built for.
beardo52 1 year ago
@beardo52 somethings better than them? I NEED TO KNOW pls :D
Detoyato 1 year ago
@Detoyato Many countries had a.t. rifles, the Swiss T.B. 41 was a large 24mm rifle, There was also the Solothurn rifle,(S18-1000) probably the best ever built. The Bofors M-40 20mm .The Madsen 20mm The Japanese Type 97 20mm was well made, but very heavy. The PTRS, &D rifles were good solid guns, and did very well for their time, and were laudable designs.
beardo52 1 year ago
@beardo52 I knew other countries had them but the russian designs were meant to be simple, plus they also incidentally had the best penetration/gun weight ratio about except for the PzB 35 of Polish origin which was bolt action, 4 rounds, and weigh 9 kg and was capable of 30mm penetration at 100m
Detoyato 1 year ago
@Detoyato The Polish Mod. 35 rifle was a well made weapon, but could not penetrate 30mm @ 100 m. It was able to perf 22mm @50m, but only 15mm @100m. It had a 5 round capacity, and while it could deal very easily with German armor in the opening months of the war, it was not issued in any serious numbers, nor were many troops trained to use it. This was because of its being a "secret" . Germany captured them, and gave them to the Italians ControCarro 35P was their name for it.
beardo52 1 year ago
@beardo52 They certainly also were the best at some point, firepower. armor, velocity of projectile...
whathefuhman 1 year ago
@beardo52 Polish KB-UR wz.35 were e specially powerfull against those tanks and they were safer than Boys AT Rifles
MIMALECKIPL 1 year ago
@MIMALECKIPL It may have had a very high velocity, but using bullet of only 7.92 mm, it just didnt have the strength to deal with the later tanks, any more than the Boys did. The PZB35 was not deployed against the German military, as no one knew they were there. (too secret) so the Germans captured nearly all of them, and gave them to the Italians. They called it the Sul fucile Controcarro 35 (P). It had a limited barrel life of 300 rounds
beardo52 1 year ago
@beardo52 Correct. One of KB-Ur's has emerged in Iraq few years ago, it was kept in some Saddam's followers gun collection. I wish i knew its late fate...
MIMALECKIPL 1 year ago
@beardo52 Well to be honest... KB-UR wasn't designed to deal with Tiger or Panther for the one reason, they didn't exist at the time it was created. And later in war there was no one to produce those guns and to upgrade them. Reverse Engineering wouldn't do much good anyway... would take too much time to reverse engineer and then to devise upgrades
MIMALECKIPL 1 year ago
@MIMALECKIPL You are correct, none of the A.T. rifles were built with the Panther, or Tigers in mind, and the 7.92mm a.t. guns were produced only because Germany was not allowed by it's treaty obligations (WW1) to build anything of a larger caliber. They are respectable pieces of engineering, deserving of a place in firearms history. There are not many of them in private hands here in the States. (Though I wish there were....)
beardo52 1 year ago
@beardo52 In Poland KB-UR is a Legend... Our design, used at the begining of the war, and despite what later communist propaganda said, it was effective and quite modern at the time. Only few of those still exist and most of them in Poland.
MIMALECKIPL 11 months ago 7
@beardo52 Even the Panther was vulnerable to these weapons on the side at close range.
CaptHawkeye 9 months ago
@CaptHawkeye It is weird that they would put so much armor in some areas, and so little in others. 15mm was the thinnest armor on the Panther, probably behind the road wheels., or the horizontal plates above them. If one was close enough, the Boys would be able to do some damage.
beardo52 9 months ago
@beardo52 Well it was side armour, and the logic for any tank was if you got flanked, you did something wrong. At the kind of ranges the Panther was supposed to engage targets at, 600m to 1.5km 40mm of side protection is fine because the enemy is restricted to random hit placement. Even the heaviest tanks can be mission killed by surprisingly light weapons if they're so close you can pick and choose parts of the tank to shoot.
CaptHawkeye 9 months ago
@beardo52 whats the penetration of the british AT rifles?
dividednation44 8 months ago
@dividednation44 16-20 mm at close range, depending on which cartridge was used, there were two vesions, the later one having more velocity.
beardo52 8 months ago
@beardo52 and does a light tank armored with a staggering 70MM plating sound weak? no. and does 20MM sound good for an AT rifle? no. look up the japanese, they made a rifle capeble of penetrating 30MM at medium ranges, those brit AT rifles suck arsehole.
dividednation44 8 months ago
@dividednation44 The 70 mm stuff was only on the front, not at the sides or back. The rest of it was vulnerable to the boys rifle. The type 97 rifle was not the best of the 20mm rifles, it ranked well behind the Lahti, and Solothurn rifles, and certainly behind the Swiss TB-41. Further, it was the heaviest of the 20 mm's, and needed 3-4 men to crew it, where the Boys needed only one man.
beardo52 8 months ago
@beardo52
all sides of the pzr 4 were later in the war to much protected that a a.t rifle could deal with. The weak armour was on the botten and top. The tanks also used sloped armour. Than the armour is even thicker to penetrate. The A.T rifle was not a great succes. . because you must be very close range to damage the vehicle. The A.t rifle only workt early in the war.
burnout002NL1 7 months ago
umm i dont think the BREN had a bolt....
Gonzap94 2 years ago
This made the Boys a good candidate for conversion to U.S. .50 BMG both to remove it from needing papers, and the ammo cost less, and would remain in production. One could either reline the existing barrel, or replace the barrel entirely. Now, you folks that may have an old boys in the attic, or closet, if its not papered, you need to have it converted. or at least have the barrel removed. The BATFE has little humor about these things, and will take it from you if its discovered.
beardo52 2 years ago
@beardo52 Then you have to have even less humor and kill the fuckers for interfering with your right to self-defense.
NoisemakerArrow 1 year ago
There are plenty Boys rifles in the U.S. they sold for less than 80.00 USD, and were very popular. Once the Gun Control Act of 1968 passed, it was classified as a destructive device requiring paperwork just as full auto guns need. Anything now considered a D.D. had to be papered, which was for the purpose of the amnesty, a cost free transaction. (most people still oppose the very idea of registration) Any weapon not papered was then branded as contraband, subject to siezure.
beardo52 2 years ago
Most tanks at the beginning of WW 2 were very thinly armored, even the German tanks. A.T. rifles were useful for a couple years, then began to do the jobs of modern A.M. rifles as tanks grew too heavy. The Boys had a particularly harsh recoil, and were not well liked because of it.
beardo52 2 years ago
What do you mean by "even the German tanks"?
Matildas, Soumas S-35 and T-28 (UK, France and USRR) were all better armored than the Germans.
Paciat 2 years ago
Paciat : I had meant that they were thin by comparison to late ww2 tanks. But, Most designs in use at the beginning of the war were from the early 30's , some even from the 20's, and had little armor. as thin as 6mm in some areas. The 3 you mentioned did have some nice max armor specs, but had little as 15 mm in other areas, so they were still more than vulnerable. The Soviets were using mostly Bt 5's and 7's with some T-26's early on ,all thinly armored, and vulnerable.
beardo52 2 years ago
Comment removed
shotfirer1972 2 years ago
All good it did during Dunkrirk, some of the rounds literally ping off the German panzers, the anti-tank rifle is a weapon of the preWW2 age where tank amour was weaker.
romanlegions 2 years ago
As you said "some of the rounds literally ping" but if well aimed some could penetrate the armor (thru vision slicks) disable the turret or breake tracks.
Its a weapon for disabling a tank. Not blowing it up.
Paciat 2 years ago
Anti tank rifle is a nice gun.
jackycck2222 2 years ago
never new brownshorts tommy had AT-rifles..look the bizz but prob bounced of the dirty panzers like popcorn off a big heavy thing..
killercrabman 2 years ago
nice gun =) maybe you can use it as a sniper rifle :D
DingensHalt 2 years ago
My uncle was trained to shoot this gun in about 1939,the target was a dustbin half filled with bricks,hit with his first shot made a small hole he said he made very sure he missed with the second in case we got the 36lb thing to Carrie.
elswick1542 3 years ago
bloody hell of kick too it jolly good! cant shoot with it you wanker
gasdorf 3 years ago
you need to get a fucking life, PIG.
peeweeruIe 2 years ago
anybody know where you can find one of these? I'd settle for a .50 cal converted
phantom12321 3 years ago
yes...allied armament sell them
arrow2400 3 years ago
There was one for sale here in the US. They converted a number of them to .50-cal both during and post-war for further use. Went for $8K.
sonodaotaku 3 years ago
theres more than one in the US. I have one from my grandpa in my closet. round muzzle brake.
pgcracker82 3 years ago