German antitank weapons are divided into several classes. The main class comprises guns built specifically for antitank missions and falls into three groups—guns of conventional German design, guns built with tapered-bore tubes, and captured antitank weapons.

The orthodox German guns in the first group are designed to achieve armor penetration at maximum ranges by using relatively heavy projectiles with high velocities. The first such gun was the 37-mm Rheinmetall (the 3.7-cm Pak). This was too limited in power at the time of the Battle of France (1940), and was superseded by the 50-mm 5-cm Pak 38. This 50-mm weapon is gradually being replaced, in turn, by the 75-mm 7.5-cm Pak 40, which is the standard German antitank gun of today. Since the Pak 40 is capable of penetrating 4.43 inches of armor at 500 yards, it is considered an adequate weapon. These three guns all have similar basic features: split tubular trails, a low silhouette, and a large shield. All have been kept as light as possible to increase tactical mobility. The 50-mm and the 75-mm guns employ muzzle brakes to reduce recoil and thus permit lighter carriages. In 1944 another gun, the 88-mm 8.8-cm Pak 43/41, was added to this group. Although this gun is extremely powerful (it penetrates 4.4 inches of armor at 2,500 yards), its great weight on its split-trail, two-wheeled carriage somewhat reduces its mobility. Another version of this gun—the 8.8-cm Pak 43—mounts the same tube, but on a carriage like that of the well-known 88-mm antiaircraft guns of the Flak 18 and 36 types...