File:Anti-tank rifle men in Kursk (34834747431).jpg

Russian anti-tank riflemen with PTRD rifles on the Kursk salient during the Battle of Kursk against German troops by Russian photographer Natalia Bode. Anti-tank rifles are rifle designed to penetrate the armour of vehicles, particularly tanks. The usefulness of rifles for this purpose ran from the introduction of tanks in World War I until the Korean War. While medium and heavy tank armour became too thick to be penetrated by rigid projectiles from rifles that could be carried by a single soldier, anti-tank rifles continued to be used against other targets, though recoilless rifles and rocket-propelled grenades such as the bazooka were also introduced for infantry close-layer defence against tanks. At the start of World War II, only some European nations had an anti-tank rifle based on a high-velocity, large-calibre round, such as the British Boys anti-tank Rifle. Later, as armour became thicker on newer models, the effectiveness of a man-portable rifle lessened. This was particularly true in Malaya, where the light Japanese tanks specially configured for jungle conflict rode roughshod over British forces amply supplied with the Boys anti-tank rifle. Some anti-armour successes were achieved with heavy-calibre autocannon by the Luftwaffe, especially with the Bordkanone BK 3,7 autocannon, mounted in twin gun pods against Soviet armour on the Eastern Front. Some anti-tank rifles, like the Finnish L-39, were still used by snipers to harass the enemy, like firing phosphorus bullets at tanks' open hatches, or to smoke an enemy sniper out of his position. The PTRD were a series of anti-tank rifles produced by the Soviet Union widely used in the Korean War by North Korean forces and still used nowadays.