In the 1920s and - especially - in the 1930s, the Red Army underwent rapid development, increasing both its personnel and its "technical park". Of course, anti-tank weapons (in short: anti-tank) were also developed, and before 1941, 37 and 45 mm anti-tank guns entered service. However, in the second half of the 1930s, the Red Army command decided to supplement these guns with light anti-tank weapons dedicated to infantry units, which eventually materialized in the form of anti-tank rifles such as PTRS and 14.5 mm PTRD. It is worth adding here that a similar weapon was also developed in the German (PzB 39) and Polish (UR rifle) armies. The introduction in the Red Army entailed changes in the organization. In 1941, an anti-tank rifle company consisting of three platoons, with a total of 27 PTRS or PTRD rifles, was to serve in the infantry regiment. In 1942, specialized companies armed with 16 anti-tank rifles were established at the infantry battalion level. In the summer of the same year, the companies in the battalions were reduced to a platoon armed with 9 anti-tank rifles. While at the beginning of the German-Soviet war, anti-tank rifle units turned out to be an unpleasant surprise for the German Panzerwaffe, along with its development and the introduction of increasingly heavily armored vehicles, their effectiveness dropped significantly.
Already after the first experiences of fighting in North Africa at the turn of 1942-1943, the US Army changed the position of the American infantry division. From 1943 onwards, each infantry division had three full-time infantry regiments, in turn composed of three infantry battalions. In addition, the infantry regiment also included other units, for example: an anti-tank company, an artillery company or a staff company. In total, the US Army's infantry regiment numbered approximately 3,100 soldiers. It should also be remembered that the division also included a strong artillery component consisting of four artillery battalions - 3 light and 1 medium, most often armed with 105 and 155 mm howitzers. There was also, among others, an engineering battalion, a repair company, a reconnaissance unit and a Military Police platoon. In total, the US Infantry Division numbered approximately 14,200 people from 1943. It quite clearly dominated the artillery over the German division and had much better and - above all - fully motorized means of transport, which made it a highly mobile tactical formation. It also had much richer "individual" anti-tank weapons in the form of a large number of bazooka launchers, of which there were over 500 in the entire division.
The German army had experience in fighting enemy armored vehicles from the period of World War I (1916-1918). After the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, the development of anti-tank weapons was hindered, but in 1928 the gun was put into mass production 3.7 cm PaK 36 which at that time was one of the most modern anti-tank guns in the world. However, with time, especially in the 1930s and with the development of own armored weapons, the problem of anti-tank weapons was treated in the German army rather of secondary importance. As a result, the German army entered World War II, still having the P aK 36 caliber 37 mm, which turned out to be completely insufficient against the French Char B1 Bis or the Soviet T-34 and KW-1. Moreover, with the development of fighting on the Eastern Front, the problem of destroying Soviet armored weapons became more and more urgent, which led to the introduction of new 50 and 75 mm anti-tank guns into the line. From 1943, the Panzerfaust recoilless rifles were introduced on an increasingly larger scale, which were used to saturate their own infantry units as much as possible. For example, in 1943, the German infantry division had 108 recoilless guns and 35 towed and self-propelled anti-tank guns.