Anti-Tank Battery Royal Artillery under command), destroyed more than 15 Axis tanks in the action at Outpost Snipe during the Second Battle of El Alamein. Over the next year, the Germans introduced much heavier tanks into service, notably the Tiger I and Panther. The standard 6-pounder shot was ineffective against the front armour at any range but proved effective on the less armoured sides and rear. 6-pounder gunfire accounted for the first Tigers disabled in North Africa; two Tigers being knocked out by towed 6-pounder AT guns, while the 48th Royal Tank Regiment knocked out the first Tigers by the Western Allies in tank vs. tank action with their Churchill tanks, destroying two Tiger I (the same unit also knocked out the first Panther tanks by the Western Allies in May 1944 in Italy). The North Irish Horse disabled and captured Tiger 131 after the crew had abandoned it after it received several hits, most seriously a shot which struck the turret ring, making traverse impossible. The situation was somewhat improved by the development of more sophisticated ammunition in the form of the Armour-Piercing, Composite Rigid (APCR) shot and the Armour-Piercing, Discarding Sabot (APDS) shot, which was available from 1944 and made it effective against the frontal armour of Tiger Is and Panthers. In the Royal Artillery regiments, the 6-pounders were joined by the 17-pounders starting in 1943; in infantry units, the gun remained the sole AT gun in service until 1951, when it was finally declared obsolete and replaced by the 17-pounder in the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR). Tank gun The first tank to go into action armed with the 6-pounder gun was the Mark III version of the Churchill tank, in the Dieppe Raid of August 1942. They were deployed to North Africa; six, as KingForce, were in action at El Alamein in October (destroying five tanks and three AT guns for the loss of one Churchill). Molins gun The Royal Navy used the 6-pounder extensively in Motor Gun Boats during World War II (especially the Fairmile D). The gun was mounted on a hydraulic-powered mount and fitted with a power loading system developed by the Molins Machine Company Limited, permitting a six-round burst at one round per second. The guns were all the early short-barrel (43 calibre) type and fired exclusively HE (high-explosive) ammunition, at much lower muzzle velocities than for AP (armour-piercing), because of