Shocked by the introduction by the tank, the German Army tried desperately to find a weapon that could be employed to give the troops anti-tank capacity. Both old and new designs were tested in this role. One of these designs was the 20mm Becker M II, that originally was designed to be used as a FLAK gun, and also as armament in aeroplanes. It was redesigned to fulfil this new AT role, which meant, essentially, that it was mated to a heavy MG Tripod.

It was an improvisation, and it had a number of drawbacks. For one, the recoil of this semi-automatic gun was a bit too heavy for the tripod. Also, the penetration power of the 140 gram tracer shell was deemed to be a bit weak. Some 200 copies of this gun and of another 2cm type made by Ehrhardt still reached the front, but after a while the OHL, due to it’s drawbacks, decided against AT guns of this calibre. (The troops did not like it.) Some 900 AT guns of the 2cm calibre had been ordered, but production was halted, and no more than the above mentioned 200 AT guns (of both types) were made.

But Becker rebuilt the gun, increasing the muzzle velocity to 700 meters per second, and also designing a new lavette. This new type was also tested, successfully, and approved by official inspectors, but it seems that this new model was never used in action. Still, the 2cm Becker M II was used as armament in the Büssig A5P Armoured Car.

Calibre	20 mm
Weight of Gun (without lavette)	30 kg
Max. Range	2,500m
Muzzle Velocity	500-700 m/sec
Weight of Shell	140gm