By the beginning of the WWII on 01 September 1939 the Wehrmacht was armed with 11200 guns Pak 35/36 that could effectively fi ght Polish and Soviet light tanks with anti-bullet armor protection, however it couldn't penetrate British Matilda tanks and Russian T-34 and KVs which resulted in the PaK 35/36 being dubbed the "Door Knocker" by Germans. At the same time Pak 35/36 had not been withdrawn for a long time: by the 1st March 1945 the units still had 216 guns in service with other 670 guns stored in arsenals.