Can you think of it? 80 years ago, during World War II, Nazi Germany developed a super heavy tank, which weighed and dimensions far exceeded today's top main battle tanks, and the 188-ton vehicle weighed even twice as much as modern main battle tanks. It is not only the heaviest tank designed and produced by Germany in World War II, but also the holder of the record for the largest heavy tank in the world so far, arguably a movable steel fortress. It was pinned high hopes by Hitler and personally ordered to be indestructible on the basis of indestructible, but in the end it was stopped by the "Führer" himself. It was Nazi Germany's last madness on the tank road, known as the "Eighth Armored Fighting Vehicle", one of the two armored heroes of the last days, codenamed: the "Rat" tank.
Tanks, as the main armored force of the Army during World War II, can be said to have played a crucial role, especially at the end of World War II, in order to occupy an absolute advantage in the tragic war, the direction of German tank research and development has become more and more extreme, of which the more typical is the "E" plan and the "rat" plan we want to talk about in this issue. But why did this plan, which was full of the hopes of Hitler himself and the entire German army, go from the initial expected annual production of 200 vehicles to the annual order of 150 vehicles that could not be completed, and finally went to extinction, and there were only two complete versions? In addition to the weight that can go down in history, what is the legendary story of the rat tank? If you are also interested in this series of questions in front of the screen, please be patient and watch this episode of the show, the content is a bit long, but absolutely wonderful. In addition, lao fan also has a reluctant invitation, if you can, please also ask you to long press on the bottom of the screen to like the building, help the old fan to a wave of highly recommended, thank you!
origin
On June 21, 1940, as Nazi Germany accepted France's request for a truce, it took the Germans only 39 days to sweep the battlefields of Western Europe with blitzkrieg. After the war, the Germans took over 60% of the arsenals in France, and in the Mediterranean Metallurgical Shipyard, the Germans found two wooden tank models that surprised them, namely FCM-F1 and ARL Tracteur C. You must know that the main tank of the German army at that time was only a 25-ton Panzer IV tank, and the two behemoths in front of them weighed more than 100 tons. What is even more frightening is that its 120 mm armor thickness made the main 75 mm gun of the German army at that time useless, all of which challenged the bottom line of the "moustache" steel empire, so the German super heavy tank program was put on the agenda.
The following year, in 1941, the German Army was almost helpless due to the development of the Soviet KV series of heavy tanks. Hitler ordered that the development of his own heavy tanks be accelerated, and asked for the submission of a proposal for a new heavy tank as quickly as possible. Later, Germany's well-known Krupp and Porsche company both submitted their own design plans, but neither of them met the ideal of "Führer". In April 1942, Hitler gave a hard target: the latest Panzer VIII had to surpass France's heavy tanks by 120 tons, and on the basis of indestructible, it had to take into account indestructible capabilities. So, in May of the same year, Krupp and Porsche joined forces to accomplish this task, and they named their latest product Mammut, the VK10001 (P205).
Due to the tight time and urgent tasks, the appearance of this "dream work" of the German army does not continue the mighty domineering spirit of the "Tiger" series tanks, and it can even be said that there is no design at all. But even with this savings in design time, Porsche said it would not be able to deliver the prototype until May 1943, and would only produce five prototypes per month after delivery, which was far from Hitler's imagination of 200 units per year. As a result, the "moustache" began to increase the size, he ordered that the test vehicle could be postponed, but on the condition that the tank delivered in the summer of 1943 must have a 150 mm main gun, a 127 mm caliber naval gun, a 128 mm caliber anti-aircraft gun, and a high-performance heavy machine gun, and named the new car the Mouse "Maus".
However, it was not until February 1943 that the factory completed the final plan for the Panzer VIII, code-named "Maus", which is said to imply that it would penetrate the enemy's defenses without being injured. Thereafter, the production of the rat tank will be overseen by Professor Ferdinand Porsche, who is responsible for the development of the chassis, the Krupp plant will be responsible for the development of the hull, turret and weapons, the Škoda company will be responsible for the wheel, steering and suspension system, and the assembly will be carried out by Eckert. However, by the time the order was delivered on May 26, 1943, the factory had only completed 13 experimental bodywork, and only the first four would pass the test.
Difficulties
The biggest problem encountered by the workers was that it was difficult to control the thickness of its armor evenly, especially the armor on the left and right sides of the tank, there would always be an error of about 10 mm, and it can be said that throughout the summer of 1943, engineers and workers were troubled by this problem. The main thing is that only Krupp can mill such a huge steel machine tool, and only one machine can be used for the Panzer VIII mission. Coupled with the constant bombardment of the production base in Essen by the Allies, many models and molds were constantly destroyed. Therefore, it was not until December of the same year that the first full version of the hull (V1 type) was officially rolled off the production line and assembly tests began with a fake turret with the same weight as the real turret.
By January 10, 1944, the hull part of the first Rat tank was transported to the proving ground in Berkblingen and completed the first independent exercise, but due to the excessive size, the various parts of the fuselage were too heavy, and the walking process was still a problem, and the designers had to continue to work overtime. By March 1944, the second full version of the hull (V2 type) was officially delivered, but at this time there were new problems in the turret part, and although the twin turrets originally designed were reduced to single turrets, due to the excessive size (nearly 50 tons), in addition to many problems with the turret body, the matching between the turret and the body and the weight of the rotating bearings were successively surfaced. Although the engineers solved these problems in just one month, they were already several months behind schedule. To make matters worse, the rat tank's first physical turret was towed until June 1944, when it finally rolled off the production line and was assembled with the body. As a result, the "Rat" super heavy tank program, after facing so many difficulties, has almost zero possibility of mass production.
Indestructible defense
Since the "Fuehrer" said to be "indestructible", let's see how strong the rat is. If you want to say that during World War II, the strongest tank individuals that have been mass-produced and served must be the Tiger King tank at the end of World War II. The Tiger King tank has a maximum thickness of 150 mm in front of the hull and a maximum armor thickness of 80 mm on both sides and rear; the front armor of the turret is 130 mm thick, and the armor thickness on both sides and rear of the turret is 80 mm, which is equivalent to that of modern main battle tanks, reaching 69.8 tons. The rat tank has a front armor thickness of 220 mm, and the side and rear armor of the hull is also as high as 190 mm; the front armor of the turret is as high as 240 mm, and the side and rear armor is also as high as 200 mm.
So, what is the concept of a thickness of 200 mm? It is very easy to understand how long the ruler we commonly use is, and how thick the rat armor is. This thickness can be said to be very exaggerated, another method of metaphor: the length of the red brick used for general wall building is 240 mm, imagine how strong your courtyard wall is made of steel, how indestructible the armor of the rat tank is, and this also makes its complete body weight, reaching 188 tons. In addition, after the end of World War II in 1945, the Soviet Union also experimented with rat-like body plates, and it was later confirmed that all tanks at that time could not penetrate the rat-type armor.
Indestructible attack power
After reading the previous content, if you think that the Rat is just a defensive machine, then you underestimate the ambitions of the Nazis, remember what we said earlier, Hitler's requirements for the "Panzer VIII"? On the basis of indestructible, we must be indestructible. Therefore, the Rat not only worked defense systems such as armor, but also lagged behind any armored fighting vehicles of the time in terms of firepower. At the beginning of the project, the designers, in accordance with Hitler's wishes, prepared four sets of gun schemes for the Rat tank, which were 75 mm, 128 mm, 150 mm and 170 mm guns, with the addition of two 7.92 mm MG 34 machine guns, and three submachine gun firing ports located on the side and rear of the turret. In addition, the designers also plan to install an MG151/20 cannon for air defense on top of the turret of some rat tanks in future production versions to be used as a mobile air defense fortress.
At the same time, storage space for 1,000 machine gun bullets and 100 artillery shells will be reserved inside the tank. But in January 1943, after Hitler himself intervened in the project, it insisted that the rat tank's weapons must be a 128 mm main gun and a 75 mm coaxial gun. Thus, in November 1943, the turret delivered by the factory was a PAK44 anti-tank field gun with a caliber of 128 mm and a range of more than 3500 meters, which Hitler was pleased with. In mid-1944, the KWK44 gun, which was also 128 mm, was also fitted on the turret of the V2 prototype, but it was eventually abandoned. However, due to Hitler's stubbornness, the 128 mm gun took up too much space inside the tank, resulting in the storage space of the first 100 shells being repeatedly shrunk. In May 1944, the designers also tried to install 150 mm and 170 mm guns on rat tanks, but after more than a month of trial and error, they finally abandoned the modification plan.
In addition to the above firepower, in the December 1942 design there was a defense system called the "Gross-Flammenwerfer", which was to install two 22 mm flamethrowers with a range of between 150 and 200 meters for close defense against enemy infantry trying to approach. However, it is undoubtedly more difficult to install the Spitfire system on such a heavy armor plate. Moreover, the fuel of the flamethrower and the additional cooling system increased the weight of the tank by an additional 5 tons, so this design was rationally abandoned in May 1943.
Super "strong" power
In February 1943, with the introduction of the Design of the Panzer VIII, the Rat engine also became the focus of attention. After all, such a behemoth necessarily requires a powerful engine. The first to come up with the product was maybach, who provided Porsche with a 1,000-horsepower V-12 (cylinder) supercharged engine, although this engine is already very powerful, but it is only a joke to use it on the rat. In order to speed up the development, the factory directly selected the DB603 engine on the fighter, and after this engine was modified, the new MB507 engine could be connected to a pair of Siemens DC generators, and when the engine speed reached 2800 (rpm), each generator could drive more than 400 kW of power, which could drive the rat tank. On the V2 rat prototype tested in September 1944, a new 12-cylinder engine, the MB517 (an upgraded version of the MB507), was supplied by Daimler-Benz.
Here, Lao Fan would like to prompt, I don't know if you hear it, this motor drive mode of driving the generator through the engine is not today's "non-plug-in oil-electric hybrid system"? It can be said that it is very advanced, and the most important thing is that this is 80 years ago! In addition, some friends may wonder, is it not good to drive directly with fuel? Relying on fuel oil to drive generators to generate electricity, is there no intermediate energy loss? This question is very good! If it is driven at high speeds, electric is really not as economical as fuel. But the low-speed state is another matter, in the low-speed cruise state, this hybrid system not only does not have excess losses, but also because of the large torque of the electric drive, it can save fuel. And this set of "advanced" power system, there is another unique role, we will talk about later.
Although the rat has a high power of 1200 horsepower, its weight of nearly 200 tons still makes its fuel consumption surprisingly high. The rat tank has two fuel tanks, inside and outside, and can carry 3500 liters of diesel fuel (about 6000 kg). But that's only enough for it to travel 100 kilometers on paved roads, and on non-paved roads, its maximum mileage is cut in half. In addition, the rat tank is a 10.2 meters long, 3.7 meters wide, 3.6 meters high, and nearly 200 tons of big guy, in order to let him walk smoothly, Skoda can be said to be broken heart, the mouse tank tracks, wheels and steering and other walking devices all need a new design. They arranged 12 1-meter-wide wheels on each side of the rat tank and divided them into 6 groups, staggered on the 1.1-meter-wide tracks. Although this design is already the best solution, its maximum driving speed can only reach 20 miles, and it is still in a better road condition. If it is on the battlefield, its average driving speed can only be maintained at about 10 miles.
"Rats" cross the river
Because the rat tank is so heavy that it is dangerous to drive directly on the bridge deck, engineers developed a unique wading system for it from the beginning of the design. Maybe in front of the screen you will think that it will "swim past" like many amphibious models. But the designer's plan was to let it "drive past" directly from the bottom of the water. At first, the designers planned to allow the rat to wade 45 feet deep (nearly 14 meters), but in fact its maximum wading depth was only 25 feet (about 8 meters), but even so, this depth was still shocking. When the rat tank needs to "dive", all holes and crevices that may leak can be closed with the help of sealant rings. The built-in fan is then connected to the ventilator on the ground with a ventilation duct to provide oxygen to the members of the tank.
Then some students may ask: "The oxygen problem of the personnel is solved, but all the air holes on the tank are blocked, how does its power system work?" Remember what we talked about earlier? Rat tanks are oil-electric hybrids that transmit electricity to each other over cables in cases where deep wading is required. In other words, when the tank in front crosses the river, the tank in the back stays on the shore and provides energy for the former through cables, and crosses the river in this way. However, although this way is feasible, Lao Fan has a doubt, and wants to ask the irons in front of the screen to answer it: If you cross the river in this way, the tanks in front of you have passed, who should provide the energy for the last one?
The end of the rat project
Although the test of the Rat tank was carried out until the eve of the end of World War II. But in reality, the project was almost halted by Hitler on November 4, 1943. As for the reasons for the termination of this plan, there were two later analyses: one was that because German ground forces were often suppressed by Allied air power, large and slow-moving targets such as rat tanks were simply living targets; the second was that Germany had problems with raw materials and had to abandon the plan and devote limited resources to necessities. But in fact, when the Allies broke through Berlin and cleaned up the mess after the war, they found that in the German factory, there were about 30 finished hulls and turrets that had not been assembled, as well as 15 hulls and 9 turrets of cut and formed plates. For some reason, these giants, which were supposed to be put on the battlefield, were abandoned in Krupp's factories, and only two rat tanks were assembled.
Later, these hulls and turrets were also experimented by the Soviets, who bombarded these steel plates with the guns of the main tanks at that time, and the experimental results were that even the weakest part of the rat tank could not be penetrated by any of the existing guns at that time. After that, the soldiers removed all the parts such as the engine and gearbox inside the tank for study, and transported the armored shell of a rat tank to the Kubinka Patriot Park Museum near Moscow for display, where you can still feel the shock.
Old Fan view of the aftermath
Although the rat tank can be called a feat in the history of human military industry, it seems to be like the decline of Nazi Germany, in the case of shortage of raw materials, industrial capacity and human resources, it still has to build such a "monster", and the final direction can only be destruction. Even with its astonishing achievements, behind it is a heavy waste and a paranoid personal will, and as a weapon it has only brought a burden to Germany and the world. The rat tank itself is fascinating, it is so majestic and powerful, but it is not the expectation of human beings, the more powerful the weapon, the more it is a threat to the human species. Poor soldiers are doomed to the end of the road, and we want a peaceful and sunny world.
Well, that's all for this issue, and I hope you enjoy it. If you have any opinions about the rat tank and the contents of this issue in front of the screen, Lao Fan is welcome to leave a comment in the comment area to discuss. Video production is not easy, but also hope that everyone can long press the like button at the bottom of the screen to support me, I am the old Fan, pay attention to subscribe to my channel, we will not see the next program is not scattered, bye-bye!