Super Heavy Tanks
By Chief
Mac – 29 June 20233
This is the last of the series on tanks.
Here we are going big, and I do mean really big. Modern Main Battle Tanks range from 40 to almost 60 tons. None of these are that light. Of course nobody gave a thought as to the roads couldn’t support the weight and no bridges could be crossed or that they such a huge target for everybody. Heck what to those minor issues have when you can have the biggest baddest tanks in the world?
Mendeleev
Tank
The Mendeleev Tank was a proposed early tank design by
Russian naval engineer Vasiliy Mendeleev, son of Russian scientist Dimitri
Mendeleev, who created the modern periodic table. The vehicle was envisioned by
Mendeleev during his time working at the Kronshtadt Marine Engineering School
in Saint Petersburg, Russia, from 1911 to 1915. Its purported purpose was to be
a "landship" immune to all enemy fire and able to cross large
battlefields while providing heavy artillery support to troops using a 120 mm
gun. The proposed tank was one of the heaviest tank designs of all time; at
173.2 tons it would have been nearly the same weight as the World War II German
Panzer VIII Maus superheavy tank.
Flying
Elephant
The Flying Elephant was a proposed super-heavy tank,
planned but never built by the British during World War I.
After the last order for an additional fifty Mark I
vehicles in April 1916, it was not certain that any more tanks were to be
produced. Everything would depend on the success of the new weapon. William
Tritton, co-designer and co-producer of the Mark I, thought he already
understood what would prove to be its main weakness. A direct hit by a shell would
destroy the vehicle, a major drawback on a battlefield saturated with artillery
fire. Tritton decided to design a tank that would be immune to medium artillery
fire in April 1916.
K-Wagen
The Großkampfwagen or "K-Wagen" (short for
G.K.-Wagen) was a German super-heavy tank, two prototypes of which were almost
completed by the end of World War I.
In June 1917, before the first A7V tanks had been
completed, the German War Ministry ordered the development of a new superheavy
tank intended to be used in break-through situations. Design work was carried
out by Joseph Vollmer, a reserve captain and engineer working for the
Verkehrstechnische Prüfungskommission ("Transport-technologies Board of
Examiners" of the army), and a Captain Weger.
On June 28, 1917 the War Ministry approved the draft
design and ordered ten examples, five to be built by the Riebe ball-bearing
factory in Berlin and five by Wegmann & Co. of Kassel.
The vehicle originally weighed 165 tons but this was reduced
to a more practicable 120 tons by shortening the length. The huge size and mass
of the K-Wagen made it impossible to transport complete, so it was decided that
it would be split into four sections for transport by rail, to be reassembled
behind the front line near where it was to be used.
Two prototypes were built at the request of Hindenburg,
but were still incomplete by the end of the war due to lack of raw materials
and other demands for weaponry.
Char
2C
The Char 2C, also known as the FCM 2C, was a French heavy
tank, later considered a super-heavy tank. It was developed during World War I
but not deployed until after the war. It was, in total volume or physical
dimensions, the largest operational tank ever made.
The Char d'assaut de grand modèle
The origins of the Char 2C have always been shrouded in a
certain mystery. In the summer of 1916, likely in July, General Léon Augustin
Jean Marie Mourret, the Subsecretary of Artillery, verbally granted Forges et
Chantiers de la Méditerranée (FCM), a shipyard in the south of France near
Toulon, the contract for the development of a heavy tank, a char d'assaut de
grand modèle. At the time, French industry was very active in lobbying for
defense orders, using their connections with high-placed officials and officers
to obtain commissions; development contracts could be very profitable even when
not resulting in actual production, as they were fully paid for by the state.
The French Army had no stated requirement for a heavy tank, and there was no
official policy to procure one. Hence, the decision seemed to have been taken
solely on his personal authority. The reason he later gave was that the British
tanks then in development by a naval committee seemed to be better devised as
regarded lay-out, ventilation and fire protection, so a shipyard might improve
on existing French designs. Exact specifications, if they ever existed, have
been lost. FCM then largely neglected the project, apart from reaping the
financial benefits. At that time, all tank projects were highly secret, and
thereby shielded from public scrutiny.
TOG 1
The Tank, Heavy, TOG 1 was a prototype British
super-heavy tank produced in the early part of the Second World War in the
expectation that battlefields might end up like those of the First World War.
It was designed so it could cross churned-up countryside and trenches. A single
prototype was built, and followed by an improved model (the TOG 2), but
interest faded with the successful performance of another cross-country design,
the Churchill tank, and the mobile war that was being fought.
Design work by Fosters began in December 1939, resulting
in a wooden mock-up. Designed with trench crossing abilities to the fore and
the capability to carry infantry as well, the design as built was a large hull
with side doors supported on broad tracks, with a 2-pdr-gun-armed Matilda II
infantry tank turret. The front plate of the hull carried the 75 mm gun and
mounting as used on the French Char B1 tank. Neither of the planned sponson
designs was ever actually installed on the prototype hull.
The prototype was sent to Chobham and then seems to have
disappeared into history.
TOG2
The TOG2, officially known as the Heavy Tank, TOG II, was
a British super-heavy tank design produced during the early stages of World War
II in the case that the battlefields of northern France devolved into a morass
of mud, trenches and craters as had happened during World War I. When this did
not happen the tank was deemed unnecessary and the project terminated. A development
of the TOG I design, only a single prototype was built before its termination.
O-I
super-heavy tank
O-I was the name given to a proposed series of Japanese
super-heavy tanks, to be used in the Pacific Theater. The vehicle was planned
to be very heavy and have a crew of 11. The complete history of the O-I is
unknown, due to the “obscure” nature of the project and the limited
documentation known to have survived post-war.
The development process was restarted by the Mitsubishi
Heavy Industries Tokyo Machinery Division on the 120 ton version under the
designation "Mi-To" (for Mitsubishi -Tokyo). Later it was given the
official designation of the "O-I tank" (オイ車).
"オ"
is an abbreviation of "大き"(big or large) and "イ"
in Japanese army nomenclature, refers to model number 1, from the old Japanese
alphabet iroha. The tank was again to be equipped with a Type 92 105 mm cannon
for its main gun.[2] Its two smaller front hull turrets were designed to be
"offset slightly left from the mid-point".[3] One turret was designed
to carry a Type 1 47 mm tank gun as secondary armament. The other turret was to
carry a 7.7 mm machine gun. The rear hull was designed to have two more smaller
turrets each with a 7.7 mm machine gun.
Panzerkampfwagen
E-100
Of course if anybody was going to build the largest tanks
it would be Germany. The Panzerkampfwagen E-100 (Gerät 383) (TG-01) was a
German super-heavy tank design developed towards the end of World War II. The
largest of the Entwicklung series of tank designs intended to improve German
armored vehicle production through standardization on cheaper, simpler to build
vehicles. By the end of the war, the chassis of the prototype E-100 had been
partially completed; it was shipped to the United Kingdom for trials, but was
later scrapped.
In March 1944, the Adler company in Frankfurt submitted
blueprint 021A38300 for a super-heavy tank called E-100, after the tank was
proposed in April 1943 along with the other Entwicklung series vehicles.
According to the blueprints, the tank would be armed with a both a 150 mm gun
and a 75 mm gun. Two types of engines were proposed: one was a 700 hp Maybach
HL230, with a transmission and turning mechanism borrowed from the Tiger II.
The estimated top speed was 23 km/h (14 mph). The second variant would have a
new 1200 hp Maybach engine and a top speed estimated at 40 km/h (25 mph). The
design had removable side skirts and narrow transport tracks to make rail
transport more viable.
Panzer
VIII Maus
Panzerkampfwagen VIII Maus (English: 'mouse') was a
German World War II super-heavy tank completed in late 1944. It is the heaviest
fully enclosed armored fighting vehicle ever built. Five were ordered, but only
two hulls and one turret were completed, the turret being attached before the
testing grounds were captured by advancing Soviet military forces. This vehicle
was also built to compete with the Soviet heavy tank the Kliment Voroshilov
tank.
These two prototypes underwent trials in late 1944. The
complete vehicle was 10.2 m (33 ft) long, 3.71 m (12.2 ft) wide and 3.63 m
(11.9 ft) high. Weighing 188 metric tons, the Maus's main armament was the
Krupp-designed 128 mm KwK 44 L/55 gun, based on the 12.8 cm Pak 44 towed
anti-tank gun also used in the casemate-type Jagdtiger tank destroyer, with a
coaxial 75 mm KwK 44 L/36.5 gun. The 128 mm gun was powerful enough to destroy
all Allied armored fighting vehicles in service at the time, with some at
ranges exceeding 3,500 m (3,800 yd).
Landkreuzer
P. 1000 Ratte
The Landkreuzer P. 1000 "Ratte" (English: Land
Cruiser P. 1000 "Rat") was a design for a 1000-ton tank to be used by
Germany during World War II which may have been proposed by Krupp director
Edward Grotte in June 1942, who had already named it "Landkreuzer".
Submitted designs and drawings of the vehicle went under the names OKH Auftrag
Nr. 30404 and E-30404/1, which were presented in December 1942. The tank was
planned to be 1000 tonnes, being far heavier than the Panzer VIII
"Maus", the heaviest tank ever built (weighing 188 tonnes). The
project gained the approval of Adolf Hitler, who had expressed interest in the
development of the tank, but was cancelled by Minister of Armaments Albert
Speer in early 1943.
T-42
super-heavy tank
The T-42 (also known as the TG-V) was a Soviet
super-heavy tank project of the interwar period. It was developed in 1932 by
the OKB-5 design bureau at Bolshevik Plant no. 232 under the direction of a
German engineer-designer Edward Grote [de; ru]. Development did not advance
past the stage of construction drawings and scale models. The design was passed
over in favor of the T-35 project which was already at the prototype stage.
T28
Super Heavy Tank
Everybody knows America had to get into the act. The T28
Super Heavy Tank was an American heavily armored tank/self-propelled gun
designed for the United States Army during World War II. It was originally
designed to break through German defenses of the Siegfried Line, and was later
considered as a possible participant in the planned invasion of the Japanese
mainland.
The near 100-ton vehicle was initially designated a heavy
tank. It was re-designated as the 105 mm Gun Motor Carriage T95 in 1945, and
then renamed in 1946 as the Super Heavy Tank T28.
Only two prototypes were built before the project was
terminated.
Tortoise
heavy assault tank
One last British super heavy. The Tortoise heavy assault
tank (A39) was a British heavy assault gun design developed during the Second
World War, but never put into mass production. It was developed for the task of
clearing heavily fortified areas such as the Siegfried Line and as a result
favored armor protection over mobility.
Although heavy, at 78 tons, and not readily transported,
it was considered reliable and a good gun platform.
Only a few prototypes of the Tortoise had been produced
by the end of the war. After testing was complete, one was retained for
preservation and the others disposed of.
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