SdKfz 205 Panzerkampfwagen VIII (PzKpfW VIII) / Maus

SdKfz 205 Panzerkampfwagen VIII (PzKpfW VIII) / History of the Mouse

Panzerkampfwagen Pz. Kpf. The W. VIII (Sd. Kfz. 205) "Rat" (sarcastically called "Rat") was a "super-heavy" tank developed by the Third Reich during World War II.

This monster creation features a large, powerful main cannon, complemented by equally powerful secondary weapons, and armored to the core. She became the heaviest tank prototype completed throughout the war, but was never used in combat. In practice, the agility provided by this design was not great and proved to be very slow. Combine that with regular production delays (thanks to relentless Allied bombing campaigns) and perennially flawed engine designs, and it's no wonder the Rat never came out.

A special railcar is designed to transport the beast across the countryside in case it's needed. Its developers (Porsche) generally believed that German leader Adolf Hitler would have played a more effective static defensive role along the "Atlantic Wall" to protect his French coast from westward Allied incursions.

Ferdinand Porsche brought the design of the "VK7001/Porsche Type 205" super heavy tank to Adolf Hitler's attention sometime in June 1942. Hitler would never reject a war-winning idea that involved large tanks and larger artillery, designing and ordering the development of a system known as "Mammoth" or "Mammoth." The mammoth's name was dropped sometime in December 1942 and replaced by "Mauschen" or "Little Mouse", which later became "Maus" ("Maus") in February 1943.

Appropriately distributed armor thickness throughout the mouse design. Her turret frontal thicknesses are 220mm and 250mm respectively. The turret roof is about 60mm thick. The hull received a 200mm thick front and glacis panels. The thickness of the sides of the hull varies from 100 mm in the lower part (180 mm with additional armor) and 180 mm in the upper part.

The thickness of the armor on the rear of the hull is 150 mm. Even the thickness of the front armor on the bottom of the hull is 100 mm and the rear is 50 mm.

Mouse weapon

Weapons should be concentrated on the large caliber 128mm Kw. Main gun K 44 L/55. The barrel is smooth and relatively featureless, with no obvious muzzle brake.

The main gun is capable of penetrating the armor of any deployed Allied tank (including Soviet JS-2 and T-34/85, British Churchill or American M4 Sherman) at any angle and at a range of 3500 meters or more. Designed for A rangefinder was proposed, made by Zeiss, although the system was never fully completed. On Hitler's order, there were 75 mm Kw. K44L/36.

The 5mm gun was mounted coaxially on the turret and operated side by side with the larger caliber main gun. This two-shot arrangement will undoubtedly give the Rat Clan a mobile battlefield that has not been seen throughout the war. Secondary armament includes a 7.92mm MG34 general purpose anti-infantry machine gun and personal weapons for all crew members. The ammunition for the 128mm main gun is approximately 55 to 68 projectiles of various blast/penetration types.

Likewise, the 200 rounds of the 75mm gun would be different.

Mouse V1 Prototype

The first prototype - VI - was launched at the Alkett factory on December 24, 1943. The tank was completed without a production turret and was equipped with a 1,080-horsepower Daimler-Benz MB 509 12-cylinder engine - a significantly modified form of the Daimler-Benz DB 603 series aircraft engine. Meanwhile, the V1 was fitted with a fake turret that boosted the outgoing production model's weight and size. In order not to raise doubts about the ongoing supertank project, it was repainted in forest camouflage colors and given Soviet tank markings to mimic captured Russian vehicles. In general tests, the enormous weight of the tank quickly became apparent, and the movement was severely restricted.

In addition, the entire suspension system lacks the ability to balance the weight of a heavy tank. As if these problems were not enough, people realized that there is no bridge in Europe that would actually allow such a creation to pass. To address the latter problem, the developers installed a snorkel system that allows the tank to travel through 26 feet of water. To facilitate long-distance transport, a special railway carriage was developed for such tasks.

Graz-Simmering-Pauker-Werke Vienna built 14-axle rail cars.

Krupp eventually designed a production turret, but this was never installed on the V1, using only "analog" turrets for the remainder of its tenure.

Mouse V2 Prototype

The second prototype - V2 - appeared in March 1944. The tanks here also did not initially have turrets, but they still needed to be completed at the Krupp factory. Additionally, the engine did not arrive for installation until late in 1944. Krupp finally delivered the turret assembly on April 9, 1944, and the system was quickly fitted to the V2 chassis for testing. The engine, this time a 1,200 hp Daimler-Benz MB 517 series diesel system, finally arrived in September 1944 and was installed on the V2.

Despite the new powerplant and new electric steering, the new layout doesn't bring much performance gains. Testing of the V2 began in September 1944.

Mouse over

By July 1944, Krupp had completed two more hulls and reported that there would be two more soon. However, a few days later, Krupp was ordered to stop further production of the four hulls altogether. In fact, in August 1944, all work ceased.

At the end of the war, the V1 pilot car fell into the hands of the Soviet Union and the Red Army arrived first. The hull was then paired with the complete turret of a captured V2 prototype (itself destroyed by the Germans) for testing and arrived in the USSR on May 4, 1946. It is widely believed that the mouse had an influence on Soviet tank design.

It was tested in Kubinka from 1951 to 1952, and then the Maus was offered as a trophy to the Tank Museum (Kubinka Tank Museum) in Kubinka, Russia.

V2 was last seen sent to defend Berlin, but the machine malfunctioned somewhere near Zossen. She was then destroyed by her crew to prevent her from being captured by the enemy, and was never shot in anger.

As mentioned above, her turret was mounted in a V1 hull by the Soviet Army, with six 18-ton half-tracks - since she weighed about 55 tons alone.

A third incomplete bathtub was found at the Krupp factory in Essen.

Krupp P. 1000 rat

Despite its size, the Maus will pale in comparison to the incredibly large Krupp P. 1000 Ratte 1,000-ton tank described elsewhere on this page. Construction of the system had begun but was never completed at the end of the war - would be equipped with 2 x 280mm main guns, 1 x 128mm gun, 8 x 20mm Flak 38 series anti-aircraft guns and 2 x 15mm Mauser MG 151/15 guns in a naval type turret , making it the largest and most powerful tank ever built.

Specification

Basic

Roles

Dimensions

Performance

Performance

Armor

55-68x128mm projectile.

200 x 75mm projectile.

10,000x7.92mm ammo.

Changes