Panzerkampfwagen Maus

Overview
Panzerkampfwagen VIII Maus (Mouse) was an experimental Nazi German super-heavy tank completed in 1944. It was the heaviest armored fighting vehicle ever created, at a staggering 207 tons! The German army ordered five tanks, but only 2 hulls and a turret as well as a test turret were completed before the manufacturing facility was captured by the advancing Red Army.

The two hulls, one with the test turret, the other with the actual turret, began their trials in 1944, after the Normandy landings. The Maus' dimensions were 33 feet long, 12 feet wide, and 11 feet high. The tank's main armament was the Krupp-produced 128 mm KwK 44 cannon that was 55 calibers. This weapon had previously been used by the Jagdtiger heavy tank destroyer. This gun would have been powerful enough to destroy any allied vehicle at rangin excessess of 3 km.

The Maus had one major flaw though, the engine was not powerful enough for a tank of this weight. Certainly engines and drive trains powerful enough existed, however they were ftoo to large to fit inside the tank. The Maus used a type of hybrid drive train, similar to the power plant which equipped the Elefant/Ferdinand Heavy Tank Destroyer or the Prius car. The internal combustion engine drove a generator which provided power to electric motors hooked up to the drive sprockets. However the system was too weak, and was only able to move the tank at around 8 mph on hard surfaces. The Maus would have been to heavy for virtually any bridge in Europe, so a deep fording system was created. The tank could ford up to 2 meters with no preparation, and for rivers with a depth greater than this, a snorkel system was developed. This snorkel could work in rivers up to 8 meters deep. The tactical thinking behind the Maus was to create a heavy breakthrough tank capable of punching massive holes through heavily-fortified defenses, allowing lighter tanks and infantry to exploit them.

Design
In its early stages of development, the Maus was known as the VK100.01. The design was first proposed to Hitler in 1942, and the project was approved. Work started in 1943, and the vehicle was given the name Mammut (Mammoth). Eventually the name was changed to Mauschen (Little Mouse), and finally Maus (Mouse). The Maus was made to use an electric transmission, the one that was planned for the Tiger (P), or VK4501. The first engine the vehicle received was the Daimler-Benz MB 509, an adaptation of the German inverted V12 aircraft engine. The internal combustion engine drove a generator, as previously stated, which supplied power to motors. Most of this system was concentrated in the center of the vehicle, and thus the hull was split into two parts. The massive tracks were more than a meter wide each, and consisted of the same contact shoes and links as the king tiger. Each track was driven by its own electric motor. Each side of the Maus had 24 wheels, split up into six bogies.

The hull armor was around 220 mm thick, and angled. The hull sides and rear were also thick, at around 190 mm. The turret had about 240 mm of armor on the mantlet and front, and about 200 mm on the sides and rear.

Krupp and Alkett were to split production, with the components produced by Krupp, and the assembly by Alkett. The Maus was originally planned to weigh no more than 100 tons. The original armament was to be a 128 mm main gun and a 75 mm co-axially mounted cannon. Many armament ideas were considered, including 150 and even 170 mm guns. Eventually Hitler decided to settle with the 128 mm PaK 44 anti-tank field cannon and a 75 mm gun mounted co-axially. In may of 1943 a wooden Maus mock-up was created and presented to Hitler, who approved the design and ordered 150 vehicles.

Upon protests from General Guderian, the Maus was mounted with 2 MG-34 machine guns for close-quarter defense, and several pistol ports. Plans were made to mouant a MG 151/20 cannon on the turret roof for anti-aircraft defenshowever,ver this never happened.

The first prototype, the 'V1' as assembled by Alkett in 1943. Tests started shortly, and a mock-up turret was created for the vehicle.

The 'V2', or second prototype was created in 1944. This one differed from the first in some design features, and received an actual turret. The V2 also had a Daimler-Benz MB 517 diesel engine, while the V1 had a gas powerplant. Special railroad carriages were created for transporting the two prototypes.

Variants
Only two were ever produced, though they differed in some aspects. They were Maus V1 and Maus V2

Action
The two Maus prototypes were stored at Kummersdorf after testing and trials. As Soviet forces advanced, Maus V2 was ordered to move towards Wunsdorf to protect OKH. V1 was most likely accompanied V2 to act as a generator unit should V2 need to ford, or as a tow truck if V2 became stuck. As V2 moved to defend Hindenburgplatz, it was disabled by Soviet charges placed to the engine. The hull of V2 was heavily damaged due to the charges setting off an ammo rack. Maus V1 was only lightly damaged.

After the war, a Soviet commander ordered that the lightly damaged hull of V1 be mated to the turret of V1, creating a complete Maus. It took six heavy 18t Famo Halftracks just to pull the 55 ton turret off the top of V2's damaged hull. They then mounted the turret, and sent the vehicle back to the USSR for trials. It arrived in the Soviet Union in 1946, where, after trials it was placed in the Kubinka Tank Museum in Moscow. It can be seen there to this day. An interesting fact was that the Germans painted a hammer and sickle, the emblem of the USSR, on the vehicle. They hoped that the Americans would capture the prototype, and mistake it for a super heavy Soviet tank that was in development. However this would most likely not have worked, due to the Daimler-Benz engine and the German 128 mm gun the vehicle was fitted with.