Panzer Viii

[Milton Beaty]

ThePanzer VIII "Maus" is a special unit in the German Army. It is by far the strongest unit in the game. It resembles a camophlaged Panzer VI "Tiger" tank. To the right: a panzer near a soviet anti infantry unit and nazi depot captured by the russians.

Hitler saw the threat of the Soviet heavy tanks and ordered a super heavy panzer to be designed which had much thicker armor and far more firepower than any future enemy tank. The first super heavy panzer design was the Panzer VII Lwe (Lion) which was designed by Friedrich Krupp AG (Krupp) of Essen (northeast of Dsseldorf), Germany. The project was initially code named VK 70.01 (K). It was designed as two variants, unofficially designated Leichter Lwe (Light Lion) and Schwerer Lwe (Heavy Lion) and both would have a crew of five.

The Schwerer Lwe never left the drawing board as Hitler canceled it in March 1942, in favor of the heavier Panzer VIII Maus. The hull and chassis design of the Schwerer Lwe later had an influence on the 70 ton Tiger II which was designed in 1943 and built by Henschel (hull) and Krupp (turret) in 1944-45.

The Germans built a large-scale night-time decoy, the Krupp decoy site (German: Kruppsche Nachtscheinanlage) which was a copy of the Krupp steel works. It was designed to divert Allied bombing raids from the actual production site of the arms factory but it did not make a difference.

457 RAF aircraft flew a successful Oboe-marked raid. The center of the bombing area was across the giant Krupp factory, just west of the Essen center, with the later bombing drifting back to the northwestern outskirts. From photographic evidence, it was believed by Bomber Command that Krupp received 30% more damage on this night than March 5/6.

On the small table were the plans for the Maus. Two 128mm shells are used as paper weights. The gun was fed with two-piece ammunition, the projectile and cartridge making up separate sections. This allowed the gun to be fired using three different size propellant charges; a light, medium or a heavy charge.

Due to the production delays caused by RAF bombing, Krupp received orders on 27 October 1943 stating that, instead of 150 vehicles, just one Maus was to be completed. All of the unused armor plates were ordered to be transferred to the Sturmgeschtz program at Harkort-Eicken, excluding those already prepared for Maus construction. Then another order followed cancelling all further development of the Maus and the cancellation of the Maus series production. On 5 November 1943, another order was received which clarified the situation, changing the initial contract to only 6 prototypes. A week later, the contract for 6 prototypes was changed to just 2 prototypes.

The second prototype V2 differed in many details from prototype V1. The prototype V2 was fitted with the first produced Maus turret. The prototype V1 was supposed to be fitted with the second produced turret, but that never happened. The engine was a MB 517 V12 diesel engine, 1200 hp (895 kW).

The dominant feature was the enormous rectangular turret roughly half the length of the entire panzer. The engine was mounted ahead of the center line but delivered drive to the sprockets at the rear via an electrical drive. The entire panzer was mounted on 12 pairs of double road wheels running along a 1 meter (3.28 feet) wide track. The engine was connected to an electrical generator which, in turn, delivered the electrical current to a motor on each side at the back, each connected to a 918mm (36.14 inch) diameter drive sprocket.

The Maus was too heavy to cross bridges so an alternative system was developed where the Maus would instead ford the rivers it needed to cross. Due to its size, it could ford relatively deep streams, but for deeper ones it was to submerge and drive across the river bottom. The solution required the huge panzers to be paired up. One Maus would supply electrical power to the crossing Maus via a cable until it reached the other side. While submerged, the engine would not be running and the electrical power would be sent directly to the track drive motors. The crew would receive air through a large snorkel, which was tall enough for the panzer to drive through 8 meters (26 feet) of water. After the first Maus had reached the opposite bank, the roles would be reversed. It would supply electrical power for the other Maus to cross the river.

With the Maus being canceled, there was little point in finishing the Maus V1, which still needed some machining work done but was otherwise finished. It was transported from Krupp to Alkett on 26 September 1943, where it was fitted with the internal components and the drive train. This was completed on December 22nd and then ordered to be transported to the testing grounds at Bblingen (southwest of Stuttgart) on 10 January 1944. When it left for Bblingen the next day via railway, the panzer was able to move under its own power and load itself, but work on the hull was otherwise incomplete inside. At Bblingen, Krupp technicians would complete the assembly. The journey to Bblingen took 3 days.

The Maus V1 trials started on 15 January 1944, with a 2 km (1.24 mile) off-road trip showing the extreme ease and accuracy of the steering. During traveling off-road on soft clay soil, despite its enormous bulk, the Maus only sank 50cm (19.69 inches) into the ground, yet it still managed to steer and drove through it successfully.

The Maus V1 driving pass a Soviet KV-1 heavy tank that was captured in 1941. The KV-1 was destroyed on the firing range by several hits from AT guns and hollow charge weapons. The KV-1 is closer to the camera so it appears larger than it really is.

The work at Bblingen to finish the interior was done in the second half of January 1944. After that it undertook its first successful test run and was then back on trial on January 31st. During the trails, a problem was found. The rubber rings within the road wheels started to fail under the load after just 14 km (8.69 miles). The new and improved road wheels were already on order despite the existing orders for no further development on the Maus to take place. While the Maus was officially considered dead, Porsche was calling it by its original designation, the Type 205.

During early February 1944, the grey colored Maus hull and Ersatzgewicht turret were repainted with a rough three tone camouflage scheme consisting of a base coat of Dark Yellow (Dunkelgelb RAL 7028), over which olive green (Olivgrun RAL 6003), and reddish-brown (Rotbraun RAL 8107) curvy stripes were painted.

During 15-17 March 1944, the Maus became stuck in a very soft swampy area on the testing ground. That area was avoided by all vehicles but the new driver not knowing his way around, drove though the swampy area and the hull sank to about half its height in the soft mud.

Work has began to dig out the stuck Maus. Note the Soviet hammer and sickle motif the Germans painted on the center of the hull. It probably was to confuse any observers about the origins of this vehicle. Inset is the actual Soviet hammer and sickle.

Extricating this enormous panzer was easier than one would imagine. It required only the mud at the front and rear to be dug out and some wood placed under the tracks for traction, and it was able to free itself under its own power. Note the pile of wood gathered.

The Maus V2 arrived at Alkett on 8 January 1944, but work stopped by the middle of the month with a focus on Sturmgeschtz assembly instead. After about two weeks of lying idle, it was decided to transport the partially assembled Maus V2 (fitted with just suspension and mechanical brakes) to Bblingen to finish the assembly.

The single Maus turret which had been ordered to be completed was not ready. It was not finished until the middle of April 1944, several months behind schedule probably the result of being a low priority project as serial production had been canceled. The single turret was transported directly to Bblingen, where Krupp technicians finished the work on it.

The completed turret for the Maus V2. The hole in the side is the machine pistol ball-mount (MP-kugelblende) and on the rear is the loading port with machine pistol port (Munitionsluke mit MP-stopfen).

Škoda Auto, a Czech automobile manufacturer, was part of the Reichswerke Hermann Gring producing components for German military terrain vehicles, military planes, other weapons components and cartridge cases.

There was nothing out of the ordinary during testing and the panzer was able to move and maneuver adequately under its own power yet, despite this, on 19 August 1944, all work on both vehicles was stopped and the Krupp workers were diverted to more urgent war work.

Kummersdorf is the name of an estate near Luckenwalde, around 25 km (15.5 miles) south of Berlin, in the Brandenburg region of Germany, southwest of Zossen. Kummersdorf hosted the weapon office of the German Army which ran a development center for future weapons as well as an artillery range. The analyses, studies and testing of various German-captured Allied tanks and armoured fighting vehicles (AFVs) were conducted there. The Wehrmacht also tested new German panzers there and compared them to the captured Allied tanks.

The Ruhr pocket was a battle of encirclement that took place in April 1945. The US Ninth Army surrounded the pocket consisted of Duisburg, Dsseldorf, Mllheim, Ratingen, Velbert, Essen, Herten, Herne, Witten, Dortmund, Lnen, Iserlohn, Menden, and Hamm. On April 5th, 18 US Divisions began to clear the Ruhr Pocket. On April 10th, Essen was captured.

Troops of the Polish 1st Armoured Division (Polish 1 Dywizja Pancerna) are examining three Maus hulls and three turrets at Meppen in May 1945. The hulls are lying on their sides and the turrets are upside down on the ground.

Since the Krupp steel works at Essen was a major RAF target and took heavy damage, the Germans probably began to disperse the Maus production and Maus components (hulls and turrets) were moved to Meppen.

The soviets conducted some firing trials on the Maus V1. At least seven hits were obtained on its side, including two on the sides of the Ersatzgewicht turret. Some or all of the hits were from shaped charges probably RKG-43 or RKG-6 anti-tank hand grenades. The hull front was also subject to being fired at with at least 10 hits on the glacis, lower front, and track guards respectively.

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