GERMAN TANKS - Technology, Development & History | Full Documentary

the leopard 2 one of the best main battle tanks in the world it optimally combines armor firepower and mobility the modern tank was born over 100 years ago barbed wire coils marked the front line on the battlefields of the first world war machine guns mowed down everything that moved soldiers were dying by the millions in 1916 the british unexpectedly sent a completely new weapon into battle the tank with conventional weapons the germans had no chance against these track-driven steel monsters they responded with their own quickly developed combat vehicle the a7v in the second world war germany's newly established tank force then conquered vast areas of europe ever more powerful types were produced the panther and tiger were intended to help the vermont emerge victorious over the soviet union the 188-ton colossus christened the mouse was proof of hitler's megalomania ten years after the end of the war germany started to re-arm and created the latest generation of main battle tanks the leopard firepower and mobility are determining factors in battle in these disciplines tanks made in germany are among the most dangerous and effective weapons in the world a hundred years ago and also today 6 30 in the morning the 33rd tank battalion is relocating to firing range one alpha at the bergen troop training area in the luneburg heath various troop and weapons categories are preparing for a combined forces firing exercise the german army soldiers will practice their combat strength here the battlefield is dominated by the heavy main battle tanks the german tank core's main weapon system is the leopard 2. it's one of the most effective main battle tanks in the world the leopard 2 was introduced in 1979 continuously modernized what is currently the latest version bears the name leopard 2 a7v the leopard 2 is a heavy main battle tank with a 4-man crew the 62-ton tank is powered by a liquid-cooled 12-cylinder diesel engine with an output of horsepower it has a top speed of 72 kilometers per hour on the road it has a range of 500 kilometers with one tank of fuel its main weapon is the 120 millimeter smooth bore gun from rheinmetall for fin stabilized projectiles the leopard 2 is protected by multi-layer composite armor the commander sits on the right in the turret the gunner is located in the front the loader is seated on the left-hand side in the turret he loads the pre-selected type of ammunition the driver's station is the only one in the hull it's located at the front right the weapon system is stabilized uneven terrain is compensated for instantaneously ensuring that the gun always remains aimed at the target we use the leopard 2a5 a6a6m and leopard 2a7 variants differences from the leopard 2a5 to the a6 are firstly the extended gun and the leopard 2a7 has a combat compartment cooling system which is ultimately similar to the air conditioning system in a car and a generator is also installed when you're in position that allows you to switch off the engine and let the generator run which makes reconnaissance difficult for the enemy the tank was first presented to the public in 1977 as the successor to the leopard 1. invitation for right on the leopard the new generation is ready leo ii the best there's ever been and according to the experts the best main battle tank of all the eighteen prototypes were tested under the hardest of conditions they drove 95 000 kilometers and fired eleven thousand shots they braved the canadian winter and withstood the baking hot deserts of arizona the combat compartment is designed so that the crew can also spend longer periods inside it under battle conditions including nbc protection every crew member has their workplace the gunner in front of the main site the commander in front of his panoramic telescope division of labor and teamwork at the same time a symbiosis of humans and equipment at the height of the cold war the german tank corps had 2125 leopard 2 tanks at present there are still around 325 when the combined forces go into battle different troop categories of the german armed forces cooperate with each other they support the leopard during the fighting [Music] we don't fight alone in principle we usually fight in combination with grenadiers and sappers especially when we're recognizing mind barriers so that the grenadiers lay mind barriers or throw up the cordon the sappers open the mine barriers and we then continue the attack at speed the leopard 2 is capable of maneuvering up to a depth of 4 meters underwater to increase its combat value an extended gun and modernized fire control system are fitted from version a6 onwards this significantly increases the tank's range and accuracy in combination with the automatic turret drive system this gives the leopard 2 a first-round hit probability of 98 percent [Music] a german armed forces film from 1986 presented the new tank's modern weapons technology to the public based on a very impressive example a tank is equipped with a laser aiming device that can measure distances of up to 10 kilometers accurate to 10 meters depending on visibility this enables the leopard 2 to reliably engage targets located up to five kilometers away the main weapon on the leopard 2 is its 120 millimeter smoothbore gun from rain metal two types of ammunition are used a high explosive round and an armor piercing round the tungsten dart has a diameter of 38 millimeters tank expert wolfgang schneider demonstrates its function the armor piercing round the kinetic energy penetrator for combating armored targets is now in there is encompassed by three carriers fired and should penetrate it if possible of course the speeds for this gun are around 600 meters per second a kinetic energy penetrator like this uses the kinetic energy of its projectile to penetrate the surface of the target this is why an explosive is not necessary in the round itself in military circles the term for this type of kinetic energy penetrator is ke round it's used exclusively for armor-piercing military applications each round costs approximately 10 thousand euros tanks have been around for over 100 years these steel behemoths transformed the way wars have been waged ever since the first world war began in 1914 as a war of movement germany marched into france through the neutral countries of belgium and luxembourg however the advance ended at the river marne due to the industrialization of the war involving the mass use of artillery and machine guns the war of movement turned into trench warfare advancing on foot the infantry dug itself in as protection against the hail of steel and the fronts became entrenched to achieve any kind of victory the enemy had to be driven out of their trenches and the opposing lines smashed apart one particularly perfidious attempt to achieve this involved the use of gas on april 22 1915 germany used this weapon of mass destruction for the first time however not even this gruesome weapon led to any tactical or strategic advantage aircraft were able to advance behind the enemy's front lines but the air forces were still in their infancy and failed to have any decisive impact on the course of the war besides all of these ideas one idea was simple okay if we have to do this and we have to get through these trenches that are fortified with barbed wire and barricades if we have to get through here somehow then we simply have to armor the people who are attacking we have to protect them from the firepower trained on them and we have to make them mobile so that they can cross the terrain that means we have to somehow give them engine power because hundreds of thousands of horses died on this battlefield from exhaustion from artillery and machine gun fire so we have to armor them we have to make them mobile and we somehow have to provide them with a combustion engine when you put it like that the image of the tank already springs to mind you have a platform with soldiers on it tracks beneath an engine and if you're going to do it anyway you can also put a weapon on top on september 15 1916 a new weapon appeared on the front the british introduced their tanks into battle the steel monsters overcame the coils of barbed wire bullets bounced off them in the german trenches they created fear and terror in march 1918 the german empire hurriedly countered with its few heavy combat vehicles in what was the first major tank battle the shtum panzerwagen a7v had already been developed back in 1916. however the kaiser's military leadership failed to see the advantage of it at the time the tank had a crew of up to 23 men commander gunner driver machine gunners mechanics signalers and even a carrier pigeon keeper for passing on information and commands the a7v consisted of a hull made of joined armor plates on a tracked undercarriage including the crew it had a combat weight of 30 tons its engine had an output of 200 horsepower its maximum speed was 16 kilometers per hour its range 70 kilometers its weapons consisted of a gun manufactured in belgium and six machine guns two in each flank and two in the rear its armor was up to 30 millimeters thick the gretchen version had no gun but was instead fitted with two additional machine guns in the front technologically the a7v was a success no other vehicle in the first world war was so heavily armored or had comparable firepower however far too few were produced for a successful tank war the reason being that germany simply had no more steel [Music] on september 20th 1917 the german ministry of war ordered the establishment of armored fighting vehicle detachments one and two by then a total of 20 a7v tanks had been built but during the very first battle three of the five armored fighting vehicles deployed failed due to technical problems and because of the overwhelming superiority of the hundreds of enemy tanks their deployment was a suicide mission right from the start only 20. 20 of these a7vs were deployed although the a7v appears very large from the outside conditions on the inside were extremely cramped the crew had to move around stooped and wearing a steel helmet as head protection was essential the commander driver and gunner had padded seats the others had to survive the journey sitting on ammunition boxes or standing so that was the situation which is hard to imagine compared to modern combat and deployment scenarios of course but that's how it was done and then of course the vehicle was lurching as far as you could hold tight here on this grip to some extent but when there were real impacts coming into contact with the hot engine with your hand and so forth was unavoidable the hatches were also closed for the main part but if you wanted to see something you open them briefly and as soon as they were open you had to anticipate that they would be shot at then bullets came through here there were ricochets or someone threw a hand grenade in through here they fit through perfectly so it was catastrophic in the summer of 1918 more than 400 allied tanks overran the german front which resulted in a major defeat against the empire in the battle of amyong it marked the beginning of the end for the german army the first world war cost more than 15 million human lives the full atrocity and brutality of industrialized war was revealed the tank was recognized as a new main weapon when the treaty of versailles was signed in 1919 however the german army was severely restricted it was also clear that this army was not permitted to have any combat vehicles no tanks no heavy artillery none of this modern military technology at all and an extremely high proportion in comparison with other armies at that time still consisted of cavalry or horses this army was clearly designed to be out of date to prevent it from becoming the core for any future war so the allies were very concerned with ensuring that yes you can have an army but we will make sure that it won't be capable of starting the next wall the treaty also prohibited the germans from conducting any practical tests with the new tank weapon of course that didn't stop the military in any way from taking a close look at the experiences gained from the first world war they were dramatic and had to be evaluated and there were an entire range of people who put forth competent opinions like falkheim for example he was incredibly competent because he had been an a7v commander that means nobody had to explain to him how things ticked quite the opposite he was very savvy and he then evaluated the experiences of other nations in his writings how do you deploy battle tanks how do you defend against combat vehicles and so on and so forth interestingly enough he also talked intensively with guderian army officer heinz guderian was widely regarded as the creator of germany's new tank force he demanded the separation of tanks and conventional infantry when adolf hitler seized power in germany in 1933 guderian's theories became reality an entirely new troop category that operated according to modern tactical principles was to be established the interesting thing is that when the wehrmacht leadership and adolf hitler ii of course they had to decide whether to make the tanks widespread whether to give them to the infantry divisions as the british and the french had mainly done relatively immobile highly protected as a support weapon or do we want to operate independently and so in 1935 the decision was made to establish three german tank divisions at the time that was also done to have an effect on the opponent oh they're building up a central weapon germany's new tank core was outfitted with the panzerkampfwagen one it was built in large numbers and presented at enormous parades in this way hitler aimed to demonstrate germany's regained strength the 360 degree rotating turret of the pansa-1 carried the main weapons to machine guns the chassis was taken from an english tractor manufactured under license and was only partly suitable for rough terrain the panzer one had a crew of two the commander stood in the turret and operated the two machine guns the 5.4 ton tank was fitted with a 57 horsepower boxer engine giving it a top speed of up to 37 kilometers per hour 144 liters of gasoline were sufficient to travel around 150 kilometers on the road armed with two machine guns the panza one was fitted with extremely thin armor for a thickness of only 13 millimeters the panzer one was used primarily as a training vehicle until the real tanks became available the vehicle's design was to prove typical of the german tanks that were to follow the engine was fitted at the rear the drivetrain and transmission were mounted at the front where the driver was positioned this enabled the vehicle to overcome 58 gradients and drive over 36 centimeter obstacles one innovation was that each tank was equipped with its own powerful radio system unlike their opponents this allowed the german commanders to communicate with one another and enabled operations to be coordinated centrally the ability to lead the speed with which decisions are implemented i mean there's no point in saying i've had a great idea i'll launch a full outflanking attack on the right and i have no way to tell my people about it first attachment out flank on the right second attachment to follow third detachment continue out flanking up to the ridge on the left and so on that's much quicker despite its weaknesses the panza one marked an important step on the road to a hard-hitting german tank corps it was evolved to become the panza ii the biggest differences were its powerful 100 horsepower engine and its 2 centimeter automatic gun together the panza 1 and 2 were the workhorses of the german tank corps in the 1930s these light tanks were produced in vast quantities were reliable and were all equipped with radio units on september 1 1939 germany launched its war of aggression against poland adolf hitler had unleashed the second world war the campaign was spearheaded by the fast german tank corps in close alliance with the air force the german tanks surged forward at an unprecedented pace vast regions were taken within a matter of days poland's army was decimated after only three weeks poland was defeated the legend of the blitzkrieg was born using tactics from the german french war of 7071 or the first world war would have failed completely if waves of infantry attacks had been carried out that means that the existing tank divisions and there were only seven at the time in 1939 were merged with the intention to make it like running a hot knife through butter of shattering the opponent encircling him and controlling his overall ability to operate from the word go on these were principles used by general eric von mundstein to formulate his plan to attack against france like guderian he too was a veteran of the first world war he intended to surprise the enemy by advancing through the ardennes the goal was for strong armored forces to penetrate quickly and deeply into the country and circle the defenders and crush them however the wehrmacht only had two light weapons carriers in the form of the panzer one and two the vehicles were merely temporary solutions the small combat vehicles were too weak and vulnerable [Music] the panza 3 was to become the new standard tank it had already been developed back in 1936 by daimler benz under the code name tsuk furawagen or platoon leader vehicle but due to the shortage of raw materials only a small number had been produced up to the start of the war the crew was more than doubled instead of two men in the panzer one five men now went into battle in the tank weighing around 22 tons the panzer iii was powered by a maibak engine with 300 horsepower this gave it a top speed of up to 40 kilometers per hour with a range of 175 kilometers the combat vehicle was initially armed with a small 3.7 centimeter gun and later on with a large 5 centimeter gun its armor was 30 to 60 millimeters thick the panza 3 was intended for direct combat with other tanks it had a conventional design the large turret was located centrally on the tank's hull its suspension consisted of five large track rollers fitted with coil springs it was fast and offered outstanding off-road capability in 1941 and 42 the punsa 3 was germany's most important armored fighting vehicle in his theories guderian had already envisioned two types of tanks back in 1930 one with an anti-tank gun which subsequently became the panzer iii plus a support tank with a more powerful gun the panzer iv like the panzer iii the panzer iv also had a five-man crew barely differing on the outside the design of both combat vehicles is almost identical the panzer iv was intended to provide the panzer 3 with support in battle it was tasked with engaging targets that were too tough for the panzer iii [Music] to do this the panzer iv was fitted with a 7.5 centimeter gun as its main weapon [Music] in 1942 the combat vehicle was equipped with a vastly more powerful gun this was done to enable it to successfully take on the soviet t-34s it was driven by a 300 horsepower maibak engine added to this was a simplified running gear system with eight small double track rollers fitted with leaf springs the chassis of these tank types were also used as the basis for other combat and support vehicles assault anti-tank vehicles and recovery tanks after conquering poland hitler turned on france in 1940 munstein's strategy proved successful the defenders had no chance against the german tanks working closely together with the german air force and their mobile warfare the german strategy was always to let the tanks operate together irrespective of types brutally concise and always with specific directions always with specified objectives and all other branches primarily the air force up to 1941 because none of the others were able to follow mechanized infantry only came into being from 1941 and 42. initially on these half-track vehicles these were unable to drive alongside the tanks that would have been impossible because of the danger but they were able to keep pace they were able to follow the attack on the soviet union then followed in 1941 again the tanks charged forward the artillery units were barely able to keep up and often got stuck in the mud with their trucks half-track vehicles proved to be the remedy they were fast had off-road capability and were able to transport up to 12 soldiers with their armored superstructure and light weapons they gave birth to the idea of the armored personnel carrier 251 could transport a crew of up to 12 men the 100 horsepower maibak engine was able to accelerate the 7.4 ton medium armored personnel carrier to a speed of over 50 kilometers per hour on the road it had a range of 320 kilometers each vehicle was equipped with two machine guns the armored personnel carrier's body consisted of a sharply angled steel superstructure zonda kaft fatsoy 251 served as the basis for an entire range of armored transport and support vehicles some of which were highly specialized the vehicle was available in various designs depending on the intended use initially however all of the armored personnel carriers left the factory in the basic versions only then were they fitted with their respective gear there were vehicles with a 7.5 centimeter gun measurement and telecommunications vehicles as well as armored flamethrower surveillance or flak vehicles or the zanda kaf fatsoi 2517 shown here this was a medium armored vehicle for sappers which transported tools and weapons the vehicle additionally carried two small bridge sections with a load-bearing capacity of eight tons with the zonda kaf fatsoy 251 germany became the first warring nation to possess armored personnel carriers it enabled the infantry to be transported quickly to the battlefield and engage in combat the armored personnel carrier offered the soldiers mobility and armored protection personnel losses dropped sharply as a result so panza 3 and 4 were now the vermacht's most important combat vehicles but in russia they ran up against a modern and far superior opponent the soviet t-34 it was superior in terms of armor and firepower the t-34 76.2 millimeter gun was particularly feared its rounds were able to punch through the german combat vehicle's armor from a range of 1000 meters in contrast the weapon mounted on the panzer iv hardly had any effect against the t-34 even at short distances in 1941 the new soviet tank was vastly superior to all of the german tanks it was simple to manufacture and was put into battle in enormous numbers the t-34 made the german frontline tanks obsolete virtually overnight the vermont urgently needed to act the panther was to prove to be the turning point it entered series production in november 1942. in terms of its overall system this tank was ultimately the role model for all other tanks even after the war that has to be said it was a main battle tank that could fulfill each and every task so far the others couldn't do that either they were heavily protected just so they could support the infantry or they were fast but not so well protected that they could carry out their own operations that could do everything a crew of five men fought in the panther weighing 45 tons it was able to accelerate to a top speed of over 50 kilometers per hour with its 700 horsepower engine on the road it had a range of around 200 kilometers it was armed with a powerful 75 millimeter gun and two machine guns the armor on the panther was up to 12 centimeters thick by german standards the panther was a revolutionary design similar to the design of the soviet t-34 sharply angled side faces were introduced for the first time the modern interleaved running gear with eight track rollers displayed extraordinarily good suspension characteristics besides the conventional 39-42 tank shell a special shell with a tungsten core was also used as ammunition from a range of 500 meters the german crews had a hit rate of 100 percent the 75 millimeter long barrel gun which could already achieve muzzle velocities of 1 000 meters per second and more with armor-piercing rounds this enabled it to effortlessly crack the t-34 thanks to its very high acceleration and good running gear the panther offered what was then considered to be outstanding off-road capability well in terms of agility the panther weighed 45 tons and had a maximum output of 700 horsepower incredible acceleration very high agility also thanks to the wide tracks when the tracks are wider of course you can drive better on swampy sandy terrain than on narrow tracks the panther marked the high point of german tank development in the second world war it combined extensive firepower agility and armor protection however it was created under enormous time pressure and was sent to the front far too early the tank had not been sufficiently tested axles broke engines caught fire tracks tore its rush deployment led to a high number of failures and industry was barely able to keep up with production from the beginning of 1943 to the end of the war some six thousand panthers were produced as manufacturing had to be ramped up of course in the end of 1942 the german tank regiments continued to be equipped in two parts initially this means that the first battalion the first group was equipped with armored fighting vehicle panzer five aka the panther and the second group got the panzer iv that remained the case up to the end of the war but in the breakthrough stages the panther led the way and panzer iv was able to protect the flanks carrying out flanking maneuvers and the two systems complemented each other outstandingly but the panther was the spearhead of the german tank force in the war starting from 1943 of course its first large-scale deployment was in july 43 in kusk of course the vermont's offensive on the kursk salient on july 12 1943 is regarded as the greatest tank battle of all time in a lightning pincer movement hitler planned to encircle and destroy extensive soviet units however it proved impossible to break through the soviet's defenses following violent counter-offensives the germans called off their attack the anticipated turning point on the eastern front failed besides the panther another new german armored fighting vehicle was also roaming across the battlefields the legendary tiger with its armor and a powerful 8.8 centimeter gun it was to deliver the decisive blow to the red army thanks to their outstanding fighting prowess the panther and tiger set new standards up to the end of the war the tiger was also manned by a fighting force of five men it weighed 57 tons its turret alone weighed in at 11 tons with 700 horsepower it was somewhat underpowered and only achieved a speed of 40 kilometers per hour on the road its range was a mere 100 kilometers its powerful 88 millimeter gun was able to penetrate 10 centimeter thick armor with ease from a range of 1000 meters the tiger's own armor was up to 11 centimeters thick like the majority of german tanks manufacturing the tiger was technically complex thus preventing the production of vast quantities as in the case of the soviet t-34 with its very thick armor and the outstandingly trained german crews the tiger was overwhelmingly superior to the soviet t-34 it was able to destroy these from a range of 2000 meters whereas the t-34 could only attack it from the side and only proved to be a real danger at a distance of 100 meters however the long and extensively protruding gun barrel significantly limited its ability to maneuver and fight in forests and cities and the tiger was unable to use its firepower in those situations but its task was a completely different one the tiger had been developed for other operational purposes from the very beginning namely as a breakthrough weapon at operational level it was a very powerful weapon the tiger was not intended for the tank regiments because it was much more complex to manufacture it took much longer to complete a tiger than a panzer iv or even a panther so it was arranged in individual so-called independent groups of 45 units which were then deployed at a higher level [Music] as its main weapon the tiger was fitted with the legendary 88 this was a modified version of the familiar 8.8 centimeter flak which had also proved successful as an anti-tank weapon the gun offered outstanding penetration performance and high firing accuracy together with the high precision target optics its first shot accuracy at a range of 1000 meters was around 93 percent [Music] from mid-1944 the tiger was followed by a vastly upgraded version the tiger ii the allies referentially christened this gigantic tank the king tiger the allies were forced to up the stakes in order to combat the new german tanks effectively a new sub-caliber high-velocity round was developed to break open the tiger because it was so fast it was able to penetrate thick armor broke apart so it was inert not an explosive charge but it had an extensive fragmentation effect and proved catastrophic in the crew compartment of course fragments hit the ammunition which then exploded or reacted or fuel was hit crew members were severely wounded because of the shrapnel and so forth so the effect was significant although germany had already long since lost the war adolf hitler continued to demand new increasingly powerful and above all larger weapons kumastov near berlin the search for clues in an extremely secret location artillery rounds were already being tested here at what was formerly the army testing site back in the days of the german empire for the third reich kumustov acted as a military research center and experimental site for all new weapons developments from mortars to rocket engines today the site is still a high security area unauthorized access is strictly prohibited because the former military facilities are in danger of collapsing and the ground is full of highly explosive leftover ammunition situated in the center of the forest lies an enormous stone skeleton known as the mouth shop built for the final assembly of the wehrmacht's largest tank a secretly developed 188-ton steel giant conceived by hitler's favorite engineer fedenant porsche dubbed the mouse this colossus was intended to stop the red army in its tracks on the rapidly crumbling eastern front the mouse had a six-man crew weighing four times as much as a panther it used a 1200 horsepower combustion engine to power two electric motors that was sufficient to achieve a speed of 20 kilometers per hour and a range of 186 kilometers fedenant porsche's development stood for high firepower and virtually impregnable armor it's this tank that symbolizes hitler's megalomania and gigantomania porsche's giant tank had a large box-shaped armored body with a rear-mounted turret the armor was 240 millimeters thick the super heavy combat vehicle was also armed like a warship its main weapon was a 128 millimeter gun one of its shells alone weighed 70 kilograms [Music] tactically it made no sense whatsoever there was certainly nobody in the military who required or approved such a thing it was technically interesting due to the independent drives for both sides and so forth but my assessment as a tank man nonsense but hitler was convinced by porsche's prototypes an initial vehicle was quickly built the tank was so heavy that it dug itself into the ground when any type of test drive was attempted an absurd project porsche very quickly built two test vehicles one with a combat turret and one with a substitute concrete turret for test drives in the fall of 1944 the two hyper tanks were relocated to the army testing site in kumastov workshops for the final production of the giants in the future were located in the immediate vicinity of the assembly shop it was a garage for the battle-ready giant tanks this is where the colossus was to await its transport to the front but in march 1945 the red army advanced on kumastov one of the two prototypes was destroyed by its crew while the second mouse was severely damaged as a result mouse one lost its combat turret the soviets eluded the remains of the two tanks and used them to reconstruct a functioning vehicle this war trophy was extensively tested by the russians in 1946 the mouse then headed off to moscow where to this day still remains in the kubinka tank museum on may 8 1945 germany surrendered unconditionally the war in europe was at an end more than 60 million people had died vast areas of the world had been reduced to rubble in 1945 it wasn't foreseeable that there would be a german army ever again the allies who had seized control over the german empire just thought that the strength of the german army in the state had constantly led to these wars that they'd experienced they thought that the german army was responsible for triggering the first world war in 1914 they believed that the german army had contributed extensively to the outbreak of the second world war and they assumed that were there to be a german army again that would almost certainly lead to a third world war and that's why the allies were convinced in 1945 that it would be better if there were no german army nevertheless a new german army was formed in 1955 the bundeswehr since the second world war had seamlessly transformed into a new war a cold war between the east and west nato and the warsaw pact countries were engaged in a standoff in a conventional war europe would have become the battlefield for two enormous tank armies with germany as the buffer in between back then i was a company commander before going on to become a battalion commander at the time all of our operational areas were set out top secret of course near to the border the enemy had attack sectors we were told about some of them thanks to intelligence information where you might have intended to break through in the hanover hildesheim region for example of course we also had a lot of barrier systems mine barriers were planned but the russians had their second strategic unit in poland and in ukraine this means that it would have advanced in a very short space of time within a few weeks it would have joined the others and would have given them two-fold or three-fold superiority over us the foundry at a machine factory in southern germany steel workers perform their strenuous work in the searing heat samples are taking time and again because the alloy has to be spot on when casting europe's heaviest and most expensive hardtop the new german tank course started from scratch initially outfitted with heavy u.s equipment its own main battle tank was soon developed and built the leopard the german armed forces most important requirement first and foremost it should be fast and highly mobile series production of the leopard began in 1965. the first vehicle was delivered to the german armed forces tank corps on september 9th the new main battle tank proved to be a success internationally as well from 1964 to 1984 4744 leopards were built the price at the time around 950 000 german marks its successor the leopard 2 was presented in september 1977. since then the german armed forces leopard has been known as leopard 1. viewed like this the 17 cycles of tank assembly appear simple what we didn't see were the many years of development and endurance tests from the arctic to tropical conditions the result is a tank that is also highly regarded by others [Music] the leopard one was a conventional turret tank with a four-man crew driven by an 830 horsepower engine from bends the tank was able to accelerate up to 65 kilometers per hour with one tank of fuel the leopard 1 had a range of around 560 kilometers its main weapon was the high-speed gun with a diameter of 105 millimeters [Music] the hull consisted of welded armored steel with 70 millimeter thick bow armor the armor on the sides is 35 millimeters thick on average by mounting a fording shaft and thanks to the submersion hydraulics bodies of water up to a maximum depth of four meters can be crossed then after a short period of preparation the tank is immediately ready to be deployed again on a private tank range retired colonel wolfgang schneider is driving one of the few leopard one tanks in private ownership as a historian wife guy schneider has extensive knowledge of main battle tanks he also commanded a tank battalion in the german army for more than 15 years he deployed with the leopard one and with it experienced the cold war first hand later on the colonel was then involved in testing its successor the leopard 2 and in enhancing the respective combat value of both weapon systems he knows the leopard 1 inside out yes of course you have to look at the vehicle's protective effect in relation to the times the leopard 1 was more than capable of withstanding the majority of threats but a vehicle's protection is always dependent on the threat and that's always a give-and-take this is why we have modernization steps evolutionary steps simply to withstand increased and greater threats so the protection effect race didn't end with the leopard one instead it was the next stage and that continued with the leopard 2 and it continued with modernizations and combat value enhancements it's never ending the leopard 2 that is deployed today isn't comparable to the vehicle supplied to the troops in 1980 both leopards are children of the cold war it was an age in which the east and west stood facing each other along the inner german border armed to the team and it was clear to both sides that in a conventional war the heavy main battle tanks would determine the outcome of the battle the history of tanks began over 100 years ago they changed the way wars waged forever in modern warfare they apply the principle of fire and movement to perfection to this day in these disciplines main battle tanks made in germany remain some of the most dangerous and effective weapons of war in the world [Music] so you

Channel: WELT Documentary

Views: 3,650,316

Rating: 4.7953463 out of 5

Keywords: full documentary, full documentaries, hd documentary, hd documentaries, free documentary, welt documentary, welt documentaries, full length documentaries, documentary film, top documentaries, reports, factual film, tank, tanks, german tanks, Technology, Development, History, Panther, panther tank, panther tank in action, Tiger, tiger tank, tiger tank in action, Ferdinand Porsche, german troops, bundeswehr, A7V, a7v tank, ww2, ww1, first world war, wwii, maus tank, combat vehicle

Id: nwvxVFb6Rzc

Length: 50min 43sec (3043 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 04 2020

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