The Maus - Nazi Germany's Biggest Tank

[Music] during World War two Nazi Germany was well known for its advanced armored vehicle design designed for tanks that just got bigger and bigger there was the panther of 44 ton medium tank and one of the finest vehicles of World War 2 then the tiger won a fifty four tonne monster that was effective though expensive and complex to make then came the tiger ii or king tiger the largest german tank to see action in world war ii the 68 ton behemoth that was virtually impregnable to Allied tank and anti-tank guns but let down by an inadequate power source and complex manufacture and finally the heaviest armoured vehicle yet to see combat the 71 ton YAG tiger tank destroyer but incredibly German designers went one step beyond these massive vehicles to produce a tank of such gargantuan proportions that it appeared an act of madness the panzerkampfwagen 8 or Maus weighing an astonishing 188 tons Germany only managed to build two of these vehicles before the war ended but what was the reasoning behind such a seemingly illogical design the Maus originated with dr. Porsche and Hitler a great exponent of bigger and more heavily armoured vehicles approved the design in June 1942 it was originally going to be called the mammoth but ended up with the innocuous name of Mouse on the 1st of May 1943 a wooden mock-up of the mouse was shown to Hitler he liked it the tracks were 1.1 meters wide and the vehicle was propelled by a v12 petrol engine Laser changed in the second prototype to a diesel the mouse was 10.2 meters or 33 feet six inches long 3.7 1 meters or 12 foot 2 inches wide and stood 3.6 3 meters or 11 foot 11 inches tall the crew of 6 operated inside thick armor the turret front was 220 millimetres or eight point seven inches thick the sides and rear 200 millimeters were seven point nine inches the hull front was the same thickness as the turret sides and the vulnerable rear end 105 50 millimetres of five point nine inches Hitler insisted that the mouse's main armament was the 128 millimetre kwk 44 gun with 68 rounds plus a 75 millimetre gun as a coaxial secondary armament so what use was such a behemoth on the battlefield it was intended that the Maus be a virtually indestructible breakthrough tank punching through the enemy's line to open a breech for more regular Panzer and Panzer grenadiers forces to exploit the problem was transporting such a tank and crossing bridges it was too heavy and would have to Ford rivers instead the first actual prototype v1 was a turret less test vehicle finished in December 1943 a mocked up turret the same weight as the real design was added then in June 1944 v1 received a test turret with a real gun and began firing tests v2 the second prototype was delivered in March 1944 he received a production turret and a diesel engine neither tank saw action despite rumours on the Internet in 1945 both mouse prototypes were the kummersdorf testing facility v2 was sent to moon's Dorf to protect the army High Command bunker complex from the rapidly approaching Red Army it was parked outside the Maybach one bunker and was blown up before the Soviets capulet v1 was also destroyed but was not as badly damaged as v2 Soviet engineers decided to assemble one complete tank from the two wrecked prototypes it was a difficult process due to the vehicle's extreme weight v2 s turret weighed 55 tons the same as a complete Tiger one in order to pull the turret clear of the wrecked hull they used six captured German 18-ton pharmo half-tracks mated successfully with V ones hull the complete Maus arrived in the Soviet Union for a variety of tests in May 1946 the Soviets didn't think the design had any practical uses and today the mouse is on display at the kubinka tank museum an enduring monument to how not to design and tanks thanks for watching please subscribe share and help support my channel at PayPal and patreon details in the description box below you

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 2,281,999

Rating: 4.9225984 out of 5

Keywords: Maus - Germany's Biggest Tank, Mark Felton Productions, Panther tank, Tiger I, King Tiger, Jagdtiger, Kummersdorf

Id: GaY8SLMoy-4

Length: 4min 53sec (293 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 20 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/twobit78]

Rude maus isn't the largest tank ever designed. That goes the to the Ratte

[u/manohtree]

And it never saw combat

[u/ElfMage83]

TIL that the Maus (the largest tank ever designed) had a turret that weighed 55 tons (more than a fully-loaded Tiger-1 tank).

FTFY :)

[u/Gabrieltane]

So... let's take a tank, and... stay with me here... stick it on a TANK.

[u/10_Eyes_8_Truths]

Reminds me of how a Yamato battleships turrets weighed more a destroyer.

[u/[deleted]]

Nazi Germany was an endless fount of insanity. While fighting the war they had critical shortages of all sorts of arms, so much so that they their later divisions were often equipped with little more than rifles and anti-tank rockets. And yet they poured and endless stream of resources into stuff like the Maus and V1 and V2 rocket programs.

[u/Virtualfidato]

This catches my attention

[u/screenwriterjohn]

Dictators build things like teenage boys.

Big can be a disadvantage.