Krupp Landkreuzer P. Monster - Super- Heavy Self- Propelled Gun - History, Specs and Pictures. Staff Writer (Updated: 1.
With Germany fully committed to total war in Europe and Africa and seemingly holding all of the advantage heading into 1. Hitler). One such creation was to become the Landkreuzer P. While its sister project - the Landkreuzer P. It would certainly come in handy when attempting to dislodge stubborn Soviet forces entrenched within the vast Soviet Empire en route to Moscow. Both projects were approved for development to fulfill a 1.
German Ministry of Armaments requirement. Like the P. 1. 00. P. 1. 50. 0 would come to nothing by war's end - canceled by then- Minister of Armaments Albert Speer as soon as 1. Had it been completed, the P. European countryside while also consuming much needed war material and manpower (operation of the vehicle would have required approximately 1.
At its core, the Landkreuzer P. K(E) main gun to be used primarily in countering fortified enemy positions. The primary armament was to be situated within a fixed superstructure which would have to be of considerable size and strength to carry the gun. The recoil equipment would be integral to the gun and its mounting hardware though have considerable tolerances for the forces at play. The powerful nature of the 8.
DISASTER DURING 'OPERATION TIGER' (April 23-30, 1944). He became the first man ever to take off vertically from the ground under rocket.
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Imperial German Army's . Additionally, engineers considered a pair of 1. FH 1. 8. 1 L/3. 0 field guns for shorter- range assailing to go alongside the 8. The platform - should it come under direct attack from the air - was to be defensed by a network of 1. MG1. 51/1. 5 series autocannons mounted about the giant structure. Armor protection was to reach 2. Of course one of the greatest challenges facing engineers of the project was to be the power required to propel the 4.
It costed huge amounts of resources and man hours to build this 56 ton monster. 1944 at a rate of 104 per month. It took 300,000 man hours to build one Tiger. T34/85 Russian Tank Model 1944. This monster kit contains 845 parts. This was enough to defeat a Panther or Tiger at closer range. The Lady and the Monster (1944) - movie reviews, DVD editions, trailers, movie photos, ratings, plot, synopsis, production notes and other info about this movie. The Tiger Woman (1944 film) The Tiger Woman; Directed by: Spencer Bennet.
This led to the prospect of having 4 x MAN M9v 4. German U- boat submarine classes. Each engine was rated with an output of 2,2. Operational ranges, though never formally estimated, was sure to be very limited and cross- country travel impossible. Considering the nature of European roads of the time and its narrow bridges, the Monster would have had a tough go of it when on the march.
Rail- based travel was a possible alternative but engineers were driven by a more flexible, self- propelled solution - particularly as greater strides were being made with ever larger tank developments of the war that included the fabled . The expected powerplant arrangement might have not supplied the required propulsion to move such a large and heavy weapon within acceptable time frames and its large battlefield profile would have made it near- impossible to conceal from the air - let alone defend it from concentrated air attack. Logistically, the P. Its large crew would have required support from a collection of vehicles to provide ammunition and general supplies which added to its operational oil, fuel, and munitions usage as well as requiring the services of specially- trained personnel to commit to a myriad of jobs while on the platform.
As such, all development on the P. The P. 1. 50. 0 joined the P. Other German super programs managed a more extended course - such as the super- heavy Panzerkampfwagen VIII . Indeed it was manufactured in two examples (though one only partially) during 1. These pilot vehicles made her the largest enclosed armored combat vehicle ever produced in military history - one of the prototypes eventually falling to the invading Soviets in their advance on Germany.
Tiger I - Wikipedia. Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf.
ETiger I in northern France, March 1. Type. Heavy tank.
Place of origin. Nazi Germany. Service history. In service. Its final designation was Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger Ausf. E often shortened to Tiger. The Tiger I gave the Wehrmacht its first armoured fighting vehicle that mounted the Kw. K 3. 6 8. 8- mm gun (not to be confused with the 8. Flak 3. 6). Only 1,3.
August 1. 94. 2 and August 1. The Tiger was prone to certain types of track failures and breakdowns, and was limited in range by its high fuel consumption. It was expensive to maintain, but generally mechanically reliable. This was a problem on the Eastern Front in the muddy rasputitsa season and during extreme periods of cold. The tank was given its nickname . The initial designation was Panzerkampfwagen VI Ausf. H) where 'H' denoted Henschel as the designer/manufacturer.
It was classed with ordnance inventory designation. Sd. Kfz 1. 82. The tank was later redesignated as Pz. Kpfw VI Ausf. E in March 1. Sd. Kfz 1. 81. Today, only a handful of Tigers survive in museums and exhibitions worldwide. The Bovington Tank Museum's Tiger 1. Design history. The Durchbruchwagen I's general shape and suspension resembled the Panzer III while the turret resembled the early Panzer IV C turret with the short- barrelled 7. L/2. 4 cannon. Before Durchbruchwagen I was completed, a request was issued for a heavier 3.
Durchbruchwagen II, which would have had 5. Panzer IV turret with a short- barrelled 7. L/2. 4 gun. Overall weight would have been 3. Only one hull was built and no turret was fitted. Further development of the Durchbruchwagen was dropped in 1. VK 3. 0. 0. 1 (H) and VK 3.
H) designs. This concept was already common on German half- tracks such as the Sd. Kfz 7. The VK 3. 0. H) was intended to mount a low- velocity 7. L/2. 4 infantry support gun, a 7. L/4. 0 dual purpose antitank gun, or a 1. L/2. 8 field gun in a Krupp turret.
Overall weight was to be 3. The armour was designed to be 5. Four prototype hulls were completed for testing. Two of these were later modified to build the . The VK 3. 6. 0. 1 (H) was intended to carry a 7.
L/2. 4, or a 7. 5 cm L/4. L/7. 0, or a 1. 2. L/2. 8 cannon in a Krupp turret that looked similar to an enlarged Panzer IVC turret. The hull for one prototype was built, followed later by five more. The six turrets built were never fitted and were used as part of the Atlantic Wall. The VK 3. 6. 0. 1 (H) project was discontinued in early 1. VK 4. 5. 0. 1 project.
Further improvements. Porsche worked on an updated version of their VK 3. P) Leopard tank prototype while Henschel worked on an improved VK 3. H) tank. Henschel built two prototypes: a VK 4. H) H1 with an 8. 8 mm L/5. VK 4. 5. 0. 1 (H) H2 with a 7.
L/7. 0 cannon. Final designs. The Germans were shocked to encounter Soviet T- 3. KV- 1 heavy tanks, and, according to Henschel designer Erwin Aders: . Panzer IIIs with the 5 cm Kw. K 3. 8 L/4. 2 main armament could penetrate the sides of a T- 3.
The KV- 1 was immune to all but the 8. Flak gun. An immediate weight increase to 4. The due date for the new prototypes was set for 2. April 1. 94. 2, Adolf Hitler's 5.
Unlike the Panther tank, the designs did not incorporate sloping armour, an innovation taken from the T- 3. Porsche and Henschel submitted prototype designs, each making use of the Krupp- designed turret.
They were demonstrated at Rastenburg in front of Hitler. The Henschel design was accepted, mainly because the Porsche VK 4.
P) prototype design used a troubled gasoline- electric hybrid power unit which needed large quantities of copper for manufacture of its electrical drivetrain components, a strategic war material of which Germany had limited supplies with acceptable electrical properties for such uses. Production of the Panzerkampfwagen VI Ausf. H began in August 1. Expecting an order for his tank, Porsche built 1. After the contract was awarded to Henschel, they were used for a new turretless, casemate- style tank destroyer; 9.
Panzerj. A redesigned turret with a lower cupola was the most significant change. To cut costs, the submersion capability and an external air- filtration system were dropped. The Tiger differed from earlier German tanks principally in its design philosophy. Its predecessors balanced mobility, armour and firepower, and were sometimes outgunned by their opponents. While heavy, this tank was not slower than the best of its opponents. However, at over 5.
This was due to its substantially thicker armour, the larger main gun, greater volume of fuel and ammunition storage, larger engine, and more solidly built transmission and suspension. The Tiger I had frontal hull armour 1. The top and bottom armour was 2. March 1. 94. 4, the turret roof was thickened to 4. Armour plates were mostly flat, with interlocking construction. The armour joints were of high quality, being stepped and welded rather than riveted and were made of maraging steel. The thick armour made the Tiger impervious to frontal fire from tanks like the 7.
M4 Sherman, 7. 6. T- 3. 4 and 7. 5mm armed Cromwell tank, but vulnerable to the 7. Shermans, the 8. 5mm of the T- 3.
British Ordnance QF 1. A combination of a flat trajectory from the high muzzle velocity and precision Leitz Turmzielfernrohr TZF 9b sight (later replaced by the monocular TZF 9c) made it very accurate. In British wartime firing trials, five successive hits were scored on a 4. Compared to the other contemporary German tank guns, the 7.
Kw. K 4. 0 on the Sturmgesch. Four types of ammunition were available but not all were fully available; the Pz. Gr 4. 0 shell used tungsten which was in short supply as the war progressed. Engine and drive. The Germans had not developed an adequate diesel engine, so a petrol (gasoline) powerplant had to be used instead. The original engine utilised was a 2.
Maybach HL 2. 10 P4. W (6. 50 hp) at 3,0.
Although a good engine, it was underpowered for the vehicle. From the 2. 51st Tiger onwards, it was replaced by the upgraded HL 2. P4. 5, a 2. 3. 0.
W (7. 00 hp) at 3,0. The main difference between these engines was that the original Maybach HL 2. Maybach HL 2. 30 used a cast- iron engine block. The cast- iron block allowed for larger cylinders (and thus, greater displacement) which increased the power output to 5. W (7. 00 hp). The engine was in V- form, with two cylinder banks set at 6. An inertia starter was mounted on its right side, driven via chain gears through a port in the rear wall. The engine could be lifted out through a hatch on the rear hull roof.
The engine drove front sprockets, which were mounted quite low. The Krupp- designed 1. A full rotation took about a minute. Another new feature was the Maybach- Olvar hydraulically controlled semi- automatic pre- selector gearbox. The extreme weight of the tank also required a new steering system.
The clutch- and- brake system, typical for lighter vehicles, was retained only for emergencies. Normally, steering depended on a double differential, Henschel's development of the British Merritt- Brown system first encountered in the Churchill tank. The vehicle had an eight- speed gearbox, and the steering offered two fixed radii of turns on each gear, thus the Tiger had sixteen different radii of turn. In first gear, at a speed of a few km/h, the minimal turning radius was 3.
In neutral gear, the tracks could be turned in opposite directions, so the Tiger I pivoted in place. There was a steering wheel instead of either a tiller . To save space, the swing arms were leading on one side and trailing on the other. There were three road wheels (one of them double, closest to the track's centre) on each arm, in a so- called Schachtellaufwerk overlapping and interleaved arrangement, similar to that pioneered on German half- tracked military vehicles of the pre- World War II era, with the Tiger I being the first all- tracked German AFV built in quantity to use such a road wheel arrangement.
The wheels had a diameter of 8. Schachtellaufwerk arrangement for the Tiger I's suspension, providing a high uniform distribution of the load onto the track, at the cost of increased maintenance. Removing an inner wheel that had lost its solid rubber tire (a common occurrence) required the removal of up to nine other wheels first. During the rainy period that brought on the autumn rasputitsa mud season and onwards into the winter conditions on the Eastern front, the roadwheels of a Schachtellaufwerk- equipped vehicle could also become packed with mud or snow that could then freeze.
Presumably, German engineers, based on the experience of the half tracks, felt that the improvement in off road performance, track and wheel life, mobility with wheels missing or damaged, plus additional protection from enemy fire was worth the maintenance difficulties of a complex system vulnerable to mud and ice. This approach was carried on, in various forms, to the Panther and the non- interleaved wheel design for the Tiger II. Eventually, a new 8. Tiger II, with an internally sprung steel- rim tire was substituted, and which like the Tiger II, were only overlapped and not interleaved. The outer road wheels have been removed and narrow tracks put in place to decrease vehicle width, allowing it to fit within the loading gauge of the German rail network. To support the considerable weight of the Tiger, the tracks were 7. To meet rail- freight size restrictions, the outermost roadwheel on each axle (1.
Verladeketten) installed. The track replacement and wheel removal took 3. This required unusual mechanisms for ventilation and cooling when underwater. At least 3. 0 minutes of set- up time was required, with the turret and gun being locked in the forward position, and a large snorkel tube raised at the rear.
An inflatable doughnut- shaped ring sealed the turret ring. The two rear compartments (each containing a fuel tank, radiator and fans) were floodable. Only the first 4. Crew compartment.
Forward was an open crew compartment, with the driver and radio- operator seated at the front on either side of the gearbox.