Book Alert: Kampfpanzer Maus

March 1, 2017 by 1 Comment

According to Amazon, a new book on the German Maus tank is available as of today.  Published by Schiffer Military History and authored by Michael Frohlich,Kampfpanzer Maus: The Porsche Type 205 Super-Heavy Tank examines the history of the bizarre and ill-considered German super-heavy tank. This is a 240 hardcover edition and is described as being a continuation of the Spielberger series on German tanks.

Publishers Description:

In 1944 the Maus giant battle tank, weighing almost 190 tons, was supposed to help turn the Wehrmacht’s fortunes of war on the Eastern Front. Just two prototypes of this monster were delivered, for its undeniable advantages―tremendous firepower and virtually impenetrable armor―were outweighed by the disadvantages of its slowness, excessive use of materials in construction, and fuel consumption so high that it was, by that time, far beyond the Germans’ ability to supply. With this volume, Michael Fröhlich continues the legendary Spielberger series and delves into one of the most curious military vehicles produced by Germany―the Maus super-heavy tank. For the first time, this book tells the complete story of this vehicle, including its inner workings, accompanied by many previously unpublished illustrations. But that is not all: the book includes another novelty, the complete operating instructions for the tank’s crew!

Kampfpanzer Maus: The Porsche Type 205 Super-Heavy Tank is available from Amazon here.

Filed Under: Book News, Modern Vehicle News, New Book Alerts Tagged With: , ,

Translated tank articles from Archive Awareness

April 20, 2016 by Leave a Comment

Here is a round up of articles from World of Tanks History Section and Yuri Pasholok translated into English by the Archive Awareness blog.  Click on the article title to view the full article.

 

StuG in the USSR

stug-1At the start of the Great Patriotic War, Soviet military intelligence and the GAU had a very approximate idea about the types and characteristics of German tanks. This deficiency led to an overestimation of the possibilities of German armour and the launch of the KV-3, 4, and 5 programs in March of 1941. Even information on real German tanks was sparse. Intelligence missed the increase of the front armour of PzIII and PzIV tanks to 50 mm and use of 50 mm guns. This lack of information had to be made up for in the most reliable way during the war: studying trophies. Among the vehicles that were glossed over by Soviet intelligence was the StuG assault gun.

 

World of Tanks History Section: Antitank Exotics

During WWI, no participating country quite figured out tanks. However, in the two post-war decades, military thinkers managed to develop many theories and tactics, but some doubt remained. Germany’s success in Poland and France finally confirmed their usefulness beyond all doubt. As the popularity of tanks increased, so did the interest in anti-tank measures: guns, rifles, grenades, or more exotic methods.

 

World of Tanks History Section: Tiger Armageddon at Lisow

lisow-1By noon of the first day of the Sandomierz-Silesian Offensive Operation, Soviet infantry penetrated the first line of German defenses and hit the second. Quickly realizing the situation, Marshall Konev, the commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front, played the ace up his sleeve: several hundred tanks and SPGs. Thanks to them, Soviet forces were ready to assault the second line by the second half of January 12th, 1945.

 

Mythical Tanks

German secret tank projects are a common topic for internet arguments, reshuffling of facts, or outright falsifications. Some of this is done as a joke, some out of ignorance, and some intentionally. Today, let’s seriously try to discover which of these phantom German creations are real and which are not.

Waffentrager auf E-100

The most frequently discussed and unusual vehicle in the German World of Tanks tech tree. This vehicle is completely made up by Wargaming. Initially, it was supposed to have dual 128 mm guns, but due to a lack of multiple gun support, it received an AA gun with an autoloader. Soon it will be replaced with a much more realistic project found in the archives. The reason for this replacement is primarily that it’s too different from other vehicles in the tank destroyer branch.

 

Mauschen: Rat Race

mauschen-7The history of the Pz.Kpfw. Maus is still full of blank spots, despite the popularity of the subject. The beginning of the tank’s development from March of 1942 to 1943 is the least studied area. During this time, the project indexed Typ 205 radically changed. Essentially, the only constants were the index and the idea of using an electric transmission. Thanks to new publications and archive research, it is now possible to remove the veil of mystery from many parts of the project.
100 Ton Mouse

After the fall of France in 1940, German designers got access to French developments, including full scale models of superheavy tanks, the FCM F1 and ARL Tracteur C. Compared to these tanks, the German VK 65.01 (Pz.Kpfw. VII) that started development in January of 1939 seemed obsolete. It’s possible that this discovery led to the cancellation of the mild steel prototype.

Filed Under: Historical Vehicle News Tagged With: , , , ,

German Superheavy Paper Tank Destroyers

December 13, 2015 by Leave a Comment

jagdpanzere100s1-cd4370df9b9b6b0a81069a495202b39cThe Archive Awareness blog has posted an English language translation of an article by Russian tank researcher Yuri Pasholok on the subject of WW2 German “paper” superheavy tank destroyers.  In this piece he takes aim as some of the fantasy tanks and tank destroyers that have circulated in magazines and around the net such at the E-100 “Krokodil.”

Excerpt:

Fantasies regarding WWII era armour in the areas of technical capabilities and application in combat, both of tanks that existed and those that never made it off paper (or were never even planned at all), are very widespread. An popular category of these fantasies concerns tank destroyers on the chassis of German superheavy tanks. Do any of them actually have a basis in reality?

The Atlantis of German tank design: E-100 Krokodil

The E-100 and Maus superheavy tanks are some of the most worshipped idols among German armour. The fact that the development of both was stopped by a personal order from Hitler in July of 1944 does not stop many from believing that both monsters could make it to mass production. In reality, the fate of the Maus was sealed when the Allies bombed Krupp’s factories and there was nowhere left to produce the tank. The E-100 was never fully assembled and never moved under its own power, nor was a contractor determined for its production.

Tank destroyers on the chassis of the E-100 and Maus tanks are another topic. Information on these vehicles is quite incomplete which gives fertile soil to wild fantasies. One of the most hyped up examples at present is the imaginary E-100 Krokodil.

The entire article can be read at the Archive Awareness blog.  For the original Russian language version, click here.   The Russian version includes images not found in the Archive Awareness translation.

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