K-Wagen (Grosskampfwagen)
In service - - -
Never finished: a 120-tonne breakthrough machine designed to be shipped to the front in sections.
Built byRiebe Kugellager-Werke, Berlin
Development history
The Grosskampfwagen was Germany's answer to the Allied tank surplus - a land fortress with a crew of twenty-two, four field guns and two aero engines, meant to be dismantled for rail transport and assembled near the front. Two hulls were under construction at Riebe in Berlin when the Armistice came; both were scrapped under Allied supervision, one reportedly almost complete. It remains the largest tank ever actually laid down, and a study in how far 1918 thinking pushed the breakthrough concept before speed replaced mass.