Panzerkampfwagen VIII Maus
In service - - -
The heaviest armoured vehicle ever built and tested - too heavy for almost any bridge in Europe.
Built byPorsche, Alkett, Krupp
Photograph pending. No clearly licensed photograph of this vehicle was found.
Development history
The Maus was conceived as an unstoppable breakthrough tank: 188 tonnes, 240 mm of frontal armour, a 128 mm main gun with a 75 mm alongside, and a petrol-electric drive because no gearbox could handle the mass. Two hulls were built; one ran under its own power at Boblingen in 1944. Nothing about it was practical - it needed special rail cars, could ford rather than cross rivers, and consumed fuel Germany did not have. The surviving vehicle at Kubinka combines the hull of one prototype with the turret of the other. Included here as an experimental design, never a service tank.
Variants
One canonical record, 2 recorded variants.
V1 prototype
1943Hull with ballast turret, running trials at Boblingen
V2 prototype
1944Fitted with the 128 mm/75 mm turret