The German tanks were also built by teams, not by assembly line. It was distilled kraut arrogance that they thought artisan tank manufacturing could keep up with the war they were waging.
It's insane to think that the Nazis awarded contracts to Ferdinand Porsche, they designed zero good tanks during the war, zero.
The Porsche Tiger (Also known as VK 45.01) was an absolute disaster, the tank itself was incredibly complicated to build; it used an expensive petrol-electric drive, which was "innovative" for a tank of it's time but totally not suitable for use in a combat vehicle particularly because it required a lot of maintenance and drank fuel like a motherfucker, it broke down a lot as well. For some reason, Porsche was so insanely proud of his tank that he ordered a batch of them to be produced BEFORE the actual contract was given to either him or his competitor, Henschel. At the end, Henschel got awarded the contract of the Tiger tank we're all familiar with, Porsche produced only one full "Tiger (P)" which served as a command vehicle and was lost in mid 1944 and the remaining chassis were converted into assault guns/tank destroyers, the "Ferdinand". And oh boy, was that an absolute disaster as well. These tanks saw action in Kursk, good high performance 88mm gun capable of dealing with any Soviet armor of that time and the frontal armor of 200mm was thick enough to protect it from most weapons, but it was unreliable as fuck, some of these vehicles even caught fire when they were trying to go uphill, it was that bad. It was provided with no machinegun for close defense so the Soviet infantry rolled up on them and blew them up as they wanted, with the crew firing with their personal weapons from the cannon itself. The remaining tanks (some of which were lost and couldn't be recovered because it was insanely heavy) were sent back to Germany, fitted with extra armor (The tank was already overweight and the suspension was under extreme pressure), a mechinegun, renamed and sent to... Italy, you know, hills, bad terrain for tanks.. it was common to see these tanks ditched on the side of the roads before they could even see action.
Then Porsche designed the Maus, because you know, a tank of 190 tons with insane maintenance costs was the future! Somehow he got awarded the contract, beating Henschel's E-100 design, and produced two vehicles, one of which was never completed. The tank was so stupidly heavy it couldn't cross most bridges found in Europe at that time, so technically any natural barrier would pose a significant threat to the vehicle. It was the only tank whose serial production was halted by the Allied Bombings. At the end of the war it is said that one Maus fought the Soviets at Kummersdorf, near Berlin in April 1945, but this claim is heavily disputed. It is known that both prototypes drove to their destination, V1 didn't have a turret and V2 was fully armed. If it ever engaged the Soviets, it is unknown, what is known is that V2 was blown up by the Germans to avoid capture and V1 was not so extensively damaged. After the war, the Soviets combined the hull of the V1 with the turret of the V2 and shipped it to the USSR, conducted several tests on it and decided it was completely useless, now it's on display at the Kubinka Tank Museum as some sort of cool war prize (A place I want to visit like right now). Also the Germans painted a hammer and sickle on the Maus while conducting testing, they wanted to "fool" the Allied Intelligence by making them believe this was actually a captured Soviet tank... lmao.
The German tanks were also built by teams, not by assembly line. It was distilled kraut arrogance that they thought artisan tank manufacturing could keep up with the war they were waging.
It's insane to think that the Nazis awarded contracts to Ferdinand Porsche, they designed zero good tanks during the war, zero.
The Porsche Tiger (Also known as VK 45.01) was an absolute disaster, the tank itself was incredibly complicated to build; it used an expensive petrol-electric drive, which was "innovative" for a tank of it's time but totally not suitable for use in a combat vehicle particularly because it required a lot of maintenance and drank fuel like a motherfucker, it broke down a lot as well. For some reason, Porsche was so insanely proud of his tank that he ordered a batch of them to be produced BEFORE the actual contract was given to either him or his competitor, Henschel. At the end, Henschel got awarded the contract of the Tiger tank we're all familiar with, Porsche produced only one full "Tiger (P)" which served as a command vehicle and was lost in mid 1944 and the remaining chassis were converted into assault guns/tank destroyers, the "Ferdinand". And oh boy, was that an absolute disaster as well. These tanks saw action in Kursk, good high performance 88mm gun capable of dealing with any Soviet armor of that time and the frontal armor of 200mm was thick enough to protect it from most weapons, but it was unreliable as fuck, some of these vehicles even caught fire when they were trying to go uphill, it was that bad. It was provided with no machinegun for close defense so the Soviet infantry rolled up on them and blew them up as they wanted, with the crew firing with their personal weapons from the cannon itself. The remaining tanks (some of which were lost and couldn't be recovered because it was insanely heavy) were sent back to Germany, fitted with extra armor (The tank was already overweight and the suspension was under extreme pressure), a mechinegun, renamed and sent to... Italy, you know, hills, bad terrain for tanks.. it was common to see these tanks ditched on the side of the roads before they could even see action.
Then Porsche designed the Maus, because you know, a tank of 190 tons with insane maintenance costs was the future! Somehow he got awarded the contract, beating Henschel's E-100 design, and produced two vehicles, one of which was never completed. The tank was so stupidly heavy it couldn't cross most bridges found in Europe at that time, so technically any natural barrier would pose a significant threat to the vehicle. It was the only tank whose serial production was halted by the Allied Bombings. At the end of the war it is said that one Maus fought the Soviets at Kummersdorf, near Berlin in April 1945, but this claim is heavily disputed. It is known that both prototypes drove to their destination, V1 didn't have a turret and V2 was fully armed. If it ever engaged the Soviets, it is unknown, what is known is that V2 was blown up by the Germans to avoid capture and V1 was not so extensively damaged. After the war, the Soviets combined the hull of the V1 with the turret of the V2 and shipped it to the USSR, conducted several tests on it and decided it was completely useless, now it's on display at the Kubinka Tank Museum as some sort of cool war prize (A place I want to visit like right now). Also the Germans painted a hammer and sickle on the Maus while conducting testing, they wanted to "fool" the Allied Intelligence by making them believe this was actually a captured Soviet tank... lmao.
Porsche should probably stick to race cars tbh.
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Love a good tank history post. Thankyou, comrade.