The heaviest and biggest tanks in history

Before we start the list of the heaviest tanks ever created, let’s ha ve a look at some present tanks. The Leopard 2 is a German main battle tank built by the German company Krauss-Maffei-Wegmann, developed in the early 1970s and first entering service in 1979, replacing the earlier Leopard 1 as the foremost MBT in the Bundeswehr. Its weight is 62.3 tonnes. The M1 Abrams is a military tank produced in the United States. The M1 is named after General Creighton Abrams, former Army Chief of Staff and commander of the 37th Armored Regiment. Weight 61.4 tonnes. Ok, now you now how to compare following gigants.

Obyekt 279 (60 tonnes)

Obyekt 279 (Russian: Объект 279) was a Soviet prototype heavy tank developed in the Kirov industrial plant, Leningrad by a group headed by the engineer L Troyanov in 1957. The special-purpose tank was intended to fight on cross-country terrain that was unaccessible to conventional tanks and act as a vehicle to break through enemy defensive positions. It was planned as a tank of the Supreme Command Reserve.

The tank was fitted with a 130 mm rifled M-65 (firing APDS rounds with a muzzle velocity of 1000 m/s), and a co-axial 14.5 mm KPVT heavy machine gun, stabilized in two planes by a “Groza” stabilizer. The gun was provided with a semi-automatic loading system. Firing control system comprised optical/radar rangefinder, auto-guidance system and L2 night-sight with IR searchlight. The tank suspension was hydro-pneumatic with complex hydrotransformer and three-speed planetary gearbox. The track adjuster was worm-type.

Source: wikipedia, internet

T-28 Super Heavy Tank (95 tonnes)

The T28 (later called 105 mm Gun Motor Carriage T95) was a prototype heavily armoured tank destroyer, designed for the US Military during World War II. It was originally designed to be used to break through German defenses at the Siegfried Line, and was later considered as a possible participant in an invasion of the Japanese mainland.

Its main armament was a 105 mm T5E1 gun in a ball-shaped mantlet, set into the front of the hull. It also had a fifty-caliber machine gun above the commander’s hatch. Although sometimes referred to as a Super-heavy tank the T28 was, in reality, a very heavy tank destroyer, and was re-designated as the 105 mm Gun Motor Carriage T95 in 1945. In 1946 it was renamed again, to T28. The original plan was for five prototype vehicles with a production total of 25. However only two were ordered and neither saw combat. One was heavily damaged by an engine fire during trials and was scrapped. The remaining prototype was discovered abandoned in a back field at Fort Belvoir. It is the only remaining example of these tanks and can be viewed at the Patton Museum of Cavalry and Armor in Kentucky.

Text: wikipedia, Pictures: [1]

Flying Elephant (100 tonnes)

The Flying Elephant was a proposed super-heavy tank, planned but never built by the British during World War I. The drawings have partially survived, and show a vehicle 8.36 metres long and about three metres tall and wide, not that much larger overall than the Mark I; the huge increase in weight came from the enormously thick (for the time) armour (three inches at the front, two inches on the sides). The hull roof consisted of a horizontal half-cylinder, apparently also with a uniform armour-thickness of two inches. The front was a vertical half-cylinder, the transition between the two being a half-dome.

Source: wikipedia

Experimental O-I Super HeavyTank (120 tonnes)

O-I was the name given to a proposed series of Japanese super-heavy tanks, to be used in the Pacific Theater. The vehicle was monstrous, carrying 11 crew in its 120-ton body, but only one model was rumored to have been built in 1944 and afterward sent to Manchuria. Exact information is lacking however, and it is unknown whether it ever saw combat. Whereas the original plans called for three turrets for the one large cannon and two smaller guns, a more advanced experimental prototype, the Ultra-Heavy Tank OI featured no less than four turrets. It is unlikely that the Ultra-Heavy was ever actually built.

The O-I had three-turrets and weighed 120 tons. Its dimensions were 10 meters by 4.2 meters by 4 meters high. The armor was 200mm (MAX). The tank had a top speed of 25km/hr. This version a two gasoline engines developing 550 PS/1500 rpm. The O-I had 1 x 105mm Cannon, 1 x Type 1 37mm (in a forward mounted sub turret), and 3 x Type 97 7.7mm (one mounted in a forward sub turret) where as the Experimental version also mounted a Type 1 37mm in a rear facing sub turret. It has been reported the one copy of the O-I was manufactured before the end of the war and was shipped to Manchuria according to a engineer concerned with the project. Crew: 11. No known photo exists.

FCM F1 (139 tonnes)

The FCM F1 was a super-heavy tank developed in France by the Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée company. Twelve were ordered in 1940 to replace the Char 2C, but France was defeated before construction could begin. It was large, and had two turrets with one in front and one in the back. The rear turret was higher so it could shoot over the first one, and the wooden mock-up had a one gun in each turret. The development path of the FCM F1 was extremely complex.

Source: wikipedia

Panzer VIII Maus (188 tonnes)

The Panzerkampfwagen VIII Maus (Sd.Kfz 205) was a German super-heavy tank design, and the heaviest tank to reach the complete working prototype stage in World War II. The basic design known as the VK7001/Porsche Type 205 was suggested by Ferdinand Porsche to Adolf Hitler in June of 1942, who subsequently approved it. The design up to then had been the culmination of work done by Porsche who had won the contract for the heavy tank that March. Work on the design began in earnest; the first prototype, to be ready in 1943 was initially to receive the name Mammut (Ger. “Mammoth”). This was reportedly changed to Mäuschen (Little Mouse) in December of 1942 and finally Maus (Mouse) in February of 1943.

The tank’s hull was 10.1 metres long, 3.67 metres wide and 3.66 metres tall. Weighing about 180 tonnes (or about 188 short tons), the Maus’s main armament was a 128 mm cannon with a coaxial 75 mm gun and steel armour ranging from 60-240 mm. A total of nine were in various stages of completion when the war ended with two completed. The Maus would have had a crew of either 5 or 6 and a total production of between 150 and 200 was planned for one version of it.

The principal problem in development of the Maus was finding a powerful enough engine for its weight that could be carried in the tank. Though the design called for a maximum speed of 20 km/h, no engine was found that could power the prototype to more than 13 km/h under ideal conditions. The weight also made it impossible to cross most bridges. It could ford due to its size or submerge and use a snorkel.

The Maus was designed from the start to use the “electric transmission” idea Ferdinand Porsche had used in his attempt to win the production contract for the Tiger I tank that Henschel & Sohn of Kassel won, which ended up with 90 “Porsche Tiger” hulls remaining unused, and were used instead to serve as the hull of the Elefant tank destroyer. The gasoline engine (the later prototypes were to use a diesel engine instead) in the Maus prototypes, that drove the massive electrical generator, together occupied the entire rear two-thirds of the Maus’ hull, cutting off the forward driver’s compartment in the hull from any sort of direct access to the turret from within the tank. Each metre-wide track had its own electric motor mounted in the rear of the hull; the tracks had no direct “mechanical” connection to the internal combustion engine that powered the Maus.

The amount of armour was substantial, the front lower hull (glacis plate) was about 200 mm (8 in) thick, sloped at 35 degrees to the vertical. The sides of the hull were 180 mm (7 in) and the rear 160 mm (6.3 in). The turret was 240 mm (9.5 in) to the front and 200 mm to the sides with a roof of 60 mm (2.3 in).

As a result of its low power and huge bulk the Maus was relatively slow moving and logistically demanding, but could potentially have been a formidable weapon in certain defensive positions where extensive movement was not required, and where its massive weight would serve to its advantage by making it a stable gun platform. In an assault, it would have been less useful but it had the benefit of a turret where a vehicle like the 128 mm armed Jagdtiger tank destroyer did not. It could be considered similar to British infantry tanks which sacrificed speed (but not necessarily cross-country ability) for armor protection. This was not a major hindrance because by the time it was built, the German army had almost entirely abandoned Blitzkrieg tactics.

Source: wikipedia

Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte (1000 tonnes)

The Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte (Rat) was to have been an extremely large tank for use by Nazi Germany during World War II. It was designed in 1942 by Krupp with the approval of Adolf Hitler, but the project was canceled by Albert Speer in early 1943 and none were ever completed. At 1000 metric tons, the P-1000 would have been over five times heavier than the Panzer VIII Maus, the largest tank ever actually built.

Its primary weapons would have been two 280 mm guns mounted in the same type of gun turret used in Gneisenau class warships. One such turret was supposedly built before the project was canceled, although documentation of its whereabouts is missing. Other guns would have included a single 128 mm gun, eight 20 mm Flak 38 anti-aircraft guns and two 15 mm Mauser MG 151/15 guns.

It would have been equipped with six 1.2 metre tracks with three tracks per side. Its power would have come from two MAN V12Z32/44 24 cylinder Diesel marine engines with 8500 hp each or eight Daimler-Benz MB501 20 cylinder Diesel marine engines with 2000 hp each to achieve the 16000 hp needed to move this tank.

Source: wikipedia, internet forums | Article about Ratte

Landkreuzer P. 1500 Monster (1500 tonnes)

The Landkreuzer P 1500 Monster was a German pre-prototype super-heavy tank designed during World War II — representing the apex of the Nazis’ extreme tank designs. On 23 June 1942 the German Ministry of Armaments proposed a 1,000 tonne tank — the Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte. Adolf Hitler himself expressed interest in the project and go-ahead was granted. In December the same year, Krupp designed an even larger 1,500 tonne tank — the P 1500 Monster. In early 1943, Albert Speer, the Minister for Armaments, cancelled the project. This “land cruiser” was planned as a self-propelled platform for the 80-cm K (E) guns also made by Krupp — the largest artillery weapons ever built. Their 7 tonne projectiles could be fired up to 37 km (23 miles) and were designed for use against heavily fortified targets.

The P 1500 would have dwarfed even the largest super-heavy tanks in development at the time — such as the German Panzer VIII Maus, the biggest built during the war. The Maus weighed 188 tonnes against the P 1500’s proposed 1,500 tonnes. For comparison, the German heavy tank Tiger I weighed 57 tonnes.

The P 1500 was to have 250 mm frontal armour and be propelled by two or four diesel submarine engines. In addition to its main 80 cm gun, it would have been armed with two 15 cm sFH 18 heavy howitzers and multiple MG 151 autocannon.

Development of the Maus had highlighted significant practical problems associated with very large tanks — such as their destruction of roads, their inability to use bridges and the difficulty of strategic transportation by road or rail. The larger the tank, the bigger these problems became — to the point where they were insurmountable.

Propulsion had also proved problematic in the development of the Maus — the prototype had failed to meet its specified speed requirements which meant that even larger tanks such as the P 1500 were likely to be slow-moving and thus vulnerable to air attack.

Source: wikipedia, description and picture