Jagdtiger -hunter of the plains

The Jagdtiger-or as the Germans so easily called it "Panzerjäger Tiger Ausf. B" was a tank destroyer that was based on a lengthened King Tiger chassis. It was the heaviest armoured vehicle used in combat in WW2. It had a MASSIVE 128mm gun that could flatten any allied vehicle from a distance of over 3500 metres!  The Jagdtiger was only produced in small numbers-around 80 was built, and many of them was destroyed by one crew due to mechanical failure or loss of fuel supplies.

Due to its enormeous weight, it ha problems with gear, engine and of course-just simply driving forward on most terrain types...

Only two heavy antitank battalions (schwere Panzerjäger-Abteilung), numbered 512 and 653 were equipped with Jagdtigers, with the first vehicles reaching the units in September 1944. One Jagdtiger was even destroyed by the handheld Panzerfaust by own Volkssturm (Volkssturm was at the end of the war often involved in battles they werent ready for) , as the Volkssturm have never seen a Jagdtiger before...

The Jagdtiger never saw much of the action it was bulit for- tankbattles where it could take out enemy tanks from a distance, but at one occasion it proved that at least the gun worked properly- During April 1945, s.Pz.Jäg.Abt.512 saw a great deal of action, especially on 9 April, where the 1st company engaged an Allied column of Sherman tanks and trucks from dug-down positions, and took out 11 tanks and over 30 soft-skins,  some of the enemy tanks having been knocked out from a distance of more than 4,000 m. The combat unit only lost one Jagdtiger in this incident as Allied ground attack P-47appeared

 Numbers:
Weight: 72 tons
Length: 10.65 metres including gun
Width: 3.6  metres
Height: 2.8 metres
Armour: up to 250 mm of steel....
Armament: 128 mm PaK
Speed: 34 km/h (road)

Surviving units:
There are 3 Jagdtigers in museums today- these ale located at the museums in England (Bovington Tank Museum), USA (National Armor and Cavalry Museum) and Russia (Kubinka Tank Museum)




That jeep looks like a toy doesnt it...

Massive gun...

Jagdtiger captured by the americans

Another spoil of war (Sorry for  the swastika...)

Jagdtiger today at Bovington Museum 

Landkreuzer 1000 Ratte - Were gonna need a bigger tank... photos video info

The Landkreuzer 1000 "Ratte" (Rat) was another one of Hitlers "I get madder-tanks get bigger" strategy as an answer to the heavy russian tanks the germans encountered on the eastern front. We have already seen how this led to the quite succesfull(at least performance wise) Tiger and the absurdly Maus but the madness didnt stop there, at least not on the drawing board. In 1942 Krupp (yes-they did make money of everything that needed steel!) suggested an even bigger tank. Or lets be honest-this is a warship on land!

Numbers:
Weight: 1000 tons
Length: 35 metres
Width: 14 metres
Height: 11 metres
Armour: up to 250mm of steel....
Armament: 2*280mm canons (yes-the same as the triple 28cm on light german battleships...)
Crew: 20-40
Speed: 40km/h (I think this is optimistic...)

There was also plans for two compartments with a BMW motorcykle for scouting.


Albert Speer stoppet the project i 1943, probably seeing the madness in it all, before a prototype was constructed. Seeing these drawings of its size, I can understand why-this thing would have been impossible to use in mobile warfare, its as easy as that, and its a hell of an expencive gun turret....

Theres some debate as to what the secondary armament would have been, suggestions are either flak-guns or 50-128mm anti-tank guns.


Its so big its beyond funny...

One suggestion on what it might have looked like

Heres another suggestion to what it might have looked like