Quote:
|
Originally Posted by CABAL Quote: |
Originally Posted by Doppleganger Hitler's interference and meddling caused all sorts of wild and fanciful military projects to be undertaken, none of them doing Germany much good and all tieing up scare military resources.
I think Germany might have been best to listen to Guderian when he was Inspector General of Panzertruppen and just focus on building late model Panzer IVs. Panthers and Tigers were better tanks but they were more complicated to build, service, repair in the field and less could be built. After all, the reason why the Wehrmacht was initially so successful was all to do with tactics and training and nothing to do with how good their tanks were.
If you really wanted to label a German tank design as the 'Deathstar of WW2' it would have to be the insane design for a 1000 tonne tank called the Ratte (Rat) and an even bigger 1500 tonne one. From the same website: http://www.achtungpanzer.com/p1000.htm | 1000 Tonne? Where did achtungpanzer.com get this information? |
Guderian mentioned the tank in his memoirs.
June 23rd, 1942 at a conference of senior Generals and Party Officials.
"Then his[Hitler's] fantasy led him into the realm of the gigantic. The engineers Grote and Hacker were ordered to design a monster tank weighing 1,000 tons." (p. 278, Panzer Leader, Heinz Guderian).
I'm not sure when the project was cancelled, although it was probably in 1943 sometime after Guderian had been appointed Inspector General of Panzertruppen. It never really got past an initial design stage AFAIK.