Gigantic Fantasy - Landkreuzer P.1000 "Ratte"

Before i start, i’m well aware that this is NOT a car, i just thought of sharing this just to show you guys how crazy the Germans were in terms of design concept.

Ah, the Germans. Led by the Adolf Hitler, which is the most hated person at the time, leading the most hated organization in the world, and the most hated country at the time. Even they lost the war their armaments are one of the scariest ranging from the “Siren of Death” Junkers JU-87 Stuka dive bomber, the first jet fighter Messerchmidt ME-262 that excels at aerial combat, to the one of the worst horror for land units, the Tiger I heavy battle tank. But, there’s one of them tanks that were stucked only as a drawing in an old factory and would be the scariest tank ever existed that could win German the war, it’s the Landkreuzer P.1000 nicknamed the Ratte.

The design itself emerged from studies of Soviet heavy tanks conducted by a company named Krupp in 1941. Edward Grotte, the director of Krupp, proposed the design in June 1942 and he named it “Landkreuzer”. Hitler actually approved this design and he ordered Krupp to begin its development in 1942. As of December 29, 1942 a few drawings have been done and was named “Ratte”, which is the German for “Rat”, by Hitler himself. The submitted designs were then named OKH Auftrag Nr. 30404 and E-30404/1.

The tank itself was so big, it was meant to weight 1000 tonne, 5 times the weight and size of the current largest tank ever made, the Panzer VIII Maus. Both of these pictures underneath shows the comparison of the Ratte against other German tanks of its era

The lenght of the tank itself is 39 metres (including turret lenght), the width is 14 metres, and with a height of 11 metres. The tank would have been armed with two 280 mm SK C/28 gun turret, the same cannon that can be found on the German capital ship, Gneisenau, although it have been modified to only carry 2 instead of the original 3 in order to save some weight and extra ammunition. This naval cannon can throw a 700 lb projectile as far as 25 miles away. It would have also been armed with a 128 mm anti-tank gun that can be found on the Maus, two 15 mm Mauser MG 151/15 autocannons, and eight 20 mm Flak 38 anti-aircraft gun. The armor was meant to be as thick as 350 mm. It’s so thick and heavy, only it’s own turret that can stand a hope in hell to damage it.

The tank itself has 6 tracks instead of 2 on normal tanks, with 3 tracks on each side. Intended powerplant was two MAN V12Z32/44 24-cylinder marine diesel engine with 8400 hp each, the same engine that can be found on the U-Boat, or eight Daimler-Benz MB 501 20-cylinder marine diesel engine with 2000 hp each, same engine that can be found in the E-Boat, to gain 16.000 hp to move the tank. It was meant to be equipped with snorkels to let the engine breath when crossing rivers. The top speed was meant to be somewhere around 25 mph, even though it was unlikely as the smaller Maus can only reach 12 mph

Some drawings that have been found suggests that it would have a vehicle bay that would be able to hold two BMW R12 motorcycles, most likely would be used for reconnaisance and scouting purposes. It’s size also let it to have its own lavatory system and various storage spaces. This thing is basically a walking fortress

Unfortunately though, its size and weight would have caused many issues. First would be it wouldn’t be able to cross bridges and every pavement will basically cracked if it was travelled by this giant. Its size also allow it to be an easy target for bomber planes. Although it have eight anti-aircraft cannon on its side, if a fleet of bombers have a space to drop the bomb, then the tank is done for.

Also unfortunate enough for Hitler, the project was canceled by Albert Speer, Hitler’s minister in armaments in 1943 because of it’s impracticality and Germans running out of resources as the result of slowly losing the war. No test prototypes have been made.

I hope you like this little article i made, this is also my first #blogpost so feel free to leave some critics and advices so i can improve my writings, and with that, have a good day, take care.