Today kids, i'm gonna teach you about the BIGGEST. TANK. EVER. MADE. The Panzerkampfwagen VIII Maus, or "Maus" for short.
First of all, just so you know, the Maus tank never really fought-In fact, it is WAY too heavy with 188 Tons ! It was pretty useless : It was slow, 20km/h, so heavy that he can't pass casual bridges, so big that it is not camouflaged and the Artys (Not well protected, extremely powerful and higly camouflaged tanks that work a bit like a sniper) would just keep harrassing it. The maus was produced in some prototypes. All but one were destroyed and it now remains in a russian museum. See the Photo at the end.
The tank project was made during WWII by and for the Nazi german army by Ferdinand Porsche and presented to Hitler during June 1942. The first prototype was ready in 1943 under the name "Mammut" (Mammoth), then Maus (mouse) in Feb. 1943. The project was after that aborted.
The maus was driven by One driver, One Tank Chief, two Loaders, One shooter that fired the Turret with a 12,8-cm KwK 44 L/55 with 55-68 shells stocked in the tank, and also a secondary cannon that fires with a 7,5-cm KwK 44 L/36.5 with 200 shells available. There finally was one Radio Operator that also fired the tank's machine gun, a MG 34 with 1000 rounds stocked in the tank. It was very hard to pierce in the front but easier in the turret. You could potentially break the cannon (wich makes any tank almost useless). The Maus is playable in the online game "World of Tanks" wich i higly recommend.
It was 10,02 meters long, 3,70 meters thick, 3,66 meters high and 50cm over the ground.
It had many tactical and technical problems, and was very bad at offensive, but apparently would be a monstruous machine in Defense of Vital points.
It was the biggest yet the most useless tank ever made.
Well that's all for today folks ! Hope you enjoyed. Don't hesitate to leave a comment for a tank that you wanna get reviewed. If no one asks for a tank i'll pick my own favorite tank, the Tiger I.
