Panzer VIII Maus

Panzerkampfwagen VIII Maus (Mouse) was a German super heavy tanks completed in late 1944. It is the heaviest fully enclosed armoured fighting vehicle ever built. Only two hulls and one turret were completed before the testing grounds were captured by the advancing Soviet forces. An incomplete tank was captured by British forces.
These two prototypes – one with, one without turret – underwent trials in late 1944. The complete vehicle was 10.2 metres (33 ft 6 in) long, 3.71 metres (12 ft 2 in) wide and 3.63 metres (11.9 ft) high. Weighing 200 metric tons, the Maus's main armament was a 128 mm KwK 44 L/55 gun (55 calibers long barrel), based on the 12.8 cm Pak 44 anti-tank artillery piece also used in the casemate-type Jagdtiger tank destroyer, with an added coaxial 75 mm gun. The 128 mm gun was powerful enough to destroy all enemy armored fighting vehicles at close or medium ranges, and even some at ranges exceeding 3,500 metres (3,800 yd).
The principal problem in the development of the Maus was finding a powerful enough engine for its weight that could be carried in the tank. Though the specification called for a maximum speed of 20 kilometres per hour (12 mph), no engine was found that could propel the prototype at more than 13 kilometres per hour (8.1 mph) under ideal conditions. The weight also made it impossible to cross most bridges; it was intended to ford or submerge and use a snorkel to cross rivers.
It was intended to punch holes through enemy defences whilst taking almost no damage to any components. 5 were ordered, however only 2 hulls and one turret were completed before the advancing allies found them. Very few of Hitler's generals thought that the Maus would have been any use.

The working Maus prototypes remained at Kummersdorf after being tested at Böblingen. Maus V2 was ordered to Wünsdorf to protect the OKH, Probably 205/1 was ordered there, too, as support for the 205/2 if it drove into mud or to help with diving through rivers (where it would have served as generator unit for 205/2). 205/2 ended at the Hindenburgplatz, in front of the bunker Maybach I, where it was destroyed by placing charges in the engine and fighting compartments. Because it had ammunition stowed under the turret, it was damaged more extensively than 205/1, with the turret being more or less intact. Maus V1 didn't reach this area. It is unknown if the V2 actually fought or not.
After the war, the Soviet Commander of Armored and Mechanized troops ordered the hull of V1 to be mated with the turret of V2. The Soviets used six German FAMO-built 18t German half-tracks, the largest half-track vehicles that Germany built in the war years, to pull the 55 ton turret off the destroyed hull. The combined V1 hull/V2 turret vehicle was completed in Germany and sent back to the USSR for further testing. It arrived there on May 4, 1946. When further testing was completed the vehicle was taken over by the Kubinka Tank Museum for storage where it is now on display.

Mickey MAUS at Kubinka Tank Museum

M18 Hellcat

   American prewar armored doctrine was based on the assumption that enemy armored attacks would be delivered at a time and place of the enemy's choosing against an American defense. Similarly, American armored attacks would be delivered at a time and place of friendly forces choosing against an enemy defense. For this, the U.S. envisioned using tanks in the attack solely in a support and exploitation role, usually in conjunction with infantry. Tank destroyers, such as the Hellcat, were to be used against tanks that had already penetrated the front lines. The Hellcat was not intended to engage in protracted combat but to quickly respond to breakthroughs in the line by enemy armor. To aid these purposes, it was designed with light armor and extremely high speeds. U.S. doctrine originally called for the Hellcat to be held in reserves so that it could block an incoming armored thrust.

This doctrine failed on the battlefield where attacking Sherman tanks ran into defending German tanks far more often than intended and the tank destroyers were called in to assist. Tank destroyers were often deployed to attack enemy armor at long range from an ambush position, taking on the role of self-propelled anti-tank guns. During the battle for Italy, tank destroyers compensated for a shortage of 155mm artillery ammunition by using their 3 inch or 76mm guns in indirect fire role. Near the end of the war, there were so few German tanks that tank destroyers were increasingly used as self-propelled artillery in support of infantry for lack of any other targets.

In practice a tank destroyer battalion was assigned nearly permanently to a division and would move toward an enemy penetration from local assembly areas. The doctrine of the time had Shermans acting in support of infantry to break enemy defenses (Infantry leads, tanks follow or support by fire), and then exploiting the attack (Tanks lead, infantry follows) with infantry in support during exploitation.

Prewar expectation was that all anti-tank work was supposed to be done by tank-destroyer crews, because attacking tanks could concentrate against a small part of a defending line. Independent tank destroyer groups were to counter concentrate, to stop enemy tanks from penetrating deeply. Speed was essential in order to bring the Hellcats from the rear to destroy incoming tanks. Obviously this would make it harder for an armored force to achieve a deep breakthrough, a main objective of armor, if the enemy had tanks. It would also be easier for an opposing armored force to achieve a local breakthrough against an American unit which would not have all of its anti-tank assets at the front during the beginning of any attack. This doctrine was not entirely used as it would create a small window of time of weakness in the armored battalion until tank destroyers moved to the front. Tank destroyer battalions assigned to front line divisions often split up to companies attached to regiments, and platoons attached to infantry battalions. When so attached, defending tank destroyer units supplemented organic antitank weapons (bazookas and 57mm towed guns).

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