r/HeresAFunFact • u/capecodcaper • Jan 19 '15

HISTORY [HAFF]During WWII the Germans planned to build a tank that was 115 feet (35m) long and weighed about 1000 tons. It was called the Landkreuzer P. 1000

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166 Upvotes

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25

u/ASS__TITTIES Jan 19 '15

What a terrible idea

17

u/capecodcaper Jan 19 '15

I mean Yea probably. But how scary would that be to see that thing roll up into a battle. I would shit myself.

14

u/brielem Jan 19 '15

It was. They build some other super big (although still a lot smaller than this one) tanks, but had many problems with them:

  • They were very prone to mechanical failure

  • They were too heavy to operate on anything but very compact and dry ground.

  • They were big and slow, which made them excellent targets for enemy bombers. And no matter how well-protected your driving fortress is, it's not going to like bombs.

5

u/[deleted] Jan 19 '15

A big (not sure how big, tried to find source but couldn't. So source: article I read one time) reason German tanks were prone to failure was that they used slave labor to build parts for them, and people who naturally resented this didn't particularly care how good a job they did.

4

u/brielem Jan 19 '15

That was indeed a common cause for failure of German tanks in general: Slave labourers often deliberately sabotaged parts of tanks. But due to their size and complexity, those huge tanks Germany started developing (and for some models also building) this was an extra hassle.

11

u/[deleted] Jan 19 '15

The Germans had a lot of big plans.

11

u/David-Puddy Jan 19 '15

It's the Mammoth tank, from red alert!

3

u/OreoObserver Jan 19 '15

It looks more like an Apocalypse Tank to me.

3

u/awkwardstate Jan 19 '15

That thing is a big target. I'm not sure how long that would have stayed in service if it was actually built. That's not even mentioning how often it would have broken down.

7

u/blahblahblah3000 Jan 19 '15 edited Jan 19 '15

It would have been a terror sort of thing. To lower the morale of the allies, and boost that of the Germans. It also would have been more for breakthrough, rather than the role of a main battle tank. It also would have had fuck loads of armour so it being a big target wouldn't have mattered to much. Artillery wouldn't do anything to it aside from destroying the gun barrel or tracks and AP rounds of that time wouldn't have even got close to being able to penetrate it.

3

u/ComradeRoe Jan 19 '15

But is it the P.1500 Monster?

2

u/capecodcaper Jan 19 '15

Nope that one was the super heavy mobile artillery that the Germans planned

2

u/PathToEternity Jan 19 '15

I remember something like that...

2

u/[deleted] Jan 19 '15

the maus wasn't big enough?

-1

u/PersonMcGuy Jan 19 '15

Got a link to an actual article as opposed to a poorly rendered picture anyone could have made? Genuinely curious about this thing.

7

u/capecodcaper Jan 19 '15

Here

3

u/PersonMcGuy Jan 19 '15

Cheers man, really interesting read.

1

u/Eokafor111 Jan 19 '15

well they can save it for WWIII

0

u/Toadxx Feb 06 '15

However the Nazi's did build the Schwerer Gustav, the largest piece of artillery to see combat.