Panzer VIII Maus
The Panzer VIII Maus was the heaviest tank ever built, measuring about 33 feet long, 12 feet wide, 12 feet high, and weighing nearly 200 tons. Its secondary armament was a 75 mm coaxial gun instead of a machine gun, while its main gun was a 128 mm monster capable of destroying any Allied tank at ranges of up to 2.2 miles – and that was increased at Hitler’s insistence, who thought the 128 mm looked like a toy gun on the Maus, to 150 mm.
The Maus’ huge size and heavyweight came at a correspondingly heavy price that made it nearly useless. The tank was too heavy for most bridges, so it had to resort to crossing rivers either by wading through fords where available, or driving over the river’s bottom while using a snorkel for ventilation. Additionally, simply getting the Maus moving was a problem, as it was no easy task developing an engine and drive train that was powerful enough to propel 200 tons of metal on the ground at any appreciable speed, yet small enough to fit inside the tank. In the end, the maximum speed achieved during trials was 8 m.p.h. on a hard surface.
It was intended to spearhead German attacks by smashing through any opposition and destroying all enemy armor it came across, impervious to damage from any tanks whose path it crossed. With 9.4 inches of turret armor, 8 inches of hull front armor, 7 inches of hull side armor, and 6 inches of rear armor, the Maus was largely immune from Allied tanks, whose shells would simply bounce off the behemoth. However, it was built in 1944, by which time the Allies not only had aerial superiority on both the Western and Eastern front, but well nigh complete aerial supremacy over the battlefield, and the Maus did not have sufficient armor up top to render it immune from armor-piercing bombs or rockets dropped or fired from above.
Ultimately, the Maus was symptomatic of Hitler’s irrational obsession with big things and superweapons, and his indifference to or inability to understand their relative cost-effectiveness compared to other “normal” weapons that could accomplish the same task at a fraction of the cost, thus freeing up scarce resources for other uses that could have better served the German war effort.