{"id":101108,"date":"2026-06-29T02:00:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T06:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=101108"},"modified":"2026-02-27T21:38:59","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T02:38:59","slug":"stupid-super-heavies-germanys-biggest-tanks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2026\/06\/29\/stupid-super-heavies-germanys-biggest-tanks\/","title":{"rendered":"Stupid Super Heavies: Germany&#8217;s Biggest Tanks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"854\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/K5FOSUNJbG0?si=gktAMqqobvjeIhsb\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>The Tank Museum<\/strong><br \/>\nPublished 27 Feb 2026<\/p>\n<p>By late 1943 Germany was losing the war &#8230;  <\/p>\n<p>They needed tanks, and lots of them, if they were going to wrestle back the initiative. Instead, they became obsessed with wonder weapons they hoped could change their fate <\/p>\n<p>From the logistical paralysis of King Tiger, growing ever bigger and more unwieldy with the <em>Maus<\/em>, ultimately reaching the madness of the thousand tonne <em>Ratte<\/em>. <\/p>\n<p>Like Augustus Gloop, German tank development in the Second World War greedily ate up more and more resources. <\/p>\n<p>While an absolute boon for historians working at The Tank Museum, it made no logical sense &#8230; What were they thinking?  <\/p>\n<p>This is the bewildering story of the &#8220;Super Heavies&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>00:00 | Introduction<br \/>\n00:48 | The Panther Problem<br \/>\n02:27 | Bigger is Better<br \/>\n05:42 | Pushing the Limits<br \/>\n09:19 | Gigantic Fantasies<br \/>\n12:03 | Losing the War (and the Plot)<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>This video features archive footage courtesy of British Path\u00e9. <\/p>\n<p>This video features:<br \/>\nMaus Model by Gerhald: https:\/\/skfb.ly\/pCBCI<br \/>\nJagdtiger Model by Adipriatna: https:\/\/skfb.ly\/6xrL9<br \/>\nRatte Model by Herdyn: https:\/\/skfb.ly\/6VxCV<br \/>\nGerman Soldier Model by Vr-cvantorium: https:\/\/skfb.ly\/6V9BY<br \/>\nStuka Plane Model by scorpion81: https:\/\/skfb.ly\/LULF<br \/>\nPhotorealistic Bush Model by Adrian Sheremet: https:\/\/skfb.ly\/6RntG <\/p>\n<p>In this film, Paul Famojuro and James Donaldson step into the gigantic world of German tank development, and the pursuit of super heavy tanks. Instead of refining and beefing up their existing designs, the Germans would start again from scratch \u2013 coming up with some of the most bizarre and overblown ideas ever committed to paper. This obsession only served to use up time and resources that simply weren\u2019t available \u2013 so what were they thinking?<\/p>\n<p>Want to learn more about the German super heavy tanks of WWII? Here are some of the sources we used to make this film:<\/p>\n<p><em>A Maus Tale<\/em>, Willey, https:\/\/tankmuseum.org\/article\/a-maus&#8230;<br \/>\n<em>American Tanks and AFVs of WW2<\/em>, Green, 2018<br \/>\n&#8220;Building a Tiger Tank&#8221;, Hudson, https:\/\/tankmuseum.org\/article\/buildi&#8230;<br \/>\n<em>German Tanks of WW2\u2019, Gander and Chamberlain, 1975<br \/>\n&#8220;Paper Panzers&#8221;, <\/em><em>Panzer Tracts<\/em> (20-1, 20-2), Doyle and Jentz, 2002<br \/>\n<em>Red Army Tanks of World War II: A Guide to Soviet Armoured Fighting Vehicles<\/em>, Bean and Fowler, 2017<br \/>\n<em>Super Heavy Tanks of WW2<\/em>, Estes, 2014<br \/>\n<em>Tanks in Detail \u2013 Panzer VI Tiger I &#038; II<\/em>, Gander, 2003<\/p>\n<p>Support The Tank Museum!<br \/>\nPatreon:   \/ tankmuseum<br \/>\nMembership:    \/ @thetankmuseum<br \/>\nFriends: https:\/\/tankmuseum.org\/support-us\/fri&#8230;<br \/>\nOnline Shop: <a href=\"https:\/\/tankmuseumshop.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/tankmuseumshop.org\/<\/a><br \/>\nWorkshops Channel:    \/ @tankmuseumworkshop<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Tank Museum Published 27 Feb 2026 By late 1943 Germany was losing the war &#8230; They needed tanks, and lots of them, if they were going to wrestle back the initiative. Instead, they became obsessed with wonder weapons they hoped could change their fate From the logistical paralysis of King Tiger, growing ever bigger [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1118,7,5,663,230],"tags":[991,140,969,859],"class_list":["post-101108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-germany","category-history","category-military","category-weapons","category-ww2","tag-afvs","tag-design","tag-hitler","tag-manufacturing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-qiM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101108"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101109,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101108\/revisions\/101109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}