Good thing the Germans messed up early

[Joshua Kennedy]

Otherwise we had to face this thing.

That's right. Biggest ever built.

And if Hitler had the resources available, and had he not canceled the project, this would've happened.

There was also going to be a Landkreuzer P.750 "Schildkröte" which would have carried 300 troops, but there aren't any pictures (that I could find).

And then they wanted to make this thing.

It would have fired 800mm shells and had to be powered by four MAN M9v 40/46 U-boat diesel engines.

Maybe they might have lasted longer, or even won the war, had they not poured their money into this back-crack crazy stuff in the middle of 1943.

[Mac Bargett]

Has someone read "My Tank is Fight" recently?

And somewhat related is this

[Joshua Kennedy]

Dec 3, 2010 5:14:10 GMT Mac Bargett said:

Has someone read "My Tank is Fight" recently?

No.

Dec 3, 2010 5:14:10 GMT Mac Bargett said:

And somewhat related is this

I expected something like that, actually. The Germans were smart, but not very good at economics.

[Nathan Whyte]

Dec 3, 2010 23:24:01 GMT Joshua Kennedy said:

I expected something like that, actually. The Germans were smart, but not very good at economics.

Au contraire, the German economy was arguably the strongest in Europe, certainly in 1939. In fact, in 1939 I would be inclined to say it was the strongest in the world. Hitler's policies meant that Germany was the first nation to bounce back from the Great Depression. It managed to recover from near complete bankruptcy in 1921 to a nation to hold it's own against the UK, USA and USSR for several years.

This.

[Deleted]

Even so, the Allies won. I think such monsters as the Maus would have been more of a hinderance.

They could have done plenty of other things that would have made their war effort a lot easier. Dropped production of the SturmGeschutz III, slowed production of the PzKpfw IV in favor of the Pather and Tiger. If they had made a few adjustments to the PzKpfw V, VI, and VII, they might have carried the war on an extra five years. If they had spent more time on the Panther and Tiger before sending them off to the Ostfront, they might have won at Kiev, and Kursk.

Kind of sad, really. Such military potential.

[Dirk Riedel]

Yes, thanks for correcting that, Nate. Also, out of curiosity, Joshua, I would like to ask what you consider as "early"?

[Joshua Kennedy]

Dec 6, 2010 19:42:11 GMT Dirk Riedel said:

Yes, thanks for correcting that, Nate. Also, out of curiosity, Joshua, I would like to ask what you consider as "early"?

Well, they poured their money into these projects either before or during the year 1943. It's definitely not the "late" war.

One exception is the Maus, the prototype built in late 1944. However the order was canceled in October 1943 by Hitler, and officially stopped in November, but the prototypes were built anyway.