The Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte was a Nazi German super-heavy tank weighing 1000 tons, designed by Albert Speer, but never built due to the poor performance of the Panzer VIII Maus. It would have cost over $100 million to assemble and required shipyard tools. The tank was closer in size to a warship than a tank and would have devastated the ground it moved on. It was equipped with two 280 mm guns, eight 20 mm Flak anti-aircraft guns, and two 15 mm Mauser machine guns. The tank was considered a liability on the battlefield and is an example of the overly ambitious planning that lost the Nazis in the war.
The Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte (“Rat”) was a World War II-era design for a Nazi German super-heavy tank weighing 1000 tons or 1,000,000 kg. By comparison, an Abrams tank weighs 61.4 tons and costs 4.35 million US dollars (USD) to build. Bruhathkayosaurus, a sauropod that may be the heaviest animal ever, weighed between 175 and 220 tons, several times smaller than the Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte. The Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte was designed by Albert Speer, who had more experience as an architect than an engineer.
The Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte was never actually built, partly due to the poor performance of another German super heavy tank, the largest tank ever built, the Panzer VIII Maus (“Mouse”), weighing in at 175 tons. The names “Maus” and “Ratte” were supposed to be ironic: these tanks were anything but small. Even the Maus was too heavy to cross all but the sturdiest bridges, needing to cross rivers underwater instead. It would have been completely immune to all but the largest air-dropped bombs. The Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte could not have been used on roads, as it would have chewed through concrete like a plow through sod.
The Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte was to have a length of 35 m (115 ft), a height of 11 m (36 ft) and a width of 14 m (46 ft). Her speed was supposed to be 40 km/h (24 mph), although this estimate was probably too optimistic. The Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte was closer in size to a warship than a tank. In fact, assembling her would have cost more than $100 million dollars (in 2007 currency) and would have required assembly tools usually relegated to a shipyard.
For armaments, the Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte was to be equipped with two 280 mm guns, mounted on a turret usually employed for warships of the Gneisenau class. One of these turrets is also said to have been built, but if so, it was lost after the war. Other guns included a 128 mm gun, eight 20 mm Flak anti-aircraft guns and two 15 mm Mauser machine guns.
The Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte would have used six 1.2 meter rails, two on each side, for its movement. This would have devastated the ground so badly that a trail of crushed grass and stones would have stretched tens of miles along her path. Moving the tank at the speed stipulated by her specifications would have required engines totaling 16,000 horsepower, supplied by eight 20-cylinder Daimler-Benz diesel marine engines of 2,000 hp each.
Today, with the advent of rockets, smart bombs, and explosively formed penetrators, the Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte and similar super heavy tanks would be worse than obsolete. Even at the time, super heavy tanks were considered a liability on the battlefield, requiring a large regiment just to protect them at close range. The Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte is a perfect example of the kind of overly ambitious planning that lost the Nazis in the war. The obsession with hardware size carried over to the Soviet Union over the next few years.
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