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Found an interesting illustration by Josh Hass done up for as a promotional wallpaper for the 2006 book My Tank is Fight! by Zack Parsons, the editor of SomethingAwful.com.

© Josh Hass

Any tank or X-weapon enthusiast would be fascinated by such a behemoth. Designated as P.1000 ‘Ratte’ (Rat!), it was a proposed 1000-ton tracked vehicle armed primarily with two 280mm naval guns and a 128mm gun used on the Jagdtiger, with eight 20mm flak guns and two (only two!) machineguns for defense against aircraft and infantry respectively.

It was classified as a Landkreuzer (Land Cruiser) rather than a tank, which was rather fitting considering that it was to be 35 metres long, 14 metres wide and 11 metres high.

This project was actually assigned to the famous Krupp works (now ThyssenKrupp) by Hitler in 1942 but was eventually cancelled by Albert Speer, the German Minister of Armaments in 1943.

Even if the Ratte actually saw service, I seriously doubt it would be of much use for the following reasons.

• It would be impossible to get this vehicle to the frontlines in time for any offensive operations. Land travel would take too long and it seems improbable to airlift this monster with WWII technology.
• The power-to-weight ratio would be so low resulting in extremely poor mobility and speed to the extent that enemy forces could outmanuever it and avoid it completely.
• Such a large and cumbersome vehicle would be an easy target for Allied fighter-bombers or even heavy bombers like the British Avro Lancaster or the American B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-29 Superfortresses. It had really thick 250mm armour which rendered it nigh invulnerable to the guns fielded on Aliied land vehicles though.
• Since the 280mm guns were mounted high up in the turret, they would not be able to depress low enough to target armoured vehicles close to it. The 128mm cannon could alleviate this problem somewhat assuming that the target was in the limited cone of fire afforded by its fixed position in the front. However, such a vehicle would be heavily escorted so the probability of it being attacked by enemy armour close in (assuming that they haven’t been destroyed by the twin 280mm guns at long range) would be very low.

© Mike Dolscher

Download the wallpaper or the 8 page sample chapter for the My Tank is Fight! book containing information on the P.1000 Ratte as well as a hypothetical technical illustration by Mike Dolscher (above)

There’s also more info on the P.1000 available at strangevehicles.greyfalcon.us and Softpedia as well as a collection of World War II cutting-edge or experimental weapons over at SomethingAwful.com.

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