It sounds like an idea from the distant future, but should be reality by 2045: The Chinese super tank, which is powered by a nuclear reactor, has electromagnetic armor and whose supersonic cannon can hit targets up to 450 kilometers away. At least this catalog of services is presented in the study that scientists from the Beijing Institute of Technology and the Inner Mongolia First Machinery Group recently presented in the specialist journal “Acta Armamentarii”.
But above all: This combat vehicle should only weigh 60 tons, ten tons less than the most modern version of the German “Leopard” tank.
The project, which sounds like “Star Wars”, will be created in three phases. The chassis and protective shield should be developed by 2035. Later, the drive with 2000 hp and the gun with a range of 300 kilometers would be ready for use. In the third phase, the systems would be optimized to extend the range of the projectiles up to 450 kilometers. A nuclear reactor with a size of two cubic meters would then be used, which would provide the required energy for five years.
The Chinese study once again shows the tank's eventful career. While it was declared dispensable in the 1990s and 2000s due to the asymmetrical wars, it returned to the center of military simulations at the latest with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This is reminiscent of the monstrous projects with which the Third Reich wanted to develop the tank of the future at the height of its power. In its special exhibition “Wonder Weapons: Propaganda and War Technology in National Socialism,” the Military History Museum of the Bundeswehr in Dresden devotes a separate chapter to these hypertrophic projects.
The German tank troops had proven their tactical superiority in the attack on the Soviet Union in 1941. Technically, however, the Soviet T-34 was clearly superior to the German types. Therefore, the development of heavier combat vehicles was pushed forward, which were intended to compensate for the numerical superiority of the Red Army with stronger armor and cannons. The best-known result was the Panzer VI “Tiger”, the first examples of which reached the front at the turn of 1942/43. At the same time, development of the VIII “Maus” tank began, of which two prototypes were being tested by the end of the war.
The “Tiger” (57 tons), “King Tiger” (69 tons) and “Jagdtiger” (74 tons) were already characterized by a tendency towards gigantomania, which significantly limited their operational capability. Many bridges these monsters couldn't pass through at all. They were slow off-road and also consumed large amounts of gasoline, the production of which suffered massively from the Allied bombing campaign. With its 188 tons, the “Maus” tank only ran twelve kilometers per hour off-road, consuming 4,000 liters of gasoline per 100 kilometers.
Hitler's megalomaniacal dream of a tank that "operates in formation like a battleship" produced other flowers as well. In June 1942, the dictator brushed aside objections about a lack of maneuverability: "The existing firepower will be sufficient to break any resistance."
“Hitler’s imagination then wandered into the gigantic,” recalled his Inspector General of Panzer Troops, Heinz Guderian. In this sense, the engineer Eduard (also Edward) Grote (1884–1975) received the order for the “Landkreuzer P-1000” in 1942, after a presentation to Hitler, whose code name “Ratte” was intended to disguise its huge dimensions.
Grote shared Hitler's penchant for gigantomania. In 1929 he was one of a group of engineers who were invited to Leningrad as part of secret German-Soviet military cooperation. There he distinguished himself with designs for medium-heavy tanks. A prototype of the “Tank Grote” was actually manufactured by 1931, which, with 25 tons and two guns, clearly surpassed comparable models such as the T-24 (18 tons). However, the TG turned out to be immature. Development stopped; Grote had to start the journey home.
During the war, he came to the Reich Armaments Ministry via a station at Krupp, where he worked in the Marine Department. Grote probably drew the inspiration for his “Landkreuzer” from this. Its main armament was to consist of two 28-centimeter quick-loading guns, as used in capital ships. There were also four 12.8 anti-aircraft guns and eight 2-centimeter machine guns. This arsenal of weapons was to be handled by a 40-man combat crew, plus 20 men to operate the vehicle.
The size of the “rat” was accordingly: 35 meters long, 14 meters wide and eleven meters high. The armor was supposed to be up to 35 centimeters, which would have given the monster a weight of 1000 tons. A scaled-down replica can be seen in the exhibition, next to which the scale model of a “tiger” is virtually lost. Given these dimensions, how the “land cruiser” could have achieved the target speed of 40 kilometers per hour appears to be a mystery.
“The tactical value of the P-1000 would have been close to zero,” say the exhibition organizers. The monstrous vehicle could only have operated on flat terrain, literally leaving a path of destruction in its path. Roads, railway lines or bridges would have been destroyed. Nor had anyone given any thought to how this monster would be transported to the front. Special transporters had to be constructed for the “Maus”.
Albert Speer, as Reich Minister for Armaments and Transport, probably also recognized these problems and stopped the development of the “Landkreuzer” in 1943. This also affected the wandering vision of the P-1500 “Monster”, which also goes back to Grote. This was a self-propelled gun with a caliber of 80 centimeters, which would have been operated by 100 men and whose mass would have been 1,500 tons.
Regardless of the technical and logistical problems, which were exacerbated by bombing and a lack of resources, the tendency towards gigantomania in tank construction also contradicted the tactical challenges that the Wehrmacht increasingly found itself confronted with from 1943 onwards. This already affected the “Tiger” when it appeared in larger numbers on the battlefields in 1943. Because its conception as a “breakthrough tank” was no longer in demand in view of the major Soviet offensives, which were carried out with great material superiority. “The armament and structure (of the armored troops) only met these new requirements to a limited extent,” says historian and tank specialist Markus Pöhlmann.
Instead, inexpensive combat vehicles with powerful guns that could be assembled in large numbers - but without an elaborate turret - proved to be suitable defensive weapons. It was not for nothing that the Sturmgeschütz III became the Wehrmacht's most frequently built full-track vehicle, with around 10,000 units built. In a report to the Wehrmacht High Command it was said: “Wherever there are assault guns, they will hold.”
“Wonder Weapons: Propaganda and War Technology in National Socialism”, Military History Museum of the Bundeswehr, Dresden; until March 9, 2027
Even in his history doctorate, Berthold Seewald focused on building bridges between the ancient world and modern times. As a WELT editor, the world wars were part of his area of work.
