Ambitious and probably quite fanciful, the Landkreuzer P. 1000 “Ratte” was a design concept for a 1000-ton super-heavy tank envisioned by Nazi Germany during World War II. Put quite possibly by Krupp director Edward Grotte in June 1942, this project would have produced a behemoth well over the weight and size of any tank ever built, even that of the Panzer VIII “Maus,” which weighed 188 tonnes.
Officially designated as OKH Auftrag Nr. 30404 and E-30404/1, the “Ratte” project gained the approval of Adolf Hitler, who was quite fascinated by grandiose and formidable weaponry. On 29 December 1942, detailed drawings were presented to Hitler, who finally assigned the name “Ratte” to the tank. However, by early 1943, Minister of Armaments Albert Speer eventually scrapped the project.
The Ratte was to have been a mammoth vehicle: 35 meters, or 115 feet, in length; 14 meters, or 46 feet, in width; and 11 meters, or 36 feet, in height. It was to have weighed some 1000 tons, with 300 tons allocated for armament, 100 tons for track and automotive components, and 200 tons for armor and frame; all other criteria shared the remaining weight.
The tank was to be well-armed, with a twin 28-centimeter SKC/34 turret mounted at the front of the hull. In addition, a 128-mm KwK 44 L/55 gun was to be mounted, but historians are still debating where exactly. Other armament included two 15 mm MG-151/15 machine guns and eight FlaK 38 20-mm anti-aircraft guns.
Power was to be provided by eight Daimler-Benz MB 501 20-cylinder marine diesel engines of 1,500 kW (2,000 hp) each; alternatively, two MAN V12Z32/44 24-cylinder marine diesel engines of 6,300 kW (8,400 hp) each could be installed. With such a power plant, though, the tank would have become extremely vulnerable both to aerial bombing and artillery fire due to its enormous weight.
The sheer size and mass of the Ratte posed many severe logistical problems. It would very likely have destroyed bridges and roads under its weight, although possibly its 2-meter-high ground clearance might have let it cross rivers without bridges. On the other hand, little could be done in terms of transportation since no existing railway car could hold such weight, and its width would have precluded the dimensions of railway tunnels.
Parallel to the Ratte, Albert Speer scrapped an even more unbelievable concept, the Landkreuzer P.1500 Monster, based on the Dora gun. One of the top-ranking German generals Heinz Guderian explained quite frankly the uselessness of these enormous tanks: “Hitler’s fantasies sometimes shift into the gigantic.”
While the Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte never got off the drawing board, it represents an interesting case of how far extreme the Nazi state in Germany was willing to go to seek military supremacy.