The ''Kugelpanzer'' ("ball tank") is a one-man armoured vehicle built by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. The history of the vehicle is practically unknown other than the fact that at least one example was exported to the

Empire of Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of Japan, 1947 constitu ...

and used by the

Kwantung Army ''Kantō-gun'' , image = Kwantung Army Headquarters.JPG , image_size = 300px , caption = Kwantung Army headquarters in Hsinking, Manchukuo , dates = April ...

. The machine remains something of a mystery due to the lack of records and the incompleteness of the sole surviving model.

Surviving example

Only one example of the ''Kugelpanzer'' still exists today. It was captured by the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...

Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer M ...

and is on display in the collection of German armoured vehicles at the

Kubinka Tank Museum The Kubinka Tank Museum (Центральный музей бронетанкового вооружения и техники - Tsentral'nyy Muzey Bronetankovogo Vooruzheniya I Tekhniki -Central Museum of Armored Arms and Technology) is a larg ...

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

where it is described simply as "exhibit no. 37". There is no record of it ever having been used in combat. However, another report states that it was captured at the Kummersdorf

proving ground A proving ground (US) is an installation or reservation in which technology such as weapons, military tactics and automobile prototypes are experimented with or tested. Proving grounds can be operated by government bodies or civilian industries. ...

s along with the infamous ''Maus'' super-heavy tank. The vehicle was modified after its capture, repainted and its drive removed. In 2000 the original paintwork was restored.

Theories about the vehicle

Only five points seem certain based on the single known example: #It is a German-made vehicle that was shipped to Japan. #It was used as a light reconnaissance vehicle. #It was captured by Soviet troops in 1945, presumably in Manchuria. #The outer armour is only five millimetres thick. #The vehicle was powered by a

single-cylinder A single-cylinder engine, sometimes called a thumper, is a piston engine with one cylinder. This engine is often used for motorcycles, motor scooters, go-karts, all-terrain vehicles, radio-controlled vehicles, portable tools and garden machinery ( ...

two-stroke A two-stroke (or two-stroke cycle) engine is a type of internal combustion engine that completes a power cycle with two strokes (up and down movements) of the piston during one power cycle, this power cycle being completed in one revolution of ...

motorcycle engine. One can only deduce the functionality of the vehicle based on its exterior. It seems to be a one-man reconnaissance tank, equipped with an armoured outer wall and a viewing slot. The drive was probably located under or behind the driver. At the rear there is a steerable wheel to shift the center of gravity behind the axis of the two track wheels and to support rotary movements that are carried out with the track wheels. In stationary operation, the tank could probably serve as an armoured refuge or makeshift bunker. Based on available images, it cannot be determined whether there was an opening below the viewing slot to allow for the use of firearms from inside the tank.

Similar vehicles

Although not immediately equivalent, a possible precursor to the ''Kugelpanzer'' was a one-man

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

tank known in France as a ''bouclier roulant'' ("rolling shield"). A 1936 article in '' Popular Science'' described a Texan inventor's design for a spherical armoured vehicle that was dubbed a "tumbleweed tank". It was considerably larger than the ''Kugelpanzer'' - offering space for three people and three machine guns along with necessary motors and other equipment.

References

Books

Robert Dale Arndt Jr.: Strange Vehicles of Pre-War Germany & the Third Reich (1928–1945). 2006, IRP Publication

External links