The ''Panzerkampfwagen'' E-100 (Gerät 383) (TG-01) was a German

super-heavy tank A super-heavy tank or super heavy tank is any tank that is notably beyond the standard of the class heavy tank in either size or weight relative to contemporary vehicles. Programs have been initiated on several occasions with the aim of creati ...

design developed towards the end of

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 opposin ...

. The largest of the ''Entwicklung'' series of tank designs intended to improve German armored vehicle production through standardization on cheaper, simpler to build vehicles. By the end of the war, the chassis of the prototype E-100 had been partially completed; it was shipped to the United Kingdom for trials, but was later scrapped.

Development

The basic design was ordered by the ''

Waffenamt ''Waffenamt'' (WaA) was the German Army Weapons Agency. It was the centre for research and development of the Weimar Republic and later the Third Reich for weapons, ammunition and army equipment to the German Reichswehr and then Wehrmacht ...

'' as a parallel development to the Porsche ''Maus'' in June 1943. It was the heaviest of the ''Entwicklung'' (E) series of vehicles, meant to standardize as many components as possible, in the 100 ton weight class; other designs were the E-10, E-25, E-50, E-75. In March 1944, the Adler company in

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

submitted blueprint 021A38300 for a super-heavy tank called E-100, after the tank was proposed in April 1943 along with the other ''Entwicklung'' series vehicles.Merriam Press, ''World War 2 In Review: German Fighting Vehicles, Issue 2'', October 2019,
hyperlink
/ref> According to the blueprints, the tank would be armed with a both a 150 mm gun and a 75 mm gun. Two types of engines were proposed: one was a 700 hp

Maybach HL230 The Maybach HL230 was a water-cooled 60° 23 litre V12 petrol engine designed by Maybach. It was used during World War II in heavy German tanks, namely the Panther, Jagdpanther, Tiger II, Jagdtiger (HL230 P30), and later versions of the Tiger I a ...

, with a transmission and turning mechanism borrowed from the

Tiger II The Tiger II is a German heavy tank of the Second World War. The final official German designation was ''Panzerkampfwagen'' Tiger ''Ausf''. B,'' Panzerkampfwagen'' – abbr: ''Pz.'' or ''Pz.Kfw.'' (English: "armoured fighting vehicle"), ''Ausf.' ...

. The estimated top speed was . The second variant would have a new 1200 hp Maybach engine and a top speed estimated at . The design had removable side skirts and narrow transport tracks to make rail transport more viable. This design was very similar to the original 'Tiger-Maus' proposal, but had larger diameter road wheels and a new

coil spring A selection of conical coil springs The most common type of spring is the coil spring, which is made out of a long piece of metal that is wound around itself. Coil springs were in use in Roman times, evidence of this can be found in bronze Fib ...

based suspension rather than the original

torsion bar A torsion bar suspension, also known as a torsion spring suspension, is any vehicle suspension that uses a torsion bar as its main weight-bearing spring. One end of a long metal bar is attached firmly to the vehicle chassis; the opposite end termi ...

s. A new turret was designed; intended to be simpler and lighter than the Maus turret. But many sources also suggest that a Maus turret could be mounted. In July 1944 Hitler ordered the development of super heavy tanks to stop. Work on the E-100 continued at a very low priority, with only three Adler employees available to assemble the prototype. The first prototype was never fully completed and was found by the 751st Field Artillery Battalion of the American forces in April 1945. The partially completed vehicle was taken by the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

for evaluation and then scrapped in the 1950s. E-100a

Australia

* Entwicklung series The ''Entwicklung'' series (from German ''Entwicklung'', "development"), more commonly known as the E-Series, was a late-World War II attempt by Nazi Germany to produce a standardised series of tank designs. There were to be standard designs in ...

Maus ''Maus'' is a graphic novel by American cartoonist Art Spiegelman, serialized from 1980 to 1991. It depicts Spiegelman interviewing his father about his experiences as a Polish Jew and Holocaust survivor. The work employs postmodern technique ...

German 188 ton design, superior in terms of armor, but inferior in terms of mobility

Tanks of comparable role, performance and era

* American

T30 Heavy Tank The Heavy Tank T30 was a World War II American tank project developed to counter new German tanks, such as Tiger I, Tiger II, and tank destroyers, such as the ''Jagdtiger'', or Soviet heavy tanks, such as IS-1 or IS-2. The T30 was designed at th ...

* Soviet

IS-7 The IS-7 heavy tank, also known by its project name Object 260, is a Soviet tank that began development in 1945. The vehicle existed only in prototype form and was cancelled in favor of the T-10 tank. Design and production The IS-7 heavy tank ...

post-war heavy tank

References

Sources

* Chamberlain, Peter & Doyle, Hilary (1999) "Encyclopedia of German Tanks of World War Two"

External Links