The Vollketten 30 were two series of

tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engin ...

designs by

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

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 ...

, originally intended as heavy 'breakthrough' tanks, but later switching completely to designate medium tanks to succeed the

Panzer III The ''Panzerkampfwagen III'', commonly known as the Panzer III, was a medium tank developed in the 1930s by Germany, and was used extensively in World War II. The official German ordnance designation was Sd.Kfz. 141. It was intended to fight oth ...

, IV, and the planned

VK 20 The VK 20 series were the proposed replacements of the Panzer IV and Panzer III tanks with entries by MAN, Krupp and Daimler Benz. It was initially projected to weigh 20 tonnes, but grew to 24 tonnes. By November 1941, the designs almost reached c ...

series tanks. These were requested in response to the Soviet

T-34 The T-34 is a Soviet medium tank introduced in 1940. When introduced its 76.2 mm (3 in) tank gun was less powerful than its contemporaries while its 60-degree sloped armour provided good protection against Anti-tank warfare, anti-tan ...

and

KV-1 The Kliment Voroshilov (KV) tanks are a series of Soviet heavy tanks named after the Soviet defence commissar and politician Kliment Voroshilov who operated with the Red Army during World War II. The KV tanks were known for their heavy armour pro ...

tanks, with far heavier armour and armament than the mobile armoured vehicles fielded by the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previous ...

at the time. Many German companies submitted projects, including Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg (MAN),

Daimler-Benz The Mercedes-Benz Group Aktiengesellschaft, AG (previously named Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler and Daimler) is a German Multinational corporation, multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It ...

(DB),

Henschel Henschel & Son (german: Henschel und Sohn) was a German company, located in Kassel, best known during the 20th century as a maker of transportation equipment, including locomotives, trucks, buses and trolleybuses, and armoured fighting vehicle ...

, and

Porsche Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see #Pronunciation, below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany ...

. The winning entry tanks would go on to become the famous

Tiger I The Tiger I () was a German heavy tank of World War II that operated beginning in 1942 in Africa and in the Soviet Union, usually in independent heavy tank battalions. It gave the German Army its first armoured fighting vehicle that mounted ...

and

Panther Panther may refer to: Large cats *Pantherinae, the cat subfamily that contains the genera ''Panthera'' and ''Neofelis'' **''Panthera'', the cat genus that contains tigers, lions, jaguars and leopards. ***Jaguar (''Panthera onca''), found in Sout ...

tanks, capable opponents to the T-34, but it was ultimately too late and at too small of a scale to affect the course of the war.

List of VK 30 series designs

The VK 30 series were 30-35 tonne class tank designs. * VK 30.01 (H) -Henschel design for 30-tonne breakthrough tank, two prototypes built. Two hulls were later reused as Sturer Emil. *

VK 30.01 (P) The VK 30.01 (P) was the official designation for a heavy tank prototype proposed in Germany. Only two prototype chassis were built. The tank never entered serial production, but was further developed into the VK 45.01 (P), VK 45.01 Tiger (P). ...

design for 30-tonne tank. * VK 30.01 (D) -

design for a 30-tonne tank. * VK 30.02 (D) - Daimler-Benz design for a 30-tonne tank, initially ordered in 1942 but cancelled in favour of MAN design.Ellis & Chamberlain p.4 *VK 30.02 (M) -

MAN A man is an adult male human. Prior to adulthood, a male human is referred to as a boy (a male child or adolescent). Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromos ...

design for a 30-tonne tank, which evolved into the

Panther tank The Panther tank, officially ''Panzerkampfwagen V Panther'' (abbreviated PzKpfw V) with ordnance inventory designation: ''Sd.Kfz.'' 171, is a German medium tank of World War II. It was used on the Eastern and Western Fronts from mid-1943 to ...

Tiger tank entries

The origins of the first VK 30 began with the need for a breakthrough tank, or ''Durchbruchswagen'' in 1937, resulting in a few successive iterations. Porsche submitted heavily armoured tank designs, but they were unconventional and also unsuccessful. This was dropped in 1938, around the same time as the start of the VK 20 project, in favour of the first VK 30 designs. These were submitted by Henschel and Porsche. However, it slowly grew in weight and Henschel redubbed it the VK 36. On May 26 1941,

Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...

ordered the production of prototypes for a new heavy tank, resulting in the VK 45 project, and later the

VK 45.01 (H) VK 45.01 (H) was a German tank which was the final prototype of the Panzer VI Tiger I, evolved from the VK 36.01 (H), designed by Henschel. It was selected by Adolf Hitler over the competing VK 45.01 (P) from Porsche Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche ...

. The

VK 45.01 (P) The VK 45.01 (P), also informally known as Tiger (P) or Porsche Tiger, was a gasoline-electric drive heavy tank prototype designed by Porsche in Germany. Losing to its Henschel competitor on trials, it was not selected for mass production and ...

or Porsche-Tiger, was later turned into the

Ferdinand Ferdinand is a Germanic name composed of the elements "protection", "peace" (PIE "to love, to make peace") or alternatively "journey, travel", Proto-Germanic , abstract noun from root "to fare, travel" (PIE , "to lead, pass over"), and "co ...

tank destroyer and used at the

Battle of Kursk The Battle of Kursk was a major World War II Eastern Front engagement between the forces of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union near Kursk in the southwestern USSR during late summer 1943; it ultimately became the largest tank battle in history. ...

Panther tank entries

On 13 May 1942, the entries for the medium tank were submitted to the Panzer branch of the Waffenamt Prüfwesen (Wa Prüf 6). These included the MAN and DB models. DB presented an entry very similar to the T-34, but upgraded to German standards. It incorporated a similar full front plate sloped armour design akin to their entry for the VK 20 series of tanks. The DB entry held an early lead and was much simpler. However, the MAN entry finally won due to complications in turret production for the DB design that would have resulted in delayed production. Jentz, Thomas; Doyle, Hilary (1993). Tiger I Heavy Tank 1942-45. Osprey Publishing Ltd. pp 16–18. . It was rejected partially because it looked too much like a T-34 and could be mistaken for an enemy tank on the battlefield.

References

{{reflist World War II tanks of Germany Medium tanks of Germany Heavy tanks of Germany World War II medium tanks World War II heavy tanks

List of VK 30 series designs

Tiger tank entries

Panther tank entries

See also

References