The VK 45.01 (P), also informally known as Tiger (P) or Porsche Tiger, was a
gasoline-electric drive heavy tank
Heavy tank is a term used to define a class of tanks produced from World War I through the end of the Cold War. These tanks generally sacrificed mobility and maneuverability for better armour protection and equal or greater firepower than tanks ...
prototype designed by
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 ...
in
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 ...
. Losing to its
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 ...
competitor on trials, it was not selected for mass production and the Henschel design was produced as the
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 ...
. Most of the already produced chassis were rebuilt as
Elefant
The ''Elefant'' (German for "elephant") was a heavy tank destroyer used by German Wehrmacht Panzerjäger during World War II. Ninety-one units were built in 1943 under the name Ferdinand, after its designer Ferdinand Porsche, using VK 45.01 ...
tank destroyers.
Development
On 26 May 1941,
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 ...
were asked to submit designs for a 45-ton heavy tank capable of mounting the high velocity
8.8 cm Kwk 36 L/56 gun which was derived from the German
88 mm Flak 37 antiaircraft gun. Both the Henschel and Porsche tanks were to be fitted with the same turret supplied by
Krupp
The Krupp family (see pronunciation), a prominent 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen, is notable for its production of steel, artillery, ammunition and other armaments. The family business, known as Friedrich Krupp AG (Friedrich Krup ...
. The Porsche company worked on updating the
VK 30.01 (P) medium tank, Porsche's medium tank prototype, and adapted parts used on it for the new tank.
The new Porsche tank, designated the VK 45.01 (P) was to be powered by twin
V-10 air cooled
Air-cooled engines rely on the circulation of air directly over heat dissipation fins or hot areas of the engine to cool them in order to keep the engine within operating temperatures. In all combustion engines, a great percentage of the heat ge ...
Porsche Type 101
gasoline
Gasoline (; ) or petrol (; ) (see ) is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organic co ...
engines which were mounted to the rear of the tank. Each of the twin engines would then
drive a separate generator, one for either side of the tank, which would then power each of two
electric motor
An electric motor is an Electric machine, electrical machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a Electromagneti ...
s, one powering each track from the rear drive sprocket. But the engines and drive train were generally new and unorthodox designs for a tank (other than
some brief experiments in the very early years), and due to being underdeveloped were prone to break down or require frequent maintenance. It was also difficult for the Third Reich to obtain additional amounts of quality copper to build whole new fleets of vehicles with electric drives in addition to the increasing demands of the
U-boat
U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare role ...
fleet (which used very similar
diesel-electric transmissions, which worked perfectly well); while it was easy enough to obtain quality copper to build a single prototype, once series production began, this became more difficult. These problems, and the fact that trials proved the tank to be less maneuverable than its competitor, were the reason why Henschel's identically armed and more conventional VK 45.01 (H) H1 prototype, which became the
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 ...
, was adopted for production instead.
The VK 45.01 (P) chassis was later chosen to be the basis of a new heavy
Jagdpanzer
''Jagdpanzer'' (JgPz) is the name given in German to a heavily-armoured, tracked tank destroyer, although it may also be used for other kinds of self-propelled guns. Literally translated from German, ''Jagdpanzer'' is "hunting tank".
It typi ...
(although designated a
Panzerjäger
''Panzerjäger'' (German language, German "armour-hunters" or "tank-hunters", abbreviated to ''Pz.Jg.'' in German) was a branch of service of the Nazi Germany, German Wehrmacht during the World War II, Second World War. It was an Anti-tank war ...
) which would eventually be called 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 ...
and mount the new, longer, 88 mm
Pak 43/2.
Only one tank went into service as a command tank in the Ferdinand (
Elefant
The ''Elefant'' (German for "elephant") was a heavy tank destroyer used by German Wehrmacht Panzerjäger during World War II. Ninety-one units were built in 1943 under the name Ferdinand, after its designer Ferdinand Porsche, using VK 45.01 ...
) unit, and served in Panzerjäger Abteilung 653.
[Jentz and Doyle 1997, p. 54.] It was deployed in April 1944 and lost that subsequent July.
The VK 45.01 (P)'s chassis and many of the Elefant's components were later used in developing the
VK 45.02 (P) prototype heavy tank.
Design
![Elefant USAOM-02](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Elefant_USAOM-02.jpg)
Ferdinand Porsche developed the spring rod roller carriage; there were 6 road wheels, each road wheel formed of an inner and outer paired wheel per axle. The six paired road wheels were divided into three 2-axle
bogie
A bogie ( ) (in some senses called a truck in North American English) is a chassis or framework that carries a wheelset, attached to a vehicle—a modular subassembly of wheels and axles. Bogies take various forms in various modes of transp ...
s per side, for a total of 12 individual wheels, 6 road wheels/axles, in 3 bogies. The wheels were not 'interleaved' like those of the Tiger I. The 57 to 59 tons combat weight in combination with 640 mm wide "slack-tracks" (KGS 62/640/130) using no return rollers, produced a ground pressure of about 1.06 kg / cm
2.
The
gasoline-electric drive specially developed by
Ferdinand Porsche
Ferdinand Porsche (3 September 1875 – 30 January 1951) was an Austrian-German automotive engineer and founder of the Porsche AG. He is best known for creating the first gasoline–electric hybrid vehicle (Lohner–Porsche), the Volkswag ...
entered "uncharted territory" for road vehicles; this led to numerous development issues with the drive system. The two air-cooled
V-10 engines designated ''Porsche Type 101'', which were merged respectively with a Siemens-Schuckert 500 kVA
generator
Generator may refer to:
* Signal generator, electronic devices that generate repeating or non-repeating electronic signals
* Electric generator, a device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy.
* Generator (circuit theory), an eleme ...
, generated the necessary electric power to operate each of the two Siemens 230 kW (312.7
PS) individual-output
electric motor
An electric motor is an Electric machine, electrical machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a Electromagneti ...
s. In this drive system, a
mechanical power transmission
Propulsion transmission is the mode of transmitting and controlling propulsion power of a machine. The term ''transmission'' properly refers to the whole drivetrain, including clutch, gearbox, prop shaft (for rear-wheel drive vehicles), differ ...
system and
gearbox
Propulsion transmission is the mode of transmitting and controlling propulsion power of a machine. The term ''transmission'' properly refers to the whole drivetrain, including clutch, gearbox, prop shaft (for rear-wheel drive vehicles), differe ...
could be omitted, since now a 3-step speed switch took over the work. The electric motors transferred their power to a
final drive
A drivetrain (also frequently spelled as drive train or sometimes drive-train) is the group of components that deliver mechanical power from the prime mover to the driven components. In automotive engineering, the drivetrain is the components o ...
with a ratio of 15: 1 directly to the
drive wheel
A drive wheel is a wheel of a motor vehicle that transmits force, transforming torque into tractive force from the tires to the road, causing the vehicle to move. The powertrain delivers enough torque to the wheel to overcome stationary for ...
s located at the rear. The fuel tanks carried 520 litres of petrol and allowed a driving range of 105 kilometers. Two compressed air tanks in the front crew compartment area assisted the driver during braking maneuvers.
Unlike the Henschel design's mid-hull mounting for the turret, the VK 45.01 (P) had its Krupp-designed turret mounted at the front. The turret, which mounted the
8.8 cm KwK 36
The 8.8 cm KwK 36 (german: 8,8 cm Kampfwagenkanone 36) was an tank gun used by the German Army during World War II. This was the primary armament of the PzKpfw VI Tiger I tank. It was developed and built by Krupp.
Design
The KwK 36 w ...
and a
7.92 mm MG 34
The MG 34 (shortened from German: ''Maschinengewehr 34'', or "machine gun 34") is a German recoil-operated air-cooled general-purpose machine gun, first tested in 1929, introduced in 1934, and issued to units in 1936. It introduced an entirely ne ...
coaxial machine gun
A weapon mount is an assembly or mechanism used to hold a weapon (typically a gun) onto a platform in order for it to function at maximum capacity. Weapon mounts can be broken down into two categories: static mounts and non-static mounts.
Stat ...
, was essentially the same
Krupp
The Krupp family (see pronunciation), a prominent 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen, is notable for its production of steel, artillery, ammunition and other armaments. The family business, known as Friedrich Krupp AG (Friedrich Krup ...
design also used for Henschel's contract-winning VK45.01(H) prototype design. The first eight turrets produced had lower sides and a flat roof with raised centre section to allow the gun to be depressed through a larger arc.
Variants
*''VK 45.01 (P) Test prototype''
:VK45.01 chassis fitted with a concrete turret mockup to simulate the weight of the Krupp turret for testing purposes. Only 100 chassis were built.
*''VK 45.01 (P) (Porsche Tiger) ''
:10 VK45.01 tanks with the Krupp turrets and
8.8 cm KwK 36
The 8.8 cm KwK 36 (german: 8,8 cm Kampfwagenkanone 36) was an tank gun used by the German Army during World War II. This was the primary armament of the PzKpfw VI Tiger I tank. It was developed and built by Krupp.
Design
The KwK 36 w ...
guns were produced. Only one completed Tiger (P) with chassis number 150013 saw combat service as a command tank.
*''Panzerjäger Tiger (P) "Ferdinand" ''
:91 existing VK 4501 chassis were converted into
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 ...
''
jagdpanzer
''Jagdpanzer'' (JgPz) is the name given in German to a heavily-armoured, tracked tank destroyer, although it may also be used for other kinds of self-propelled guns. Literally translated from German, ''Jagdpanzer'' is "hunting tank".
It typi ...
s''. The work was completed in just a few months from March to May 1943.
*''Panzerjäger Tiger (P) "Elefant" ''
:In September 1943 all surviving Ferdinands were recalled to be modified. 48 of the 50 surviving vehicles were modified with additional armour, a new commanders cupola (from
StuG III) and a new ball mounted frontal machine gun for self defense.
*''Bergepanzer Tiger(P)''
:A conversion of the VK 45.01 (P) chassis into recovery vehicles designated
Bergepanzer Tiger (P). Only 3 were built.
*''VK 45.01 "RammTiger" ''
:A proposed conversion of the VK 45.01 (P) chassis in a heavily armoured ramming vehicle armed with machine guns. 3 superstructures were completed but their fate is unknown as the project was cancelled in 1943.
References
Bibliography
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{{WWIIGermanAFVs
World War II heavy tanks
World War II tanks of Germany
Heavy tanks of Germany