With all work on Maus development over by the end of 1943, all that was left of the program was a contract for a pair of hulls (one unfinished) and for a single turret (finished but needing modifications, along with half a dozen unfinished armored hulls. The completed hull, now at Böblingen for trials, was not going to wasted despite the serial production being cancelled. A programme for these trials was set on 1st November 1943, but without a turret, a weighted mockup would have to be used to simulate the loading on the hull. This mockup turret (Ersatzgewicht) was a crude affair, roughly similar in shape and size to the Maus Turm but unable to rotate and held in place by cross pieces which were simply tightened up against the underside of the 2,959 mm diameter opening in the hull for the turret ring to hold it in place.

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An article by Andrew Hills 

Narrated by @ConeOfArc  

Edited by Big Turn 

Sound edited by Kraiger

Even before a finished design was ready or approved, Hitler, in November 1942, ordered that 5 Mäuschen were to be built and a timetable set by Wa Prüf 4 to achieve this. Turret and hull drawings were to be ready and approved by March 1943 and then 5 vehicles built within just 6-7 months- an ambitious and unrealistic schedule, as this also called for trials by 5th May 1943. The Heereswaffenamt (Army Ordnance Department) arranged for Colonel Haenel to help ensure timetables for the Maus were adhered to by going from firm to firm to press them to meet production requirements and, if necessary, assess severe penalties for missing deadlines.

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An article by Andrew Hills 

Narrated by @ConeOfArc  

Edited by Séraphin Panlion 

Sound edited by Gabe The Tanker

It is impossible to consider the Maus and not be impressed by the machine as a feat of engineering. At 188 tonnes, it is the heaviest operational tank ever made by any nation at any time in any war and was made despite the shortages of raw materials, industrial capacity, and manpower at the time in Nazi Germany. Yet, despite the impressive achievement of making this rolling behemoth, the vehicle stands as a testimony to the total waste taking place in the German industry and the inefficiencies inherent in the way in which tank development was carried out. By the time the Maus was finished in 1945, it was a boondoggle. No amount of awe at the size, weight, firepower, or armor on this beast could disguise the incredible waste of resources it accounted for, nor could it make any difference to the outcome of the war. The Maus, as a weapon, was simply useless, yet the lessons learned from its development did find use in other programs and the very existence of such an enormous machine has inevitably drawn a significant amount of attention. Drawing both awe and fascination in equal measure, the Maus is a complex tank with a lengthy development.

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An article by Andrew Hills 

Narrated by @ConeOfArc  

Edited by ya boy Jim Zawacki 

Sound edited by Gabe

After the Battle of Stalingrad ended in February 1943, a great effort was made by Germany to develop heavily armored vehicles armed to be more effective at assaulting fortified positions and buildings, particularly in urban environments. The realization that such a vehicle was required came soon after fighting in Stalingrad began, and the straightforward solution to this problem was presented in Hitler's conference on the 20th September 1942.

The initial result of this calling was the SturmInfanterieGeschütz 33B (Eng: Assault Infantry Gun 33B), a variant of the StuG III assault gun with a heavily modified box-like casemate armed with a 15cm (5.9 in) sIG/33/1 howitzer. With 80 mm (3.15 in) of frontal armour, the StuIG 33B was capable of directly attacking fortified positions while still being adequately protected against return fire.

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An article by C.Ryan 

Narrated by @Sofilein 

Edited by Pavel Alexe 

Sound edited by Gabe The Tanker

One of, if not the most famous French tanks of the Second World War was the B1 heavy tank and its improved model, the B1 Bis. These large infantry heavy tanks were some of the most heavily armed and armored tanks existing in the world during the late 1930s. While their production only started in the second half of this decade, they had roots going back as far as 1921, with the Char de Bataille program that started a search for a medium, well-armed tank to fill in the void between the small and numerous Renault FT and the gigantic and rare FCM 2C tanks. One of the proposals to this program was created by the manufacturer of the FCM 2C, Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée.

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An article by Marisa Belhote 

Narrated by Stan Lucian 

Edited by Jim Zawacki 

Sound edited by Gabe

With the introduction of the Tanque Argentino Mediano (TAM) and the Vehículo de Combate Transporte de Personal (VCTP) in the early 80’s and the infrastructure to produce more vehicles using the same technology, Argentina was in a unique position to produce a family of vehicles based on the same chassis. After a mortar carrying vehicle and plans for a Self-Propelled Gun, the next step was a command vehicle to coordinate the units of the Ejército Argentino: the Vehículo de Combate Puesto de Comando (VCPC).

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An article by Gareth Lynn Montes 

Illustrated by Pablo Javier Gómez 

Narrated by Stan Lucian 

Sound edited by Kraiger 

Edited by ya boy Jim Zawacki

The Light Tank T3, made in the late 1930’s, occupies a period of time in US tank development history best described not so much as a dark age but more of a grey age. Lots of failed and somewhat obscure ‘T’ number designs were being developed to fulfil an unclear and poorly considered set of strategic goals at a time when an isolationist America was unprepared to wage a modern war.

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An article by Andrew Hills 

Narrated by @The_Chieftain  

Edited by Pavel Alexe 

Sound edited by Pavel Alexe

The United States had, by the 1970’s, realised that the majority of their artillery was ageing rapidly or just out of date. Open topped, slow, vulnerable, based on obsolete chassis, the existing self-propelled guns (SPG’s) in service were not suitable for a potential Cold War showdown with the Soviet Union, which had a more modern SPG force. Early development work took place under the program names Division Support Weapon System (DSWS) and Direct Support Armored Cannon System (DSACS). The DSWS had changed by 1979 into the Enhanced Self-Propelled Weapons System (ESPWS) program with the goal of producing a common platform for self-propelled artillery for the Army. All of these programs were also grouped under the general name of the Howitzer Improvement Program (HIP).

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An article by Andrew Hills 

Narrated by Lucian Stan 

Edited by Pavel Alexe 

Sound edited by Kraiger

The E100 was a project which is occasionally and somewhat erroneously referred to as a rival to Dr. Porsche’s Maus design. This is not strictly true, as the E100 came after the 130-tonne Tiger-Maus design from Krupp, which was the Maus-rival. When the Porsche-Maus was approved by Hitler on 3rd January 1943, the Krupp Tiger-Maus was abandoned. Shortly thereafter, Ernst Kniekampf (Panzer Kommission), without informing Krupp, gave work on the project over to the firm of Adler at Friedberg to build a simple prototype (E100 versuchs-farhgestell: Experimental 100-tonne test hull) for trials. This was done despite the lack of experience by the firm in the design or manufacture of tanks and turrets. According to Kniekampf, Krupp was already overburdened with other work, but it lay within Kniekampf’s general Entwicklungsreihe versuchs panzerkampfwagen ( (development series test armored car) framework trying to rationalise tank development in different weight categories. It would be nearly a year later (after the failure of the Porsche-Maus production plans), that the failed Tiger-Maus, a vehicle which showed a large amount of promise in simplified production over the Maus, had shown any substantive progress.

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An article by Andrew Hills 

Narrated by @ConeOfArc  

Edited by Kraiger 

Sound edited by Pavel Alexe

A little known armored car design, the Automitrailleuse CDM, or CDM armored car, is one of the most extensive armored vehicle projects undertaken in secrecy, not only from the general public, but also from the higher-ups of the manufacturer’s own military. This was a project undertaken by a rogue element of the Vichy Regime’s military that refused to accept the Armistice and prepared to resist a German invasion of the unoccupied southern half of France. The CDM armored car’s production was in full swing by the point the invasion of the Vichy “Free Zone” in November of 1942 put a definitive halt to the secret armament project.

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An article by Marisa Belhote 

Video editor: Big Turn Audio 

Editor: Gabe 

Narration: Stan Lucian