World War 2 Super Tanks - From Bizarre Designs to Battlefield Beasts! | Secret Weapons of WW 2

in World War II tanks played a crucial role in military strategy they were the PowerHouse of the battlefield capable of turning the tide of combat but it didn't begin that way the value of a Rel iable tank in battle drove a race between nations each seeking ways to develop the newest the biggest and the most Innovative armored vehicles this was a battle fought in the lab and the factory at times the result was Impractical and bizarre some tanks would remain a Powerhouse of the war others never made it off the drawing board each new tank was designed and built in secret a strategy to optimize the element of surprise when they finally powered into sight for the first [Applause] time the technological advances of World War II often reflected the Lessons Learned in the trenches and on the battlefields of World War I during the first world war traversing the treacherous ground of No Man's Land led to the rise of heavily armored weapons one of these types of Tanks inspired by these deadly battlefields would make an appearance in the second world [Music] war this was the cougal Panza [Music] although trapped Vehicles provide good Traction in soft ground they struggle moving across uneven Terrain in the pockmarked Landscapes of the first world war many tanks would become stuck as they attempted to Traverse shell holes and trenches Creative Solutions were needed one that emerged was the rolling tank early versions of rolling tanks date back to 1917 but by the second world war there was the German cougal Panza also known as the ball [Music] tank for in the comparatively open battlefields of the second world war speed and maneuverability were much more important than in the trenches of the first and so the cougal Panza speed was not a particularly impressive statistic compared to the average running speed of a human which is around 10 kmph nor were its armaments the cougal Panza would have been mounted with a single weapon below the vision slit believed to be an mg34 or 42 when used by German forces whether this was exactly what was needed or a limiting factor a hard to to know some of the operational capabilities of the cougal Panza are based on Theory as there are no recorded accounts of its use in [Music] battle the invasion of Poland saw the beginning of Germany's Armed Forces cutting a bloody path through Europe German Blitz C or lightning War tactics were shockingly successful as one nation after another fell to their rapid armored Advance reflecting a speed and intensity of battle that would have rendered the cougal Panza useless the absence of the cougal Panza on the battlefield means its purpose remains open to speculation with experts having to theorize about its Battlefield use whatever its intended use it's likely the tank never made it past the initial prototype towards the end of the war as Soviet forces steamrolled the Germans they uncovered their enemy secret weapons and this is where it was thought the cougal Panza was captured and sent back to Russia the only surviving cougal Panza is on display in the Russian kubinka tank Museum its Secrets continue to be closely guarded taking metallurgical samples from the tank is forbidden and the lack of details over its capture has even LED some to speculate that the Tank's existence is a Soviet hoax while the cougal Panza may have never crossed a battlefield the success the Germans found with their Blitz C tactics in the early stages of the war saw some Nations experiment with how they could make this incredible weapon even more versatile in May 1940 Germany invaded Belgium and quickly turned their attention towards the supposedly impregnable Fort eban ml in just 20 minutes glider born German paratroops had neutralized the fort heralding a new method for delivering troops to the battlefield military planners around the world took note of Germany's use of milit gliders leading Russia and Japan to develop an unusual Concept in 1930s USSR early experiments tested slinging small lightly armed tanks under a bomber that would land deliver the tanks and then take off again by 194 the design plan had changed Soviet engineer ALG Antonov was tasked with creating a glider that could land small tanks on the 2nd of September 1942 the first test flight of the A40 took place despite using the light t60 tank in the design it was too heavy to fly most of the fuel and ammunition were removed along with the turret which was needed to steer it in flight well the defining characteristic of any tank is that it's heavy it's loaded with armor and that means it's very difficult to get airborne more importantly tanks are not exactly aerodynamic so once you get a tank Airborne it's very hard to control it another issue was that the t60 was too small and lightly armed to be suitable for any intensive combat engagement once it reached its destination Soviet authorities also want wanted the A40 redesigned with the much larger t34 but at more than four times the weight of the t60 no aircraft would have been able to get it in the air during early 1942 the Dutch East Indies came under attack from a rampant Imperial Japan through this island hopping campaign Japan made use of paratroops at the Battle of teore madoo and onul although the campaign was successful the paratroops in these battles suffered heavy casualties and Japan began development of their own glider tank the Japanese Imperial Army took a similar approach to their flying tank uh as the Soviets did it was almost the same concept it was a tank that was placed inside for better lack of a description would be a glider the Japanese glider tank was based on the type 98 KY light tank the weight was reduced from the usual 7.2 tons down to 2.9 tons with a crew of two people a prototype was built and designated special number three light tank [Music] Kuro the maida k6 glider was veloped specifically for the Kuro that when fitted made the overall vehicle size 12 M long with a 22 M wingspan and weighing 4.2 tons but progress was slow and the first prototype of the glider wasn't actually built until 1945 when tested it had poor flight performance and visibility for the pilot by now the Japanese Army was so battered and depleted that undertaking Airborne operations was impossible and the project was cancelled I think Japan experienced similar difficulties to what the Soviet Union experienced and quickly learned that it's much easier to deploy a tank by simply pushing it out of an aircraft with a parachute rather than having one fly into battle of its own accord as nice as that idea sounds plus by the end of the war there were severe material shortages in Japan particularly in the manner of Steel so it wasn't like there was a lot of material that was available for them to build tanks to experiment with flying tanks may have been for a Time the great hope for arming paratroopers once they were on the ground but this flight of fancy would never really become a reality while the gliding tanks may have never made it off the ground not all tanks designed in secret remained that way one would even become one of the most successful tank designs of the war and this tank design would begin its Journey with Lessons Learned in the Soviet Far East in 1939 Imperial Japan tested the Soviet Union's control of the Far East by pushing an invading Force into Soviet controlled Mongolia despite recording a victory and putting an end to Japan's Ambitions in the Soviet Far East on hold it became evident that the light thinly armored Soviet fast tanks were severely [Music] outgunned the Soviets needed a a new improved model with better armor and bigger weapons one which could be mass-produced quickly and was easy to maintain developed in secret the t34 would be the answer at the time it was a revolutionary tank [Music] design the t34 was designed with rounded armor and a turret sloped at 30° compared to the hard angles of the German panzas that had helped conquer Poland or the Japanese tanks the Russians had faced in Mongolia this allowed the armor to withstand higher caliber anti-tank fire as the slope effectively created more armor that the projectile had to pierce through [Music] Lau it was 7.5 M long and 2.4 M High carried a large 76.2 m gun and could cruise at speeds of around 50 kmph with a 300 km range the first two prototypes were built and tested in secret in early 194 on the 22nd of June 1941 Nazi Germany launched the largest invasion in history known as operation Barbarosa the operation was supposed to be an easy victory over a lesser force it was agile strong designed to operate in the tough conditions of the Soviet un Union and unlike anything the invading German forces had seen while the German tanks struggled in mud and snow The Wider tracks of the t34 kept it moving but rushed into mass production in mid1 1940 before the t34 could be perfected the Revolutionary design of the t-34 did cause problems for its operators for despite this the team 34 was essential in delaying the German advance for months something that gave the Russians time to redeploy their industrial bases but this desperate maneuver came at a cost for the t34 [Applause] the desperation of the Soviet would force changes to the production of the t34 an effort despite the loss in quality that paid off as masses of t-34s were churned out and sent to the front lines but the Germans hadn't been sitting idle and they responded the tiger 1's 88 mm main gun could penetrate the sloped armor of the t-34s turret at distances of about 1 kilm its armor was so thick the t34 had to be within 400 m to return the favor but what the Tiger 1 couldn't compare with was the t34 production capacity during the war the Soviet Union produced over 57,000 t34 tanks making up 55% of the total Soviet tank force at the peak of t34 production in 1943 around 43 tanks were being built a day for 1 7 tanks an hour the Tiger 1 by comparison took approximately 14 days to produce just a single unit with 1347 built from 1942 until the end of the war for and this Advantage was crucial to the Soviets who from 1943 began the long bloody process of pushing the Germans out of their Homeland while it was incredibly successful the lessons learned from the t34 as an easy to manufacture and maintain midsize tank were not heeded by all the idea of the super heavy tank had occurred to everybody though the Germans were ahead in their design the idea was that it would be Invincible by early 1942 it became clear that operation Barbarosa had failed in the grips of Winter the front lines had stabilized and both sides had dug in once the snowth however Hitler planned to launch a new offensive but fears that the USSR were developing a super heavy tank in secret saw Hitler demand his own one he could use to break through the enemy defenses this led to the Panza Mouse resource before the ironically named mouse went into development the tiger family of Tanks which had started appearing on the battlefield in 1942 were the largest operational tanks that we used widely during the second world war with the Tiger 1 weighing over 50 tons and the tiger 2 or King Tiger ticking up to 68 five tons the mouse would dwarf both the mouse was designed to carry six people and reach a maximum speed of 20 kmph it was also designed to be fitted with a Zeiss stereoscopic Rangefinder which would enable the tanks operators to accurately fire on any eny targets up to 4,000 M away in reality it was wildly [Music] impractical lis [Music] in May 1943 Hitler was shown an initial model for the Panza Mouse he immediately ordered 150 into production but by now the Soviets having inflicted a ReSound ing defeat on the Germans of the Battle of Stalingrad in February were no longer on the defense and the need for a huge breakthrough tank was less important than conserving resources [Music] despite his initial enthusiasm 5 months later Hitler cancelled the order he gave one caveat they could complete the prototypes that were underway [Music] but it would have been a massive extraordinary site and so long as you worked out where the application was going to be so that you didn't have to go through any deep rivers or across any dangerous Bridges I'm sure it could have worked somewhere [Music] by 1945 any hopes of completing the Panza Mouse were dashed years of grinding aerial assault had reduced Germany's industrial base to Rubble followed by the Soviet forces crossing the border of Poland and occupying East Germany the mouse would suffer the same fate as the cougal paner the Panza 8 Mouse may have been an enormous and in many ways impractical concept yet the Strategic study that led to the development of the mouse also gave rise to another far larger project one that dwarfed the mouse with its sheer scale and [Music] ambition in June 1942 one of Germany's top weapons manufacturers kup proposed a radical idea a potentially gamechanging tank of unparalleled scale designed to arm a tank with the Firepower armor and anti-aircraft capabilities of a battleship they called it the land czer p1000 rata [Applause] during the early 30s the Soviets wanted to develop a breakthrough tank modeled after the French chart Toc and had turned abroad for help cot a German Soviet sympathizer was awarded the contract in 1931 but cost blowouts and the availability of designs of the British Vicor a11 independent through corporate Espionage saw the Soviets pivot away from Court's designs and in 1933 he went back to Germany that same year the Soviets released the t35a the only five turret tank to reach production although modeled of stolen British plans the t35a took heavy inspiration from the lessons learned during Court's design process for the lanata CT would take this to the next level by building his design around the Weaponry left over from refitting the shanor class battleships a class of battleships who had been using their massive 28 Cent met cannons to prey on Allied convoys by December 1942 they had drawn up a series of of designs for the lanata the rata design called proposed was a Beth at 35 M long and 11 M high it's enormous size was not just due to its armor it was necessary to create a stable firing platform for its weaponry for the twin Naval guns were capable of piercing 450 mm of armor up to 5 km away the tank would also be protected by armor that was over 360 mm at its thickest Point all of this added to its huge weight while the rata was designated a 1,000 ton tank it would likely have been nearly double that the turret alone would have weighed over 600 tons an overall weight that would have affected Its Real World performance to help deal with this the rata was designed with three sets of tracks on either side of the tank each track would have been 1.2 M wide the scale of the rata was far beyond anything the Germans had in the field for the tiger 2 had armor that was half the proposed thickness of the rata its main weapon an 88 mm gun was the same size as the smallest of the's secondary weapons the rata would also have been five times longer than the tiger 2 there was also no German tank Factory with the capacity to build such a large vehicle if it ever made it into production it would have to be manufactured in a shipyard once built dealing with any breakdowns in the field would have been a major operation in itself the rata started its life as a potential answer to Soviet tank Weaponry but it couldn't have been further from the incredibly successful cheap to make easy to maintain mantra of the Soviet t34 ultimately Albert Shere Germany's minister of armaments viewed the project as a waste of rapidly dwindling German resources cancelling it in 1943 a decision that means this bearmouth is seen now as one of Hitler's Follies motivated by his obsession for scale over practicality [Music] Germany wasn't the only country striving to create the biggest most powerful tanks to ever take to the battlefield this was a race between nations playing out in secret facilities although the Allies design was somewhat motivated by more than just an obsession with size in 1943 British and American leaders met at the Ana Hotel in Casablanca to discuss among other things the liberation of Europe from Nazi occupation agreeing to start by assaulting Italy before opening up another front in northern France the Allies were aware that Victory would require overcoming an entrenched and well fortified Defender the US understood that the medium-sized tanks they favored weren't the answer they would need a new kind of Firepower the T28 super heavy tank design work on the T28 began in September 1943 the main obstacle that the Allies wanted the T28 to overcome was the Sig freed line a massive series of fortifications Defending Germany's western border the Sig freed line was nearly 5 kilometers at its deepest and consisted of over 3,000 command posts concrete pillboxes and shelters for troops as such the T28 was designed for heavy Firepower not Mobility it had armor over 200 mm thick which was later upped to over 300 mm in 1945 built to withstand the terrifying German 88 mm anti-tank Cannon the t28s own Weaponry was designed to engage unmoving for ified targets at a distance the 105 mm main gun was not connected to the shazzy Via a turret keeping its profile low against incoming fire but this also meant that it only had about 10° of movement to either side this meant the T28 would be perfect for trading blows with fortified positions would need an armored escort to prevent it becoming outflanked if ever it was forced into a tank duel by March 1944 the US Army had ordered five of the newly designated heavy tank T28 into production but events would soon outpace its appearance on the battlefield as the T28 languished in secret development in March 1945 the Allies crossed the Ry River and outflank the SE Creed line making both it and the T28 almost obsolete soon after the line fell entirely and so the T28 was redesignated as the t95 tank destroyer but tank destroyers were designed to hunt the enemy's tanks and were commonly lightly armored mobile and easy to manufacture with a maximum field load of 95 tons the t95 needed four sets of tracks to spread its weight and handle different types of terrain its massive size also meant it only had a top speed of 12 km hour compared to the M4 Sherman that could reach close to 50 km per hour the t95 would be quickly outpaced by the US tanks it was built to support in 1946 the tank was redesignated again to be the T28 super heavy tank two prototypes were built and tested on us soil But ultimately the project was abandoned in October 1947 multiple Nations had now failed in the quest to develop a super heavy tank it would appear that winning a war requires more than just sheer size and Firepower it requ requires novel Solutions ingenious developments and in one secret tank project a unique way to strike fear into their [Music] enemies in November 1942 the British and the Americans joined forces in a combined project to assist in nighttime operations merging an armor Spotlight with a tank to help illuminate enemy positions the project was developed under a shroud of [Music] [Music] secrecy code named by the British the canal defense light or CDL while the Americans knew it as Gizmo as a way to keep it it true nature from being discovered this new secret weapon was a massively powerful Spotlight designed to be attached to a tank and be used at night to light up enemy positions and disorient combatants if a series of lights were positioned in a crisscrossing pattern it was also capable of hiding troops from the enemy this slit was designed to open open and close twice every second to protect the light from Small Arms fire but it had the added benefit of creating a disorientating strobing effect it was incredibly powerful creating intense light approximately 103,000 times brighter than a 100 watt globe the light was fitted on the American m 3 Lee a mediumsized tank that had become outdated and so available to be retrofitted with a new CDL turret in the interest of maintaining the Project's top secret status work on the M3 Lee version was split between multiple locations in the US specialized Crews were trained to operate the tanks under a veil of secrecy under project CAC at Fort Knox and in the remote Arizona desert but late in 1944 enthusiasm for the canal defense light was waning in the US a general shortage of Tanks led to the project being halted by Eisenhower on November the 4th in the end the CDL tanks were only ever used once March 1945 the Allies had been fighting their way towards the lendorf bridge the key to traversing the ryin river into Germany it was critical that they reached the bridge and secured it before the Army had time to blow it up tanks fitted with the canal defense like turret lined up on the bank of the river and fired up their spotlights the powerful beams lit up the bridge the far bank and the river itself revealing enemy positions on the other side of the river and German frogmen swimming towards the bridge in an attempt to attach explosives to its pilings under the canal defense light the German soldiers had little chance and resorted to shelling the bridge to sever this vital Lifeline into Germany while the canal defense light project had a fleeting moment of success in combat it was ultimately seen as too costly to continue despite any tactical Advantage it might provide whether it was driven by a quest for size power or Mobility the development of each new tank was an ingenious attempt to do better than what was done before to create something that could outstrip what anyone had seen on the battlefield or to learn from the mistakes of the past but in engineering armaments for war there is a constant push and pull between the creativity of human imagination shifting politics and the technical practicalities of the day long lead times could Doom a project whilst some of these new tanks were a success others would fall out of favor suffer spiraling costs or no longer suit the needs of that moment in the war now artifacts of a time where the need for strength and determination led to at times times outlandish but always innovative ideas to build the strength of Nations on the battlefield [Music] [Music] [Music]