# Maus Tank blown up by Canadians



## Franko

So I have been doing some reading whilst on leave and I found something interesting.

It would appear that a Maus tank was actually engaged and destroyed by Canadian forces during the last days of the Reich.

Apparently a Maus tank was rushed into the Western front near the Rhine to hold up the advancing Canucks. 

I know that one was dispatched to the Eastern Front and was captured (blown up by it's own crew) and brought back to Russia for evaluation.

However, I have been reading up on it and now I'm trying to find further evidence to support the reading that I've been doing in my spare time during leave.

Wikipedia pretty much given it a grave and a stone to put on it.....but the eyewitness reports give it somewhat of a different skew.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panzer_VIII_Maus


Any thoughts on this?




For those out there that aren't in the know the Maus (mouse) tank was here are some specs on it:

*Crew* - 5

*Weight* - 188 tons

*Dimensions lenght:* 12.66m (hull: 10.9m), width: 3.7m, height: 3.66m, ground clearance: 0.57m

*Armor* - 40-240mm

*Armament *- 1 x 128mm gun type 12.8cm KwK 44 L/55 (68 rounds), 1 x 75mm gun type KwK L/36 (200 rounds), 2 x machine gun Rheinmetall-Borsing MG 34 kal. 
7.92mm (1000 rounds)

*Maximum Speed* - road: 20 km/h

*Range* - road: 186 km , off-road: 68 km

*Fuel consumption* - road: 1400 l/100km, off-road: 3800 l/100km

*Engine* - carburetors, 4-stroke, 12 cylinder, overhead valve arrangement, displacement 44540 cm3, type Daimler-Benz MB 509 1080hp, fluid cooled

*Ground pressure *- 1.31 kg/cm2

*Negotiated obstacles* - gradient: 45o, fording: 1.7m, trench: 4m


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## George Wallace

This brings to mind Munster.  The collection of Tanks there is amazing.  There is one, with a Sabot round penetrating a good eight inches into the armour and still not going through..... amazing.  

The Maus could have done a lot of damage, but then it also had to be resupplied.......a lot!


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## George Wallace

Now the furthest East the Canadians got, before the end of the fighting, was 1 Can Para, who married up with the Russians in Wismar on the Baltic sea.


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## Franko

George Wallace said:
			
		

> This brings to mind Munster.....



Hmmm...seems to me that Cdn troops cleared Reichswald forest on the 13th of Feb 45.

Possibly linked?

Regards


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## larry Strong

I have never seen mention in all my reading, about the Maus being met by Canadians in the Reichwald or anywhere else, it would be interesting to see more info


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## BernDawg

Aside from the engagement in question...  I think I read somewhere that the Maus was actually driven by electric motors and the diesel engine was a generator to power them.  The reason for this arrangement was it's extreme weight.  So here's the question...  Is that the case or am I right the F out of 'er?


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## Quag

Yes, the Maus did have diesel-electric propulsion, however it did not prove to be very efficient.


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## larry Strong

Quag said:
			
		

> Yes, the Maus did have diesel-electric propulsion, however it did not prove to be very efficient.




That would be quite an understatement, the Maus was a complete waste of time, and valuable materials ! Just my .02 euros 0.0283504 CAD worth


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## Danjanou

Hmm hybrid diesel electric motors, those are very eco friendly. Maybe we could get the NDP to propose we build a whole fleet of Maus  (Meeces?) as our new MBT. I wonder if Bombardier can get their hands on the original blue prints? They do have experience with copying German military vehicles if IRRC.   ;D


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## Nieghorn

I only remember seeing info on this briefly.  Astonishing machine . . . but it's the same old with Germany of the day, trying to over-engineer everything to make it 'the best' without necessarily making it the most efficient.  Seems like a nice big, slow target for a Typhoon pilot!  

You'd think they'd take a few more examples from the T-34 . . .


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## a_majoor

If you think the Maus was good, then you would have loved the Ratte, which was to be powered by four 
U-boat diesel engines and weighed 1500 tones. The "E" series of AFV's were more sensible http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entwicklung_series, but like jet aircraft and "Electroboats" (Type XXI U boats, direct ancestors of Canada's former "Oberon" class submarine fleet), these ideas were approved far too late to make it into mass production and change the course of the war for Germany. 

I will admit I have never heard any stories of the Maus being sent into battle against the Western allies, and indeed, until the early 1990's every reference I had ever seen suggested the Maus prototypes were destroyed in the test establishment without seeing any action at all. This link is to a reprint of "The German Mouse" from Intelligence Bulletin, March 1946 http://www.lonesentry.com/articles/maus/index.html, with more details and cutaway drawings.

More illustrations of WW II German AFV's here:http://mythicpanzers.jexiste.fr/Files/Infos/01-Sizes/WWII-GermanMilitaryVehicles.htm


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## ExSarge

Recce By Death said:
			
		

> So I have been doing some reading whilst on leave and I found something interesting.



What’s the source of this claim, and what if any sources is the author you are reading citing?


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## Colin Parkinson

The German plans to get them across rivers was interesting, as most bridges could not support them. They would connect both tanks by a large long electrical cable, The first tank would enter the river running off the power from the 2nd tank, once the first tank was through (if) then the second tank would enter the river running off the power of the 1st tank. Repeat as required.  :


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## geo

(you just had to hope the cable was long enough......


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## BernDawg

;D  That had all the makings of a good Bugs Bunny cartoon.   :rofl:


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## geo

You can just visualise the look of incredulity on the faces of the crewmen being handed the overly large xtension cord for the 1st time....

...."und make sure your feet on dry land when you connect the zis cable to ze slave... er slave tank"


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## BernDawg

JA... ja.  C'mon back und zie....


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## geo

Was is los!
Mein Got!
Ach du lieber, You haf a big 'un......


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## Nfld Sapper

Now where is the plug for this  ;D


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## patrick666

_Another issue found was that the Maus was simply too heavy to cross bridges. As a result an alternative system was developed, where the Maus would instead ford the rivers it needed to cross. Due to its size it could ford relatively deep streams, but for deeper ones it was to submerge and drive across the river bottom. The solution required tanks to be paired up. One Maus would supply electrical power to the crossing vehicle via a cable until it reached the other side. The crew would receive air through a large snorkel, which was sufficeintly long for the tank to go 45 feet (13 m) underwater. _  - http://www.answers.com/topic/panzer-viii-maus

I wonder why they didn't stick with "Mammoth" - sounds a little more devastating than 'Mouse', but then tracks do squeak so maybe they were on to something. But surely, a Mouse is no match for...


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## geo

It all depends on which calibre he comes in...............


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## Spr.Earl

188 t. I don't think we have a tracked vehicle that weigh's that much and do 20k to day never mind a tank.
But what a noval idea with the diesal electric back then where as our railway's use diesal electric engines in our locamotives today.


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## geo

Spr Earl
if you go to any of the big open pit mines (Lab city& Wabush, Ft McMurray and you will find that almost all the big dump trucks are diesel electrics.


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## Nolanz

This is a very interesting subject a maus was a very big and well amoured tank. I have one question how did the CF take the maus out?


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## AJFitzpatrick

Nolanz said:
			
		

> This is a very interesting subject a maus was a very big and well amoured tank. I have one question how did the CF take the maus out?


2 Points 
1. If you had read the entire thread you would see that the entire incident falls under the _uncertain/unverifiable_ classification
2. Not to denigrate the RCN or the RCAF but the Canadian Forces only originate from 1967, it would have been the Canadian Army who was involved. Nit-picking yes but that is what history is sometimes about.


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## Colin Parkinson

Nolanz said:
			
		

> This is a very interesting subject a maus was a very big and well amoured tank. I have one question how did the CF take the maus out?



Likely they walked up behind it, planted a few charges and walked away.

Without a supporting force and infantry screen, they would not be able to fight very well, it was basically a semi-mobile bunker.


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## 3rd Herd

From the North West Historical Association:
"As the war ended the Allied armies overran the test sites for both the Maus and E100, where they found the prototypes for each. The single model of the E100 was left half-finished at the Henschel test plant at Haustenbeck. British troops(?) occupied the site in May 1945 as the war ended, finding the partially-built hull and suspension." While Pravda has several good articles on the Soviet's obtaining both a V1 and V2 model of the Maus none is supported by source information.

Technical specifications and blue prints: The German Mouse, Super-Super-Super-Heavy Tank Became Hitler's White Elephant
http://www.lonesentry.com/articles/maus/index.html

So far I have found no record in CAMHQ records but there may be some recorded information in some of the US archives as there was a race on to seize and remove German technology prior to the Soviets arriving, Cooper in Death Traps  points to several archival sources from late 1945 and 1946 that now maybe internet accessible. The hunt is on.


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