K-Wagen

The Großkampfwagen or "K-Wagen" (short for G.K.-Wagen) was a German super-heavy tank, two prototypes of which were almost completed by the end of World War I.

K Panzerkampfwagen
The "K" Panzerkampfwagen (front of the vehicle is at right)
TypeSuper-heavy tank
Place of origin German Empire
Specifications
Mass120 t
Length13 metres (42 ft 8 in)
Width6 metres (19 ft 8 in)
Height3 metres (9 ft 10 in)
Crew27
Armor30 mm
Main
armament
4 x 77 mm guns
Secondary
armament
7 x 7.92 mm MG08
Engine2 x V6 Daimler
650 hp (480 kW)
Suspensionunsprung
Maximum speed 7.5 kilometres per hour (4.7 mph)

History

In June 1917, before the first A7V tanks had been completed, the German War Ministry ordered the development of a new superheavy tank intended to be used in break-through situations. Design work was carried out by Joseph Vollmer, a reserve captain and engineer working for the Verkehrstechnische Prüfungskommission ("Transport-technologies Board of Examiners" of the army), and a Captain Weger.

On June 28, 1917 the War Ministry approved the draft design and ordered ten examples, five to be built by the Riebe ball-bearing factory in Berlin and five by Wegmann & Co. of Kassel.

The vehicle originally weighed 165 tons but this was reduced to a more practicable 120 tons by shortening the length. The huge size and mass of the K-Wagen made it impossible to transport, so it was decided that it would be split into sections for transport by rail, to be reassembled behind the front line near where it was to be used.

Two prototypes were built at the request of Hindenburg, and were almost complete by the end of the war.

Description
Drawing of a K-Wagen

The hull of the K-Wagen consisted of six modules that could be transported separately by rail: the control room, the fighting room, the engine room, the transmission room and the two sponsons. The commander could give orders to the crew by means of electric lights: fire control was comparable to that of a destroyer, the Germans seeing the vehicle as a veritable "landship". The drivers would have had to steer the vehicle blindly, directed by the commander.

The K-Wagen was to be armed with four 77 mm fortress guns and seven MG08 machine guns and had a crew of 27: a commander, two drivers, a signaler, an artillery officer, 12 artillery men, eight machine gunners and two mechanics. At the beginning of the project the incorporation of flamethrowers was considered but later rejected.

The K-Wagen never became operational as under the conditions of the Armistice Germany was forbidden to possess tanks. One of the tanks, "Ribe" was complete at the end of the war, but it never left the factory and was scrapped under the watchful eyes of the Military Inter-Allied Commission of Control.

gollark: Skynet's `send` and `receive` functions handle the connection and listening stuff automatically, yes.
gollark: <@94122472290394112> EXT vs Skynet:Skynet:* wildcard channel - allows listening to all system messages* API may be nicer to use, as you don't *need* to call skynet.listen anywhere - you do need to call EXT.run somewhere, in parallel or something* Skynet's backend (not the CC side) assigns each connected socket an ID, and tells you which IDs recevied messages. This is not much use.EXT:* messages only readable by people on same channel or server operator* somewhat more complete API - allows closing channels - Skynet can do this but the CC side doesn't handle it
gollark: Yeeep.
gollark: No, because the storage system just lets you pull out items by their name.
gollark: Modern plethora-based item systems just allow you to deposit and withdraw items by name, that doesn't make sense.

See also

References
    • Foss, Christopher F. (2003). The Encyclopedia of Tanks and Armoured Fighting Vehicles. Spellmount. p. 232. ISBN 1-86227-188-7.
    • Bass, Eric (2006). German Panzers 1914-18. Osprey Publishing. p. 232. ISBN 1-84176-945-2.
    This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.