Landkreuzer P. 1500 Monster

This article has multiple issues. Please help or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of all important aspects of the article. (May 2010) This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please help by introducing citations to additional sources. Find sources:  –  ·  ·  · scholar · JSTOR (August 2017) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources:  –  ·  ·  · scholar · JSTOR (August 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) This article possibly contains original research. Please by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. (August 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Landkreuzer P 1500 Monster
Artist's rendition of the P.1500 Monster
Type	Proposed super heavy self-propelled gun
Place of origin	Nazi Germany
Specifications
Mass	1,794 t (1,978 short tons; 1,766 long tons) (800mm gun variant) 801 t (883 short tons; 788 long tons) (600mm gun variant)
Length	25 metres (82 ft) (800mm gun variant)
Width	12.8 metres (42 ft) (800mm gun variant)
Height	8.25 metres (27.1 ft) (800mm gun variant)
Crew	100+
Armor	250 millimetres (9.8 in) (hull front) 200 millimetres (7.9 in) (hull sides) (800mm gun variant)
Main armament	1 × 800mm gun OR 1 x 600mm mortar
Engine	4 × Daimler-Benz MB.501 6,000 kW (8,000 hp)
Operational range	Unknown
Maximum speed	7 km/h (4.3 mph)

The Landkreuzer P 1500 Monster was a purported German pre-prototype super-heavy self-propelled gun designed during World War II.^{[citation needed]} While mentioned in some popular works, there is no solid documentation for the program’s existence, and it may be an engineer’s amusement or an outright hoax.^[1]

Development[]

An 800 mm shell which would supposedly have been used

On 23 June 1942 the German Ministry of Armaments proposed a 1,000-tonne tank — the Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte. Adolf Hitler expressed interest in the project and the go-ahead was granted. In December, Krupp designed an even larger 1,500 tonne vehicle — the P. 1500 Monster. The P. 1500 was to be 25 m (82 ft) long, weighing 1800 tonnes, with a 250 mm hull front armor, four Daimler-Benz MB.501 diesel aero engines, and an operating crew of over 100 men. This "land cruiser” would have been a self-propelled platform for the 800mm Dora/Schwerer Gustav K (E) gun artillery piece also made by Krupp – the heaviest artillery weapon ever constructed by shell weight and total gun weight, and the largest rifled cannon by calibre.

The Schwerer Gustav fired a 7-tonne projectile up to 37 km (23 mi) and was designed for use against heavily fortified targets. The main armament could have been mounted without a rotating turret. Such a configuration would have allowed the P. 1500 to operate in a similar manner to the original 800mm railroad gun and Karl 600mm self-propelled mortars, launching shells without engaging the enemy with direct fire.

Issues[]

Development of the Panzer VIII Maus had highlighted significant problems associated with very large vehicles, such as their destruction of roads/rails, their inability to use bridges and the difficulty of strategic transportation by road or rail. The bigger the vehicle, the bigger these problems became.

Propulsion had also proved problematic in the development of the Maus: The prototype had failed to meet its specified speed requirements which meant that even larger vehicles such as the P. 1500 were likely to be slow-moving.

Another weakness was the P. 1500's vulnerability to air attack, as the Allies had air supremacy from 1943/44 onward. This itself would mean it would have required a detachment of anti-aircraft vehicles as defense.

In 1943, Albert Speer, the Minister for Armaments, canceled both the Ratte and Monster projects.

See also[]

• Crawler-transporter, the largest self-propelled land vehicles ever built
• Bagger 293, a bucket-wheel excavator and the largest land vehicle ever built by weight
• The Captain, Big Muskie and Bagger 288, previous land vehicle record holders for weight
• Overburden Conveyor Bridge F60, the largest land vehicle ever built by physical dimensions

References[]

• Estes, Kenneth W (2014). Super-heavy Tanks of World War II. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1782003830.
• Article about the Ratte, Monster and related
• Überschwere Panzerprojekte, Michael Fröhlich, Motorbuch Verlag, 2016 ISBN 3613039257