Modelcollect 72303 1/72 German P.1000 Ratte Scharnhorst 1945 Plastic Model Kit

Modelcollect 72303 1/72 German P.1000 Ratte Scharnhorst 1945

The Landkreuzer P.1000 “Ratte” was a design for a 1000-ton tank for use by Nazi Germany during World War II, that may have been proposed by Krupp director Edward Grotte in June 1942, who had already named it “Landkreuzer”. Submitted designs and drawings of the vehicle went under the names OKH Auftrag Nr. 30404 and E-30404/1, which were presented in December 1942. The tank was planned to be 1000 tonnes, being far heavier than the Panzer VIII “Maus”, the heaviest tank ever built (weighing 188 tonnes).

The large size and weight would have rendered the tank unable to cross bridges at the risk of collapsing them, and travelling on roads would soon destroy them. Though its top intended speed was 40 kilometres per hour (25 mph), its huge size and high visibility would have made it extremely vulnerable to aerial bombardment and artillery fire. Its great size would also have meant that once built the vehicle’s strategic, operational, and tactical mobility would be entirely dependent on its own drivetrain, for there were no other realistic means of moving it from one firing position to another. No existing railway or train car could bear its weight and its width was too great for existing tunnels.