Panzer VIII Maus
Panzerkampfwagen VIII Maus ("Mouse") was a German World War II super-heavy tank completed in late 1944. It is the heaviest fully enclosed armoured fighting vehicle ever built. Five were ordered, but only two hulls and one turret were completed before the testing grounds were captured by advancing Soviet military forces.
Tanks in the British Army
They were followed by the Valentine tank (Infantry Tank Mk III) and Churchill tank (Infantry Tank Mk IV). Designed using the interior and chassis layout of the experimental A10, the Valentine met an emergency 1938 requirement for a tank to supplement the Matilda. Ordered "off the drawing board" in 1939, by the time production ceased in 1944, some 8,275 of these sturdy tanks had been built. Considered stable and reliable by its crews, the tank was only hampered by its small size. Unlike the Matilda tanks, this model allowed the later fitting of a larger main gun but at the expense of operating a two-man turret. The initial riveted construction soon was replaced by welding. The Valentine proved to be difficult to develop further but the Churchill went through successive variants and served up to the end of the war. The early Churchills were fraught with mechanical defects and required many changes before they were considered sound. The army had this machine designed to meet a possible need for a tank to operate in a "shelled area" on the Western Front which in 1939 was expected to eventually look like 1918. The initial A20 design was not successful which caused Vauxhall to take over from Harland and Wolff. The Vauxhall design was called the A22 and the first production vehicles were delivered around the middle of 1941. Eventually, the teething problems were resolved and the tank went on to become one of the best tanks in the army. The tank was refined into many special roles, mostly with the Royal Engineers. The tank had excellent weight distribution and was considered very stable in movement.