Porsche did not wait for the completion of the trials before beginning production of his own heavy tank, with the result that 91 Porsche hulls had been completed by the time Henschel was awarded the contract. This tank became the excellent Tiger I, 1,354 of which were built by the end of the war. Evidently the Henschel design proved superior to Porsche’s and was selected for production. Tigers, Hellcats… and Elefantsīy April 1942, both the Henschel and Porsche heavy tank prototypes were ready for trials, with initial production planned for July. Any German complacency was banished dramatically when, during Operation Barbarrosa, the invasion of Russia in June 1941, Hitler’s elite panzer units confronted superior Soviet T-34 medium tanks and KV-1 heavy tanks. By May 1941, however, a design order had been issued to Henschel for the heavy tank designated VK4501 (H) and another to Porsche, VK4501 (P). This project does not seem to have been a high priority the success of the panzer divisions obviated the need to do more than buy additional Mark III and Mark IV medium tanks. Nonetheless, German interest in a heavy “breakthrough tank” predated the invasion of Poland, and as early as 1937 the Reich authorized the Henschel Company to begin work on a prototype. Germany entered World War II without a true heavy tank, relying on a mixture of light and medium vehicles and the superb and revolutionary military doctrine of the blitzkrieg. To know the Ferdinand, one has to begin with the history of its better-known cousin, the Tiger, Germany’s first successful World War II heavy tank. Technically a member of the formidable Tiger family, the Ferdinand’s history is rather strange. The weird and less than martial names assigned this 68-ton fighting vehicle were oddly fitting. Later, this name was modified, as if it was an improvement, to the ‘Elefant’ tank destroyer. But perhaps there was never a more unfortunately named beast than the German assault gun Sd Kfz 184, first known as the Ferdinand, after its creator, Ferdinand Porsche. Yet the tendency was not universal, as with British Cruisers or the American M-3 Honey. World War II tanks usually had aggressive- or ferocious-sounding names, such as Hellcat, Panther, or Tiger.
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