RE: Elefants
Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 7:11 am
To kill an Elefant you need an elefant gun. [:D]
Yes, P. Carell mentioned it in his "Verbrannte Erde" (Scorched Earth). He wrote about the "Ferdinands" (tribute to Ferdinand Porsche ("Ferdinand" is a Porsche-Design/Tiger-Family)) at Kursk. The german tankers fired with a 42er-MG through the 88er-gun
to defend theyr vehicles against enemy infantry-tankdestroyers. In his book he claims that before the attack sawn timber was fitted to the "Ferdinands" to carry 6 Grenadiere... for sure not enough to protect the vehicle against enemy tank-killers.
After that battle they were transformed into "Elefanten" (minor changes and - as
written above - MGs were built in) and fought in Italy. BTW, the hull of the "Ferdinand"
was the hull of the 90 "Tiger I"-Tanks of Porsche-Design (which wasn´t accepted for service, partially because of its revolutionary, but complicated engine (gas/electric).
The german army thought they were to precious to trash them and fitted them with this massive turret with its deadly, long 88er on it... and this was "Ferdinand"/"Tiger".
Greetings,
TL.