He took his existing tank hulls and modified them to house a casement and increased the armor. Performance of the Elefant’s 88x882R’s shell was extremely impressive as was its physical size as seen on this chart.Īs the Germans realized they also needed better tank destroyers and assault guns to support the infantry Porsche seized the moment to impress Hitler. Be that as it may, ultimately Porsche upstaged his competitor by making a “tank” that would go on to achieve the highest recorded kill ratio of the war at 10 to 1. Henschel’s design would go on to terrorize the world as the “Tiger”. Porsche’s ingenuity.ĭuring the testing phase of the project, Porsche was so confident he would win his company built over 90 units, including test models before Henschel received the award. As the last ‘Ferdinand’ leaves the factory the workers show their pride and well wishes for its success and support for Mr. Undeterred he would find a new life for his project. His design incorporated several new technological features and was ultimately rejected as being too expensive and complicated.

The two designs were radically different as Porsche was not at all afraid to take risks. Both companies submitted a new heavy tank design that would utilize a tank mounted version of the hero of the French campaign, he famous “88” or more properly the KwK 36 88mm. Yes, that Porsche, the same man who created elegant sports cars started out building monstrous machines. The more conservative of the two was the Henschel Company while the more flamboyant belonged to Ferdinand Porsche. During this time the Germans had two major companies that competed against each other for these contracts. Hitler quickly ordered new designs for better tanks to be submitted. It was only because of superior training and tactics that allowed the Germans to overcome this mechanical disadvantage. The Germans learned some hard lessons clashing with the surprisingly good tank designs fielded by the French Army. After the successful conquest of France in 1940, Hitler and the German Army realized there would be an armored warfare development race.

Battle of kursk tiger vs 50 t 34