They look like fire extinguishers to me. One thing that struck me as odd on this Maus is that it lacks the external fuel tank that is so characteristic about it. I guess it didn't need extra fuel for this short bog trip?
the air vulnerability is only one of the factor , the stupid thing was too big for any railways ( remember the tiger had to remove its outside wheels set to be transported ) this ugly thing was too heavy for most bridges and any soft ground conditions the fuel consumption alone would need an armada of trucks to feed it . the king tiger was supreme on the battle field everybody was just going around it and let it stave of support .
The railroad transport of the Tigers wasn't as bad as people think. In a report from 506. schwere Panzer-Abteilung, it is mentioned that Tiger Is had been transported from Russia to Kassel (located in the heart of Germany, see Mapquest for details).
I do not understand your point..... I do not understand what you are saying. (a house can be transported on a big rig) ----------------------------------- O okey just edited my psot didnt feel like making a 2 word post
But not through tunnels or under bridges... One of the main reasons that British tanks were designed with a restricted width was because they had to be made to fit through the various tunnels on the British Rail Network. They had to design a new low-loader trailer for the Sherman, as it was too tall for many tunnels/bridges. http://www.fun-online.sk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1759
Is that link to show that the Maus could be rail transported because the Tiger I could? I know that the Maus looks oddly narrow for its size, and assumed that ease of transportation was the reason. If onwar.com is correct, the Maus was actually narrower than the Tiger I (3.67m compared to 3.7m). However, width is not the only consideration. The Maus was 3.66m high (compared to the Tiger I at 2.93m), which would probably cause a few problems with pesky details like bridges & tunnels.
True - but it's at least an indication, that it might not be as difficult as imagined. I don't know the dimensions of WWII railroad bridges, so I couldn't tell.
Absolutely - I was quite surprised at the Maus being narrower than the Tiger I. And AFAIK large numbers of bridges/tunnels are mainly a feature of Western Europe, so the Maus would presumably be able to undertake a similar rail journey to the Tiger I's in the link you posted.
with full reservation as to my ignorance , I got the impression than tiger1 was rail transportable after the standard removal of the external set of wheel , there is no concievable way it could have got into russia or italy on it's own in time and fit to fight
The Tiger, like all tanks, was transported by rail, but as references it wasn't always necessary to remove the wheels or tracks.
the Germans were expert magicians they just said abracadabra and swoosh the tank was 1/4 of the world away. Iam obviously joking...
Yeeh ,something about mr hitler occult games? on train and transport , most of the strategy of the eastern front after 42 at least was about posession of rail links , the russians were particularily good at this ,and their railways got reconised by having their own troops up to the 90" the guy in charge from 43 was kaganovitch a strick disciplinarian indeed . but the whole show was a class act of doing the impossible everyday
Transporting the Maus by rail was (almost) impossible as it could not pass over most bridges and not trough alot of tunnels. I' going to try and find the reference, but i remember an account of the delivery of one of the two prototypes which had to cover a multitude of the shortest route due to said restrictions. It took also alot of time to figure out the route in those pre-computer days. Could be done on an interior route far from the front and planned well beforehand. Operationally it would be a whole other matter. (tbh, i have a vision now of a train of Mauses being directed to hot spots on the front, but being redirected to another criutical spot before the engineers could even trace a railway route ) Aglooka
The Tiger I was a very maneuverable tank, especially for its weight and size, but had its shortcomings. The necessity to change tracks for rail travel was one of those. http://fprado.com/armorsite/tiger1.htm