Chapter 367: Soviet-Finnish War (18)

After the initial failure, the Soviet high-level forces began to adjust their deployment and prepare for the next new offensive.

General Semyon Timoshenko was appointed as the new Soviet Defense Commissioner and commander of the Finnish battlefield. He was the commander of the North Caucasus, Kiev and Kharkov Military Districts and was experienced. Kirill Meretskov was demoted to the commander of the 7th Army on the West Karelian Isthmus, and the troops were reorganized into the 7th Army and the 13th Army.

Timoshenko assured Stalin that he could take down the Mannerheim Line, the main line of defense in Finland, but it would not be easy and many soldiers would be sacrificed. Stalin promised that he would not be responsible for the number of casualties. He also promised to give Timoshenko a super invincible killer to help him conquer the Mannerheim Line.

In this way, the Soviet army, which had rested for 10 days, launched an offensive again.

"Boom, boom."

With the huge roar, the whole ground trembled.

"Oh my God! What is that?!" The Finnish soldiers on the Mannerheim Line stared at the "steel behemoth" slowly approaching from the opposite side in amazement. Many people thought they were dazzled and rubbed their eyes subconsciously.

But after rubbing their eyes, they found that it was not an illusion, but a real steel behemoth. Its appearance looks similar to a tank, with a body below and a turret above; unlike ordinary tanks, its volume is several times that of ordinary tanks!

The width of the entire tank looks to be four meters, and the height is also about four meters! The track at the bottom is also more than one meter wide! Although the side cannot be seen now, it is not difficult to imagine that according to this ratio, the length will not be short!

How heavy should such a big guy be? It must be more than one hundred tons!

There was also a cry of surprise in the observation post of the Mannerheim Line. A pale Finnish officer asked in a trembling voice. "Lieutenant Colonel Hans, do you know what that is?" Because of the position of the observation post, they have seen that the length of the tank is at least ten meters! Anyone who sees such a huge monster would be scared.

Hans was also shocked and shook his head. "I have never heard of it, I have never seen it before. Let's report it quickly!"

The people in the Finnish command were shocked when they received the report. The Soviets dispatched a tank that looked to be 200 tons?

Model did not dare to delay and quickly sent a telegram to the German High Command to explain the situation, and Rundstedt immediately came to Yannick. "Your Highness, the Soviets sent a super tank to attack the Mannerheim Line. According to the report from the front-line soldiers, the width and height of the vehicle body are at least four meters, and the length is at least ten meters. The whole vehicle looks to be 200 tons." After the report, he muttered in disbelief. "This is too exaggerated, did they see it wrong?!"

Yannick raised his eyebrows slightly. "Oh, they really made it?"

Seeing Yannick's reaction, Rundstedt was relieved immediately. "It seems that your Highness already knows? The Soviets really made a 200-ton tank?"

Yannick laughed. "Not only do I know, but I asked Dr. Porsche to design it and gave it to the Soviet agents. It seems that Stalin likes it very much."

Rundstedt opened his mouth in surprise. "Ah?"

"It's really hard for them. How did they get that thing to the war zone?" After sighing, Yannick saw that Marshal Rundstedt had a strange expression and comforted him casually. "Don't worry, Marshal. If it's really that useful, would I give it to them? It's not certain whether that thing can get close to the Finnish defense line."

The development of the original time and space mouse tank originated from a message from the German intelligence department.

In 1940, according to the news from the German intelligence department in the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union was secretly developing a super-heavy tank weighing 100 tons. The armor of the tank is very thick and strong. Any anti-tank weapon has no effect on it. The caliber of the artillery has also reached an astonishing 150mm. The Soviet army will deploy these behemoths to some key and important areas in the future.

This tank is the Soviet T-39 tank.

According to the plan, the T-39 weighs 90 tons, with two secondary turrets (temporarily called turrets No. 3 and No. 4) placed side by side at the front of the vehicle body, and two main turrets (temporarily called No. 1 and No. 2) placed front and rear at the rear of the vehicle body.

There are three design options for the T-39. The first is to equip the No. 1 turret with a 152mm gun, and the remaining three turrets are each equipped with a 45mm gun, and each turret is equipped with a machine gun; the second is to equip the No. 1 and No. 2 turrets with two parallel 107mm guns, and the No. 3 and No. 4 turrets are equipped with a 45mm gun and a machine gun; the third is to install a 152mm gun in the No. 1 turret, a twin 107mm gun in the No. 2 turret, and 45mm guns and machine guns in the No. 3 and No. 4 turrets. The most interesting thing is that in order to facilitate off-road climbing and crossing, the T-39 also has a set of small auxiliary track structures installed on the front of the vehicle body.

The design of the T-39 was too unrealistic. Even in modern times, it is difficult to control the weight of a vehicle with so many weapons and 75mm armor within 100 tons. Until the end of World War II, the T-39 tank was not actually manufactured.

Upon learning this information, the little mustache immediately asked the famous weapons designer Ferdinand Porsche to design a super tank.

In May 1942, Dr. Porsche and Krupp's chief designer Mueller cooperated to develop this "super tank". In March 1943, the super tank prototype that met the requirements of the German high-level officials was officially launched. For convenience, two prototypes were produced for comparison. But this also became the final mass production quantity of this heavy tank.

In terms of tank naming, the original name was "Mammoth", which was later changed to "Little Mouse". It was not until February 1943 that the final official name "Maus" was officially determined. The reason for naming it "Maus" was to confuse the Soviet intelligence department and make them mistakenly believe that this was a light tank without any threat.

At the beginning, neither of the two prototypes was equipped with a formal turret, but only a fake turret was used for simulation experiments. It was not until June 1944 that the real turret was installed on the tank body. The tank is operated by 6 crew members, with a total weight of an astonishing 188 tons and a body of 0.9 meters. With a width of 67 meters and a height of 7 meters, the appearance of the whole vehicle seems to be a solid and movable fortification.

In October 1944, the two prototypes came to the Porsche test site in Boblingen, a suburb of Berlin, for testing. Car No. 1 basically had no problems, but Car No. 2 had an accident in which the diesel engine crankshaft broke, so the car was temporarily sealed at the test site for repair. On December 23, the No. 1 prototype of the Maus tank successfully completed the running test and was ready to be put into actual combat.

The German army put the Maus tank into the battlefield at this time, hoping that this behemoth would show its skills on the battlefield and try to save the war situation that was declining in Germany, but such a naive idea was only ruthlessly "slapped in the face". In early 1945, the Soviet Red Army invaded Germany with overwhelming force, and the German army was no longer able to pay attention to the future of these two behemoths. In March, the newly replaced engine was officially installed in the No. 2 prototype, but it was of no use.

During the final defense of Berlin, the Maus tank, which was about to go to the battlefield, broke down due to a malfunction and had to be blown up, but because the skin was too thick, it was not completely blown up. The wreckage was taken back by the Soviets for research and then exhibited in the Soviet museum.