Product Code Database
Elefant (German language for "elephant") was a heavy tank destroyer (self propelled anti-tank gun) used by Nazi Germany Panzerjäger (anti-tank units) during World War II. Ninety-one units were built in 1943 under the name Ferdinand (after its designer Ferdinand Porsche) using VK 45.01 (P) tank hulls which had been produced for the Tiger I tank before the competing Henschel design had been selected.
Following their use at the battle of Kursk, in January to April 1944 the surviving Ferdinands received modifications and upgrades. They were renamed Elefant in May 1944. The official German designation was Panzerjäger Tiger (P) Not to be confused with either the Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger Ausf. H or Ausf. E versions of the Tiger I, or the Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. B (Tiger II) and the ordnance inventory designation was Sd.Kfz. 184.
The Ferdinand was intended to supplant previous light panzerjägers, such as the Marder II and Marder III, in the offensive role. A similar gun was used in the contemporary, but lightly armoured Nashorn (later known as Nashorn) tank destroyer, and in the Tiger II heavy tank, introduced in 1944.
Add-on armor of 100 mm was bolted to the front plates, increasing the plate's thickness to 200 mm and adding another 5 tonnes of weight.
Porsche had experience of this form of petrol–electric transmission extending back to 1901, when he designed a car that used it.
Suspension for the "slack track" equipped Ferdinand consisted of six twin bogies (three per side) with longitudinal , without any overlapping wheels or return rollers. There are sprockets at both ends of the vehicle. The drive sprockets are at the rear, while the front pair contain a drum brake system.
As fitted, the gun was capable of 28° traverse and -8° and +14° depression/elevation.
The Ferdinand was highly effective at engaging Soviet T-34 medium tanks and 76.2 mm anti-tank guns from behind the front line with its 88 mm gun at a range of over 3 kilometres. The most substantial problems during their operational usage at Kursk was Anti-tank mine damage and mechanical failure. Any damage to the tracks or suspension negated the protection of the armor, as crews were forced to dismount and attempt repairs. The immense weight of the Ferdinand made towing difficult: the standard armored recovery vehicle in German service at the time was the Bergepanzer IV, a variant of the Panzer IV tank. Although it could tow a single Panzer IV without assistance it was insufficient for larger vehicles; a Tiger I heavy tank required three Bergepanzer IVs to be towed, and the Ferdinand needed five linked together to pull the vehicle off the field.
In addition, the Ferdinand was hampered by flaws such as the lack of peripheral . But contrary to popular belief, the lack of a mounted machine gun was not a problem for the Ferdinand during Operation Citadel. For example, a report by the commander of the 654th Heavy Tank Destroyer Unit stated that due to the noise of the Ferdinand firing and the Ferdinand's effect on Soviet troops, no Soviet infantry was capable of engaging the Ferdinand in close combat. Furthermore, a Red Army commission examined the Ferdinand tank destroyers abandoned at Ponyri and found that they had been set on fire with Molotov cocktails, not by Soviet infantry, but by German crews who had abandoned their tanks.Töppel, R., Kursk 1943 Die Größte Schlacht des 2. Weltkriegs, Padderborn, 2017, chapter 3, pp. 128-129 On the other hand, Heinz Guderian himself complained in his autobiography that the Elefant, much as other failed designs, suffered from lack of close-range protection against infantry assaults.Guderian, H., Panzer Leader, Smolensk, 1999, chapter 10, pp. 426–427
In the initial stages of the Kursk battle, when the Germans were on the offensive, vehicles could be recovered and repaired with relative peace at night; this at first allowed the majority of knocked-out Ferdinands to be rescued, repaired and returned to duty. However, once the tide of battle had turned against the Germans and they fell back on the defensive, with fewer vehicles to spare, functional Ferdinands with minor damage to their tracks or suspensions had little hope of recovery, and crews were usually forced to destroy the vehicle to prevent a mostly intact Jagdpanzer from falling into the hands of the Soviets.
The units were deployed at a company level, sometimes sub-divided into platoons, with infantry or tanks in accompaniment to protect the flanks and rear of the vehicles. On the attack, this Jagdpanzer was a first-strike vehicle; while in defence, they often comprised a mobile reserve used to blunt enemy tank assaults.
The first eleven complete and updated Ferdinands were ready in February 1944. They were issued to the 1st company of the 653rd Heavy Panzerjäger Battalion (German: schwere Panzerjäger-Abteilung 653, sPzJgrAbt 653), which was immediately deployed in Italy in response to the Allied landing at Anzio-Nettuno. The remaining 37 vehicles were completed in April, issued to the 2nd and 3rd companies of sPzJgrAbt 653, and sent by train to the Tarnopol battles in Ukraine.
On 1 May 1944, the Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH, the German Army High Command) issued an order to formally change the name from "Ferdinand" to "Elefant". This order forbade future use of Ferdinand and even directed units in the field to edit their records. Though there is a belief that the name change was linked to the January–April mechanical upgrades to the Ferdinand panzerjäger; the name change was purely administrative in nature. (1997). 9780921991373, J.J. Fedorowicz Publishing. ISBN 9780921991373
Three Bergepanzer Elefant armoured recovery vehicles were converted from Ferdinand/Elefant hulls and issued with the 2nd and 3rd companies of sPzJgrAbt 653 to the Eastern Front in the summer of 1944.
Although the modifications improved the vehicles, some problems could never be fully fixed. In 1944, Elefants served on the Italian front, but were rather ineffective as their weight of nearly 70 tonnes did not allow them to use most Italian roads and bridges. As at Kursk, most losses were not as a direct result from combat, but resulted when mechanical breakdowns and lack of spare parts compelled their crews to destroy and abandon them. One company of Elefants saw action during the Soviets' January 1945 Vistula–Oder offensive in Poland, and the last surviving vehicles were in combat at Zossen during the Battle of Berlin.
The Elefant and Nashorn were both superseded by the Jagdpanther. All three vehicles mounted the same gun, with only some minor differences between them. The Jagdpanther—a true jagdpanzer—was a successor to the other two, combining acceptable mobility and good, sloped armour while retaining the excellent gun, mostly solving the reliability, mobility, and/or protection problems that the earlier vehicles had.
One Ferdinand was captured by Soviet forces at Kursk, and it was sent to NII BT testing facility in Kubinka, Moscow for testing. It was on display at the Kubinka Tank Museum outside Moscow. Its gun mantlet was painted red. Its chassis number was unknown, either No. 150090 or No. 501.
An Elefant, numbered "102" of sPz. Jgr. Abt 653, was captured at Anzio by the Americans, and is now part of the United States Army Ordnance Training Support Facility's collection at Fort Gregg-Adams. This example was restored to display condition in 2007–2008, as documented on the show Tank Overhaul, but not in its original paint scheme. The Elefant was loaned to the Bovington Tank Museum in Dorset, UK as part of the museum's "Tiger Collection" display from April 2017 until January 2019, and later returned to the United States. This display brought all the members of the Tiger family together in one place for the first time (the Sturmtiger was represented by its gun).
|
|
