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'Elefant': The Worst Tank Destroyer Ever | Unbelievable true stories | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: 'Elefant': The Worst Tank Destroyer Ever
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Core Theme
The Ferdinand/Elephant tank destroyer, born from ambitious German engineering and wartime urgency, was a powerful but deeply flawed vehicle plagued by unreliability, operational limitations, and design oversights, ultimately failing to meet its intended combat potential.
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Ever wondered what happens when you
combine obsessive German engineering,
unreliable technology, and Hitler's
birthday? You get the Ferdinand tank
destroyer, a 65tonon rolling catastrophe
for its crew. It easily ranks among the
worst vehicles Germany ever built. But
could it really have been that bad?
Let's explain. The story begins in 1940
with the German military looking for a
breakthrough weapon. Porsche and Henchel
companies were designing vehicles in the
30-tonon class. But soon with the
emergence of heavier Soviet tanks,
Hitler dramatically altered the entire
German tank program, demanding heavier
armor and the mounting of the famous
88mm flat gun for anti-tank purposes.
These two companies were then competing
for the future Tiger 1. Ferdinand
Porsche adapted his existing design to
meet these new requirements, keeping his
petrol electric drive system. This
system used two gasoline engines to
power generators, which then produced
electricity to run electric motors that
actually moved the vehicle. In theory,
this would remove the need for a complex
mechanical transmission. But in
practice, it would actually become the
tank's biggest flaw. When the competing
designs were demonstrated on Hitler's
birthday in April 1942, the simpler and
more reliable Henel design proved much
superior and was chosen for what would
become the Tiger 1. Porsche's creation
suffered tremendously from overheating
and engineering complexity and had to be
cancelled. However, 100 Porsche chassis
were already built anticipating victory
and that is a lot of German steel and
man-hour to be wasted during the war.
Under intense wartime urgency, they got
the idea to turn it into something else
that also doesn't work properly, a heavy
tank destroyer. And when we say heavy,
we mean it couldn't cross almost any
bridges with its 70 ton combat ready
weight. On 90 of the surplus chassis,
they would weld a superructure housing
the new L71 anti-tank gun. It had the
same caliber, infamous 88 mm like the
one mounted on the Tiger 1, but now with
almost double the propellant charge and
a longer barrel, giving it extreme
muzzle velocity. It was actually the
most powerful anti-tank gun the Germans
had. It could easily destroy the
heaviest Allied tanks at ranges
exceeding 2,000 yd, where they could
only dream of returning fire
effectively. The new vehicle was
officially named Ferdinand in honor of
Ferdinand Porsche. However, it would
later be renamed Elephant. Turns out it
would embarrass his name, and the
upgraded version was renamed to clear
connections with the early design. We'll
come to that. The new vehicle was
essentially a large mobile anti-tank gun
with very thick armor. The entire front
hull and casemate were 200 mm thick,
making it impervious to any Allied gun.
For comparison, this was almost twice
the thickness of the already
wellprotected Tiger 1. The sides were 80
mm, also giving it solid protection,
although not invincible. The Ferdinand
was designed specifically for the
Eastern Front and the impending battle
at Kursk, where on wide openen terrain,
it would use its extreme frontal armor
and gun range to its advantage in
tank-on-tank combat. But not everything
would go according to plan. Battle. In
April 1943, two heavy tank destroyer
battalions were formed, each with 45
Ferdinand. They had their hurried
training and were sent by train to the
east. Ferdinand saw its first combat
during Operation Citadel. As the Germans
began their offensive at Kusk here, all
except one Ferdinand ever produced would
be deployed. They were immediately
pushed into battle and initial results
showed terrifying potential. A group of
Ferdinands on their very first day of
combat destroyed 22 Soviet tanks at
ranges over 2 km. Returning fire from
Soviet T-34s, anti-tank guns, and later
even from is heavy tanks harmlessly
bounced off their frontal armor. They
blasted through the first Soviet
defenses and caused serious destruction
in just a couple of days of combat.
However, their war luck would be
short-lived as ominous problems with the
Ferdinand quickly emerged. Because the
offensive was delayed multiple times,
the Soviets had time to prepare
extensive defenses with deep minefields,
anti-tank obstacles, and artillery
positions. Without proper mine clearing
support, Ferdinands were lumbering
through minefields and blowing their
tracks off one by one. But that's not
really the Ferdinand's fault. The
biggest issue was Porsche's innovative
but terribly unreliable gasoline
electric drive combined with a
notoriously fragile suspension system.
Operating under the massive weight of
the vehicle, the two engines,
generators, and electric motors crammed
into the whole midsection were prone to
constant overheating. It was just a
question of time before something broke
and immobilized the destroyer. Top speed
was about 18 mph on the road, while
cross country it could only crawl. In
ideal conditions, it had an operational
range of just 90 km. But in reality, it
would usually break down before even
going through one fuel tank. And now,
under combat conditions, this was just
multiplied. The electrical system was
particularly vulnerable to water and
battlefield debris. The kinds of things
that are rather common in, well, a war.
By the way, if you get stuck in mud or
slide off the road, well, that's
probably it. Due to Ferdinand's weight,
recovering it was almost impossible. It
needed between three and five recovery
vehicles or other tanks to pull it out,
and even that was sometimes impossible.
So in that case it had to be blown up by
its own crew. In fact most of them were
not destroyed by the enemy but by their
own crews to prevent capture when they
became bogged down. Just a couple of
days after the beginning of the
operation out of 89 deployed Ferdinands
only 12 were still operational. A few of
them were penetrated through the sides
or rear and a couple more destroyed by
direct heavy artillery hits or infantry
attacks. But the majority of them were
stranded in no man's land with damaged
running gear. Because it was so rushed
to the front lines. Many of the key
features an armored fighting vehicle
should have were completely overlooked.
First, it didn't have any machine guns.
Infantry was supposed to protect it from
being swarmed by enemy troops. However,
such a large target as Ferdinand
attracted all nearby artillery fire, and
infantry was reluctant to be beside it.
They preferred to stay far behind. So,
the crews didn't have any means to
protect their vehicle at close range.
And there were multiple instances of
Soviet infantry destroying Ferdinand
with grenades or Molotov cocktails. But
this was the least of its problems.
Visibility from inside was catastrophic,
and the engines in the middle section
were extremely loud. The fighting
compartment was spacious, yes, but
during combat, it quickly became
extremely hot and filled with fumes.
Maintenance was extremely difficult and
complicated. Crews would sometimes spend
the whole day fighting, then the entire
night helping mechanics with repairs,
and then go back into combat, only to
break down or hit a mine almost
immediately. However, the still
operational Ferdinands continued to push
during the battle around Kusk, usually
used as spearhead units. They were met
for the first time with the new Soviet
heavy tank destroyer, the SU152. In one
recorded engagement, one Ferdinand was
directly hit by an SU's 152 mm howitzer
shell coming from about 3 km away. But
with superior optics and a precise gun,
several Soviet SUs were destroyed in
return. With each passing day, the
Ferdinand's reliability issues
multiplied, and only a couple of them
were combat ready at any given time,
while the others awaited repairs.
Despite the setbacks, the surviving
Ferdinands would become more effective
when the tide of war turned and the
German army was now on the retreating
end. Now they served as rear guard
defense, protecting retreats and could
decimate Soviet tank charges from
defensive positions. Destroying them in
head-on attacks was impossible, even at
point blank range. But being
outmaneuvered was still the Ferdinand's
biggest worry. The two Panza battalions
repeatedly begged headquarters for
maintenance time to perform serious work
on their vehicles. Their pleas were
ignored as the retreating German army
desperately needed every operational
vehicle to plug holes in their
collapsing front lines. Now, as the
eastern front was slowly but surely
collapsing, most of the Ferdinands were
sent back by train and a program was
launched to improve them. 39 out of the
90 built were completely lost at this
point. The retrofit program began
addressing the most glaring weaknesses.
A hull machine gun was added for close
quarter protection. The commander got
his cupuler for better visibility and
what could be done around the engines
was slightly improved as well. The tank
destroyer was now named the elephant to
clear the bad reputation it had gained
as the Ferdinand. Meanwhile, lighter and
supposedly more reliable and faster tank
destroyers were developed to carry the
new 88 like the Yaged Panther and the
Yag Tiger. Although they had undoubtedly
great guns and solid protection, they
were all suffering under the rapidly
deteriorating condition of the German
army. Even before all the refits were
complete, the Allies opened a new front
in Italy with the landing at Anzio.
Elephants were rushed to Italy to stop
the Allied advance, and immediately new
problems emerged. Italy's mountainous
ground, soft soils, and ancient
infrastructure didn't go quite well with
the 70 ton elephant. One was lost after
attempting to cross an old stone bridge,
which collapsed, and the elephant
crashed down. Another one slid off a
narrow hillside road, was impossible to
recover, and had to be destroyed with
explosives. A couple more broke down,
and this was even before reaching the
enemy. The ones that finally reached the
Allies began fighting a retreat toward
Rome. A number of advancing Shermans
were destroyed by well-defensively
positioned elephants. However, Allied
air supremacy wre havoc on the huge
slow-moving targets with fighter bombers
such as the feared P-47 Thunderbolt. At
least two elephants were destroyed by
500lb bombs, and constantly harassed
German crews couldn't repair or recover
the ones that broke down. Elephants were
yet again abandoned and destroyed. One
was captured intact and shipped to the
United States for evaluation. The last
of the surviving elephants were shipped
back and formed into new units for the
Eastern Front again. They saw heavy
action in Ukraine where problems didn't
avoid them either. Springtime brought
deep mud where elephants would bog down
and overheat trying to pull themselves
out. However, they broke quite a few
Soviet tank offensives when positioned
correctly. By 1945, Germany was already
fighting a lost war. Only four elephants
were still semi-operational, but they
weren't going to quit just like that.
The last four elephants were positioned
south of Berlin to guard approaches to
the capital, essentially just delaying
the inevitable Soviet advance. On April
22nd, 1945, two of the elephants engaged
Soviet forces and fought until both of
them broke down and were abandoned. The
remaining two elephants retreated to
Berlin to support the last ditch
defense. They took their positions in
the city and knocked out several
advancing Soviet assault guns. Now
completely overrun, the final two
elephant crews destroyed their vehicles
and surrendered, ending its short but
turbulent service. Only two
Ferdinand/elephants survived the war.
One is displayed in Russia, one in the
United States. If you found this video
interesting, check out our channel for more.
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