seemingly endless streams of bombers fly overhead destroying more german infrastructure with each
passing day ground forces are constantly bombarded by allied air power causing massive losses of
armor and equipment desperate to strike back at this devastation a design was presented for a new
anti-aircraft gun this design would become known as the kugelblitz throughout history there have
been countless tanks all designed to kill but not all have been a success what happened to the ones
that never made it and why did they fail my name is ConeOfArc join me as we journey through time
uncovering failed projects and forgotten creations in cursed by design
special thanks to my YouTube members for choosing this topic to be featured this month in the
monthly poll if you'd like to help decide future topics i cover please consider checking out the
reward tiers by clicking the join button below the video now on to the tank the word kugelblitz
is german for ball lightning it is now commonly used as a term in astrophysics to describe a
black hole made out of light or radiation rather than matter but in the late stages of world war
ii it would have an entirely different use the Leichter Flakpanzer 4 Kugelblitz the concept
for the kugelblitz began in april of 1944 by a man named Josef von Glatter-Gotz. the idea was
born from the twin 30 millimeter anti-aircraft gun mount designed for the type 21 U-boat this
system was known as the 3cm Maschinenkanone mk303 “doppelflak” or its codename “Brünn”
envisioning this being used as the basis for a new flak panzer a design was drawn up and later
presented to General Heinz Guderian alongside several other flak panzer designs the design
was looked upon favorably and on his insistence the design continued development as November of
1944 arrived so did the first prototype of the kugelblitz this early version used the originally
planned system from the U-boat project however due to supply issues with both the turrets and guns
which were already in short supply and planned for their originally intended naval use already
this layout was quickly shelved undeterred the designers set back to work to try and find a way
around these supply constraints to bring their idea to life being unable to use the mk 303 as
originally planned their eyes quickly fell on the mk-1038 which was in service with the luftwaffe
this cannon was also a 30 millimeter and boasted a 400 to 650 round per minute rate of fire
another benefit this gun had was the fact that it was a belt fed which would make life easier
for the loaders inside the closed turret of this machine it could also fire the revered
“minengeschoss” round which in theory would make it even more deadly to its intended targets
these guns would be mounted in a fully enclosed fighting compartment unlike previous designs
this was one of the major advantages the design offered as it would provide protection for the
crew from enemy fire especially from aircraft it was essentially designed as an armored sphere
which would be mounted in a turret ring for lateral traverse with a pivot at the center
point that would allow for elevation similar to the later oscillating turrets used by the french
after the war face hardened 20 millimeter plates were planned to be used for this which would have
provided sufficient protection against most small arms the two cannons would protrude out through
welded steel tubes with some adjustable screws holding the barrels in place which would allow
for alignment of the guns although this design did provide a degree of protection for the crew
it came at a cost that cost was space within this relatively small turret would sit three men a gun
layer for each cannon on the sides and a commander sitting in the middle although there were three
hatches on the roof of the turret the two on either side were fairly narrow and more likely
were to be used for spotting or perhaps to help with ventilation the primary hatch was located
above the commander which would be great for him in the event of a fire but very concerning for the
two remaining in the turret i would imagine but on the bright side at least they could both fire
their cannons individually although how long they could fire continuously would also become an issue
as we'll discuss in a bit next came the trouble of mounting this turret onto a hull several different
tanks were considered including the tiger and panther but those were far too valuable in the
end it was decided to use the hull of a panzer iv with some modifications the specific variants
chosen were most likely the h or j although it's not known specifically which were used one source
also mentions plans to use the hull from the jagdpanzer 38t and the panzerkampfwagen 38d was
later considered to mount the turret however these would never see development back on the panzer 4
changes were needed to mount the kugelblitz turret these mainly involved the turret ring the panzer
iv turret ring was too small to mount the wider turret to solve this the tiger's turret ring
was fitted to the hull the whole roof was also flattened removing the slight angle from above
the driver and hull gunner's positions other than this the hull was the same as any other panzer iv
the army was impressed by the design and decided to move ahead with production starting with an
order for 30 vehicles it is unknown exactly how many were actually completed by the end
of the war but it's assumed to be around 2-5 this was due to many issues that plagued the
production of these tanks with allied bombing constantly impeding every German production line
materials and parts were hard to acquire with demand for tanks coming from every direction it
became difficult to even secure the relatively small number needed for kugelblitz production
likely the holes used were from recovered panzers brought back to the factories for repairs
the troubles did not end there the special spheres for the turret called for lightweight armor plate
but shortages caused shortcuts to be taken in their production this resulted in increased
weight due to different materials being utilized which might have been workable if not for the next
problem due to lack of space an electric turret drive was unable to be fitted so
instead a hydraulic-powered system was considered once again though the supply demons struck and
with no ability to produce such a system the only remaining choice was to resort to manual traverse
thanks to this added weight and lack of power traverse the kugelblitz could only manage 10
degrees per second traverse speed had it been built to spec this would likely have been closer
to 60 degrees per second at this reduced speed the ability for the kugelblitz to accurately engage
enemy aircraft was greatly diminished with such limited space came another issue where to keep
the ammunition as we mentioned before the mk-103s were capable of 400 rounds per minute rate of fire
while the tank was only able to carry 1200 ready rounds with no secondary storage space within the
turret this would result in a very short period of engagement time followed by an awkward scramble to
get more ammunition which could potentially be carried in the hull although none of my sources
mentioned if more ammunition was stored within the hull the few kugelblitz that did manage to leave
the factory were pressed into service how they performed or even where they served is largely
a mystery and will likely remain that way given the state of the Reich at that point one photo
does exist of what is presumed to be a destroyed kugelblitz in berlin as well as the remains of
a turret near the village of Spichra which was destroyed by the advancing American forces and
was later discovered in 1999 one complete turret was captured by the allies as well being held at
the royal military college of science in britain until it was returned to germany it is now on
display at the brace yourselves the Lehrsammlung der Heeresflugabwehrschule in Rendsburg in the end
the krugerblitz was doomed to failure due to the state of german industry at the time it was being
built although it provided better protection than vehicles such as the Ostwind or Wirbelwind its
cramped turret and limited traverse speed likely would have caused it to underperform in comparison
even the idea to mount this turret on the panzer 4 is questionable given the weight of the components
unfortunately for this machine it will go down in history as yet another late war vehicle born
too late to have a chance of affecting any part of the conflict remaining is just an interesting
side note in german flak panzer design if you enjoyed this video please be sure to leave a like
and consider subscribing for more like it once again i'd like to thank all my youtube members
for voting on this for the monthly poll i learned a lot while researching this one and i thoroughly
enjoyed it thank you all for watching appearing on your screen now will be links to another one
of my videos as well as the entire curse by design playlist if you like this video why not watch them
all and learn about some more interesting yet rarely looked at tanks see you then