You’re probably familiar with German medium tanks such as the Panzer III and Panzer IV.
These vehicles along with their smaller relatives the Panzer I and II made up the bulk of Germany’s
domestic tanks during the early war period.
However, they are not where the story began with the first German medium project having
been under development many years prior to the ones I just mentioned.
Today we will be looking at the interwar design known as the Großtraktor and how it played
a role in early German tank development.
While many think of the Panzer I as the beginning of German tank design after WWI this is far
from the case.
In fact, you would have to travel back to even before the rise of the Nazis to power.
In this period, Germany was still in the process of recovering from WWI and this was especially
the case for the military - at that time known as the Reichswehr.
Going over the lessons learned from the devastating war, the Reichswehr understood the important
role that tanks had created on the battlefields.
The ability to break through enemy lines and support infantry while being protected from
enemy fire over almost any terrain was undeniably a spectacular development.
As with every major army during the time, it was decided that Germany needed its own
armoured vehicles, however there was a distinct problem - the Treaty of Versailles forbade
Germany from having tanks, and even had a penalty for anyone building them including
hefty fines or jail time.
As you can imagine this was a very difficult obstacle for the Reichswehr, especially with
the potential for invasion due to the occupation of the Rheinland at the time.
This is the primary reason that early German tanks have distinctly “non-military” type
names, to prevent their true nature from being discovered.
Many of you may be familiar with both the Leichttraktor, which has been made popular
due to its inclusion in World of Tanks, and the Panzer I, Heinz Guderian’s first tank
to equip Germany’s new panzer-divisions.
Though these do both represent designs done under the Treaty of Versailles the first one
to be developed was originally ordered by the Reichswehr in 1925 as the “Armeewagen
20” (essentially Army Vehicle 20).
The order was to create, what we would now call, a medium tank with a fully traversable
turret, armored hull and fully tracked.
The tank was to weigh around 15 to 16 tons, have a top speed of 40 kmh (24 mph) and have
14mms of armour.
The armament was to be multiple machineguns and a 75mm gun placed in the turret.
One other requirement was made for this tank, one that you would not really expect when
it comes to a medium tank: it was to be amphibious.
Contracts would be given to three companies in 1927 that would go on to become fully-involved
in German tank development: namely Krupp, Rheinmetall and Daimler-Benz.
In 1927, the first design proposal was presented to the Reichswehr by Krupp, which included
a 75mm Krupp-designed gun based on a mountain cannon situated in a relatively small 2 man turret.
In the rear of the tank was a machinegun turret that was able to traverse in order to cover
the entire rear area of the vehicle from infantry and aircraft.
The hull itself was relatively large, with two tracks that were reminiscent of WWI being
fully exposed around the two sides of the vehicle.
This was the general design chosen by all three companies.
Daimler-Benz’s design team, headed by Ferdinand Porsche, created an apparently very complex
vehicle in comparison to the other two designs when it came to the internals.
First off, their design was to use a Daimler-Benz 260 horsepower aircraft engine connected to
a clutchless 6 speed gearbox that the driver would use a lever on the steering wheel in order to shift.
In addition to this, the Daimler design also incorporated a drivetrain that was a complex
mix of upside down leaf springs and gears that would drive externally.
Eventually, Krupp and Rheinmetall also decided to use an aircraft engine (the BMW Va with
250 hp) with another strange transmission that used a pneumatic drive.
It is not known when exactly the Armeewagen 20 changed names, but in a document from March
of 1928 the name “Großtraktor '' was recorded in a procurement document.
By this time, the vehicle’s design had been primarily decided on - a 16 ton, two turreted
tank armed with a short barrelled 75mm main gun, a 7.92 mm machinegun in the bow of the
tank, as well as the main and rear turrets.
All of this would ride on 16 roadwheels attached to a large trapezoid-like shaped hull.
In regards to the amphibious requirements, the tank had special propellers designed that
would be mounted to the rear and driven by two engines.
The production of the vehicles began in August of 1928 at the Rheinmetall factory in Unterlüss.
Each of the three companies would have their design built although the Daimler-Benz design
did not include its own turret as they would use the same turret design created by Rheinmetall.
It seems Porsche preferred to stick to designing overly complicated hulls while leaving the
armament to others as we see this same trend with his later designs.
By the end of June 1929, six tanks were completed and shipped to the secret German-Soviet tanker school in Kazan.
For those that do not know, during the interwar period before the rise of the Nazis, Germany
and the Soviet Union had secret training bases deep in the latter nation’s territory.
The three that were operational were the Panzerschule Kama, which trained tankers, the Kampffliegerschule
Lipezk, which trained pilots, and the most unique of the three: Gas-Testgelände Tomka,
which acted as a site to test chemical weapons.
From 1929 to 1933, the tanker school in Kama gave both the Reichswehr and German vehicle
manufacturers the ability to gain experience in the design and operation of modern armoured vehicles.
This was the site where many of the “tractors” were trained on, including the Großtraktor.
Within the first year, the tanks already had an issue that would go on to become part of
the legacy of German tanks: their transmissions, drivetrains and tracks had serious issues
that resulted in them travelling at most 66 kilometers in total (37 miles).
Remarkably though this is still further than the modern British Ajax which can apparently
barely make it out of the factory.
In 1931, the tracks and suspensions were modified to better support the vehicle during movement
and also prevent the tracks from sliding off due to poor connections.
In 1932, the tank also was given brand new coil springs and larger roadwheels.
At some point, Rheinmetall developed a new turret for one of the vehicles that would
have two main guns: a 75mm primary and a 37mm coaxial.
By this time, it was found that Rheinmetall’s vehicle was the most durable and “successful”
and was able to reach 1264 km (785 mi) of completed driving by 1933.
In addition to standard testing on land, there were also reportedly attempts to see how the
tanks fared in their amphibious roles.
According to a document posted on the website TankArchives, there is a statement by Kliment
Voroshilov to Stalin about the attempt, which ended in failure.
It appears that it went well for the first attempt going a distance of 5-10 meters attached
by cable to a tractor.
For the second attempt that safety cable was removed and the vehicle reentered the water.
Things started off fine but when attempting to make a turn to the right it started to
tilt and caused water to flood the engine and then the crew compartment.
Although four of the men were able to escape, the quick sinking led to the death of Mechanic
Kerres who was in the rear compartment.
This led to not just a tragic death but also the temporary loss of the tank until it was
able to be towed out later.
As you can expect, it was decided that the Großtraktor would no longer be required to
have amphibious capability.
Following the closure of the Kama tank school, all of the tanks were shipped back to Germany
to live out the rest of their lives.
As they were essentially obsolete even by 1933 standards due to their poor performance
and bulky design, the tanks were relegated to training or use as propaganda and monument vehicles.
Those that remained in use were given upgrades, such as radios and even a new turret.
These vehicles were of the Rheinmetall design, as Daimler’s vehicles were quickly retired
and became monuments.
In 1935, the first public display of the Großtraktor in action occurred during maneuvers with the
1st Panzer-Division.
By this time, many of the problems with the tanks had been addressed, but that did not
save them from being relegated back to training units, such as the gunnery school in Putlos.
If you think this is where the story of the Großtraktor comes to an end though, you are mistaken.
In fact, the developments made and lessons learned during the development process would
be taken into account by Rheinmetall and Krupp to create a tank fit for the ambitions of
the newly organized Wehrmacht: a multiturreted monster that would be reported by Allied agents
as Germany’s first heavy tank: the Neubaufahrzeug, which will be the subject of the next video in the series.
Make sure you’re subscribed so you won’t miss that one.
The Interwar period saw the creation of many interesting designs for armoured vehicles,
with all nations attempting to figure out how to create a truly modern tank.
This was no different in Germany, but unlike other nations they were forced to do so in
secrecy - making it a bit more difficult to develop vehicles without alerting their neighbours.
The Großtraktor represented the first attempt since WWI to develop a tank, and on paper
it looked to be an impressive vehicle for the late 1920s.
A large main gun with relatively good armour and the ability to support infantry and cross
water hazards sounds like a dream for a WWI commander, but the tank proved to not be as
great in practice.
Large, complex and cumbersome, the Großtraktor did not prove to be a viable design that would
spawn a lineage of new tanks for Germany.
However, it did prove to give invaluable lessons that would lead to more successful projects,
such as the Panzer series that we all know.
Hopefully you enjoyed this look at one of Germany’s earliest tank projects.
If you did be sure to subscribe to the channel so you don’t miss the upcoming video on
its bigger brother.
As always thank you all for watching and a special thanks to my YouTube members for supporting the channel.
If you found this video interesting I recommend following it with my other videos on early
German tank projects like the A7V and the massive K-wagen.
Hope to see you there or in my next video.