1/16 German VK 45.01P TigerP Tiger Heavy Tank

The VK 45.01 (P), also informally known as Tiger (P) or Porsche Tiger, was a gasoline-electric drive heavy tank prototype designed by Porsche in Germany. Losing to its Henschel competitor on trials, it was not selected for mass production and the Henschel design was produced as the Tiger I. Most of the already produced chassis were rebuilt as Elefant tank destroyers.

 

On 26 May 1941, Henschel and Porsche were asked to submit designs for a 45-ton heavy tank capable of mounting the high velocity 8.8 cm Kwk 36 L/56 gun which was derived from the German 88 mm Flak 37 antiaircraft gun. Both the Henschel and Porsche tanks were to be fitted with the same turret supplied by Krupp. The Porsche company worked on updating the VK 30.01 (P) medium tank, Porsche's medium tank prototype, and adapted parts used on it for the new tank.

 

The new Porsche tank, designated the VK 45.01 (P) was to be powered by twin V-10 air cooled Porsche Type 101 gasoline engines which were mounted to the rear of the tank. Each of the twin engines would then drive a separate generator, one for either side of the tank, which would then power each of two electric motors, one powering each track from the rear drive sprocket. But the engines and drive train were generally new and unorthodox designs for a tank (other than some brief experiments in the very early years), and due to being underdeveloped were prone to break down or require frequent maintenance. It was also difficult for the Third Reich to obtain additional amounts of quality copper to build whole new fleets of vehicles with electric drives in addition to the increasing demands of the U-boat fleet (which used very similar diesel-electric transmissions, which worked perfectly well); while it was easy enough to obtain quality copper to build a single prototype, once series production began, this became more difficult. These problems, and the fact that trials proved the tank to be less maneuverable than its competitor, were the reason why Henschel's identically-armed and more conventional VK 45.01 (H) H1 prototype, which became the Tiger I, was adopted for production instead.

 

The VK 45.01 (P) chassis was later chosen to be the basis of a new heavy Jagdpanzer (although designated a Panzerjäger) which would eventually be called the Ferdinand and mount the new, longer, 88 mm Pak 43/2.

 

Only one tank went into service as a command tank in the Ferdinand (Elefant) unit, and served in Panzerjäger Abteilung 653.[4] It was deployed in April 1944 and lost that subsequent July.

 

The VK 45.01 (P)'s chassis and many of the Elefant's components were later used in developing the VK 45.02 (P) prototype heavy tank.