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Landships II -> Landships WW1 Forum -> German Tanks -> Some More K-Wagen Speculation
Post Info TOPIC: Some More K-Wagen Speculation
Vilkata


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Some More K-Wagen Speculation
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I was just cruising the Czolgiem site, and I happened upon this image:


(On this page: http://www.czolgiem.com/niemcy/stare.htm#lt)

There has been much discussion over the rivet patterns of the K-Wagen, and how models or alleged photos of it never show rivet patterns, that we believe would be found on a WWI tank. Furthermore, people have voiced the fact that as depicted in the models, there would be no way to see ahead of you. The drivers field of vision would be very compromised.

Well, that image is more than likely an artists impression, but it does give you some stuff to chew on. The rivet patterns look how I'd imagine them to look, and the large box cab seems to make sense.

What do you think?

---Vil.
P.S. You know, I never knew the K stood for Kolossal! Or is that also just speculation on that websites part?

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Roger Todd


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That view is a rear view (looking at the right rear, in fact) - the way the sponson swells out to the left of the 77mm gun is a dead giveaway. Look at this photo:



It's also taken from the right rear, albeit looking down rather than up, the two structures atop being exhausts. I suspect the artist who drew the illustration you found misinterpreted these as a driver's lookout. The driver/commander was to look out of the cylindrical structure forward; the sponsons have a straight slope into the hull (towards the 'bow') immediately forward of the other 77mm gun. Also, have a look at this plan - the front is on the left, the rear on the right:


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v102/McTodd69/kwagen_plan.jpg


Many years ago, David Fletcher sent me some photocopies (very poor quality, due solely to the poor nature of the copies he himself had, not any deficiency on his part!) in which one sheet labels it, on the same page, as 'Deutscher Grosskampfwagen' and 'Deutscher K-Wagen', which may support an account I've read that says that 'K-Wagen' simply means 'Kampfwagen', the 'gross' perhaps being dropped from the acronym for security reasons. Of course, 'colossal' in English does translate into 'Kolossal' in German, so who can say, it may have had a double meaning...


Incidentally, raking over the old argument over whether the object seen in photos was a completed prototype or a large model - well, the material David sent me also shows two very familiar reproductions of images of that object clearly labelled 'Photo vom Modell' in old-fashioned German Gothic script...



-- Edited by Roger Todd at 12:53, 2006-09-29

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Centurion


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The forum software/server is throwing one of its periodic wobblies and your links don't work!


Many gigantic German war machines of the time were refered to as Riesengrosse not Kolossal (hence the R plane designation for the big Zeppelin-Straken  five and four engined bombers)



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Roger Todd


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Centurion wrote:


The forum software/server is throwing one of its periodic wobblies and your links don't work!


Thanks Centurion, I keep forgetting it doesn't allow links to Landships! I've edited my post above (I kept the plan as a link as it's quite large).

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Jeeves


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Hate to throw this offtopic, but two of the vehicles on that site (http://www.czolgiem.com/niemcy/stare.htm#lt), namely the Leichtetraktor and Grosstraktor are completly new to me!
If any of you have further information on either, could you please post or me?
[ landship [ @ ] gmail [ . ] com ]
Also, on the subject of a model, I think I read somewhere Hitler himself had a full scale mockup of a K-Wagen, could anyone here be able to confirm?
Cheers

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Roger Todd


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The Leichtetraktor and Grosstraktor were secret German projects of the mid to late 1920s. There were several different Grosstraktor prototypes built, one by Krupp, one by Daimler-Benz, another by Rheinmetall, possibly more. There is some info here, which has pics of the Grosstraktor you asked about (the Rheinmetall version, I think) and also a photo of the Daimler-Benz machine:


http://www.panzernet.net/panzernet/stranky/tanky/uvod.htm


There is some useful info in English here:


http://www.wargamer.com/Hosted/Panzer/multitur.htm


If you Google image search Grosstraktor it will throw up a number of photos of all three versions.



-- Edited by Roger Todd at 16:04, 2006-10-01

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Jeeves


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Thanks greatly, Roger.
Cheers

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