In May 1918, an Italian officer, an apologist for military aviation, J. Douet decided to make his views public in the form of the fantasy novel Winged Victory. In the book, he “supplied” Germany with two thousand “colossal Krupp tanks of 4000 tons (!) Weight, with 6 diesels of 3000 hp each. (2 of them are spare), at a speed of 4 km / h, spraying incendiary liquid on an area of a semicircle with a radius of 100 m, … the crew - only 2 people. " Douay needed such monsters solely in order to set off the power of the "inter-allied air army" offered by him, crushing the German and Austrian armies in the novel with strikes on rear communications. Of course, in fact, Germany was not going to build such monsters, but the idea of a "mobile fortress" still found its extreme expression in the form of the first super-heavy tank embodied in metal.
Already at the end of March 1917, the Headquarters of the High Command issued requirements for a "supertank" weighing up to 150 tons. Volmer received a corresponding assignment from the Inspectorate of Automobile Troops. The War Ministry approved the project "K-Wagen" (Kolossal-Wagen or simply Kolossal) on June 28, 1917. It was assumed that the tank would have 30-mm armor, two or four cannons of 50-77 mm caliber, four machine guns, two flamethrowers, a crew of 18 people, two engines of 200-300 hp each, and would be able to overcome a ditch up to 4 m wide. the development of the project and the creation of the first sample took a year, but the Headquarters of the High Command reduced this period to eight months. The program looked solid - the construction of 100 tanks with the initial order for 10. The estimated cost of one such vehicle is not less than 500 thousand Reichsmarks. The designers were faced with a difficult task - most of the units and parts had to be redesigned.
The layout of the "K" tank as a whole was borrowed from the British: the tracks covered the hull, and the armament - 4 cannons and machine guns - was installed in wide sponsons and in side embrasures. However, the relative arrangement of the compartments was similar to the A7VU: control and combat compartments were in front, engine-transmission compartments were behind. At the same time, the fighting compartment without sponsors and the engine compartment occupied approximately the same volume of the hull. The crew was again a record - 22 people.
The control compartment housed two drivers. A cylindrical control room (turret) with viewing slots along the perimeter and a hatch in the roof was mounted on the roof of the tank in the front part. The wheelhouse was intended for the tank commander and artillery officer.
The tank hull was assembled from large rolled sheets, fastened to the frame with rivets and bolts. Removable sponsons had a complex shape. The sloped front and rear walls of the broadened part of the sponson had gun embrasures, into which a 77-mm caponier gun with a semiautomatic bolt was installed. The swinging part of the gun was mounted on a swivel pedestal with a semi-cylindrical shield and a breech guard. To the left of the fence was the gunner's seat. For aiming, he used a telescopic sight and coaxial flywheels. In the front wall of the sponson, at the corner was the installation of the MG.08 machine gun. The same machine-gun mounts were in the narrow rear of the sponson, in the sides and frontal sheet of the control compartment.
The fire from the rear machine guns was to be conducted by mechanics, whose main duty was to monitor the condition of the engine and transmission. The installation of weapons met the same requirement of a circular fire - in any direction the tank "K" could concentrate fire of approximately equal density. There were ventilation grilles on the roof of the sponsons.
Already the design weight of the tank forced the search for more powerful engines. For the motor group, we chose two Daimler engines, 650 hp each. Exhaust pipes with mufflers and radiators were led out to the roof at the rear of the body. The gasoline stock was 3000 liters. The chassis was distinguished by the originality of the design: rollers with flanges of the railway type were attached not to the body of the tank, but to the tracks of the tracks. The hull on the sides was covered with rail guides, along which the tracks were "rolled". The tracks were assembled with bolts and rivets. The drive wheel is rear-mounted, the upper branches of the tracks with the front and rear descending branches were covered by an armor-roof, which turned into curved armored screens.
It was planned to equip the tank with communication means - a place for the radio operator was taken in front of the engine compartment. For transportation by rail, "K" could be disassembled into 15 - 20 parts. How it was supposed to carry out the combat use of such colossi is rather difficult to understand. Obviously, the command believed in the possibility of breaking through the Allied front in several places (remember the fantastic "Kaiser's machine") with the help of movable fortresses - an idea that arose in those years in all the belligerent countries. However, on October 18, 1917, the Experimental Department of the Inspectorate of Automobile Troops recognized that the K-type tank was only suitable for trench warfare. In terms of armament, "K" was an artillery and machine-gun batteries installed in one "mobile fort". The large dead space in the field of view from the control room was only tolerable for a "position" tank.
The contract for the construction of five copies of "K" was concluded with the ball bearing plant "Ribe" in Berlin-Weissensee, for five others - with "Wagonfabrik Wegman" in Kassel. The construction of tanks began in April 1918. By the end of the war, one tank was almost completed on the Ribe; an armored hull and a set of main units and assemblies, except for engines, were ready for the second. After the defeat of the Germans and the conclusion of the Treaty of Versailles, all this was scrapped.
Note that after a quarter of a century, Germany again built two of the heaviest tanks - 180-ton "Maus", which also did not take part in any battle. It is curious that in both world wars, after the turn of events was not in their favor, the German military leadership issued assignments and allocated resources for "supertanks". Both times, the designers put a number of original ideas and solutions into these monsters, and both times the colossus turned out to be in the role of a stillborn child.
