Development of this super heavy tank began in early 1941, when Krupp began researching Soviet heavy tanks. In the first months of 1942, Krupp was tasked with designing the PzKpfw VII Lev super-heavy tank (project VK7201). Its design was based on the previously developed VK7001 (Royal Tiger) prototype, created as a competitor to Ferdinand Porsche's super-heavy tank prototype (including the first version of the Maus tank). The VK7001 was armed with a 150mm. gun Kanone L / 37 (or L / 40) or 105mm. KwK L / 70. The lion used the components and assemblies of the Royal Tiger to unify production and service. The developers planned to create two versions of this tank: a traditional layout and with a rear-mounted turret. The light variant (leichte) had a frontal booking of 100mm. and weighed 76 tons. The heavy (schwere) had frontal armor of 120mm. and weighed 90 tons. Both variants were to be armed with 105mm. an L / 70 gun and a machine gun. It is also known that the 90 ton version had to be exactly the traditional layout and in general look like the Royal Tiger. In both versions, a crew of 5 was assumed. According to preliminary calculations, their maximum speed should have been from 27 km / h (light) to 23 km / h (heavy).
However, Hitler ordered to stop further development of the lightened Lion and throw all his strength into fine-tuning the difficult version. The Lion has been redesigned to fit 150mm. gun L / 40 or 150mm. L / 37 (probably 150mm. KwK 44 L / 38), and the frontal armor was increased to 140mm. To improve the combat characteristics, the width of the tracks was increased to 900-1000mm, and the speed was increased to 30km / h.
But at the end of 1942, this project was canceled, and all efforts were directed to the development of the heavy Maus tank.
During the production of the Royal Tiger, the designers planned to create a redesigned version of the Lion, armed with 88mm. gun KwK L / 71 and frontal armor 140mm. Its speed was supposed to be 35 km / h, and its total weight was 90 tons. It was supposed to be equipped with a 12-cylinder Maybach HL 230 P 30 engine with a capacity of 800 hp. The projected length was 7, 74m. (with a gun), width - 3.83m., and height - 3.08m. The crew was supposed to be the same as on the first prototypes - 5 people. The Lion was planned to replace the Royal Tiger.
However, on March 5-6, 1942, a decision was made to develop a heavier tank, and work on the Lion project was canceled. The lion never even reached the prototype stage, but the work on its design provided the necessary experience to create its more powerful descendant - Mouse.
