No Maus or E-100s were ever completed. German weapons production was irrational (to be kind), and the loss of teh war means that chequered development histories became further damagedand lost (Strange that the only power to lose two world wars still has an appeal to many gamers). As with many bad German ideas, the Maus and E-100 programs were subject to the "nichtmich" syndrome following the war. As interviewed high-ranking German officers would have it, Hitler and Hitler alone was responsible for the final solution, Stalingrad, super-heavy tanks, etc. And of course, none of them was ever in the Nazi party. The Maus was designed and built by Dr. Ferdinand Porsche (then president of the Panzer Commission) and was originally called the Mammut (Mammouth). The E-100 (E for Entwicklung, or "Development", and 100 for its size in tons) was built as a back up to the Maus design by the Heeresaffenant, but never completed, having been officially discontinued in June 1944. The only Maus actually completed during the war was actually armed with a 128L55 gun with co-axial 75L36.5 gun. This was the originally ordered armament for both the Maus and E-100, but it was decided that a 150L38 gun would be used. One story has Hitler complaining that the 128mm gun looked like a toy in the Maus mock-up and so ordered a larger gun. In any event, only the 128mm/75mm was ever completed, although work was done on a turret for the heavier gun. The one completed Maus was powered by a MB509 gasoline engine and was reported to have done quite well in 1944 trials. Some observers claimed the Maus did everything the Panther did (!). Its performance was even better with its completed turret, as the 128mm/75mm combo weighed less than the dummy turret used in the trials. The Maus II prototype, never completed, received the superior MB 517 diesel and perhaps would have gotten the 150mm gun. Thus the 150mm / 75mm turrets listed in "Odd-Balls" would have been the ultimate design of these vehicles had the Germans not had their hands full getting their clocks cleaned. Back to Table of Contents -- Command Post Quarterly #2 To Command Post Quarterly List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1993 by Greg Novak. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com