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Hello, and welcome to my suggestion for the VK 45.02(P).
Brief description: A Porsche-designed tank for the Tiger II competition - Porsche Tiger I hull with 80mm sloped plates, Tiger II (P) turret, and gasoline-electric drive. 3 prototype hulls made.
History:
Spoiler
The Porsche Tiger II can trace its origins back to early 1941. Starting formally in February, in an attempt at forward thinking, the armament of the Tiger I (at that point, it was only the VK 45.01(P), what would become the Porsche Tiger I, and VK 45.01(H), what would become the standard manufacture Tiger I), and other future tanks, had been brought into question. Suggestions to replace the 8.8cm KwK 36 were originally with a 10.5cm cannon - but this soon transitioned to a longer barreled, high velocity 88mm gun after a meeting with Hitler on the 25th of May in which he requested a gun that would penetrate upwards of 100mm at 1.5km. In the end, the chosen weapon would be an 8.8cm L/71 cannon based on the newly-designed Flak 41.
During November 1941, the “Tank Commission” took a tour of the occupied city of Mtsensk, where they were allowed to inspect KV-1s and T-34s. This new angle on armor design, combined with the advancement in Soviet anti-tank weaponry, prompted a response in the form of a redesign of the armor for this new tank. Henschel was already knee-deep in several programs at the time, notably the VK 45.01(H), and did not initially participate in these designs. Krupp and Porsche, however, did. In a meeting on the 30th of January 1942, Porsche and Krupp agreed that starting with the 101st VK 45.01(P) hull, the front plate would be changed to a single 80mm plate (encompassing both the upper and lower glacis) bent at a 60 degree slope - this variant eventually received the designation VK 45.02(P). Unfortunately this was not conveyed to Daimler-Benz, who were awarded a contract for driver vision ports and machine gun ball mounts by Wa Prüf 6 for both the VK 30.01(DB) and VK 45.02(P), which were to be mounted in a plate set at 55 degrees. Dr. Porsche quickly met with Krupp representatives on the 23rd of March, 1942, and reordered the front plates of the first 15 VK 45.02(P)s to be bent at a 55 degree slope. In addition, more specifics for the hulls were defined, including welding cast armor caps overtop the bend and doubling the thickness of the frontal section of belly armor to 40mm. On the 20th of April, 1942, the choice was also made to add 80mm thick shot deflectors to the top of the hull to protect the turret ring, as the turret was set 110mm above the hull.
By this time, the engine choice had already been finalized. Most likely in the name of simplicity during manufacturing, the entire drivetrain was almost completely, if not fully, directly copied from the VK 45.01(P). The drivetrain would be a pair of Typ 101/3 10-cylinder gasoline engines, which individually produced 300 horsepower at 2000 RPM. Each engine was linked to an electric generator, which was directly wired to an electric motor that drove one of the two sprocket wheels. The top speed for the tank, which reached a maximum weight of 64 tons, was 35 km/h. Dr. Porsche had several ideas for alternate drivetrains, but those are not the subject of this suggestion.
Back to the turret - with the gun chosen, how it would be mounted was another issue to solve. As early as the 21st of June 1941, Wa Prüf 6 requested a study by Porsche as to the possibility of mounting the 8.8cm Flak 41 in the turret of the VK 45.01(P). The answer was a resounding no. After a few back-and-forths between Wa Prüf 6 and the Ordnance Department, the choice was made to design a completely new turret. While the specifics of the design process are not known, the end result was the recognizable elongated shape of the P turret, in stark contrast to the relatively wide and flat turrets of previous designs. Many details were not finalized by that time (for example, a crane arm mounting was being discussed by Dr. Porsche and Krupp, an item that would not see a physical form until 3 experimental mounts on Tiger II tanks in 1944), but other details were quickly flushed out. By the 21st of May 1942, a cupola design with seven 100mm wide periscopes had been chosen, and on the 4th of June 1942, a contract for 100 turret exhaust fans, to be mounted under an armored cover, was signed. On the 5th of June 1942, Porsche wrote a letter to Krupp detailing that the turret rotation would be provided electrically with a rotation speed of 15°/second. After one more letter on the 6th of June 1942, detailing the unwillingness of Krupp to build a complex rotating mechanism for the anti-aircraft machine gun, the design was completely finalized. It would have a 100mm curved front plate, 80mm side plates (except for 90mm over the area below the commander’s cupola), an 80mm rear plate with escape hatch, and 25-40mm turret roof plates. The armament was composed of the 8.8cm KwK 43 with a 2.5x sight and a coaxial M.G.42. 68 main gun rounds were stored - 16 in the turret rear, 42 in boxes in the side of the tank, and 10 horizontally on the floor.
With specifics ironed out, production could finally begin. On the 4th of February 1942, Krupp had been awarded contracts for 100 VK 45.02(P) armor hulls and 100 VK 45.02(P) armor shells for turrets. Production of these was to start as soon as the VK 45.01(P) hulls still under construction were finished. Starting off with the first 8 in August (soon delayed to October), and progressing to 15 a month after that, the hulls were to be shipped off to Nibelungenwerk for completion. The first 6 operational turrets were also to be delivered to Nibelungenwerk in November, followed by 15 a month after that.
On the 3rd of November 1942, work officially ended on the VK 45.02(P). The 50 turrets already built for it had their electrical turret drives ripped out and replaced with hydraulics, becoming the turrets for the Tiger II Ps. While this was a death sentence to the project, the prototypes had scraped by, barely. Correspondence between Nibelungenwerk and the Ordnance Directorate reveals that three VK 45.02(P) chassis had been built. While the turret never met the hull, the tank ended its life fully made.
Pictures:
Specifications:
Length: 10.71m
Width: 3.18m
Height: 2.95m
Weight: 64 tons
Engine: Twin Typ 101/3 V10 gasoline engine, 300hp each @ 2000rpm
Speed: 35 km/h
Crew: 5 (Driver, Gunner, Commander, Loader, Radio Operator)
Armor: 80-100mm (see diagram for specifics)
Armament: One 88mm KwK 43 L/71 cannon (68 rounds), one 7.92mm MG42 machine gun (based on the amount used in the Tiger II, 2,000 rounds)
Sources:
Tank Archives: On the Way to the King Tiger
Tank Encyclopedia - Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf.B
Germany’s Tiger Tanks: VK 45.02 to Tiger II by Hilary Doyle and Thomas Jentz
Panzer Tracts No.20-1 by Hilary Doyle and Thomas Jentz
