[Narrator] HIDDEN IN AN ABANDONED NAZI ARMY BASE... Big is good when it comes to armor.

...THE RELICS OF AN ASTONISHING SECRET WEAPONS PROJECT.

Just the sheer size of where they parked these tanks is really impressive.

NOT JUST A TANK.

A MEGA TANK.

The height of this tank would be 11 meters.

That's roughly the size of a 4-story house.

Fire!

INSPIRED BY THE FUHRER HIMSELF...

This is it!

This is what I want!

Hitler absolutely buys into the idea that big is better.

DESIGNED TO CRUSH THE ENEMIES OF THE THIRD REICH.

It must be horrifying and terrifying to the enemy to face this.

THIS IS THE INCREDIBLE STORY OF THE NAZI ENGINEERS WHO BUILT HITLER'S SUPER TANKS.

It's a masterpiece.

...AND THE ACES WHO RODE THEM INTO BATTLE.

Kill ratios were very high.

Attack!

In the space of 15 minutes, Michael Wittmann destroyed 13 tanks.

Fire!

[Announcer] 'Nazi Mega Weapons' THE BIGGEST CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS OF WORLD WAR TWO, ORDERED BY HITLER TO SECURE WORLD DOMINATION.

NOW THEY SURVIVE AS DARK REMINDERS OF THE FUHRER'S FANATICAL MILITARY AMBITIONS.

THESE ARE THE SECRETS OF THE NAZI MEGA WEAPONS.

THE EASTERN FRONT.

SS COMMANDER MICHAEL WITTMANN IS RIDING INTO THE LARGEST TANK FIGHT IN HISTORY: THE BATTLE OF KURSK.

[Speaks German] Point 22-8.6.

Attack!

Attack!

Attack!

TANKS DOMINATE LAND WARFARE IN WORLD WAR TWO AND WITTMANN COMMANDS THE BIGGEST YET BUILT: THE TIGER.

IT'S AN AWESOME MACHINE.

AND WITTMANN WILL USE IT TO BECOME GERMANY'S MOST CELEBRATED AND DEADLY TANK ACE.

Aim at two o'clock!

[Wittmann] Load high explosive!

High explosive loaded!

Fire!

TODAY ONLY A PRICELESS HANDFUL OF HITLER'S HUGE TIGER TANKS REMAIN.

AND JUST ONE REVEALS HOW THEY WERE PUT TOGETHER.

It's the only occasion you can see this tank and its pieces like a gigantic puzzle.

TANK HISTORIAN RALF RATHS IS EXPLORING NAZI GERMANY'S ENTIRE SUPER TANKS PROGRAM, BECAUSE, THANKS TO HITLER, THE AWESOME TIGER WAS JUST THE BEGINNING.

Hitler himself was fascinated with big tanks, and he was the driving force behind them getting bigger.

HITLER'S OBSESSION WITH GIANT TANKS AND BIG GUNS BEGINS IN WORLD WAR I.

AS A CORPORAL ON THE FRONT LINE, HE WITNESSES THE POWER OF HEAVY ARTILLERY FIRSTHAND.

Hitler would've experienced this massive weight of fire power, this incessant shelling, this would've been something burned into his memory from his years as an infantry man.

People tend to view the First World War as the war of the machine gun, but really more than anything else it was the war of the artillery piece.

Guns get bigger, they get heavier, they get longer-range, throwing bigger and heavier projectiles further distances.

IN WORLD WAR I, HITLER DOESN'T JUST WATCH ARTILLERY GETTING BIGGER, HE SEES IT BECOME MORE MOBILE WITH THE ARRIVAL OF THE FIRST TANK: BRITAIN'S MARK I.

Here you are, a German infantryman in 1917, and over your trench looms this giant metal box which is impervious to the light small arms that you've got.

It must've been an extremely frightening experience, the first time one of those tanks crossed over a trench.

FIFTEEN YEARS ON, HITLER RISES TO POWER PROMISING TO AVENGE THE LOSSES OF WORLD WAR I.

BUT PEACE TREATIES BAN GERMANY FROM BUILDING TANKS, A MUST-HAVE WEAPON FOR MODERN ARMIES.

SO HITLER APPROVES THEIR DEVELOPMENT IN SECRET.

TODAY, HIDDEN IN THICK PINE FOREST, LIES AN ABANDONED NAZI MILITARY COMPLEX THAT ONCE LEAD THE WORLD IN WEAPONS DEVELOPMENT.

THIS IS THE FORMER HQ FOR NAZI BLACK-OPS.

OVER NINE SQUARE MILES OF HIGH-TECH WEAPONS LABS AND FIRING RANGES, TANKS WORKS AND FUEL DUMPS.

HERE, NAZI SCIENTISTS CREATED THE WORLD'S FIRST BALLISTIC MISSILES.

AND IT'S ALSO HERE THAT REVOLUTIONARY TANK LEGENDS WILL BE BORN.

COLONEL CHRIS WILBECK IS A VETERAN OF TANK WARFARE IN IRAQ, AND A TANK HISTORIAN.

This is where they conducted tests on their tanks, but it certainly is run down now, seen its better days.

TESTS PERFORMED HERE WOULD TRANSFORM HITLER'S IDEA OF HOW TO FIGHT A MOBILE GROUND WAR.

It'd be scary to get inside the mind of Hitler, but he had to have been influenced by World War I where he was a corporal that fought in the frontlines and saw the horrors of that static linear warfare.

No one wanted to have another war like World War I.

So everyone was thinking about what can the tank do to restore mobility to the battlefield, so that you avoid that long, drawn-out, costly war.

AT KUMMERSDORF IN EARLY 1935, HITLER IS SHOWN THE FIRST NAZI TANK: THE PANZER I.

IT CAN MOVE AT 25MPH, EIGHT TIMES FASTER THAN THE TANKS HITLER SAW IN WORLD WAR I.

When he was presented with a display of what tanks could do here at Kummersdorf, he had to be impressed.

This is it, this is what I want!

HITLER'S NEW PANZERS PROMISE UNPRECEDENTED MOBILITY ON THE BATTLEFIELD.

BUT THERE IS A PROBLEM...

The Panzers that so impressed Hitler are really tiny, they're 6 foot high, they're only armed with machine guns, there's two men in them, but very quickly they realized that these tanks were not going to cut it in a modern war.

BETWEEN 1934 AND 1939, NAZI GERMANY PRODUCES A SERIES OF BIGGER PANZERS WITH BIGGER GUNS.

The Panzer II gets a cannon and then the Panzer III gets a slightly bigger cannon, and the Panzer IV has yet a bigger cannon than that.

So they go from 5.8 tonnes which is the size of the Panzer I to 20 tonnes which is the size of the Panzer IV.

IN JUST FIVE YEARS, HITLER'S PANZERS QUADRUPLE IN SIZE.

NO LONGER A SECRET, THE PANZERS ARE ABOUT TO GO INTO ACTION FOR THE FIRST TIME.

IN SEPTEMBER 1939, THESE TANKS SMASH INTO POLAND, KICK-STARTING WORLD WAR II.

THE UNPRECEDENTED SPEED AND POWER OF PANZER WARFARE SPAWNS A NEW WORD: 'BLITZKRIEG', LIGHTNING WAR.

THE GENIUS BEHIND THE NAZI'S SUCCESSFUL BLITZKRIEG TACTICS IS GENERAL HEINZ GUDERIAN.

This landscape is perfect.

Yes, sir!

Panzer in the middle, grenadiers left and right.

Yes, sir!

GUDERIAN'S SUCCESS IS ABOUT FAR MORE THAN CUTTING-EDGE MACHINERY.

The point about the Panzer arm is it's not just the tank.

The tank is the visual expression of that, when you see the film footage, what you see is a tank.

But actually what makes them effective is the whole package, it's the communication ability, it's cooperation with the air forces, with artillery, with infantry.

That's what makes the Panzer arm effective, not the individual tanks on their own.

Guderian's Blitzkrieg tactics are successful pretty much from the beginning of the Second World War.

They punch big holes into the Polish lines.

They punch holes into the French lines.

The French are simply not capable of keeping up with the fast-moving German way of warfare.

PART OF THIS SEEMINGLY UNSTOPPABLE FORCE IS 27-YEAR-OLD MICHAEL WITTMANN.

A FARMER SON'S WHO HAS RISEN THROUGH THE RANKS OF THE SS, HE IS FORGING A REPUTATION AS A COMMANDER WITH AN UNCANNY KNACK FOR KILLING THE ENEMY.

Fire!

IN 1941, HE IS PART OF UNSTOPPABLE GERMAN ARMY THAT CONQUERS HUGE SWATHES OF EUROPE.

NOW HITLER TURNS HIS TANKS EAST FOR THE INVASION OF THE SOVIET UNION: OPERATION BARBAROSSA.

When Barbarossa commences, the world will hold its breath and make no comment.

We have only to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down.

THE FUHRER MASSES THE LARGEST INVASION FORCE IN HISTORY ON THE SOVIET FRONTIER: 3,600 TANKS AND 4 MILLION MEN.

[Holland] Confidence amongst the Panzer army is enormous.

And who are they up against?

The Red Army, whom propaganda has portrayed for years, ever since the Nazis took power, as being a bunch of red-neck peasants, Bolsheviks who know nothing, and it's going to be a walk in the park.

ON JUNE 22 1941, GERMANY INVADES.

WITHIN HOURS, THEY MAKE A SHOCKING DISCOVERY.

THE SOVIETS HAVE A MUCH BETTER TANK: THE T-34.

IN PREVIOUS BATTLES ACROSS EUROPE, HITLER'S ARMORED UNITS HAVE DESTROYED EVERYTHING IN THEIR PATH.

BUT THE T-34 IS HEAVIER, FASTER, WITH BETTER ARMOR, AND PACKS A BIGGER PUNCH THAN THE LATEST PANZERS.

HITLER IS GOING TO NEED SOME BIGGER TANKS.

The T-34 was a remarkable tank.

It was an absolute breakaway from anything that had come before, and certainly influenced tank design throughout the rest of the war and way beyond it.

THE T-34 IS A MASTERPIECE, NO BIGGER THAN THE PANZERS, BUT PACKED WITH SIMPLE, SMART INNOVATIONS.

The sloping forward armor was a great improvement on anything that had come before.

Not only did German shells bounce off it, because it was sloping it actually increased its protection against enemy shells.

WHEN ARMOR-PIERCING PROJECTILES STRIKE, INCREASING THE SLOPE OF THE ARMOR INCREASES THE ARMOR'S EFFECTIVE THICKNESS, ALL WITHOUT ADDING EXTRA STEEL OR INCREASING THE WEIGHT OF THE TANK.

The sloping armor plate was incredibly effective in 1941.

At that time the Germans, their 37-mm cannon, couldn't even dream of penetrating this.

GERMAN ENGINEERS ARE SEARCHING FOR A WEAPON THAT CAN ELIMINATE THE THREAT POSED BY SOVIET T-34 TANKS.

AND THEY FIND IT IN THE FORM OF A GUN CALLED THE FLAK 88.

ORIGINALLY DESIGNED TO SHOOT DOWN PLANES, THIS WEAPON WILL ONE DAY SIT ON THE FIRST NAZI SUPER TANK IN A PROJECT ORDERED BY THE FUHRER HIMSELF.

One of the big advantages of the Flak 88 was it was able to bring down the barrel horizontally.

Not every flak gun had this.

So very easily you could bring this gun down in this position.

Down and down.

So this gun was very usable against tanks, as the Germans quickly found out.

The most important factor to penetrate enemy armor was not explosives in the grenade, it was the kinetic energy: how fast the ammunition was traveling.

And this gun was designed to propel ammunition in the sky, so the projectiles coming out of this gun were able to penetrate armor just by their sheer velocity.

THE FLAK 88'S AWESOME TANK-KILLING POWER HELPS GERMANY GRIND FORWARDS.

BUT THE WINTER OF 1941 HALTS THEIR ADVANCE, ALLOWING THE SOVIETS TO DIG-IN AND REINFORCE.

HITLER LONGS TO RETURN TO THE LIGHTNING BREAKTHROUGHS OF BLITZKRIEG.

BUT THAT WILL REQUIRE TANKS POWERFUL ENOUGH TO TAKE-OUT THE SOVIET T-34.

We need a bigger gun.

I have said this before.

Do not try to trick me!

We need a tank with an 88!

IF THE GERMAN'S MOUNT THE FLAK 88 ON A PANZER, IT WILL BE THE BIGGEST GUN EVER PUT ON A TANK.

BUT ADDING A GUN THIS SIZE WILL ADD HUGE AMOUNTS OF WEIGHT.

Deciding for an 8.8cm gun was also deciding for a heavy tank because you need a big heavy tank to transport this gun.

THIS NEW SUPER-TANK WILL BE VERY DIFFERENT FROM THE PANZERS THAT CAME BEFORE.

IT WILL BE GIVEN A NAME: THE TIGER.

The development of the Tiger is a major turning point, because it marks the point where the Germans suddenly go: "Yes, big is good when it comes to armor."

HITLER'S NEW MONSTER WILL BE THE BIGGEST TANK THE WAR HAS SEEN.

NOW HE NEEDS SOMEONE TO DESIGN IT.

HIS FIRST CHOICE IS A 66-YEAR-OLD CAR DESIGNER NAMED FERDINAND PORSCHE.

PORSCHE HAS NEVER BUILT A TANK BEFORE AND IS BEST KNOWN FOR SOMETHING RATHER SMALLER: THE VOLKSWAGEN BEETLE.

Hitler admired Porsche because he thought that he was a technical genius, maybe the biggest technical genius of the time.

Shortly after Hitler came to power, Porsche and Hitler met, and Porsche introduced his ideas of a sports car.

That car was very successful at the time and it raced around here.

THIS IS THE FORMER AVUS RACETRACK, BERLIN.

HERE IN THE 1930S, PORSCHE'S SPORTS CARS SHOWCASED GERMAN ENGINEERING EXCELLENCE AND DELIGHTED HITLER.

THAT LED TO A COMMISSION TO BUILD THE BEETLE, NAZI GERMANY'S PEOPLE'S CAR.

CREATING THE BIGGEST TANK OF THE WAR IS A VERY DIFFERENT CHALLENGE.

[Muller] Of course, looking at these two vehicles, the difference couldn't be bigger.

This Volkswagen here was designed to serve the people, the simple people, if you will, and the other one was designed to kill the simple people.

PORSCHE MUST GO FROM MAKING A FAMILY CAR TO A KILLING MACHINE.

Hitler and the Nazis said, "Go ahead, "let's make a real monster of a tank."

Porsche said, "OK, let's do it."

BUT EVEN FOR CAN-DO DR. PORSCHE, PUTTING TOGETHER A MONSTER TANK WON'T BE EASY.

TODAY, AT AN OLD FLOUR WAREHOUSE IN SWITZERLAND, AN EXCEPTIONALLY RARE TIGER II TANK IS BEING REBUILT FROM SCRATCH.

FOR TANK HISTORIAN RALF RATHS, IT OFFERS AN UNPRECEDENTED CHANCE TO SEE FIRST-HAND THE CHALLENGES FACING PORSCHE.

That's a very impressive sight.

PORSCHE'S TIGER WILL HAVE THOUSANDS OF PRECISION PARTS, MANY HAND-TOOLED.

THE MAIN CAUSE FOR ITS SIZE AND COMPLEXITY IS THE GUN.

If you build a big gun and it shoots, it will go back through the recoil.

If the gun goes back into the turret, it needs space, so we have to make the turret bigger so that the gun has the room to go back.

So if you start to make the gun bigger, everything else will get bigger accordingly.

TO CARRY THE 88MM GUN, THE TIGER WILL BE MORE THAN TWICE THE SIZE OF ANY PREVIOUS PANZER AND WEIGH 66 TONNES.

SO PORSCHE PROPOSES A NOVEL SOLUTION TO GET THE WEIGHT DOWN.

The larger the gun, the larger the tank, more steel.

Why are tall people constantly forced into these tanks?

It seems like a waste of material when we have so little to spare.

Have you got another solution?

If we were to put smaller men in the tanks, then we could build smaller tanks.

As you know, the main weight of a tank is its armor.

Hm-mm...

This is an interesting idea, Herr Professor.

It's well known that short people are braver.

Porsche's idea of putting little people into the tanks is once again proof how he was thinking only as a engineer, only technical.

Much more important than the question how tall or short a person was, was how well trained and drilled and educated the person was.

PORSCHE'S PLAN IS REJECTED BY GERMAN GENERALS.

HE MUST DESIGN A TANK BIG ENOUGH FOR NORMAL-SIZE PEOPLE.

THE PRESSURE ON PORSCHE IS COMPOUNDED BY THE ANNOUNCEMENT THAT A RIVAL GERMAN ENGINEERING GIANT HENSCHEL WILL ALSO MAKE A PROTOTYPE.

NOW, EACH FIRM MUST SOMEHOW DESIGN AN ENGINE THAT CAN COPE WITH THE TIGER'S IMMENSE WEIGHT.

The Henschel engineers took the classical path, they put an engine in the back of the tank, transmission through the whole tank, and then generating power on the axel of the tank, via torque on the tracks.

That's the classical way to power a German tank.

Porsche, on the other hand, used a combined diesel-electro engine.

Meaning that he had a diesel engine powering two electro-motors on each track separately, which had the great advantage that there was no transmission needed at all.

PORSCHE'S SYSTEM DOES AWAY WITH MECHANICAL GEARS WHICH ARE HEAVY AND TAKE UP VALUABLE SPACE.

IT'S A BOLD, VISIONARY IDEA THAT WON'T BE ADOPTED FOR MASS PRODUCED CARS UNTIL THE 1990S.

BUT WILL IT WORK ON A REVOLUTIONARY NEW TANK?

HITLER'S 53RD BIRTHDAY.

HIS TREAT?

TO WATCH DEMONSTRATIONS OF THE TWO RIVAL TIGER PROTOTYPES.

PORSCHE IS SO CONFIDENT HIS VERSION WILL GET THE FUHRER'S APPROVAL THAT HE'S ALREADY BUILDING 100 CHASSIS.

When Porsche and Henschel presented their prototypes on Hitler's birthday in 1942, the classical conservative design of Henschel proved very well.

On the testing fields, they drove around, they did everything they were asked for, their machine worked.

What's happening?

It's just the electrics.

It is not a problem.

The Porsche Tiger, on the other hand, went up in flames internally and didn't accomplish anything on the testing field.

So the decision was quite clear.

PORSCHE'S INNOVATIVE TANK IS A FAILURE.

HIS ENGINE IS TOO COMPLICATED AND SUFFERS REPEATED FIRES.

Porsche's idea was intelligent, clever and interesting.

But the Henschel design on the other hand worked.

IT IS HENSCHEL'S TIGER THAT WILL GO INTO PRODUCTION.

FOR TANK EXPERTS LIKE COLONEL CHRIS WILBECK, HENSCHEL'S TIGER REMAINS A LEGENDARY MACHINE.

It's close to 70 years since the first Tiger was built and it's still just a very physically impressive tank, even today.

'This must've been a tremendous sight to the Germans 'who were going to man it 'and to the enemy who had to face it.'

What made this tank outstanding in World War II were two main things.

Number one was it was heavily armored, so it had 100 to 120mm of armor on its front.

The second thing was the 88mm main gun, capable of firing a high-velocity round that allowed it to engage and destroy enemy tanks well beyond ranges where they could destroy this tank.

THE TIGER IS MORE THAN TWICE THE SIZE OF THE MAIN SOVIET TANK, THE T-34.

IT IS ALSO PRECISION-ENGINEERED BY HAND AND EVEN COMES WITH ITS OWN OPERATOR'S MANUAL.

They produced this richly illustrated and very well-written manual for the Tiger crews so that each and every man on the Tiger knew what he had to do in his function on the Tiger.

TO GRAB THE ATTENTION, THE TIGER MANUAL INCLUDES PICTURES OF SCANTILY CLAD WOMEN.

AND ARMAMENTS MINISTER ALBERT SPEER, TELLING GUNNERS NOT TO WASTE AMMUNITION.

IT ALSO FEATURES CLEVER TIPS TO DEAL WITH THE TANK'S EXCEPTIONAL WEIGHT.

It says: "If you are not sure "if the Tiger is too heavy for the ground, "take a comrade, put him on your back, "go to the place you're unsure about and stand on one leg.

"If you don't sink into the ground, "your Tiger is OK with that ground.

"If you sink in, your Tiger is too heavy."

So the heaviness is a problem but they also provide solutions for the simple man at the front how to decide what to do.

THE TIGER IS AN EXPENSIVE SLEDGEHAMMER BUILT TO SMASH SOVIET LINES.

NOW HITLER WILL TEST IT IN COMBAT AT THE LARGEST TANK BATTLE IN HISTORY.

WILL HIS DECISION TO GO BIG PAY OFF?

SPRING 1943.

THE RUSSIAN FRONT.

THE GERMAN FORCES ARE PREPARING TO ATTACK A 124-MILE BULGE AROUND THE CITY OF KURSK.

The reason the Germans want to attack here is twofold: first because they want to reduce the front by 170 miles.

The main reason is to take on the biggest concentration of Soviet forces head on and hopefully defeat them.

Everyone knows that this is a pivotal moment in the war.

If the Germans lost at Kursk, their ambitions on the Eastern Front were over.

BUT HITLER IS WRACKED WITH DOUBT.

DOES HE HAVE ENOUGH TIGERS?

HE DELAYS FOR TWO MONTHS SO MORE CAN BE MADE, ALLOWING HUGE SOVIET DEFENSES TO GATHER.

THE SCENE IS SET FOR THE BIGGEST TANK BATTLE IN HISTORY.

LEADING THE CHARGE WILL BE 29-YEAR-OLD MICHAEL WITTMANN.

THIS DEDICATED COMMANDER HAS SPENT THREE MONTHS TRAINING WITH HIS NEW TIGER.

HE KNOWS THAT ITS ARMOR GIVES HIM A HUGE ADVANTAGE OVER T-34S HALF THE SIZE.

They can't pierce our armor unless they get within 600meters.

Should we keep our distance from the enemy tanks?

No!

Give it the gas and let them have it!

But that means... Give it the gas and let them have it!

ON JULY 5TH 1943, HITLER FINALLY GIVES THE ORDER TO ATTACK.

IT IS THE MOMENT OF TRUTH FOR THE TIGERS.

[Speaks German] Point 22-8.6.

Attack!

Target at two o'clock!

100 meters distance!

Aim at two o'clock!

Load high explosive.

High explosive loaded.

Stop!

Stop!

Fire!

Three tanks dead-ahead!

Fire!

BY THE END OF DAY ONE, WITTMANN HAS DESTROYED 15 ENEMY TANKS AND ANTI-TANK GUNS.

HITLER'S TIGER IS A DEADLY SUCCESS.

[Speaks German] In terms of effectiveness of killing enemy tanks, of destroying enemy tanks, the Tiger was very effective.

Kill ratios were very high.

AFTER FIVE DAYS FIGHTING, THE TIGER HELPS GERMAN FORCES ADVANCE UP TO 18 MILES.

BUT DESPITE THE CARNAGE, THE SOVIET T-34S KEEP COMING.

The problem the Germans have on the Eastern Front is just the vast numbers they come up against.

It seems to be never ending, a bit like the Hydra's head, chop one off and 6 more appear.

Lieutenant, there's thousands of them.

Listen to my orders, repeat them, otherwise stay silent.

Concentrate!

That way we might stay alive.

WHILE GERMANY WAS CREATING THEIR HAND-BUILT MASTERPIECE, SOVIET TRACTOR FACTORIES HAVE BEEN CHURNING OUT THOUSANDS OF T-34S.

THE HI-TECH TIGER IS MASSIVELY OUTNUMBERED.

IT IS ALSO WORRYINGLY HIGH-MAINTENANCE.

It was very mechanically complex, it was also very heavy, which meant it had problems with its engine, transmission and suspension, which caused it to have lots of breakdowns.

LIKE MANY OF THE TIGERS SENT TO KURSK, WITTMANN'S TANK IS NOT BEING DEFEATED BY THE ENEMY, BUT BY ITS OWN COMPLEX ENGINEERING.

German records indicate about as many Tigers were destroyed by their own crews to avoid capture after they'd broken down or were damaged than were engaged and destroyed by enemy fire.

GERMANY HAS TOO FEW TIGERS TO BREAK THROUGH SOVIET LINES OVER 60 MILES DEEP.

AFTER LOSING 54,000 MEN AND OVER 250 ARMORED VEHICLES, HITLER ABANDONS THE KURSK OFFENSIVE.

Kursk is the last time the Germans go forward on the Eastern Front.

It's the last time they go forward in Soviet territory.

From then on, they're always on the back foot.

BUILDING THE BIGGEST TANK OF THE WAR HAS NOT BROUGHT HITLER VICTORY ON THE BATTLEFIELD.

YET NAZI GERMANY CELEBRATES THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF THEIR NEW SUPER TANK AND ITS HEROIC COMMANDERS LIKE MICHAEL WITTMANN.

In gratitude for your heroic action in the battle for the future of our countrymen, I award you the Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross as the 380th soldier of the German Wehrmacht.

[Holland] Nazi Germany is a highly militarized society and individuals are feted in a way that they're not really in America and certainly not in Britain, for example.

So the cult of the Ace is a big thing.

So how is it possible for one man to destroy 117 tanks?

What is your secret?

Concentration, my Fuhrer.

And the hunter's instinct, I suspect?

So, how are things at the front?

Are the Tigers everything you had hoped for?

The Tiger is the very best tank in the world.

In open country, the enemy flees as soon as he sees us.

When you've got lots of publicity about one person and his Tiger Tank taking out lots of enemy tanks, what that tells the German people is that that tank and that tactic and that hero are incredibly successful and very good at what they do.

It builds up that sense of invincibility.

DESPITE LOSING THE BATTLE OF KURSK, THE SUCCESSES OF INDIVIDUAL TIGERS CONVINCE HITLER THAT BIG IS BETTER.

TO HIM, THE NEXT STEP IS LOGICAL.

GERMANY WILL BUILD THE FIRST TRUE MEGA TANK.

The idea of a mega tank, ranging somewhere between 100 and 250 tonnes, was circulating in the whole continent of Europe for about 30 years.

Nearly every major land had one or two designs of this in their drawers.

NOW DESIGNERS BOMBARD THE FUHRER WITH RIVAL PLANS, INCLUDING A DRAW-DROPPING DESIGN 10 TIMES LARGER THAN ANY TANK IN EXISTENCE.

THE LARGEST NAZI TANK DESIGN, KNOWN AS THE LANDKREUZER, IS DREAMT UP BY A SUBMARINE DESIGNER AT KRUPPS STEEL.

[Hitler] Krupp has suggested to me a magnificent tank.

A thousand-ton monster with a battleship gun.

We can use it to replace destroyed defense bunkers.

Get Herr Grote at Krupp on the telephone.

This is the only plan that exists of this vehicle.

If you look at this design and consider all dimensions, it's basically a ship on land.

The height of this tank would be 11 meters, that's roughly the size of a four-story house.

And the overall length of the whole design would be up to 39 meters.

This design was so big that normal engines were out of the question.

In this case the designer, Grote, was a U-boat designer, so he took what he knew, he took ship engines with roughly 2,200 horse power, and planned to install eight of them.

THE LANDKREUZER IS NOTHING LESS THAN A BATTLESHIP ON WHEELS.

IN JUNE 1942, HITLER APPROVES THE PLANS.

I want a tank of 1000 tonnes.

Truly nothing could stop it!"

INCREDIBLY, THE GERMANS ALSO CONSIDER AN EVEN BIGGER TANK.

The idea was to take the heaviest German artillery piece, the 80-cm gun called Schwerer Gustav, resulting in a design that had roughly the same exterior data like the Landkreuzer, but was 50% heavier.

So the whole design of the Landkreuzer Monster, its nickname, would have been at a weight of 1,500 tonnes.

THESE STEEL MONSTERS ARE DESIGNED TO TERRIFY THE ENEMY BY SHEER SIZE.

BUT THIS SIZE CREATES A HUGE PROBLEM: LACK OF MOBILITY.

Certainly it must be horrifying and terrifying to the enemy to face this, but really they would never have to face it, unless you plunked them down in front of it, because the thing could have never gotten anywhere.

THE LANDKREUZER IS A TANK SUPERSIZED BEYOND PRACTICAL USE.

REALIZING THIS, ARMAMENTS MINISTER ALBERT SPEER SHUTS THE PROJECT DOWN.

BUT HITLER'S DESIRE TO BUILD A MEGA TANK IS UNSTOPPABLE.

HE TURNS TO DR. PORSCHE.

THIS LEGENDARY CAR DESIGNER FAILED IN HIS BID TO BUILD THE TIGER, BUT NOW HE HAS A SHOT AT REDEMPTION.

He still believed that Porsche was basically a genius, and maybe this time something very good, something very new would come out, with far more battlefield power than the other classical designs.

What would be the purpose of such a tank?

Nothing could stop a land-battleship of this size.

Of course it would not travel alone but with an escort of smaller armored vehicles.

It also seems to me we could use some steel bunkers.

Suppose one of our concrete bunkers was knocked out, this steel monster could quickly plug the gap again and again.

THIS NEW 'STEEL MONSTER' WILL BE CALLED THE MAUS.

IT'S A MONUMENTAL ENGINEERING CHALLENGE AND PORSCHE CANNOT AFFORD TO LET HIS FUHRER DOWN AGAIN.

Everything Porsche had to build into this tank, according to the demands of Hitler, was a problem on a much, much bigger scale than before.

This is the first design Porsche proposed in June 1942.

It's the classical German tank on a new scale.

The whole thing was roughly double the size of a Tiger.

But it still wasn't enough for Hitler.

WITH PORSCHE FAILING TO DELIVER THE COLOSSAL SCALE HE WANTS, HITLER GETS EVEN MORE HANDS-ON.

HE SPECIFIES THE EXACT LENGTH AND DIAMETER OF THE GUN AND THE THICKNESS OF THE ARMOR FOR HIS DREAM TANK.

So this is the final Maus.

This design now, with the demands Hitler made over time, weighs in at 188 tonnes.

This means the first Maus was as heavy as two Tigers, and they added just a third Tiger.

ON MAY 14TH 1943, HITLER AND PORSCHE GATHER AT THE WOLF'S LAIR TO VIEW A WOODEN MODEL MAUS.

AFTER DISAPPOINTING HITLER WITH HIS TIGER PROTOTYPE, PORSCHE KNOWS ANOTHER FAILURE COULD BE DISASTROUS.

So, can we build such tanks?

Of course, my Fuhrer, we can build such tanks.

We must now plan ahead for achieving superiority in 1944.

This year, the Tiger and the Panther are the best.

Next year, the Maus and the Tiger II must be the best.

This is fantastic!

THE GIANT MAUS IS IRRESISTIBLE TO HITLER.

PORSCHE'S SUPER-TANK WILL BE BUILT.

Everything he does leads towards vastness.

Vast underground bunkers.

Vast guns.

Vast tanks.

Hitler absolutely buys into the idea that big is better.

BUT CREATING THIS GIANT TANK PRESENTS PORSCHE WITH HUGE TECHNICAL CHALLENGES.

THE GERMANS HAD TRIED BUILDING A MASSIVE MOBILE GUN SEVERAL YEARS EARLIER, A WEAPON CALLED THE SCHWERER GUSTAV, WHICH DWARFED PORSCHE'S VISION FOR THE MAUS.

IT'S A VALUABLE LESSON IN THE PITFALLS OF BUILDING BIG.

A PIECE OF THIS GUN STILL SURVIVES, ONE OF ITS SHELLS.

What strikes me first when I look at this grenade, is the enormous size of it.

Almost 4 meters long, it weighs about 5,000kgs.

It could inflict enormous damage.

It could penetrate 10 meters of concrete, it could penetrate a steel plate one meter thick.

When this thing fired, you got firepower indeed.

COMPLETED IN 1942, THE GUSTAV WEIGHED OVER 1,400 TONNES.

THE GUN WAS SO BIG THAT THE ONLY WAY TO MOVE IT WAS ON ITS OWN DEDICATED RAILWAY.

AND TRANSPORTING IT TO THE BATTLEFRONT WAS A MAMMOTH UNDERTAKING.

It took 25 trains to bring all the equipment, all the installations of the Schwerer Gustav.

It took about 2 to 3 months before it was ready to fire in June 1942.

There were 2,500 people needed to build the tracks for the gun, to assemble the gun, and to fire the gun.

ONCE IN POSITION, THE GUSTAV REQUIRED VAST AMOUNTS OF MAN-POWER AND RESOURCES TO OPERATE.

THE GIANT GUN COULDN'T SWIVEL, SO NEW RAILWAY TRACKS WERE LAID TO POINT IT IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION.

IN ALL, IT TOOK 90 DAYS TO PREPARE THE GUN FOR FIRING.

AND IT WAS ONLY USED ONCE, AGAINST THE SOVIET CITY OF SEVASTAPOL.

THE GUN'S 5.5-TONNE SHELLS HAD A RANGE OF OVER 24 MILES.

SPOTTER PLANES WERE NEEDED TO SEE WHERE THE SHELLS LANDED.

500 meters too short.

Adjust by two degrees.

OVER A PERIOD OF 8 DAYS, THE GUSTAV OBLITERATED SEVERAL LARGE FORTS SURROUNDING SEVASTAPOL.

It was able to destroy some heavy fortifications but at a price.

It could fire 48 shots and then its barrel was worn out, worn out completely.

PROPELLING ITS FIVE-TONNE SHELLS AT SUPERSONIC SPEEDS HAD WRECKED THE BARREL.

It needs enormous maintenance to keep it in working order.

And because of its dimensions, of course it's very vulnerable to air attacks.

Was the Schwerer Gustav a successful weapon?

In the end, you have to answer no.

WHEN BUILDING HIS MAUS TANK, PORSCHE HAS TO MOUNT A LARGE GUN ON THE BIGGEST TANK EVER BUILT.

UNLIKE THE GUSTAV, THOUGH, IT HAS TO BE PRACTICAL AND MANEUVERABLE.

AND CRUCIALLY, IT MUST DELIVER HITLER THE LETHAL KILLING POWER HE CRAVES.

THE FUHRER DESPERATELY NEEDS WEAPONS THAT CAN REVERSE THE CRUSHING LOSSES IN RUSSIA.

WEAPONS CAPABLE OF STRIKING FEAR INTO HIS ENEMIES.

[Holland] Most Germans know that the war is not going to be won from 1943 onward.

But Hitler is still clinging on to this thousand-year Reich concept.

And because he's always been such a technology buff, he starts to put increased amount of faith in wonder weapons, whether they be rockets or jet aircraft or even Maus Tanks.

HITLER'S MAUS TANKS WILL BE KEPT AT KUMMERSDORF.

HERE IN 1935, HITLER HAD BEEN WOWED BY PANZER I'S, WEIGHING SIX AND A HALF TONNES.

This is it!

This is what I want!

NOW KUMMERSDORF WILL HOUSE A TANK 36 TIMES BIGGER.

This building is the building that housed the two German Panzer VII's, the Maus.

This was where all of their new weapons were tested and made sure that they met the specifications.

But just the sheer size of where they parked these tanks is really impressive to see.

HITLER AND THE NAZIS HAVE HIGH HOPES FOR THE MAUS TANKS STORED HERE.

They were hoping that this would be a wonder weapon, that this would be such a large moving fortress that could defeat anything in its path.

BUT BEFORE HITLER CAN USE THE MAUS IN COMBAT, ITS INVENTOR DR. PORSCHE MUST GET IT MOBILE.

DESPITE HIS DISASTER WITH THE TIGER TANK, HE STILL HAS FAITH IN HIS PIONEERING DIESEL-ELECTRIC ENGINE.

The pressure on the tracks was so good, so well distributed on the ground, that the tank actually was able to reach 15 to 20kph on the open terrain.

Porsche managed to design the interior of the Maus so that this humungous, cumbersome, real big tank moves like a normal car, basically.

And everybody who could drive a car could basically drive a Maus.

From an engineering point of view, regarding the steering of the Maus, it's a masterpiece.

PORSCHE'S MAUS IS A TECHNICAL TRIUMPH, BUT POSSIBLY NOT THE MOST PRACTICAL COMBAT VEHICLE.

Every bridge the Maus would have tried to go over would've been broken down by it, so the Maus had to go through rivers.

For that, you had to build a snorkel on the Maus, keep every hole in the Maus shut, and connect it to another Maus, because a Maus had this typical Porsche diesel-electro motor, which wasn't able to function under water.

The Maus would go through the water, and then the Maus on the other side would give her energy to the second Maus, which would go through the water then.

ON DRY LAND, THE MAUS PROVES AN ASTONISHING GAS-GUZZLER.

IT BURNS A GALLON OF DIESEL EVERY 370 FEET, AT A TIME WHEN FUEL IS INCREASINGLY SCARCE.

THE NAZI HIGH-COMMAND ARE DIVIDED ABOUT WHETHER TO GO INTO FULL PRODUCTION.

BUT THE WAR WON'T WAIT.

IN JUNE 1944, THE ALLIES INVADE NORMANDY.

WITHIN A WEEK, THEY'VE ADVANCED DEEP INLAND.

TO FIGHT BACK, THE NAZIS MUST RELY ON THEIR ORIGINAL SUPER TANK, THE TIGER, AND ACES LIKE MICHAEL WITTMANN.

NEAR A VILLAGE CALLED VILLERS-BOCAGE, WITTMANN IS SENT TO OBSERVE ALLIED TANK MOVEMENTS.

They think they have won the war already.

Let's prove them wrong.

WITTMANN HAS FOUND AN ENTIRE TANK FORMATION NAPPING.

HE DECIDES TO ATTACK WITH JUST ONE TIGER.

[Shouting orders in German] Point 22-8.6!

So he just goes down on a parallel road and just goes boom... boom... boom... boom...taking out one after the other.

In the space of 15 minutes, in his own tank, he has destroyed, has taken out, between 12 and 13 British tanks and the same number again of vehicles.

IT IS ONE OF THE MOST DEVASTATING SINGLE-HANDED ATTACKS OF THE WAR AND EARNS ICE-COLD TANK ACE WITTMANN EVEN GREATER FAME IN NAZI GERMANY.

People like Wittmann did something good for their army concerning morale, but then again they actually distracted from the truth of industrial warfare.

GERMANY SIMPLY HASN'T BUILT ENOUGH TANKS.

IN WORLD WAR II, THEY PRODUCE OVER 1,300 TIGERS, COMPARED TO 50,000 SHERMANS BUILT BY THE UNITED STATES.

TWO THOUSAND OF THESE SHERMANS ARE GIVEN EXTRA BIG GUNS TO DESTROY TIGERS.

THEY ARE CALLED SHERMAN FIREFLIES.

The genius idea about the Firefly is you're using the same tank that's already in mass production.

So to support it, you don't need any new spare parts because it's using two things that are already in existence: a 17-pounder gun, which artillery have, and a Sherman Tank.

THE FIREFLY WOULD PROVE WITTMANN'S NEMESIS.

ON AUGUST 8TH 1944, A FIREFLY GUNNER SPOTS WITTMANN'S DISTANT TIGER.

JUST ONE SHOT PENETRATES THE TIGER'S ARMOR, IGNITES ITS AMMO AND INCINERATES WITTMANN AND HIS CREW.

What Wittmann's death tells us is that this idea of building super heavy, super complicated, wonder-weapon tanks didn't work out because the Americans just took their normal, mass-produced medium tank, improved it and killed Wittmann and his Tiger.

AS THE ALLIES CLOSE IN FROM EAST AND WEST, DEFEAT FOR NAZI GERMANY CREEPS CLOSER.

AT KUMMERSDORF, FERDINAND PORSCHE CONTINUES TO TEST HIS MAUS, BUT ONLY TWO PROTOTYPES ARE EVER MADE AND THE MAUS HALLS ARE NEVER FINISHED.

The Maus was a marketing trick.

It was to keep people believing in this silly war, in this vicious war, even when everything was lost.

And it was obvious to everybody that things were lost.

IN MARCH 1945, THE SOVIETS REACH GERMANY AND DISCOVER TWO ABANDONED MAUS TANKS CLOSE TO KUMMERSDORF.

THEY WOULD GO ON TO TEST THE MAUS, BUT CONCLUDED THAT IT HAD LITTLE PRACTICAL USE.

NO TANK THIS BIG WOULD EVER BE BUILT AGAIN.

I would say the Maus was an evolutionary dead-end in terms of tank development, because it didn't have the mobility necessary to accomplish really anything practical on the modern battlefield.

[Gustafson] Modern tank design has sort of capped out at around 70 tons.

Much bigger than that, and you are starting to damage the infrastructure around you.

The vehicles becomes immobile.

THE MAUS, LIKE THE GUSTAV GUN, WAS A WEAPON SUPERSIZED FAR BEYOND THE PRACTICAL.

THE RESULT OF HITLER'S LOVE OF THE VERY, VERY BIG.

He always favored designs that just convinced because they were bigger or more thickly armored or were better armed.

He always looked for technical growth rather than what was suitable for the battlefield.

[Holland] They have these huge ambitions for vast amounts of concrete, metal work, machinery, buildings and constructs.

And yet they don't have the resources to produce that stuff, and yet they still do anyway.

And it's just mad.

I mean, it just makes no sense whatsoever.

SOME OF GERMANY'S BEST ENGINEERING BRAINS WERE ENGAGED IN SATISFYING HITLER'S DESIRE TO BUILD THE LARGEST TANKS AND GUNS THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN.

YET IN THE END, THE ALLIES PROVED THAT LARGE NUMBERS OF TANKS WERE FAR MORE DECISIVE THAN THEIR SIZE.