Dimensions for the Landkreuzer were jaw-dropping: 115 feet long, 46 feet wide, and 36 feet high. It would have weighed 1,000 tons, with as much as 300 tons worth of 10-inch armor plating. Had the Ratte come to life, it would have been five times heavier than the heaviest tank ever built, the previously mentioned Panzer VIII Maus (regarded as one of the worst tanks ever built).
Its big main guns were a pair of linked cannons (like those on the seafaring Scharnhorst–class battleships), mounted in a rotating turret that shot 280mm shells. But that’s just the start. It would’ve also been fitted with a plethora of smaller guns and anti-aircraft weapons that dotted the chassis, covering every field of fire, including at least one 128mm gun, as many as eight 20mm anti-aircraft flak guns, and a pair of 15mm machine guns.
Moving the beast would have required eight Daimler-Benz 20-cylinder diesel marine engines, each producing 2,000 horsepower and weighing 37 tons. A total of six 69-foot-long treads (three on each side) were needed to move it along, using one liter of diesel every 20 seconds at full power. Not to mention, it took a crew of 40 men to operate. It was so massive, a full squad of reconnaissance motorcycles (typically consisting of 50 bikes) could sit inside its bay.
Ultimately, each Landkreuzer would have cost an estimated $1.4 million (in today’s dollars) to build. After numerous iterations and changes to the plans, Albert Speer — Hitler’s Reichsminister (Minister of Armaments and War Production) — cancelled the project in 1943 before a single prototype was built.
