Panzerjager Tiger (P) Ferdinand/Elefant

## **Overview**

The Ferdinand (Later named Elefant) was a German World War II heavy tank destroyer. It was built in small numbers on the hulls of the Porsche Tiger, which was rejected as the Henschel design was deemed better. In 1944, the surviving Ferdinands from Kursk were modified and re-designated "Elefant" (Meaning Elephant in German). The Ferdinand's official designation was Panzerjager Tiger (P), and the ordinance inventory designation was Sd. Kfz. 184. The most notable use of the Elefant/Ferdinand was the battle of Kursk, where it proved sufficient against enemy tanks, but was lacking against infantry.

## **Development**

During the development of the Tiger tank, Porsche and Henschel created competing designs. Porsche's design was known as the "Porsche Tiger", or Tiger (P). Henschel ended up winning the contract for the Tiger tank, however Porsche had already built about 90 Tiger (P) hulls. Rather than letting these hulls go to waste, it was decided to move the engine towards the center of the vehicle, and fit an armored superstructure to the rear of the hull, creating the Ferdinand heavy tank destroyer.

## **Design**

As previously stated, a boxy superstructure with slightly sloped sides was added to the rear of the hull. This was used to mount the long-barreled 88mm L/71 cannon on a limited-traverse. The engine was placed in the center of the hull, where it made communication between the front and rear parts impossible except by radio. The driver and radio operator were seated in the front of the hull. A 100mm armor plate was bolted to the front of the hull, increasing the thickness to 200 mm. This added another 5 tons to the tank destroyer, bringing it up to 70 tons in weight. Two Porsche air-cooled engines drove a Seimens-Schuckert generator, which powered the electric motors connected to the rear sprockets. This design is known as a petrol-electric drive, and is unusual in the tank world. Because of the vehicles immense weight, it had a poor power-to-weight ratio, which made it slow, and in addition to this, it was fuel-thirsty. The vehicle's suspension consisted of three twin bogies per side, attached to longitudinal torsion bars. The wheels were not interleaving, as is seen on many other German tanks and tank destroyers. The 88mm gun was 71 calibers long, and mounted on a limited traverse with 25 degrees of travel vertically and horizontally.

## **Production**

Only 91 vehicles were built on Porsche Tiger hulls.

## **Action**

   The Ferdinand was first deployed in action at the Battle of Kursk on the Easter front in 1943. 89 Ferdinands took part in the battle, where they scored amazing kills against the Soviet T-34 tanks. At Kursk, Ferdinands scored recorded kills on T-34 tanks at ranges of up to 3 kilometers. This ability to knock out enemy tanks at range was mostly due to the immense power of the long-barreled 88mm gun that the Ferdinand carried. At Kursk, the Ferdinand scored the best kill-death ratio ever recorded in tank warfare. About 15 Soviet tanks were destroyed for every one Ferdinand lost. This was vastly better than the Tiger I's kill-death ratio, which was about 4:1. However the Ferdinand was not without flaws. While it was extremely proficient at destroying enemy armor, it was immensely lacking when it came to conflicts with infantry. The Ferdinand's major flaw was the fact that it was not equipped with a machine gun. Infantry often swarmed and overwhelmed Ferdinands, which was what caused most of the losses to the vehicle. Ferdinands tried to defend themselves with their 88mm cannons, however this was mostly unsuccessful. Heinz Guderian, Inspector General of German Armored Forces described this as "Shooting quail with cannon." Its weight also made it difficult to tow, about 5 recovery vehicles were needed to haul a Ferdinand's bulk away if it was damaged.

After the battle of Kursk, surviving Ferdinands were pulled back and modified based on combat experience. They received improved vision devices and a machine gun. This caused the vehicle to be re-designated as Elefant, meaning Elephant in German. They were then rushed to Italy where they fought the Americans. Some were also sent to Poland where they fought the Soviets again in the Vistula-Oder offensive.

The Elephant was eventually superseded by the Jagdpanther tank destroyer.