11. A Useless Giant
The Panzer VIII Maus was intended to spearhead German attacks, smash through any opposition, and destroy all enemy armor it came across, impervious to damage from any tanks in its path. With 9.4 inches of turret armor, 8 inches of hull front armor, 7 inches of hull side armor, and 6 inches of rear armor, the Maus was largely immune from Allied tanks, whose shells would simply bounce off the behemoth. However, it was built in 1944, by which time the Allies not only had aerial superiority on both the Western and Eastern front but just about complete aerial supremacy over the battlefield.
The Maus lacked sufficient armor protection up top from armor-piercing bombs and rockets delivered from above. Ultimately, it was an idiot idea symptomatic of Hitler’s irrational obsession with big things and superweapons. The Fuhrer was indifferent to or was unable to understand, the concept of relative cost-effectiveness. He found it difficult to grasp that other “normal” weapons might accomplish the same as his superweapons at a fraction of the cost, and thus free up scarce resources for other uses that could better serve the German war effort.
