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“Requiem for an Unsung Hero”

*Last week I was talking to my old friend Andy Stanford on the phone.  For those of you new to the shooting game, Andy was a pioneering instructor in the 1990s and 2000s.  He focused a lot of his classes on handgun skills and operating in a low light environment.

Back in the days before the internet was popular, Andy was well known in the field because he wrote books about subjects that most of us were trying to master.  I still have the original first edition copies of Andy’s books from the now-defunct Paladin Press.

Andy’s most notable book was Fight at Night, the first book ever written about low light operations.  His book Surgical Speed Shooting was also quite innovative for the time.

In our conversation, I mentioned that I was planning on attending an upcoming private training class taught by Larry Mudgett.  Larry spent 35 years with LAPD,  During his tenure there, he radically improved the police department’s (and the SWAT Team’s) firearms training.

He, somewhat like Andy, did the majority of his fine work in the days before YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook.  That means most Gun Culture 2.0 folks have no idea those guys even exist.

I’ve always found Andy to be both superbly intelligent and intellectually curious.  He’s a bit of a contradiction in the knuckle-dragging world of atavistic firearms instructors.  If you don’t know anything about him, I think this short article Andy Stanford: Former shooting instructor hits the high notes in the Ridgecrest, California Daily Independent characterizes a lot of his personality.

In our phone conversation, Andy told me about one of his friends whose accomplishments at Bakersfield, California PD rivaled those of Mr. Mudgett.  In fact, Andy’s friend was once Larry Mudgett’s instructor.  Unfortunately, this man, Mike Waidelich, passed away a few years ago.

I did some research on him and found that he and I would probably have gotten along quite well.  He was a student and friend of Jeff Cooper, serving as Range Master at Gunsite Academy.

 

In one of Cooper’s monthly Commentaries from 1995, he mentioned Mike in the following entry.

 

“Family member and Orange range master Mike Waidelich has now become a firm advocate of the Glock pistol. This has puzzled me because I consider that trigger action is the most significant single element in the precision efficiency of any firearm, and the trigger on the Glock is customarily so bad as to be practically unworkable. But Mike does not agree. He explained to me that pistol engagements within the law enforcement establishment customarily occur at such short range that precise bullet placement is not important. He maintains that he can teach anybody to center a human adversary with the Glock trigger at any reasonable range – say 10 meters or less. The other points that recommend the Glock to the police establishment are low cost and readily available modular parts. The Glock people will furnish you with spare parts immediately, where most other manufacturers hem and haw. These points are important. They are not enough to turn me into a Glockenspieler; but then, I am not a police range master.”

An appreciation for Glocks in the Gunsite world back in 1995 was considered heresy.  I decided I liked Mike’s style.  I liked it even more when I read his letter to the editor published by The Bakersfield Californian titled Don’t leave home without one back in 2012.

“In response to the May 2 letter “Consequences of NRA’s assault on gun laws”: I was a police officer for 30 years. I was assaulted several times during that time and had contact with many assault victims. All manner of weapons, knives, clubs, guns, and a bunch of other things were used.

I have been retired for about 14 years now and I still never leave the house without a gun. When you can assure me that I will never be attacked by anyone, armed or otherwise, I’ll leave my gun at home. Until then, you should hope that I, or someone like me, is around if you are ever the victim of an assault.

I hate violence. I hate it so much that I am willing to kill if necessary, to keep anyone from using it against me.”
 
Mike Waidelich

I fear that history may forget the genre-changing accomplishments that men like Andy Stanford and Mike Waidelich contributed.  Andy wrote an obituary of sorts documenting Mike’s achievements.  I am publishing it below with Andy’s permission to keep Mike’s ideas alive for eternity.

I think if modern day officers shot the same 10-round course Mike developed twice a month, our police hit rates would change in a dramatically favorable manner.  We’ve known how to solve the problem of cops who can’t shoot for almost 50  years now.  The problem is that most modern police firearms instructors don’t take enough interest in their craft to study the methods used by past innovators.

I hope Andy’s article provides you all with a little perspective and historical context that you might not have otherwise been exposed to.  Enjoy.  Thanks to Andy for allowing me to reprint his work.

-Greg

R.I.P. Mike Waidelich

Requiem for an Unsung Hero

 

Lyle Wyatt just called me with “bad tidings”:  Mike Waidelich died today.  I first met Mike in 1977 through the South West Pistol League, where he had won the B-class Championship the year before. The last time I saw him was probably in the early 1990’s at the Soldier of Fortune 3-gun Match, where Waidelich was a longtime staff member.  He had Hollywood good looks, and Lyle confirms my impression that Mike was a genuinely nice guy.

Mike was born in 1942, and served in the U.S. Army Special Forces (he fought in the Dominican Republic in ’65, if I recall correctly).  One of the first Gunsite instructors, Mike taught during the API 250 class attended by LAPD SWAT icons Larry Mudgett and John Helms.  But his biggest claim to fame was the too-little-known story of his success as the Bakersfield P.D. Rangemaster.  By some miracle, I spoke with him several times in the last month or so, and got the details.

Mike joined the BPD in 1967 when it was an agency of 50-ish sworn personnel (now several hundred).  At that time patrol cops carried .38 revolvers in clamshell holsters.  A year or so later they had eight on-duty shootings with zero police bullets hitting the suspects.  The Chief asked Mike if he could solve this problem.  Mike said “yes” but only if he could do it his way.  A couple of hours explaining the particulars of “his way” and the job was his, 12 years total.

Pretty quickly the switch was made to 9mm Smith and Wesson Model 59 auto pistols, and later, in the 1980s, to the 1911A1 Colt 45’s that Mike initially recommended (in Milt Sparks leather no less).  Then, approximately ten years after that, the department switched again, to Glocks, first in .40 S&W, now 9mm.  But the hardware is not generally the most important factor in a gunfight.  It’s usually “the nut behind the bolt,” and that is where Mike made his bones.

In-service transition training was five days long.  So was academy firearms training for recruits.  Paul Trent, Mike’s friend and protege, relates: “When I went to the Gunsite 250 course in 1980, I got an Expert ticket.  I realized Mike had taught my 1976 academy class virtually the same material, plus some additional tactics.”  Trent attended the BPD academy a year before Waidelich actually met Jeff Cooper, and prevailed in an on-duty gunfight his first day on the job.

The standard BPD course of fire (with Mike’s rationale) was as follows, all from the holster:

2 rounds in 1.5 seconds at 10 feet (“No one should be closer than that.”)

2 rounds in 2.0 seconds at 20 feet (“The length of a car.”)

2 reload 2 in 6.0 seconds (8.0 for revolvers) at 30 feet (“From the curb to the front door.”)

2 rounds in 3.5 seconds at 60 feet (“From the opposite curb to the front door.”)

The course was shot twice over each month (later, less frequently).

Mike told me the 10-point scoring zone on the silhouette target was, as best he could recall, a 7-inch circle, with the next zone (9 points) measuring 9×13 inches.  A hit anywhere else on the silhouette scored 6 points. Departmental competitions were held as additional motivation for skills development. As for the rest of the system, I’ll let his words speak for themselves (from an 11 March 2021 email):

“I forgot to mention the somewhat unique method for scoring the basic drills.  The time was flexible in that there were penalties for overtime.  The penalties were 1 point per quarter second over the time allowed for the string.  So, if you fired 2 in 1.5 seconds at 10 feet, you got zero penalties.  At 1.6 seconds you lost 1 point.  At 1.8 you lost 2 points, etc.  I had shooters all over the place. 

One sergeant never made the time but never missed the 10 ring and his times were not long enough to disqualify him.  Others always made the time, but were all over the target.  It was quite interesting to get them to balance the speed and accuracy appropriate for their abilities and I think it gave them a proper mind set for actual combat. 

Of course shot timers didn’t come along until 1982 so initially the timing was done to tenths of a second with a stop watch.  The course was administered with 6 shooters on the line and the RM would walk down the line and each shooter would shoot individually.  A run through all 4 stages for 6 shooters took less than 10 minutes so the first half hour of a 2-hour training session was basic drills, followed by additional drills covering and teaching specific skills and techniques.     

Initially the standard was 80 out of 100 on either string out of 2 tries.  If a shooter failed to shoot an 80 in his first 2 attempts he was sent to a side range to dry practice and then given a 3rd attempt. 
Those who failed 3 times were required to come back, but only once on department time.  If they failed again they were required to come back on their own time.  If they couldn’t qualify during the course of the training period — monthly at first but it got longer as the department grew, finally to quarterly — they were assigned to the range for remedial training.
Should they require remedial training in any two consecutive training cycles, their fitness for duty would be reevaluated. In short, they could get fired, and nobody hit the street who wasn’t currently qualified.  The training had teeth.”

How good were BPD officers?  85% hits when the national average was 15%.  (Lyle says this number would be higher but for one outlier shooting in which an officer missed with his entire first magazine.)  Anyone who has studied the matter knows how significant this is.  Most cops can’t shoot well, and the few who can are usually self-motivated enthusiasts.  Not one officer was killed in a gunfight when Mike was BPD rangemaster.    A few anecdotes flesh out the tale:

The new regional FBI agents based in Bakersfield usually shot the BPD department qual for familiarization.  Mike’s course of fire quickly humbled the mostly cocky G-men.  (The Bureau actually used some of Mike’s written documentation as source material for their own efforts.)

When training in the L.A. area, Waidelich and other Bakerfield P.D. officers frequently heard comments like, “Oh. You’re from BAKERSFIELD.  Our bank robbers go there to get killed.”  Clearly the department had a widespread and well-earned reputation as real deal gunfighters.

Once, a visiting firearms instructor expressed skepticism when Mike described the BPD standards:

“You mean to tell me EVERY officer in your department passes this course?”

“Everyone from the Chief on down.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it!” 

Mike got on the radio. “Dispatch, please send two officers to the range.”  Shortly, two random BPD cops arrived, and both shot better than 90% scores, cold.  “I can call two more but the results will be the same.”

In 2016 — long after Waidelich retired — Kern County law enforcement killed more people in the line of duty than any other county in the country, many much more populous.  (Bakersfield is in west Kern County.)  I believe this statistic is the result of three factors:

1) a relatively conservative political district where cops don’t automatically get fired for using their weapons,

2) a target rich environment full of gang bangers and oilfield roughnecks, and

3) the lasting influence of Mike Waidelich’s cutting-edge training.

 

That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.

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All About Guns Ammo Cops

AT CLOSE RANGE

RECALLING, AND QUESTIONING, A CHOICE OF DEFENSE ROUNDS
BY DAVE WORKMAN

Decades ago, Dave encountered a small businessman who’s
store defense strategy involved the use of a birdshot cartridge
in his .38 Special Smith & Wesson.

Early in my career — serving as editor of a small-town weekly newspaper — one of my duties was to make the Friday rounds to pick up advertising for the following week’s edition.

It was a combination of dread and anticipation. Some stops I wrapped up as soon as possible, while others were a delight, allowing me to spend a few minutes chatting with someone I found to be interesting. I learned from one fellow this bit of interesting wisdom: “The thing this town needs most is a lot of expensive funerals.” It was spoken with a wink, but not much of a smile.

There were a couple of restaurants, a shoe store and a sporting goods store on the route. And there was one businessman who landed on my radar screen one morning when he invited me behind the counter. There, my eyes quickly focused on the J-Frame Smith & Wesson revolver well within reach of both the cash register and the spot where customers might wait for an order — or a thug might pull a gun and aim it at him, demanding money.

The owner glanced around the store — it was empty at this point, just after opening — and reached for the five-shooter to make a point. He swung the cylinder open and showed me how the first round out of this wheelgun was a shot cartridge. Without being asked, he said the idea was to get off a shot at point blank range, presumably to a would-be robber’s face, followed by the conventional jacketed hollowpoints in the remaining chambers.

A small business operator Dave knew 50 years ago had a J-frame Smith & Wesson stashed near his cash register. Dave used this Model 442 in an effort to determine whether the shopkeeper’s ammunition choice was a viable one.

There was not much to say. If I recall correctly, my only reaction was a nod and a “Hmmm, interesting.” Even in my early 20s, I was savvy enough to not suggest an advertiser might be seriously off base, especially to his face. Besides, maybe he wasn’t. Certainly, it was not my call to criticize or condone. The conversation had been surprising, and I did not mention it to anybody, including the publishers.

Now, nearly five decades later, I was reminded of that brief chat only because I was going through some boxes of ammunition and found a dozen .38 Special shot cartridges about which I had completely forgotten. One afternoon on a late-season grouse hunt, curiosity got the better of me. After all this time, I just had to know. Was this fellow’s load nastiness a good idea or a bad one; that is, would his setup really work?

I took along my Colt Diamondback to put the businessman’s strategy to the test. A few days later, I headed for the range to further check out this idea, using my S&W Model 442 DAO snubbie at very close range for contrast; about the distance one might expect between a clerk and a robber on the other side of the counter.

Personally, I would never advise anyone to duplicate this setup. It was something I had never considered. What’s that phrase? It seemed “fraught with peril.”

A shot cartridge at close range can produce devastating results, as this target reveals. This round was fired from three feet. Note the jagged hole where the plastic capsule remnants struck

Wishful Thinking?

At “armed robbery distance,” say a maximum of three to four feet, the shot charge fired at a Birchwood-Casey Shoot-N-C head-sized oval indicated massive wound trauma would result, even if the perp was wearing a mask. Shooting toward the lower part of the face would almost certainly produce a shattered jaw, at the very least. It might rupture the carotid artery. A shot aimed at the nose area would likely destroy the nasal cavity, maybe blind a robber, and quite possibly be fatal.

Dave fired this round also from about 36 inches, aiming lower.
That payload would have shattered a jawbone and maybe
perforated a major artery.

Such “snake loads” are close range only, designed for reptiles and rodents, not self-defense. They consist of No. 9 shot inside a plastic capsule. I set up a target about 12-14 feet away and loaded a couple of rounds into my Diamondback with its 4-inch barrel. The Birchwood Casey self-adhesive oval revealed just how much difference a few feet can make.

At the first shot from the Colt, it was easy to see how wide and quickly the shot pattern spreads after leaving a rifled barrel. Not only did the shot literally fly all over, the capsule left a nasty hole on the left side of the oval target, indicating that an equally impressive facial wound might result, but it likely would not stop a threat. I fired a second shot and again, pellets went all over and there was a second left-side gash where the plastic shot capsule made contact.

These shots came from a 4-inch Colt, fired from about 12 feet away. Notice how the shot pattern spreads pretty wide, but the plastic shot containers left major gashes, suggesting serious wound trauma in a defensive situation.

The down-and-dirty analysis is that the businessman’s load strategy would only work at very close range, but it loses effectiveness rapidly the farther away the target is standing. Up close, however, it could be devastating.

Again, I’m not suggesting anybody try this for personal protection. There are plenty of other options.

With today’s wide selection of self-defense ammunition, the strategy described above would not be my first choice, for any number of reasons. But it does confirm that even a half-century ago, small business owners were already thinking about personal protection in, shall we say, “creative ways.”

What Are the Risks?

The legal risks of shooting someone with a load of birdshot, even if they are trying to rob you at gunpoint — in today’s environment, thugs pulling such stickups might be more prone to pulling a trigger as well — are more in the sandbox of our own Massad Ayoob, or a good criminal defense attorney. There could be all sorts of ramifications, depending upon the prosecutor and your state’s self-defense statute.

A snakeshot load is not a frangible bullet. It is a payload of tiny lead shot pellets held loosely inside a hard plastic shell, whereas a frangible bullet is, according to one definition, fabricated from “mixtures of powdered metals” such as copper, zinc, tin or tungsten, resulting in a compressed material which can be made to form projectiles, “with or without jacketing.”

I have also tested projectiles consisting of bullet jackets filled with tiny shot held together by some sort of resin. They open up almost immediately upon penetration and create wound chaos.

To my knowledge, the businessman’s strategy was never put to the test, and I don’t recall having ever encountered anybody else who loaded a defensive revolver in such a way. Today, most people opt for a semi-automatic, anyway.

In some jurisdictions, a prosecutor might conclude the would-be robber initiated the event and shooting him, even with a load of shot, would be considered justified. Elsewhere, one might find himself or herself on the wrong end of an indictment, followed by a civil lawsuit even if acquitted.

Of course, the risk you only wound someone enough to guarantee they would want to leave you dead is a major consideration. Fifty years ago, it seemed like a good idea to a small-town retailer who, a) was determined to fight back, and/or b) didn’t want to be murdered for whatever small amount of cash might be in his register.

 

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All About Guns War

10 of the largest Military Tanks in History.

Challenger II tank ready to fire

By their very nature, tanks are heavy. After all, they are armored vehicles that often have inches of hardened armor to protect those inside and huge main guns that are capable of destroying other tanks (or almost anything else in their way). Since their introduction a century ago, tanks have played an essential role in warfare, and their designs are often a compromise between firepower and armor against maneuverability and mobility.

That means that many tanks are not only very expensive to build but also incredibly heavy, especially if the aim for the tank isn’t for it to move around at high speed. With so much hardware to fit into the vehicles, ranging from massive engines to fire control systems and ammunition, even modern tanks can weigh several dozen tons. Here, we are going to look at the heaviest tanks ever built, all the way from the First World War to the modern era.

For this article, we’ve listed all tank weights in metric tons, which is equivalent to 1000 kilograms or 2204 pounds. This is to avoid confusion with short and long tons that are often used. We’ve also limited our scope to tanks that had units or working prototypes built, although they may not necessarily have entered active service.

K2 BLACK PANTHER — 55 TONS

The K2 Black Panther is a recent addition to the world of main battle tanks. Built for the South Korean military, it only entered service in 2014 after some 10 years of development. Due to the threat posed by North Korea and its allies, the tank is designed to be highly mobile so that it can strike hard and fast. This has made it attractive to other nations, with Turkey and Romania showing interest in the design

Like many modern main battle tanks, the K2 Black Panther comes equipped with a 120-millimeter L/55 smoothbore gun. Its Tognum MT 833 diesel engine allows it to reach top speeds of up to 42 miles per hour on smooth terrain. Thanks to its advanced fire control system, which allows it to target and fire on enemy units that are up to six miles away, and its smart network features for sharing information, the tank is among the most expensive on the planet with an estimated price of $8.5 million.

In many ways, the K2 Black Panther is very similar to the M1 Abrams. This is perhaps due to the close relationship South Korea shares with the United States. However, the K2 is significantly lighter than its counterparts, despite featuring modular composite and Explosive Reactive Armor, and weighs just 55 tons.

M103 HEAVY TANK — 62 TONS

M103 heavy tank© Wikimedia Commons Public Domain

While the most famous tank to serve in the U.S. military is undoubtedly the M1 Abrams, American forces had another workhorse that predated it by almost two decades. The M103 is a heavy tank, a classification of vehicle that includes tanks that were produced during World War I and continued to be used through the Cold War. These tanks became popular in the Second World War because their increased firepower made them a bigger threat on the battlefield, while the heavier, thickened steel armor protected them from most forms of attack.

However, they eventually fell out of favor when advances in technology meant that medium tanks could have similar levels of protection and firepower in a far more maneuverable form. That’s the fate of the M103, which was ultimately replaced by the superior M1 Abrams. That didn’t stop it from being an effective tool while it was in operation, though, and around 300 of them were produced between 1957 and 1974. Manufactured by Chrysler, the tank had a total weight of 62 tons and was both longer and wider than the M1 Abrams.

Much of that weight came from the impressive 120mm M58 main gun and up to five inches of steel armor at the forward position. The M103 also came equipped with an M89 turret for close-quarters combat but was limited by its top speed of just 21 miles per hour and its range of less than 100 miles. As it never saw active combat, it is not possible to know exactly how effective this tank was, yet there’s no denying it was one of the heaviest ever built.

LEOPARD 2 — 64.5 TO 67 TONS

Among the most expensive and widely used main battle tanks in the world, the Leopard 2 is a German-made tank that was first introduced in 1979 and has since gone on to become the backbone of more than a dozen nations’ military forces. A third-generation tank, it is Germany’s equivalent of the Challenger II and M1 Abrams, and has seen more than 3,600 units produced over the last 40 years. The Leopard 2’s versatility, maneuverability, and advanced technology makes it a standout tank, with the most recent models costing in the region of $30 million each.

Standard Leopard 2 tanks feature a 120mm main cannon, two 7.62mm machine guns, and a 1,500-horsepower engine that allows the tank to reach a top speed of 42 miles per hour. In terms of armor, the German tank boasts modular armor that includes hardened steel, tungsten, and titanium to ensure it can withstand direct hits. The current Leopard 2A7V model has a weight of around 64.5 tons. However, the sheer number of different models means that there is a wide range of weights for each variant of the Leopard 2. For example, the upcoming Leopard 2A8 will have an operation weight of between 65 and 67 tons.

TIGER II — 68 TONS

Going by many names, the Tiger II is a German heavy tank that was designed in 1943 and entered active service the following year. Less than 500 were created, despite an order of more than 1,500 from Germany’s high command, due to British RAF bombing campaigns that severely damaged facilities responsible for manufacturing the tank. A successor to the Tiger I, this new tank was more mobile than its predecessor and also included a number of notable improvements, including more effective sloping armor and a more powerful engine.

The need for a heavier and better-protected tank led to the Tiger II weighing significantly more than the Tiger I, with a mass of 68 tons. Much of that weight was due to the newly produced 88mm KwK 43 main gun (which gave the tank a maximum firing range of around 6 miles and allowed it to effectively take down opposing tanks) and six-inch thick armor to defend it from incoming attack.

The Tiger II played an important role at the Normandy landings and was arguably the most deadly tank that was in active operation at that stage of the war. Manned by a crew of five individuals, the Tiger II had a top speed of just under 26 miles per hour and could travel cross-country at more than 12 miles per hour.

M1 ABRAMS — 71.2 TONS

Wherever the U.S. Army has fought over the last four decades, the M1 Abrams has steadfastly provided armored support. The main battle tank has proven to be an incredible success story; there have been approximately 10,000 produced since they were first introduced in 1980. Named after General Creighton W. Abrams, the tank has gone through dozens of revisions over the years, with the M1A2 SEP Abrams being the most recent version.

Costing over $10 million per unit, the M1 Abrams is not only one of the heaviest tanks ever created but also among the most expensive. The most widely used tank across the globe, it has seen action in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yemen, and is used by the militaries of such countries as Australia, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.

The tank now comes fitted with a 120 mm L/44 M256 smoothbore gun (but has previously been equipped with a 105 mm L/52 M68A1 rifled gun), has a 1,500-horsepower engine, and can reach a top speed of 42 miles per hour. The M1A2 SEP also features graphite-coated armor and the Trophy active protection system, adding further defensive capabilities. This variant weighs a total of 71.2 tons, up from the 60-ton weight of the original model.

CHALLENGER 2 — 75 TONS

A Challenger II tank© Leon Neal/Getty Images

The Challenger 2 has become one of the most reliable and versatile main battle tanks of recent times. Essentially, it is the UK’s answer to the M1 Abrams and the Leopard 2, and it first entered service in 1994. Since then, it has become the mainstay of the British Army and it is also used by the Oman military and Ukraine in its defensive efforts against Russia. The innovative Dorchester 2 armor provides it with plenty of protection against anti-tank weaponry, while the powerful 120mm L30 rifled gun gives the tank its main form of attack. There’s also two 7.62mm chain guns to provide close protection from infantry attack.

Costing around $5 million to produce, the Challenger 2 is capable of reaching top speeds of 37 miles per hour and requires a crew of four to operate it. Around 400 of them have been built since 1998, and it is an incredibly successful vehicle. It was only in 2023 that a Challenger 2 tank was destroyed by enemy forces, with previous losses coming only due to friendly fire. Typically, the Challenger 2 only weighs around 64 tons; still a heavy vehicle but not quite as massive as other tanks. However, the tank can be outfitted with a number of optional armor modules to provide extra protection, and some of these can take the overall mass to 75 tons.

CHAR 2C — 69 TO 77 TONS

Many of the heaviest tanks come from the era of the First and Second World Wars. This was a time when tanks first entered service, and designers were constantly looking to improve them to make them more effective machines of war. Yet, the technology of the day often meant that these tanks were limited in terms of their mobility and weight, especially when they were intended to be heavily fortified and use incredibly powerful weapons. That was certainly the case with the French-made Char 2C, a super-heavy tank that was created with the intention of being larger and heavier than any other tank of the era.

Design for the Char 2C began during the First World War but wouldn’t be completed until 1921 when it first entered service. However, the vehicle saw little action and they were intentionally destroyed when Nazi Germany invaded France during the Second World War to prevent them from being captured and used against the French. Just 10 of these behemoths were put into service and they were mainly seen as a propaganda effort to keep the French population content after the success of British and German tanks during the First World War.

While other tanks have been heavier than the Char 2C, it is considered to be the heaviest of those that were in operation and were not mere prototypes. While there is some debate over their exact weight, estimates suggest that it is anywhere between 69 tons and 77 tons. That makes sense considering the huge size of the Char 2C, which was more than 33 feet long and required a crew of 12 to run.

TORTOISE HEAVY ASSAULT TANK — 79 TONS

World War II posed many challenges for the Allied forces. Germany had built up extensive fortifications during the war and in the run-up to the start of the conflict, with the Atlantic Wall and Siegfried Line being two of the most famous examples.

Even the most powerful tanks and gun platforms would pose little threat to these heavily fortified positions as they often included devastating weapons, bunkers, and strong barriers. With an invasion of Europe from the UK necessary to defeat German forces, plans were put in place to create tanks that would be able to destroy such fortifications and allow Allied troops to break through.

The Tortoise heavy assault tank was the result of these plans, although production only began near the end of the Second World War and they never had the chance to enter active service. With the war concluded and hostilities over, in addition to newer designs being commissioned for future tanks, the Tortoise heavy assault tank was shelved after just six of them had been fully constructed.

The purpose of the tank, though, meant that those that were created were incredibly heavy and large. To withstand enemy fire from fortified positions, the Tortoise heavy assault tank had armor that was up to nine inches thick. It came equipped with an Ordnance QF 32-pounder 94mm gun capable of easily penetrating German tanks, along with several machine gun turrets. At 79 tons, the tank was only able to travel at a top speed of 12 miles per hour.

T28 SUPER HEAVY TANK — 95 TONS

With many nations constructing super-heavy tanks during both World Wars, including the French Char 2C and the British Tortoise heavy assault tank, it became necessary for the U.S. to develop its own model to ensure it wouldn’t be left behind. The T28 Super Heavy Tank was designed for much the same purpose as the Tortoise heavy assault tank: to break through fortified positions such as the Siegfried Line. To do so, it needed to be both heavily armed and armored.

Crewed by a team of four, the T28 was over 36 feet long and almost 15 feet wide, with a top speed of eight miles per hour. The first designs for the vehicle came in 1944, with production starting in 1945. Like its British counterpart, by the time the first two models were completed, the need for these super heavy assault tanks had gone, as Allied troops had successfully invaded Europe and reached Germany. Production was quickly canceled in favor of more conventional tank designs.

With armor that reached a maximum thickness of up to 12 inches and a 105mm T5E1 gun that had a muzzle velocity of 3,500 feet per second, the T28 was the largest tank the U.S. Army had ever constructed at the time and weighed a staggering 95 tons. This massive weight was one of the reasons that the T28 project was ultimately shelved, as it made it impractical to transport.

[Featured image by Schierbecker via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY-SA 4.0]

PANZER VIII MAUS — 188 TONS

Of all the tanks that have ever actually been built, the Panzer VIII Maus is easily the largest and heaviest. In fact, it is almost twice as heavy as the next contender and dwarfs almost every other tank that was ever constructed. Development on the project began in 1941, with Hitler determined to field a tank that was bigger and more powerful than any of those wielded by Allied forces. The end result of this was the Panzer VIII Maus, which was put into production in 1944.

Unfortunately for Hitler, he never got to see the Panzer VIII Maus in action. Only two models of the tank were ever completed and, of those, only one had a functioning gun turret fitted. The vehicle was involved in testing when Allied and Soviet troops were nearing Germany. In fact, Soviet forces captured the only two versions of the Panzer VIII Maus that had been built just three weeks before Germany surrendered.

Unlike most guns on tanks, this vehicle sported a 128mm KwK 44 gun L/55. This was effectively an anti-tank artillery armament that was incredibly heavy on its own and was able to destroy any opposing armored vehicle of the time. Throw in the thick armor — which measured between six and nine inches — and the massive engine needed to power the tank, and it quickly becomes clear why the Panzer VIII Maus was so heavy at 188 tons.

Read the original article on SlashGear.