Hitler liked Porsche's tank so much that he ordered the production without the final decision of the comission. Henschel's design was ultimately chosen by the comission, forcing porsche to make a decision about the 90 units he had already managed to manufacture. Porsche mounthed an 88mm Pak on the upper hull without using a turret. The tank was protected by 200mm of frontal armor. The tank had the thickest armor at that time and could not be pierced by any anti tank gun. Its powerful gun could easily destry ant soviet tank. Despite these advantages , lack of off-road ability and underpower engine , regolated it to more of a defensive duty tank, similar in many respects to Self Propelled artillary.
On May 8th 1943 all ferdinand left the factory ( Nibelingenwerke , St Valentine) without the protective shields around the mounted gun. On May 13th , Krupp shipped some to the Ferdinands already stationed in the east. Indequate number of shields were produced and many units didn't recieve them.
Ferdinands were assigned to Schwere Heeres Panzerjeager abteilungen 653 and 654. Both Battalions were formed in April , as preparations for operation Zitadelle ( At Kursk )
In october after the baettle of kursk , 50 remaining Ferdinands were send back to the factory for badly needed repairs and Pre-planned modifications. most of them were covered with zimmerite , anti magnetic paste. After the modifications all the Ferdinand were officially named Elefants. 48 of them were reqrouped to SHPjA653 and were send to Italy to stop the Allied advance. 13-14 units saw service on the eastern fron as late as early 1945. In mid 1945 all remaining Ferdinands (4 units ) saw service with Kamfgruppe Ritter in Southeast of Berlin.Elefants were very effective when operating at long range. One elefant shot a T-34 at range of 4.5km.
Despite the fact very few elefants were manufactured and because of this they didn't manage to play a major role in the war. High cost of manufacture and maintenace ensured that a large number of them would never be produced and almost all of them were destroyed during the war except 2 of them , one was captured in Anzio and the other one at Kursk.