Ferdinand / Elefant

“Elefant was nothing but a conversion of the original Porsche Tiger tank design”, with these simply words W.J. Spielberger resumes the particular nature of this “panzer”. Indeed, as a result of an inconclusive project, the Elefant saw its design limited to an existing, and different, model: the Tiger "P(orsche)". The “Tiger P” program was halted in October 1942 and Krupp delivered 100 hulls to Nibelungenwerke, some authors talk on 90 hulls. It seems that there was 100 usable Porsche chassis but only 90 were rebuilt. Of some interest for the modeller is the fact yhat the tracks used by the Ferdinand model where different from those used by the Elefant variant .

As for the Ferdinands Alkett completed the conceptual design and was responsible for assembling the superstructure and Nibelungenwerke for assembling the vehicles. According to T. Jentz: “Alkett was still for the completion of two trial vehicles (nrs. 150010 and 150011). Recently the editor J.J Fedorowicz published a book of Karlheinz Munch on which the author translate this excerpt from a german archive: “ The battalion (Schwere PzJager Abt 653) request that the 2 Ferdinands in Kummersdorf be released so that they also can be overhauled at the Nibelungen Works or Vienna arsenal ...”. These vehicles were the above mention 150010 and 150011. On February 1943 it was decided that all assembly work was to be made at Nibelungenwerk.

Nibelungenwerk assembled vehicles 150012 to 150100, the initial number (150012) is different from the one presented at the initial table of this page but there´s a simply explanation for this. As mention, some authors talk on 100 hulls, since I follow the “Encyclopedia of German Tanks of WW II” I began with the serial number proposed by the authors. If we assume that only 90 hulls went on production we would start at number 150010, this figure minus the two trial vehicles assembled at Alkett gives us “150012” !

From the Ferdinand to the Elefant

From January to March 1943 “Ni Werk” , performed the modifications to transform the Elefants into Ferdinands. According to K. Munch “the Nibelungen Works in St. Valentin initially declined to accept the vehicles because it would seriously disrupt the continuos productions of Panzer IV´s. On orders from the Army High Command however, a warehouse at Nibelungen Works was cleared for a general overhaul.”

BIBLIOGRAPHY :

Karlheinz Munch, Combat History of Schwere PanzerJager Abteilung 653, Fedorowicz Publishing, 1997. (this book is a must for all fans of the Elefant/Ferdinand !!)

P. Chamberlain & H. Doyle, Encyclopedia of German Tanks of WW II, Arms & Armour Press, 1993.

Thomas L. Jentz, Panzer Tracts Nº 9, Darlington Publications, 1997.

For more informations about this vehicle check out Achtung Panzer