In 1943, the German factory for the production of armored vehicles Nibelungenwerke manufactured 90 chassis for military vehicles, which the Wehrmacht refused. The Porsche design was unnecessary, and the question arose of what to do with this stock of running gears, on the basis of which, according to the initial plan, it was supposed to build a new heavy tank. "Ferdinand" - a self-propelled gun designed to destroy armored vehicles, became a forced measure in the conditions of raw materials shortage for the use of already made components and mechanisms.
The chassis itself was unique in its own way. Blocks (there were three on each side), including two road wheels, were attached to the armored hull by means of bogies equipped with a successful depreciation system.
The power plant consisted of two Maybach carburetor engines with a total capacity of 600 liters. pp., loaded onto a generator that generates energy supplied to two Siemens motors. This solution greatly simplified machine control and excluded transmission from the kinematic scheme . It should be noted that German industry did not create a motor throughout the war that could equip a relatively high-speed heavy tank.
Ferdinand thus inherited the undercarriage of the failed masterpiece of designer Porsche, who had previously specialized in racing car design . A peculiar approach was manifested in the fact that manufacturability was practically not taken into account, in the production of such a chassis was very complex and expensive.
The power plant could provide a speed of 30-35 km / h, if it was equipped with a planned Porsche tank. Ferdinand with 200 mm frontal armor could not move faster than 20 km / h, and even then on hard ground. In fact, self-propelled guns are not designed for rapid throws, the main advantage of this class of armored vehicles is a powerful long-range weapon.
In order to place such a gun (it weighed more than two tons), it was necessary to completely change the original layout. The barrel of the 88-mm caliber was very heavy, it required support when moving, but thanks to its long length it could hit any tank. The Ferdinand, with all its slow slowness, became a formidable weapon.
The crew had to be divided, the gunners were in the aft, and the driver and commander were in the front. The power plant was in the center of the car.
In war, often unique pieces of equipment are not used for their intended purpose. The Wehrmacht was forced to use self-propelled guns in close combat, in which any German tank would be more effective . The Ferdinand, whose gun could penetrate 193 mm thick armor from a kilometer distance, did not have a course machine gun capable of protecting the machine from pressing infantry.
The machine was created in a hurry, structural defects had to be eliminated in the process of modernization. After the Battle of Kursk, the surviving 47 self-propelled guns were sent to the manufacturer, where they were equipped with small arms, commander's turrets, and the armor was covered with a special layer that protects from magnetic mines.
After improvement, the self-propelled gun was called Elefant (that is, the "elephant"), perhaps more characterizing a heavy car with a long "trunk". In the troops (both German and Soviet) the old name took root.
With a huge number of shortcomings, this machine had the main advantage - the gun could hit almost any tank from great distances. Ferdinand, whose photo still surprises with its angularity, made it difficult for the German command to force water barriers; it was almost impossible to evacuate it from the battlefield in the event of a loss of progress.
Only two Elephants survived to the end of the war; the Soviet infantry burned them in Berlin. Two previously captured, and therefore surviving specimens took their places in museums in Russia and the United States.