One of the most enigmatic armoured fighting vehicles of the Second World War... The subject has the fairly innocuous designation VK100.01 Porsche Type 205 yet to any serious student of WW2 AFVs this subject is better known as the Panzerkampfwagen VIII Maus (Mouse).

This example of late war German imagination may be named after a tiny rodent but it is anything but mouse like. Weighing an astonishing 188 metric tons the Maus still holds the record as the heaviest fully enclosed armoured fighting vehicle ever built. Unlike the majority of the so-called ‘paper panzers’, advanced German tank designs which only existed in technical schematics and project documentation, the Maus was actually built with two prototypes almost complete and perhaps as many as 9 others under construction when Hitler cancelled the programme in late 1943.

Historical Vital Statistics:

• Produced: 1944
• Number built: 2 (of which 1 incomplete)
• Weight: 188 tonnes (207 short tons; 185 long tons)
• Length: 10.2 metres (33 ft 6 in)
• Width: 3.71 metres (12 ft 2 in)
• Height: 3.63 metres (11 ft 11 in)
• Crew: 6
• Expected Operational range: 160 km (99 mi) (road) 62 km (39 mi) (off road)
• Expected Speed: 20 km/h (12 mph) (maximum)

Armour:

• 220 mm (8.7 in) (turret front)
• 200 mm (7.9 in) (turret side and rear)
• 200 mm (7.9 in) (hull front)
• 180 mm (7.1 in) (hull side)
• 150 mm (5.9 in) (hull rear)

Main armament:

• 128 mm (5 in) KwK 44 gun L/55 (68 rounds)

Secondary armament:

• 75 mm (3 in) KwK 44 gun L/36.5 (co-axial) (100 rounds) 7.92 mm (0.31 in) MG 34 machine gun (co-axial) (1,000 rounds)

Using the Maus in Bolt Action

Whilst the Maus may not have entered combat during WW2 there is no reason why you cannot field this mighty vehicle in your games of Bolt Action. Of course any operational Maus prototype would have fought during the dying days of the Third Reich.

The Panzer VIII Maus may therefore be taken as a Tank choice in the 1945 – Last Levy force selector found in the Armies of Germany book on pg.95.

Note: The Maus should always be affected by the ‘Fuel Shortages’ special rule.