"For many years it was thought that most of the Elefants were lost because they had no machine guns, but this not true. Many of them were lost due to damage or a lack of fuel, not because of the deadly shooting from enemy guns or infantry. The Elefant was an offensive weapon, so during the retreating combat it had less
chance of fighting successfully and many of them had to be abandoned on the battlefields with only minor damage, like this one here."
During the battle of Kursk the Elephant was the heaviest AFV in service. In the time following the war the Elephant was described as unsuccessful and basically inefficient in combat. This is based on one statistic - the number of these lost, which was only 39. The losses were in fact heavy but they were only about half of Jagdpanzer Regiment 656 (Pz.Jag.653 and PZ.Jag654 ).
This was about the same percentage of the losses of the Tiger units involved in Kursk also. The Elephants exacted a heavy toll when they could during the 22 days of battle, the were responsible for the destruction of 502 tanks and other weapons.
Source:
Armor Battles on the Eastern Front
(2) Downfall of the Reich"
Panzerjäger Tiger (P) Elefant Sdkfz 184
Chassis Designer: Porsche
Fighting Weight: 68 tonnes 66.9 tons
Length Overall: 8.14 m 26.7 ft
Hull Length: 6.8 m 22.3 ft
Height Overall 2.97 m 9.7 ft
Width Overall: 3.43 m 11.3 ft
Engine: 2 Maybach HL 120 TR - V-12
Fuel: Petrol
Fuel Capacity: 950 L - 210 gal
Max. Speed Road: 20 kph - 12.5 mph
Max. Cross Country Speed: 17 kph - 10.5 mph
Road Range: 150 km - 93 miles
Cross Country: Range 90 km-56 miles
Crew: 6
Armament
MainGun: 8.8 cm Pak 43/2 L/71
Secondary: (Late model improvement) MG 42
Main Gun Ammunition: 50 rds
Armor
Superstructure Front Armor: 200 mm at 25 °
Superstructure Side: 80 mm at 20 °
Superstructure Rear Armor:80 mm at 20 °
SuperStucture Rear: 30 mm at 86 °
Hull Front Upper Plate Armor:100 + 100 mm at 12 °
Hull Upper rear:80 mm at 40 °
Hull Top rear:90 mm at 90 °
Hull Front Lower Plate Armor: 100 + 100 mm at 35 °
Hull Lower Side Armor: 60 mm at 0 °
Hull Lower Rear: 80 mm at 0 °
Lower Hull Top 50 mm at 20 to 90 °
Hull Rear Armor: 80 mm at 90 °
Gun Mantlet: 25 mm at 0 ° + 100 mm rounded
http://www3.sympatico.ca/admfisher/html/elefant.html
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