Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!cbnews!military
From: hhm@ihlpy.att.com (Herschel H Mayo)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Superheavy tanks
Message-ID: <10096@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 11 Oct 89 03:36:31 GMT
Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
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From: hhm@ihlpy.att.com (Herschel H Mayo)

A Mause was actually used in combat, and one still exists in Russia?

You have any more information about this encounter, or about the one
in Russia. I had always thought that both of them were blown up at
the factory. Do you have any reference source I could look up for
this info?

                                           Thanks

                                               Larry Mayo

[mod.note:  Sure !  From S.Zaloga and J Grandsen,  _The Eastern Front:
Armor Camouflage and Markings, 1941-1945_ (Squadron/Signal, 1983) p.28
(photo caption):

	"In the final days of the war, the two experimental Maus
	super-heavy tanks were sent into action, one near the proving
	grounds at Kummerdorf, the other at the approaches to OKH
	staff headquarters at Zossen.  One was destroyed by its crew,
	while this one was captured by the Soviets."

This was a personal triumph for me, BTW.  I once ran a "what if" microarmor
battle, in which the Soviets were overrunning Kummerdorf, which was
defended by various ad-hoc units utilizing the various prototype weapons
at the proving ground... including the Maus.  At the time, it was just
a fiction on my part, and one of the Soviet players took me to task. "Oh,
I guess I can see it as a fantasy, but it's not *historical* "  (Said with
a sneer).  You can imagine my pleasure when I later found this book and
showed it to him... 8-)

As for the fate of the Soviet-captured Maus, this from "AFV News",
Sept-Dec 1987 (V22#3).  It was submitted by a Mr. Hans Strom of Solna,
Sweden, who was watching the Russian satellite TV channel "Ghorizont",
a program called "I serve the Fatherland" (*).
	The Maus is kept at the NIIBT (Research Institute for the Armored
Forces) facility at Kubinka, near Moscow, where a "marvelous collection"
of German vehicles is stored.  The building is on a Soviet proving ground,
and inaccessible to Westerners (though this was pre-Glasnost !)  
	The article included two photos taken from the TV screen, which,
while not superb, clearly show a Maus in pseudo-accurate camouflage.

* -  Perhaps an inaccurate translation of "Father Knows Best" ?  8-)

- Bill ]