The Elefant (Elephant) stemmed from the Porsche design for the PzKpfw VI Tiger. Henschel was awarded the contract for the new tank, but it was decided to use the Porsche design as a tank destroyer. Hitler demanded that the new vehicle be ready for the 1943 offensive on the Russian front, so development was rather hurried. As a result, many broke down to their first action at the Battle of Kursk, and the lack of proper armor and ponderous mobility made them easy targets for Soviet gunners in the battle. In addition, the lack of machine guns meant that there was no defense against Soviet troops disabling them with explosive charges in close-quarter combat. The survivors were withdrawn to Italy, where unreliability and lack of spares ensured their continued ineffectiveness.

This particular 1:35 scale replica of an Elefant heavy tank destroyer was attached to schwere Panzerjager Abteilung 653, then serving on the eastern front during 1944. Sold Out!

Dimensions:
Length: 10 inches
Width: 4 inches
Height: 4 inches

Release Date: June 2007

Historical Account: "Long Trek Westwards" - By the spring of 1944, Wehrmacht planning was convinced that the Soviets would attack in the south, where the front was fifty miles from Lvov and offered the most direct route to Berlin. Accordingly they denuded troops from Army Group Centre, whose front still protruded deep into the Soviet Union.

The Belorussian Offensive (codenamed Operation Bagration) started on June 22nd, 1944, taking the form of a massive Soviet attack consisting of four Soviet army groups totaling over 120 divisions that smashed into a thinly-held German line. They focused their massive attacks on Army Group Centre, not Army Group South as the Germans had originally expected and other units had been transferred to France to counter the invasion of Normandy two weeks prior. Subsequently, the Red Army achieved a ratio of ten to one in tanks and seven to one in aircraft over the enemy. At the points of attack, the numerical and qualitative advantages of the Soviets were overwhelming. More than 2.3 million Soviet troops went into action against Army Group Centre, which could boast a strength of less than 800,000 men.

Within days, the German front crumbled. The capital of Belarus, Minsk, was taken on July 3rd, trapping 50,000 German troops. Ten days later, the Red Army reached the pre-war Polish border. The rapid progress cut off and isolated the German units of Army Group North fighting in Courland.

Bagration was by any measure one of the largest single operations of the war. By the end of August 1944 it had cost the Red Army 765,815 dead, missing, wounded and sick, as well as 2,957 tanks and assault guns. The Germans lost approximately 670,000 dead, missing, wounded and sick, out of whom 160,000 were captured, as well 2,000 tanks and 57,000 other vehicles.

The neighbouring Lvov-Sandomierz operation was launched on July 17th, 1944, swiftly routing the German forces in the western Ukraine. The Soviet advance in the south continued into Romania and, following a coup against the Axis-allied government of Romania on August 23rd, the Red Army occupied Bucharest on August 31st. On September 12th, Romania and the Soviet Union signed an armistice on terms Moscow virtually dictated. The Romanian surrender tore a hole in the southern German Eastern Front causing the loss of the whole of the Balkans.

In Poland, as the Red Army approached, the Polish Home Army (AK) launched Operation Tempest. During the Warsaw Uprising, the Soviet Army halted at the Vistula River, unable or unwilling to come to the aid of the Polish resistance. An attempt by the communist controlled 1st Polish Army to relieve the city was unsupported by the Red Army and was thrown back in September with heavy losses.

In Slovakia, the Slovak National Uprising started as an armed struggle between German Wehrmacht forces and rebel Slovak troops in August to October 1944. It was centered at Bansk-Bystrica.

On September 8th, the Red Army begun an attack on the Dukla Pass on the Slovak-Polish border. Two months later, the Russians won the battle and entered Slovakia. The toll was high: 85,000 Red Army soldiers lay dead, plus several thousand Germans, Slovaks and Czechs.