Grosstraktor

The Grosstraktor, German for large tractor, was the cover name for six prototype medium tanks built in secret for the Weimar Republic in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. Rheinmetall-Borsig, Krupp and Daimler-Benz each built two of them. The design began as a 1926 specification for a 15-tonne tank called the Armeewagen 20, armed with a 7.5 cm gun in a fully rotating turret, and contracts for two chassis each were given to the three firms in March 1927. Krupp designed a turret for its own vehicle, while Rheinmetall designed the turret for both its own and the Daimler-Benz tank. Construction began at a Rheinmetall shop in Unterluess in August 1928 and was finished by the end of June 1929, after which the tanks were shipped to the Kama tank school near Kazan in the Soviet Union for trials. Back in Germany they were used for training and, after the Nazi party came to power, retired as monuments.