a 1000-ton tank in 1942, there is much doubt around the specifics of the plan to use the guns or spare turrets from the battleship . The turrets alone weighed approximately 750 tons and required a five-storey structure to house the associated handling rooms and rotating machinery. Such weapons would also require separate magazines and shell rooms as well as handling machinery for the ammunition, all of which required space and power well beyond the scope of what would be possible in a 1000-ton tracked vehicle. Accordingly, some historians believe the P.1000 Ratte diagram to be either a hoax, or alternatively a speculative engineer's sketch made for personal amusement. Description The Rattes proposed size was enormous: it would have weighed , more than five times the weight of the Panzer VIII Maus, the largest tank ever constructed by Nazi Germany. The weight of the Ratte was made up of 300 tonnes of armament (the total weight of the guns themselves was 100 tonnes, so turret armour would have weighed 200 tonnes), 200 tonnes of armour and frame, and 100 tonnes of track and automotive components, with other features making up the remainder. It was planned to be long ( when including naval guns), high, and wide. This immense weight was to be distributed across the ground by six wide and long treads, together forming two composite treads with a width of each. This would help stability and weight distribution, but the vehicle's sheer mass would have destroyed roads and rendered bridge crossings next to impossible. It was expected that its height, and its ground clearance of , would have allowed it to ford most rivers with relative ease, thus eliminating the need for bridge crossings. Planned propulsion was by two MAN V12Z32/44 24-cylinder marine diesel engines of each (as used in U-boats) or eight Daimler-Benz MB 501 20-cylinder marine diesel engines of each (as used in E-boats) to achieve the needed to move the tank. The engines were to be provided with snorkels, also like those used by German submarines. The snorkels were designed to provide a way for oxygen to reach the engine, even during amphibious operations while passing through deep water. The Ratte′s primary weapon would have been a dual 28 cm SK C/34 naval gun turret. This was the same turret that was used on the German battleship but with one gun and its associated loading mechanism