The Entwicklung (Standard) program, known as the E-Series, was conceived by Dipl Ing Heinrich Enrst Kneikamp, Chief Engineer of Waffenpruefamt 6 in May 1942. In April 1943, the Heereswaffenamt (Army Weapons Office) accepted his program and ordered many different manufacturers to start the planning and development of the Entwicklung (project/development) Einheitsfahrgestell general purpose chassis. It was designed to replace armored vehicles and tanks that were used by the German Army from 1945 onwards. All six basic designs of the E-Series would have standardized parts, making their production, maintenance and service easier as well as cheaper. In April 1944, Adolf Hitler cancelled and further development of the super heavy tanks and the unfinished E-100 was abandoned. The end of the war ended the development of the E-Series program, which was in various stages ranging from blueprints to prototypes.

In June 1943, the E-100 was ordered by the Waffenamt from Adlerwerke, as a parallel development of the Porsche 205 Maus. In 1944, Hitler put a stop to all development of super heavy tanks and the project went on to a very low priority, and only three Adler employees were available to assemble the prototype at a small Henschel facility near Paderborn. The chassis of the prototype was virtually complete when the war ended, with only the turret missing. For the initial test runs, a normal Tiger B engine HL230P30 had been fitted, with an Olvar transmission. The final version was to have had the HL234 motor and Mekydro transmission. A 15cm KwK44 gun was proposed as the final armament.

Pictured here is a 1:72 scale replica of the prototype version of the E-100, which comes with a numbered certificate of authenticity, realistic backdrop, and display tin. Sold Out!

Dimensions:
Length: 5-3/4-inches
Width: 2-1/2-inches

Release Date: May 2005

Historical Account: "Black Orchids" - Hitler was always a strong supporter of Albert Speer, whose designs were considered expressions of National Socialist principles and ideals. After Minister of Armaments and War Production Fritz Todt was killed in an airplane crash in 1942, Hitler appointed Speer as Todt's successor.

Speer worked diligently to increase war production, often through the use of slave labor, even though it became more and more obvious that Germany was facing imminent defeat. In his autobiography, he claims that he had no direct involvement or knowledge of the Holocaust, although he faults himself for blinding himself to its existence.

Considered by Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg the only sane man at the top, a complete opposite to the raging Hitler, grotesque Goring and the perverse Himmler, his name was found on the list of members of a post-Hitler government envisioned by the July 20th plotters. The list, however, had an annotation "if possible" by his name, a note that Speer credits with saving his own life. According to his own accounts, Speer even planned an assassination attempt on Hitler in 1945, but the evidence for this is extremely sparse.

Despite this, Hitler continued to consider Speer trustworthy. Risking his own life in the process, Speer prevented the implementation of Hitler's scorched earth policy on German soil, and in association with General Gotthard Heinrici, ordered most troops fighting in the east to disobey Hitler's orders, retreat to the American held lines, and surrender there instead of making a suicidal effort to unblock Berlin from the Soviet encirclement.