Friedrich
Goeble, a German engineer from Riga, was one of Germany’s last tank pioneers
who was active way before their time, like Austria’s Gunther Burstyn and
Australia’s de Mole. Goeble invented the “landkreuzer” (land cruiser) in
1913. This vehicle was very strange in appearance and functionality, instead of
having a form of a track system like Burstyn’s and de Moles vehicles, it had a
set of “walking legs”, or pivoted legs and it consequently had a gait like that
on a child’s toy, which lurches down slope on weighted legs. The model contained
six legs but no means of steering. The vehicle itself was a standard German
4-ton NAG military lorry. Goeble built a working model to demonstrate to the
German war office “commercial testing commission” by their request. The
commission also requested a few basic requirements, including a 50 ft turning
radius and a speed of 7.5 mph. This design did not impress the commission,
because on testing the “land cruiser” was found to be very impractical ,
it became stuck very easy, and as in the model demonstration, there was no form
of steering.
In
1915 Goeble came out with another design, the “landpanzerkreuzer”
(armoured land cruiser). Goeble built a small powered version and demonstrated
it to the commission in 1915. This machine too was rejected as being impractical
and underpowered, and with out any defined form of steering. Goeble was
persistent, and he next presented a model which ran on a single tracked unit,
which was very similar to the British Pedrail track. Again this vehicle did not
impress the commission, they believed that Goeble was wasting money on this
project. This was in may of 1917 when work had already started on the A7V.
The
German Crown Prince heard of Goeble’s rejection, and arranged for a
demonstration to take place in June 1917. Goeble altered the vehicle, discarding
the tracked unit and substituting steel spheres like giant ball bearings, the
vehicle moved over the ground as if it was on castors. The vehicle was still
considered impractical. If the “landpanzerkreuzer” had ever been built,
Goeble estimated that it would have been 118 ft long, 17 ft high, and would have
weighed 550 tons! - having an armour 4 inches thick. Goeble’s last tank design
“panzerkreuzer” (armoured cruiser ) was at the end of 1917. This involved
a small scale model, later a full scale vehicle running on a rail type track and
elliptical balls. This vehicle resembled more of what we envision as a modern
tank, driving compartment up front, and engine in the rear. Armour was also to
be 4 inches thick. This vehicle was an improvement over his other
designs, but it was to late, the commission had by now formed into the
“allgemeine kriegsdepartment 7, abteilung verkehrswesen” (General War
Department 7, Traffic Section) or A7V Commission, and as the name implies the
German High Command had already made their mind up to except Vollmer’s “A7V
Sturmpanzerwagen” for production, and here Friedrich Goeble and his
projects faded from memory.
