Friedrich Goeble, German Tank Innovator 1913-1917

[David]

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 wasan 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.