In 1936, Rheinmetall Borsig AG was approached by the
German army general staff to build a special amphibious
tracked vehicle for landing operations. The tractor would
be able to two behind it a floating trailer capable of
accommodating vehicles or other cargo weighing up to
18,000kg. On water the tractor would function
as a tug for the floating cargo trailer. After landing
the tractor would still have to move the trailer to a
safe place to unload the cargo.
Rheinmetall tackled the project and the product became
known as the Land-Wasser-Schlepper (land-water tractor)
or LWS. The LWS was actually and simply a motor tug
built with tracks. It was a large and strange machine
that nonetheless turned out to be a rugged vehicle (or
boat?). There were two long sets of tracks, one on the
flat bottom on each side of the LWS. There were four
pairs of roadwheels suspended from leaf-spring suspensions
on each side. The boat part of the LWS had a clean,
pronounced bow, and on top there was a compartment for the
crew of three and extra room for another 20. The funnel-like
structure on top of the cabin was actually the engine's air
intake. Two large propellers were installed at the rear, or
stern, for propulsion in water. To make the LWS more
boat-like there were portholes on both sides of the crew
cabin.
On land the floating trailer looked like a large slab-sided
vehicle, and was supported by wheels on one forward axle and
two rear ones. On the back side a ramp could be opened for
unloading. A typical load was an SdKfz 9 18-tonne halftrack,
and the crew would be housed in the LWS for the aqueous leg
of the journey.
The LWS and trailer idea was tried and tested quite slowly
and leisurely until "Seel�we" (Operation Sea Lion, the
invasion of Great Britain) was to become reality after the
fall of France. The LWS and trailer could certainly be used
in such an amphibious operation, but they were more suited
for calmer waters of inland water bodies, not the tempestuous
English Channel. The LWS program was for a while carried out
with more urgency, but was never materialized. By 1941 the
project was dropped, when the prospect of Seel�we was
overshadowed by the much more serious Operation Barbarossa.
One disadvantage of the LWS was the lack of armor, and armor
was deemed necessary for any amphibious operations. The
floating trailer was also thought to be too cumbersome and
clumsy so a new scheme was devised. The overall structure of
the LWS was kept, but the new vehicle had the trackwork and
suspension of the ubiquitous
PzKpfw IV
to support a lightly armored superstructure. Two new vehicles,
called Panzerf�hre or PzF, were built and designed to take a
large pontoon between them to transport a tank or other cargo.
Thus the PzF would act as a ferry rather than a tractor.
However, the program was canceled in 1942 after the two
prototypes were built and tried. A pre-production of seven LWS's
were built and they served on the Eastern front.
After the war the LWS was taken
by the British and to England for technical assessment.
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