The 128 mm gun was powerful enough to destroy all Allied armored fighting vehicles in service at the time, with some at ranges exceeding 3,500 m (3,800 yd). Weighing 188 metric tons, the Maus's main armament was the Krupp-designed 128 mm KwK 44 L/55 gun, based on the 12.8 cm Pak 44 towed anti-tank gun also used in the casemate-type Jagdtiger tank destroyer, with a coaxial 75 mm KwK 44 L/36.5 gun. These two prototypes underwent trials in late 1944. Five were ordered, but only two hulls and one turret were completed, the turret being attached before the testing grounds were captured by advancing Soviet military forces. It is the heaviest fully enclosed armored fighting vehicle ever built. One of the main and most powerful differences was that, throughout the Cold War, the US was mainly on the side of paranoid neo-imperialistic 'containment' against upstart left-leaning dictators while the Soviets (and communist presence internationally) were mainly on the offensive against old, imperialistic powers.ĭid you know that the Panzerkampfwagen VIII Maus (English 'mouse') was a German World War II super-heavy tank completed in late 1944. So, in essence, the main difference between the two superpowers was blurred, as they both wanted to defend against one another, yet extremely clear- one was communist and the other capitalist. It was essentially a series of paranoid reactions which turned into a worldwide fear that each side was out for complete obliteration of one another.

At the heart of the Cold War, it really was just two sides jockeying for influence- The Americans sparked the marshall plan, which made the Soviets install puppet governments in East Europe, which made the US declare NATO, which subsequently made the Soviets set up the Warsaw Pact and COMECON. One could argue that the main difference was ideological, while another could argue that the main difference was political.

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