Of course, they should have known from building the Maus that it wasn't going to work. Krupp actually built 2 of those things, and the best indictment of the vehicle's failings comes from the Soviets; the Red Army captured one of the prototypes in 1945 and tried to send it home for testing and inspection. Due to a complete inability to fit on any form of rail transport, the Soviets had to drive the beast home. It took *8 months* to get to Moscow.

P.S. while double-checking my sources on the Maus, I found this. In the words of Richard Hammond, "really quite scared now!"

"This is probably a stupid question, but . . ."