World War II tanks usually had aggressive- or ferocious-sounding names, such as Hellcat, Panther, or Tiger. Yet the tendency was not universal, as with British Cruisers or the American M-3 Honey. But perhaps there was never a more unfortunately named beast than the German assault gun Sd Kfz 184, first known as the Ferdinand and later modified, as if it was an improvement, to the Elefant.
The weird and less than martial names assigned this 68-ton fighting vehicle were oddly fitting. Technically a member of the formidable Tiger family, the Ferdinand's history is rather strange. To know the Ferdinand, one has to begin with the history of its better-known cousin, the Tiger, Germany's first successful World War II heavy tank.
