"It's got more frickin' legs than a
chorus line!" -- anonymous GI, March 1945
While many mecha designs are reasonable, attempting to get better
off-road performance and agility than a tank of similar armor and
armament, in some
cases the design is so absurd that the plans should have been burned
before it was ever officially proposed, much less produced. The
Hundertfusser ("Centipede") was one such vehicle. A desperate attempt
by the Germans to create the "ultimate" walker, it suffered from an
excessively large crew and armament. It is perhaps fortunate that less
than seventy were ever built.
The Hundertfusser was divided into roughly three sections. The front
section mounted the driver and commander on either side of the 88mm
gun. The driver laid and fired the cannon. Both had roof hatches; the
commander was provided with an MG 34 and NvW near his hatch. The center
section was the "fighting" compartment, holding most of the crew. On
the left and right were gunners with 20mm cannons. Two loaders were
also present, servicing the 20mm guns and the 88mm gun. There was a top
hatch (with a MG 34 next to it) and an under body hatch. A small angled
chute was also in the floor, for dropping grenades on enemy infantry
who came up under the walker. The rear section housed the engine, fuel
tank and tail gunner position. These two rear 20mm guns were in a very
flexible mount, allowing them to be used against ground and air targets
from behind. There was no loader, so the gunner was somewhat
overworked. He had a roof hatch.
The Centipede uses 10.1 gallons of gasoline per hour at routine
usage.
Subassemblies: Large Superwalker chassis +3, 10¥Very
Heavy
Walker legs +1, 2¥full-rotation Mini Weapon open mounts +0.
Powertrain: 224-kW gasoline engine with 224-kW legged
transmission and 81-gallon self-sealing fuel tank; 8,000-kWs batteries
Occupancy: 7 CS body Cargo: 0.5.
Armor
Body: F 4/750, RL 4/300, B 4/250, TU 4/100
Legs: 4/100
Weaponry
88mm Long TG [Body:F] (50)
20mm Long Ground AC [Body:R] (450)
20mm Long Ground AC [Body:L)] (450).
2¥20mm Long Ground AC [Body:B] (900)..*
92mm Vehicle Mortar [Body:T]
(20).
Ground LMG [Body:F] (1,500).
Ground LMG [OM1:F] (750).
Ground LMG [OM2:F] (750).
* Linked
Equipment
Body: Fire extinguisher,
medium ranged radio, casemate mounts for all 20mm guns, universal
mounts for two rear 20mm guns
Statistics
| Size: 22'x10'x12' | Payload: 2.89 tons | Lwt: 69 tons |
| Volume: 180 |
Maint.: 25 hours | Price: $62,700 |
HT: 7.
HP: 1,025 Body, 112 each Leg, 30 each Open Mount.
| gSpeed: 22 |
aAccel: 1 |
aDecel: 20 | aMR: 0.5 |
aSR: 3 |