an Allied soldier beside the Räumer-S mine-clearing vehicle prototype, source: Flickr.com, Public domain, edited

In response to a military requirement, Krupp began development in 1944 of a heavy vehicle intended to clear paths through minefields. Much like Alkett had done somewhat earlier, Krupp arrived at an entirely original solution. The result was a colossal machine weighing 130 tonnes. The vehicle consisted of two identical halves joined at the centre by an articulated joint that allowed it to steer. Its official designation was Schweres Minenräumfahrzeug-S, commonly shortened to Räumer-S.

Each half carried two wheels, each 2.7 metres in diameter. The wheels were made of steel with solid rubber pads fixed around their circumference. These rubber segments served the function of tyres while also being intended to absorb the blast of any mines the vehicle drove over. Unlike the Alkett design, however, the Krupp vehicle was not meant to detonate mines directly with its wheels, but rather with a plough that production vehicles were planned to carry. The wheels alone would not have been sufficient to clear a passage through a minefield in any case — they were relatively narrow, and the space between them would have been left untouched.

Each half of the vehicle had its own control station and powerplant. The vehicle carried no armament of any kind. The exact crew size is not known, but it likely consisted of a driver and a radio operator seated alongside him. One open question is whether this pair switched cabins depending on the direction of travel, or whether a dedicated driver was permanently stationed in the second cab at the opposite end of the vehicle.

the Räumer-S mine-clearing vehicle prototype, source: Flickr.com, Public domain, edited

Only a single example of the vehicle was completed before the end of the war — and even that, according to some sources, was not fully finished. Complete or not, the Räumer-S fell into Allied hands after the surrender of the Third Reich. The Allies reportedly planned to ship it to the United States, but this apparently never happened, and the vehicle was eventually scrapped.