Towards the end of the war, very few tanks were even produced in Germany. The year of 1944 saw the highest amount of military equipment produced. 1945, however, was another story.

Many vehicles were produced in 1945 under harsh conditions. Supplies were at an all-time low, thus forcing manufacturers to resort to different methods of saving up materials.

Captured near Dortmund, this King Tiger is famous for being one of the last to ever roll off the production line. It is one of the very few tanks that were painted in Dunkelgrün (dark green), one of the desperate measures taken by the Reich in an effort to better conceal their tanks. Normally, tanks would be painted in Dunkelgelb but even this color became hard to manufacture.

Despite being produced in 1945, this King Tiger, nicknamed 'Wotan' by the Allied soldiers than found it, also features smoke launchers, an even greater rarity at that time. Judging by its looks, it is pretty clear that it engaged in heavy combat.

Wotan was captured by advancing American soldiers on 9th April 1945 near the Henschel Tank Factory in Dortmund. Before being abandoned by its crew, Wotan did manage to destroy a Sherman tank and two halftracks. It put up a fierce fight. Even so, the factory was later overrun by American soldiers.

Besides the King Tiger, they also found many other chassis lying around in the backyard.

Just after it was finally captured, Allied troops did not hesitate to take pictures of Wotan which, interestingly, is missing an identification number, something that adds up to its uniqueness.

*In case you couldn't tell, this is a special variant of my King Tiger. I thought that it would be worth to take some additional screenshots of this beautiful beast :)