At the outset of WWII, German armored units were equipped with mostly light and tanks, accompanied by repair echelons consisting of gantry cranes with lifting capacities of up to 6 tons. However, after facing heavier Soviet tanks on the eastern front, the Wehrmacht began suffering heavy losses and soon realized the need for more heavily armored tanks to fight on the rapidly evolving battlefield. This led to the development of the heavy tanks such as the Tigers & Panthers, weighing as much as 30 tons. The existing gantry cranes in field maintenance units were too weak to service the new heavy tanks, so the Germans turned to the mobile gantry cranes manufactured by J.S Fries Frankfurt am Main which were developed in the 1930's for lifting heavy loads in ports & railroad facilities.
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