Let me break it down for you: Firstoff, its obvious that automobile is a cognate, a word that means and sounds the same thing in another language. That leaves "Schutzengrabenvernichtungs". I made a mistake in saying there were three parts since I mistook schutzengraben as one word when there were really four. "Schutzen" means to shield or protect. "Graben" means Ditch or trench. And "Vernichtungs" means annihilation or destruction. Protective Ditch Destruction Automobile.
If any of you are familiar with the first world war, then the purpose of such a tank would become instantly clear. For those of you who don't know, WWI was all about trench warfare: Go from your trench to an enemies trench and try to take them out. This required going over "no mans land" which was where you had to be crazy to stand around in for long. What made NML so bad to hang around in were the mortar rounds going off, the land mines, the mustard gas raids, and, obviously, the hail of bullets from the newly developed mounted machine gun. To gain an upper hand, Germans develped a tank specifically made to be able to fire rounds that could penetrate the earth a short distance before going off. When fired at an enemy trench or bunker...well, we all know what happens there...
