Buried WWII Tank UN-earthed.

[JB in so cal]

Check this out.
http://www.dusky.sk/pics/2006-12/2863_02.jpg
http://www.dusky.sk/pics/2006-12/2863_04.jpg
http://www.dusky.sk/pics/2006-12/2863_05.jpg
http://www.dusky.sk/pics/2006-12/2863_07.jpg
http://www.dusky.sk/pics/2006-12/2863_11.jpg
http://www.dusky.sk/pics/2006-12/2863_12.jpg

[ratso]

Metal Detectors are awesome...

[thumbs]

Is there a related story? Where was it found?

[andy01]

Did Cyclone find that when he was looking for his ring?

[JB in so cal]

Is there a related story? Where was it found?
It was just pics from Fark.com. If there was a story, it didn't make the link along with the pics.

[Jrocket]

That was cool.

[Phat Daddy]

That is awesome!!!!

[dmontzsta]

That is really cool.

[spectras only]

I bet it fired up right away .:D

[JetBoatRich]

Guess you don't get to keep everything you find :rolleyes:

[Ziggy]

Nyet, put it back :D
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very cool find..........I'd like to see the story behind it.

[JetBoatRich]

Found a Story
14 September 2000, a Komatsu D375A-2 pulled an abandoned tank from its archival tomb under the bottom of a lake near Johvi, Estonia. The Soviet-built T34/76A tank had been resting at the bottom of the lake for 56 years. According to its specifications, it's a 27-tonne machine with a top speed of 53km/h.
From February to September 1944, heavy battles were fought in the narrow, 50 km-wide, Narva front in the northeastern part of Estonia. Over 100,000 men were killed and 300,000 men were wounded there. During battles in the summer of 1944, the tank was captured from the Soviet army and used by the German army. (This is the reason that there are German markings painted on the tank's exterior.) On 19 September 1944, German troops began an organised retreat along the Narva front. It is suspected that the tank was then purposefully driven into the lake, abandoning it when its captors left the area.
At that time, a local boy walking by the lake Kurtna Matasjarv noticed tank tracks leading into the lake, but not coming out anywhere. For two months he saw air bubbles emerging from the lake. This gave him reason to believe that there must be an armoured vehicle at the lake's bottom. A few years ago, he told the story to the leader of the local war history club "Otsing". Together with other club members, Mr Igor Shedunov initiated diving expeditions to the bottom of the lake about a year ago. At the depth of 7 metres they discovered the tank resting under a 3-metre layer of peat.
Enthusiasts from the club, under Mr Shedunov's leadership, decided to pull the tank out. In September 2000 they turned to Mr Aleksander Borovkovthe, manager of the Narva open pit of the stock company AS Eesti Polevkivi, to rent the company's Komatsu D375A-2 bulldozer. Currently used at the pit, the Komatsu dozer was manufactured in 1995, and has 19,000 operating hours without major repairs.
The pulling operation began at 09:00 and was concluded at 15:00, with several technical breaks. The weight of the tank, combined with the travel incline, made a pulling operation that required significant muscle. The D375A-2 handled the operation with power and style. The weight of the fully armed tank was around 30 tons, so the tractive force required to retrieve it was similar. A main requirement for the 68-tonne dozer was to have enough weight to prevent shoe-slip while moving up the hill.
After the tank surfaced, it turned out to be a 'trophy' tank, that had been captured by the German army in the course of the battle at Sinimaed (Blue Hills) about six weeks before it was sunk in the lake. Altogether, 116 shells were found on board. Remarkably, the tank was in good condition, with no rust, and all systems (except the engine) in working condition.
This is a very rare machine, especially considering that it fought both on the Russian and the German sides. Plans are under way to fully restore the tank. It will be displayed at a war history museum, that will be founded at the Gorodenko village on the left bank of the River Narva.

[JetBoatRich]

Some more pict's
http://www.mil.hiiumaa.ee/2000_09_14_kurtna_T-34-36/2002-09-14-Estonia-Kurtna_tank_T-34_09.jpg

[JetBoatRich]

http://www.mil.hiiumaa.ee/2000_09_14_kurtna_T-34-36/2002-09-14-Estonia-Kurtna_tank_T-34_11.jpg

[Froggystyle]

I didn't know that Later had a tank?

[Jim W]

Who knew------------> Later had a tank????
Be good, Jim

[Infomaniac]

..cough..cuugh..BULLSHIT..cough..cough..
No way that thing is not rusted to pieces unless it was frozen in ice.

[fat rat]

I was wondering the same.:confused:

[Jim W]

Info....
I also frequent a Cat dozer web site.
Have seen before that machines buried in peat or other rotting organic material, the O2 is gone. The rotting process or fermentation sucks the O2 out and stops the rusting process.
They come out, about perfect.
Be good, Jim

[73kona455]

..cough..cuugh..BULLSHIT..cough..cough..
No way that thing is not rusted to pieces unless it was frozen in ice.
it was in a peat bog.. that protected it.. theres a story about it somewhere on the internet.. i read it several months ago...

[JB in so cal]

Actually, it's my tank. I WAS gonna ask for peeps to contribute to a fund to help out and bring it up - someone beat me to it....Can you still send $$$,
signed
Tanker.

[73kona455]

more pictures here ..........
http://fishki.net/comment.php?id=13675
more on it here.......
http://www.diving.ee/articles/art035.html
http://www.diving.ee/articles/images/a035p09.jpg
http://www.diving.ee/articles/images/a035p10.jpg

[JB in so cal]

Wouldn't want to be part of that unload crew:sqeyes:

[Old Texan]

Looks like the result of a broke steering cable......
Wonder what happened to the trailer?:devil:

[SmokinLowriderSS]

Wouldn't want to be part of that unload crew:sqeyes:
Would not really be that bad. Back in that day, Armor Piercing shells were seldom explosive. They were a solid slug of Tungsten, harder than steel, almost as heavy as lead, which simply forced it's way thru armor plate on inertia (just like the sabots of today). Thicker steels and angled plate was used to defeat it.
There is actually a piece of Tungsten in current NATO 5.56MM rifle/machine gun ammo which gives it SOME usefulness against 1/4" steel plate.
The gunpowder likely was wet, but even if dry, was very likely single-base, and very highly stable. Not going to "go off" on it's own.

[Riomouse911]

I have a few rubles to send to help Comrade Later with the salvage costs...:idea:
I noticed the Wehrmacht cross on the side before I read the story. From what I recall, Russian tanks had big numbers on them for ID (Americans used a white star etc.) I can believe the story that it was captured and painted with the cross.. the hard part would have been finding ammo, because Russian and German machines used different calibers/cartridges etc... for all their weapons. At least they didn't blow up when tinkered with after 60 years rotting away.
Lord only knows what else is scattered across the Russian landscape, those battles were monumental in size...

[707dog]

thats pretty sic!! the thing looks like it just went in to the drink hrs ago..does the finders get to keep it or is the gov gonna take it n scrap it out!!!

[Ziggy]

thats pretty sic!! the thing looks like it just went in to the drink hrs ago..does the finders get to keep it or is the gov gonna take it n scrap it out!!!
Story said it was to be restored and exibited at a museum.
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water must be brackish enough for it not to rot or rust.
When I first saw the pic I recognized it as Russian but the cross had me wondering:idea: sure don't look like a panzer(scrathinghead)....interesting story indeed.

[boatsnblondes]

Well, the environment which it was in was the best for what happened. Being in a bog and covered up the way it wa, the mud enclosed it and formed a seal around it, not letting bacteria or anything else form....they find human bodies in that stuff too, also almost perfectly preserved....interesting to think how it might have looked had stayed there for a substatial amound of time...say 500- 1000 years???

[spectras only]

It does looks like a T 34 . The germans must have been on their last string to keep that pile of junk . The barrel clearence was so loose it would fire even in -40 C :D .
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