WWII tank recovered
 

http://www.gcguild.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=100


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WWII Russian tank found with German markings after 62 years
WW II Buffs will find this interesting.Even after 62 years (and a little tinkering), they were able to fire up the Diesel Engine!
WWII Tank Found After 62 Years.

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/hr.

From February to September 1944, heavy battles were fought in the narrow, 50 km-wide, Narva front in the north-eastern 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 19th September, 1944, German troops began an organized 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 fro m the lake. This gave him reason to believe that there must be an armored 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 meters they dis covered the tank resting under a 3 meter layer of peat.

Enthusiasts from the club, under Mr Shedunov's leadership, decided to pull the tank out. In September of 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 a t 15:00, with several technical breaks. The weigh t 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 active force required to retrieve it was similar. A main requirement for the 68-ton 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 SYSTE MS (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 Narv.

Preparing to pull it out.

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People from the nearby village come to look how it would be done.

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Komatsu D375A-2 is ready to go.
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Here it comes...
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Through muddy shore of the lake
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What a mint condition.
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Hosing off 62 years worth of 'muck.'

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As far it has been known, after a small repair and service they were able to start its diesel engine.
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They don't build 'em like they used to!

That's cool as hell! What a find!

thats sick. If i could ever fight in a war it would deff be WWII. war isent even close to what it used to be.

The coolest thing is that the engine started.

haha my car barley starts after it rains..this **** starts after being submerged in a lake haha

now it's much safer, with greater technology, weapons, armor, food, support and with better medicine, tactics, and less civilian casulties. i'd take a war today over anything in the past.


and on topic, that tank is awesome. and it started up!

War is too gay now. its all technology and satelights and crap. WWII is old school. everything was so much better. it was like seek and destroy. Now we know were ever person is and how many there are. Weapons were so much better back then.

You just referred to WAR as a game-mode in most popular WWII shooter games.

Incredible.

there's nothing cool about war. ever.



but i do understand what your trying to say.

all war is ... is a game. there is a winner and a looser.

and that is the best way to descibe it

it's a game?!? So lets say you went to war and killed 4 men. Yes, you ended their lives, left their children fatherless, taken someones' son away. So your saying you can lay down at night, and not be haunted by the faces of these men you killed because it's a game?? Your thinking about this as if your automatically going to win. What if the rifle was in your face and the enemy said "relax, it's just a game" then blew your face off.

ask any mother who lost their son/ daughter to war.
ask any vetran who was injured in combat.
ask any service man/woman if they can can sleep a solid nights sleep without nightmares.

there are many words for war and "game" is by far the least of them.

nobody wins in war, ever.

It is a game, whether you like it or not. A political game.

The advantage of archaic technology. Mechanical engineering ftw.

How old are you?

Those pics are cool as hell!

WHat was this thread about again?

I hate the 2 of you. You both officially ruined this thread and made 2 of the dumbest comments I have ever read.

Nissamax your a jackass, I cant even respond to what you said, because it was so stupid.

RSX type slow, war is not "safer". The fact you just made that statement blows my mind. Go speak to the soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan and ask them if it's really "safer". Just because your new threat is an IED not an SS soldier does not qualify the conflict as being "safer".

Actually you can thank the army for that comment. Ever see the commercials they throw out on tv? "I command a remote controlled airplane, without putting anyone in danger"...

This is cool. It is amazing that it started up too!

Yeah let the Army say that IED's are a common occurance, then watch the recruitment numbers drop even more. Lets be honest now, if you join the Army based on a commercial you are being fairly naive.

All BS aside, it doesn't matter what the Army commercials portray or what they say, to say that war has become "safer" is just stupid. You cannot justify his statement based on a recruitment commercial, if you do, your being just as naive as the person making the stupid statement.


Back on topic: the fact the engine started on the tank is incredible. Russian tanks were pretty well built, and definitely introduced a lot of new designs which are still used today. Glad to see history not being lost, and even cooler to see original German markings on the tank. The US was known to use a Panther or 2 from the Germans as well.