T34 Recovery. (And other buried tanks & vehicles)

Pretty sure it is a real scheme Owen but I agree it looks awful but it obviously was an effective scheme.

Also one of the most pointless tanks of the war:

 

Pardon, forgot to restore my post deleted due to system crash a few days ago.
--
This tank was found in 2002-2003

http://www.trizna.ru/kv1/photo.htm



http://www.opensea.ru/articles/travel/kvup/
http://www.opensea.tv/tank_kv/
http://www.opensea.ru/articles/travel/kv2003/

Movie: "The Neva bridgehead"
_ttp://www.opensea.tv/download/kv320x240.avi




T-38 was found in 2005 in Neva near the same Neva bridgehead



Other URLs:
T-38 Kirovsk
(Attention: very slow)
http://www.po-patriot.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=18

T-26 found in Vyborg (Viipuri) area
http://www.vesti.ru/comments.html?id=34561
(You can see also video, but can't paste link to it, as it's script one just above the photo)
See also
http://www.baltic-sunken-ships.ru/page.phtml?id=114

Regards,
Alex

 

Collection of vehicles installed as monuments is here:
LINK

This "Katyusha" on STZ-5 NATI chassis was found in one of the rivers and installed in Novomoskovsk (Tula area)


regards,
Alex

 

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14. 09. 2000
Tanki T34-76 väljatõmbamine Kurtna järvest
Foto: Meelis Mitt



WW-II Trophy tank

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.

Looking at the two tracked machines, the modern yellow Komatsu dozer is a reminder of how machine technologies have advanced, and the region's prospects of peace and prosperity have brightened.
Komatsu Times
(Quarterly News Magazine for Construction Equipment Users - Volume 3 No 1)

• Подъем танка (pulling tank) T-34 http://www.diving.ee/articles/art035.html
• T-34 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-34
• Põhjarannik 21.03.2005 Võidupüha ajal võib Jõhvi kesklinna saabuda tank
• Põhjarannik 3.08.2002 Igor Sedunov rajab sõjatehnikamuuseumi
• SL Õhtuleht 16.09.2000 Traktor tõmbas järvest tanki välja
• SL Õhtuleht 13.11.2002 Piirivalvur taastab tanki
• Gorodenko sõjamuuseum
• Gorodenko relvatuba

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Am I right in saying that the first tank was a Sturmgeschutz Assault Gun with a 75mm gun? Any info on where it was found?

 

Am I right in saying that the first tank was a Sturmgeschutz Assault Gun with a 75mm gun? Any info on where it was found?
Im not sure there is another one :icon-mrgreenbandit:

 

always amazes me the statye of preservation. I dont wash by bike for a week and it looks a right mess, but bury a tank (which lets face it where not that well painted in the first place) and they look like the day they rolled out the factory.

No oxygen in the mud = no rust

Kev

 

:angry:

If the inside was preserved as well as the outside got to be a peice of archetural heritage, leave outside to rust. If their going to do that they should have left it in the mud where it was preserved.

Idiots.

Kev

 

Thats a real shame they let it get like that I had the pleasure of seeking (so they claim) the last surviving DD tank I must say it was a sight.

 

Great pictures.

 

Yes thats the one had a great range but as you mentioned a real shame to see them cut up in places felt sorry for the poor old thing actually staring through that piece of plastic that was once canvas, a little more tragic though with the ww1 tanks.

 

VP, are the tracks on the Sturmgeschutz thing "swamp" tracks for a bigger "footprint" enabling the vehicle to get through boggy conditions? They look similar to tracks on some of the Swampy dozers that I used to work alongside of.

Criminal to see it's still out in the open. One of us needs to win the lottery! Happens to aircraft recoveries too, most recently the famous PNG B-17E "Swamp Ghost". Admittedly she has always been sitting in the swamp but last I heard, she was sitting on the docks in Port Moresby in bits awaiting the red tape to be cleared.

Great to hear the T-34 from the lake is up and running. Would have been amazing to work on. Just got an email from a mate in the UK saying he was about to head off and work on a Lysander at Duxford. Don't want to hear the names I called the lucky so and so!

Cheers

Andy