I found this while out surfing. Released from it’s boggy tomb in Estonia, a T-34/76 in German markings;
Complete with ammunition!
Here is the link for some more photos;
http://www.mil.hiiumaa.ee/2000_09_14_kurtna_T-34-36/index.html
Word has it that the engine has already been fired up and this machine is well on it’s way to a complete restoration. [party]
What I want to know is how did they find it buryed in all that mud and water.It looks like it has been pesreved by all that mud and water.Digger
Wonder if the crew was still in…?!
I’d love to know the story of how that old warhorse got lost in the mud for 60 years. It’s story is most likely lost to history.
It still has the patriotic slogans painted on the port side of the turret put there by the original owners. I would really like to know what it says. If it is as reliable as legends say, then a couple of good whacks with a hammer should be enough to start it up and drive out of there. What a great find!
How cool would that be. I bet some kids were out fishing or swimming or something and ran across the beast. It looks like if you hosed it off and ran some eather through the tanks, you could fire it right up. Amazing. Must have been very low O2 content in that water.
Ted
Wish I could find something like that. But a great find none the least, especially in German markings.
Wish I could see one of those in real life, let alone own one. lol, that’d be a good project to restore it, looks in ok condition. The turret top looks open, so it might be ruined inside.
Amazing. I too wanna know how it was noticed, and why is it in german markings??
Isn’t it finders keepers. The guy who found it, owns it right. The statute of limitations would have to be up by now, especially since it was stolen by the Germans in the first place [;)] In all seriousness…I think that is awesome.
I’m scared to see the cat that dragged that in! [;)]
Nice find.
It would be interesting to find out what happened to the Russian crew and German crew. Did the tank have a long and eventful service or did roll off the assembly line into battle into the mud? Just some of the questions that surround this tank.
nNow all we need to do is learn Russian.[:P]
That must have been hell of a BIG cat !!!
Seriously I’ve tried to use Photoshop to make the slogan readable, but either it’s too far gone, or my photoshopskills are by far not good enough.
Personally I think the problem is with my skills [:)]
I’ve red they were and according to the article, the first thin they asked for was a schnapps. [:)]
Tediam, judging by the pics on that site the area over there looks swampy-ish, that would explain the low O2 level, that’s why sometimes they still find bodies of people who died centuries ago.
Since it was found in Estonia and is in German markings I wouldn’t be surprised if it was abandoned
by the Germans and deliberately sunk in the bog (to prevent the Russians re-acquiring it!) during their hasty retreat from the Baltic area later
in the war. The Germans often used captured vehicles for security duties in occupied areas, I think.
I think that most of the tank would be intact. Leather, and other fibers might be too far gone to use, but the basic vehicle would be fine. On the shot showing the left rear quarter, you can see how the sides of the tank have rusted on an internal weld line. Nothing that can’t be fixed though. As far as owning one of these, they are available on the international market. Do a Google search for T-34 and militiary vehicle sales, and you should find someone who has one. Why not, after the guns are removed, it becomes nothing more than a large tractor. Legal both in Canada and the U.S.!
Gives a new meaning to the old jalopy in the garage! (HAHAHAHH!)
Rob Savage
If you look at the second to the last photo on the webpage, you can see at least one white stripe running diagonally through the Balkankreuz across the front of the hull.
My guess is that this is the remains of a rather sparse winter camouflage and the crew of this Wehrmacht employed T-34 mistakenly drove the vehicle across the snow covered, frozen bog, thinking it was just a meadow, and fell through the ice. I’m sure this happened countless times throughout the war, that is why we keep seeing folks dragging these beasts out of swamps. No one in there right mind would have driven a tank straight into a swamp if they could see it.
Peat bogs are remarkable for their ability to preserve things which has been dropped into them. The low oxygen levels, cold temperatures and reducing environment of peat bogs have lead to some spectacular finds of animal and human remains being recovered after centuries and even millennia of burial. The Iron Age Bog Man of the British Museum in London is a prime example. Skin, hair, fingernails, cloth, leather, even tattoos have been preserved. If the crew of this tank did not make it out alive, chances are they would still be preserved, albeit a lot worse for wear and tear, inside the vehicle. Notice the almost total lack of rust on this vehicle, an indication of the low oxygen, reducing environment that this tank has sat in for the last 60 odd years.
that’s incredible!!!
It would suck if they didn’t do much with it for a while and it got covered in rust. It would be another thing ruined by man (and in this case built by man)