Posted on 11/16/2006 7:37:36 AM PST by pabianice
<{> 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, its 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 tanks exterior.) On 19 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 from the lake. This gave him reason to believe that there must be an armored vehicle at the lakes 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 Shedunovs 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 companys 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.
More Photos 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
Aberdeen Proving Grounds is located in the Peoples Republic of Maryland.
>Don't know if I would have wanted to stand that close to a large object being pulled up by cables,<
Good thinking!
When I was just a little kid I saw a heavy Euclid truck being pulled after the rear wheels had sunk, by a large bulldozer, probably a D-8, using a heavy chain. The chain snapped and cut 4 miners in half in the blink of an eye.
Read the article
Weird story, but I have a part of a creek (technically a river) on our ranch that turns to quick sand when it floods.
Not that long ago, I was out looking for a calf (after bad rains and a flood), and spotted a calf that looked like it had just drowned --- went over (carefully) and it had my great, great, great, grandfather's brand on it! Pre-Civil War!
I just shoved it back into the muck.
Ugh!
I once watched a pair D9s tied together with anchor chain clearing scrub cedar trees in north central Nevada. The chain popped loose from one end and landed several yards away - and this was big-boy anchor chain. The amount of energy held in the material must be -well, amazing.
Bizarre in the extreme.
It must have been a surreal moment when you recognized that brand.
Did you hear any Twilight Zone music?
It was pretty weird. The calf looked like it died that day.
Whew!! I was glad you explained the picture. I was afraid that I had unwittingly stumbled onto a Helen Thomas thread...
put that sucker on ebay.
Quantity has a quality all it's own.
He was a paratrooper in WW II. Right?
Wikipedia
Rod Serling served as a U.S. Army paratrooper and demolition specialist with the 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment, U.S. 11th Airborne Division in the Pacific Theater in World War II from January 1943 to January 1945. He was seriously wounded in the wrist and knee during combat and was awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star.
Due to his wartime experiences, Serling suffered from nightmares and flashbacks for the rest of his life. Though he was rather short (5'4") and slight, Serling was also a noted boxer during his military days.
The T-34/76 was superior to the German tanks that participated in Operation Barbarossa such as the Mark III, IV, and T-35 38 Czech tanks. It came as such a shocking suprise to the Germans with its technologically superior virtues of armor protection, mobility, and firepower that they immediately began work on their next generation of tanks to counter it.
The Germans responded with the Mark V Panther with the 76 MM high velocity gun, modeled directly from the T-34 and the Mark VI Tiger with the dreaded 88MM gun. Both these tanks were superior to the T34 in firepower and armor protection, but the Reds had the advantage of superior numbers.
When they ran.
So THAT'S where I parked it!
No, thats where I parked on top of where you parked!
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