Posted on 07/03/2015 11:17:02 AM PDT by NRx
German soldiers grappled for nine hours with an unusual task: trying to remove a Second World War tank found in the cellar of a villa.
Almost 20 soldiers struggled to remove the tank from a villa on Thursday in a wealthy suburb of Kiel in northern Germany, after police searching the property discovered the tank, a torpedo, an anti-aircraft gun and other weapons in the cellar on Wednesday.
Police raided the home in the town of Heikendorf under instructions from prosecutors, who suspected that the villa's 78-year-old owner held the weaponry illegally under a law controlling the possession of instruments of war.
The army was called in to try to remove the 1943-vintage Panther tank, and struggled for nine hours to tow it out using two modern recovery tanks designed to haul damaged battle tanks off the field.
The soldiers ended up having to build their own wooden ramp in order to free to tank.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
And then there is the U-505, safely berthed in Chicago at the Museum of Science and Industry.
Thanks amigatec!
Any idea where? It happened during the 1940 campaign in France.
how totally awesome! and a privately owned torpedo to boot?
Arguably, the Panther was the best tank in WW2. Faster and more reliable than the Tigers.
But the 88 was the best anti tank gun, even though it was originally an AA gun.
T34/85 was apparently a great tank, too. People have debated for decades over which was best. I think I’ll stick with the Panther.
Interesting fact. The wider tracks make sense in the field, but I can see how narrow ones would be better for transport. Tigers weren’t exactly small tanks.
You can still buy T34 Tanks today in running condition.
However, based on production numbers of Shermans and Panthers, 5 to 1 losses meant the allies were winning that hands down.
Peter, That is the suspension system the Germans used on their Panther and Tiger tanks. What you don’t see in this close up photo is the drive sprocket.
The drive sprocket is the first ‘wheel’ on the right, with the bars in the center: https://www.google.com/search?q=german+mark+v+panther+tank&biw=1280&bih=566&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=vwiXVe3PEYO4-AHu0LzYAQ&ved=0CCgQsAQ#imgrc=TLhGOLYrNuWLTM%3A
An article on tank drive sprockets: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprocket
And they also had to take off the outer road wheel on each side to make it narrow enough for the rail cars, after they put on the narrow track.
Mk IV didn’t have sloped armor and was vulnerable from the front and sides.
Panther was an upgrade from T34.
The big knock on WW2 German tanks was their complexity which lead to more breakdowns and made finding replacement parts more difficult.
maybe and he lost them while tooling around. i want one fully functional of course. prefer a tiger.
"You know Hub, we might want to think about getting a German 88..."
Provided you could get the Maybach HL230 engine started, or once started, running.
The movies “Tiger” tanks were built-up on T-34/85s obtained from the Yugoslav army.
Thank you. I’ve been unsure of which tank was used since the movie came out because I couldn’t get a really good view of the road wheels and my sources show the Yugoslavs had received both types of tanks.
Thank you. I’ve been unsure of which tank was used since the movie came out because I couldn’t get a really good view of the road wheels and my sources show the Yugoslavs had received both types of tanks.
Sorry didn’t make myself clear. I was referring to the mobile 88’s that were used for tank hunting.
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