Second World War tank and anti-aircraft gun found hidden in basement of villa in Germany

The Telegraph ^ | 07-03-2015 | Melanie Hall

[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.

[headstamp 2]

That armor looks like weld beads.

[headstamp 2]

That’s a load of brass!

[TangibleDisgust]

it’s called zimmerit. it was an anti-magnetic mine paste that was troweled onto the surfaces where enemy soldiers might attempt to attach mines. it was used from late 1943 to late 1944.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimmerit

[headstamp 2]

Interesting!

Had no idea about that.

Thanks for the info.