Posted on 07/07/2015 5:59:10 AM PDT by The_Victor
It took 20 soldiers almost nine hours to remove a World War II "Panther" tank from a pensioner's cellar in a wealthy community in northern Germanyand that's in spite of the fact that the German army sent in modern recovery tanks to help confiscate the vintage 1943 vehicle, reports the BBC.
Prosecutors in the coastal region of Kiel, tipped off by Berlin prosecutors who'd recently searched the 78-year-old man's villa for stolen Nazi art, aren't divulging much yet, but a police rep did say that a torpedo and anti-aircraft gun had been removed and other weaponry had been found as well, reports the Local.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
I think he inherited this and didn’t know what the heck to do with it.
But I admit..I’m doing a drive by on this article...did not read much of it.
That’s why the government is stealing it.
Cripes, the article said people remember him driving it around during a blizzard in ‘78. They knew he had it...but now they need the money.
The Panther was probably the best tank of WWII.
Not as fearsome as the Tiger, but faster and more agile.
I think I saw a 75mm reloader on eBay....
Yes...lots of money. Littlefield collection was trying to get 2 Tigers and 2 panther out of Europe (and 3 panther hulls out of Lebanon/Syria) before the Clinton era ban on importing arms and armor (Probably ITAR rules). Anyways there was a mad dash before the law came into effect to get as much WWII armor from there to here. Unfortunately, they couldn't. Littlefield was offering 10mm for the Tigers, and 5mm-8mm for the Panthers. Panther hulls in Lebanon/Syria were 3mm+ This may be a working panther and the guy got pinched because he did not DEWAT the gun. Big mistake.
As for Rewatting it and making your own ammo, you can do that if you have the $$$$ and a Type 10 FFL/ 02 SOT.
If I win the lottery, I'll be driving to work in a Hanomag or M8 Greyhound.
I did a construction estimate for client of mine in NJ, and in the warehouse of his complex, he had an Argentine Panhard that was captured in the Falklands. How he came into possession of it, I do not know.
That'd be a hoot.
"It's like hitting them with tennis balls!"
Didn’t Paul Allen (Microsoft, Seahawks, etc) purchase something like this?
Do we have to drag Caitlyn Jenner into every discussion? ;-P
“I took this to be the eccentricity of an old man, but it looks like there’s more to it than that.”
Yeah like he was going to invade Poland.... again.
Yup.
American tanks were peashooters in comparison to German Tigers and Panthers. The German tanks were much bigger, more heavily armored, and had much bigger guns than their Allied counterparts. Problem with the German tanks was that they were impossible to mass produce and they were huge gas hogs at a time when Germany was desperately low on fuel. This was especially true with the Tiger tank.
Great movie btw. And yes Telly Savalas “Sgt Guffy” was correct when he said firing at them was like hitting them with tennis balls. A US Sherman tank could fire virtually point blank at the frontal armor of a Tiger tank and barely put a dent in it. A Tiger, on the other hand, could easily take out a Sherman almost a mile away.
yep. final drives were a problem on panthers...sometimes, they only got 60-70 hours on the finals before catastrophic failure
they rushed them to production, without fully validating the design.
the automakers are known for doing that kind of stuff, too...well, some of them are....
That, too.
In the MA Statehouse, they have some historic flintlock rifles up on the wall... wait for it... and they are fitted with trigger locks.
Oy. I can't wait to leave this festering Liberal shiite hole.
British Comet or Russki T-34/85 are even faster and agiler. And a whole lot more reliable
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