A Canadian tank was pulled out of the swamp. Interesting things on the web! A Soviet tank was found in an ice hole, Volgograd region

Tank from the swamp March 28th, 2014

A Russian tank from World War II with German markings was excavated 62 years later. This will be interesting for WWII fans. Even after 62 years (with a little “tightening of the nuts”) we managed to start the tank’s diesel engine.

A Komatsu D375A-2 bulldozer pulled an abandoned tank from its tomb in a swamp near Johvi, Estonia. Created in the Soviet Union, the T34/76A tank rested at the bottom of the lake for 56 years. Technical characteristics: weight - 27 tons, maximum speed - 53 km/h.

From February to September 1944, heavy fighting took place on the narrow (50 km wide) Narva front in the northeastern part of Estonia. About 100,000 people were killed and 300,000 were wounded. During the battles in the summer of 1944, the tank was captured by the German army. (It was for this reason that the tank had German markings). On September 19, 1944, the Germans began to retreat along the Narva front line. It is suspected that the tank was deliberately dumped into the lake to hide it when the kidnappers left the area.

At this time, a local boy, Kurtna Matasjarv, walking along the shore of the lake, noticed the tracks of tank tracks leading into the lake, but nowhere coming out. For 2 months he observed the floating air bubbles. Based on this, he decided that there was an armored vehicle at the bottom. Several years ago he told this story to the head of the Otsing military history club. Together with his fellow clubbers, Igor Shedunov, about a year ago founded a diving expedition to the bottom of the lake. At a depth of 7 meters they discovered a tank located under 3 meters of peat.

Enthusiasts from the club, under the leadership of Shedunov, decided to pull out the tank. In September 2000, they approached Aleksander Borovkovthe, manager of AS Eesti Polevkivi in Narva, about renting their Komatsu D375A-2 bulldozer. (This bulldozer was manufactured in 1995 and had 19,000 operating hours without major repairs).

The operation to remove the tank began at 9 o'clock and continued until 15 o'clock, taking into account several technical breaks. The weight of the tank, combined with the angle of the bank, required significant effort. The D375A-2 bulldozer pulled it off with strength and style. The weight of the equipped tank was about 30 tons, so the force required to extract it was appropriate. The main requirement for the 68-ton bulldozer was that it had enough dead weight to prevent the tank from sliding back while moving uphill.

After the tank was brought to the surface, it was discovered that it was one of the "captured tanks" captured by German troops during the Battle of the Blue Mountains (Sinimaed), 6 weeks before it was sunk. A total of 116 shells were found on board the tank. It is noteworthy that the tank was in good condition, free of rust and all systems (except the engine) were in working order. This is a very rare car, considering that it had to fight for both Russian and German sides. In the future, it is planned to completely restore the tank. It will be exhibited at the Military History Museum in the village of Gorodenko, on the left bank of the Narv River.

Vasily MATVEEV, newspaper "Respublika"

These guys have some kind of inhuman sense for everything iron and shooting. Tanks, planes, guns, armored personnel carriers, armored boats... It feels as if they are not the ones who find the equipment of past wars, but it gives secret signs to the chosen ones. For them there are no impassable places and inaccessible depths. They work all year round in the range of -30 - +30 Celsius and rejoice like boys when the tower of another hero of defunct battles appears from the swamp. They are the archaeologists of the Steel Guard, prospectors of “mines” forgotten by time.

There is gasoline in the tanks. There is chocolate in the tower

Meet Igor Matyuk, the head of the group for the search and restoration of military-historical equipment “Echo of Wars”. My first education is as a design engineer. By vocation he is an extreme diver. According to his state of mind, he is a general gathering the remnants of the “iron army” in the wilds of the Belarusian swamps. I worked abroad and was amazed at how sensitive the Germans are to their history

— A small civilian airfield in Augsburg. Some kind of holiday. And its culmination is the landing of a Messerschmitt aircraft from the 1940s. Can you imagine: 60,000 spectators were waiting for this event at the edge of the field! He sat down. And they were proud - I could see it in their eyes. A pilot. A fighting machine. Its serviceability and power. Just 10 years ago, we didn’t have a single tank on the move. No e-di-no-go,” complains Igor Vladimirovich

Came back home. I found like-minded people in Shklov (mechanical engineers Alexander Mikalutsky and Vladimir Yakushev), and the search began. Dusty volumes of German, Russian and Belarusian archives have been lifted. Hundreds of local residents and veterans were interviewed. Hectares of forests and fields were studied using magnetic reconnaissance. Eat! In July 1998, in a swamp near the village of Shibeki, search instruments “saw” an armored vehicle. As it turned out, the BT-7 high-speed tank

“He lay at a depth of three meters, and it was clear that nothing could get him out of here before winter. Swamp. In November, when the first frosts hit, we laid a deck of logs, filled it with water, and were able to drive an excavator along this icy road. The top layer has been removed - you can dive and attach the cables. The first ascent attempt is in 11 days. A cliff - and the tank vertically goes 11 meters into the swamp: the towing eyes to which the cables were attached came off. The second successful attempt is after 46 days. In between are hours of scuba diving in an icy quagmire and searching for places to cling to. In the end, three people, an excavator, a GAZ-66, a tracked tractor and 57 days, during which we retrieved a tank that had lain in a quagmire for 68 years,” recalls Igor Matyuk. - The car was preserved just perfectly! There is gasoline in the tanks, a key in the ignition switch, a cap, electrical tape and captured German chocolate in the turret. You look - and it feels like this BT-7 drowned yesterday! Although in fact this happened in July 1941 during the first effective counterattack of the Red Army in the direction of Senno - Lepel

The tank is really rare. On July 3, 2004, he opened the parade in Minsk. Even though it was 64 years later, he achieved victory using factory, completely “original” parts

Red triangles

Finding a whole tank is very rare and lucky. Out of 100 tips from local residents, 98 are duds. Either they had already got it, or there was no trace of it, or an old collective farm tractor DT-74. Of the ten armored vehicles found, on average, only one is in good condition: both our and German crews tried not to leave trophies to the enemy

In the turrets of the found tanks there is evidence of life from the past war. In German - bottles of wine, books, biscuits, razors, parcels not sent home, badges, wall clocks with cuckoos, photographs, telegrams from home, erotic magazines and even women's rubber boots from the Soviet Red Triangle factory. Ours contains only weapons, ammunition and smokes. Who came for what?

“The hardest thing is to find and hook the armored vehicle’s hook with a cable. After all, you have to dive not into a pool, but into swamp mud or silt: zero visibility plus the pressure of a viscous mass from all sides. Have you ever seen a fly caught in honey - the analogy is complete! You work by touch, centimeter by centimeter... Every movement, even a simple breath, is difficult. I once had to make 268 dives for fragments of one broken tank - can you imagine?! - Igor Matyuk shows the photo. — In general, the ideal lift is an intact car and not a single skeleton inside. This means that the crew managed to escape, and the people may still be alive. But it happens differently, and then I dream about skulls and bones all night. Therefore, every time we take with us icons, fresh flowers and invite the priest

Giant at the bottom of the Neva

Today the group has more than 20 climbs in various parts of Belarus and Russia. At different times, from swamps, rivers and sand pits of “panthers” and “tigers”, they were transferred to the memorial in Elabuga. The Soviet IS-3 heavy tank has been restored and now adorns the Alley of Heroes in Shklov. T-38(t) is on display on Poklonnaya Hill in Moscow. The heaviest Soviet tank of the last war, the KV-1, became the first exhibit of the “Breaking the Siege of Leningrad” museum. We will remember this rise for a long time,” Igor Vladimirovich smiles. - A rare find was discovered in the Neva at a depth of 9 meters. Weight with additional armor welded on is more than 50 tons. The slope of the coastline is 65 degrees, with soil, silt and a pile of ammunition on top. Apparently, the tank sank during a bombing while being transported across the river. I won’t talk at length about the preparations... I’ll just say that the ascent itself lasted more than two days. Winter. Freezing. The fifty-ton hulk was pulled out with steel cables stretched using a pulley system. And what surprised everyone was that they pulled out the tank using a winch of an old ZIL-157. They took it out and gasped: there was a full load of ammunition on board. The find is unique: there are only a few such tanks in the entire former Soviet Union

On the back of a dragon

...Few people know that the famous T-34 at the entrance to the “Stalin Line” is also the work of the Shklov search engines. They moved here in 2007 at the invitation of the director of the Memory of Afghanistan Foundation, Alexander Metla. Now they have a huge hangar at their disposal, in which restoration work is in full swing. But let's return to the T-34

“Over the years of searching, we found seven armored vehicles of this model, but not a single one intact. The tank you see on the pedestal is made from them. The result was a generalized image of the winner: impetuous, fast, liberating Minsk and all of Belarus. Based on the totality of its combat characteristics, it was recognized as the best in that war,” says Igor Matyuk. - If you look closely, you will see a hole in the turret from a direct hit from a shell. They deliberately did not close it up in memory of the crew who died in one of the tank duels of 1944

We drive away from the monument for about a kilometer and come across a barrier field of “hedgehogs”. Nearby is the War Road: a recreated front highway in the summer of 1941. Damaged army truck. Fragment of a fighter aircraft fuselage. Motorbike. And the remains of Soviet tanks and armored vehicles, twisted by explosions... The torn track from the "thirty-four" looks like the arched back of a dragon. The wheels of armored vehicles are like shields of defeated warriors. Here the war is not varnished or retouched. It’s immediately obvious: they burned in these tanks, performed heroic deeds, and died. There are no barriers - walk, look, think

“We want to bring history to life.” Raise it from the bottom of the swamps, clean it and breathe life into the immobilized metal. For what? That war left my mother an orphan. My grandfather died at the front... And there are thousands of such stories in Belarus,” Igor Matyuk looks away. “We are obliged to preserve for children the equipment with which our fathers and grandfathers stopped the German conquistadors. When I sit behind the levers of a running tank or accelerate it in an open field, I can clearly imagine what it was like then. I am burning with pride for them, the winners, and I involuntarily remember those Germans who looked in fascination at the flight of their “Messer”. There, at a small airfield in Augsburg

It is a fact

At the beginning of summer, the tireless searchers of the Memory of Afghanistan Foundation are going to raise a combat fighter in one of the villages of the Gomel region. And on July 3, their famous BT-7 takes part in the anniversary parade in honor of the liberation of Belarus

By the way

Igor Matyuk was specially invited to the Karmadon Gorge to search for Sergei BODROV and his film crew. Later, for his courage, the President of North Ossetia awarded him the title of honorary citizen of the country.

Photo report

The BT-7 tank, raised by Igor Matyuk’s group, is the only operational World War II armored vehicle in Belarus. And in perfect condition. It is now exhibited at "Stalin's Lines". In addition, there The famous Soviet T-34 tank was built, which Shklov search engines assembled from fragments of seven vehicles of this series. And finally, largely from their findings, the War Road was compiled - a recreated front highway of the summer of 1941.

At this time, a local boy, Kurtna Matasjarv, walking along the shore of the lake, noticed the tracks of tank tracks leading into the lake, but nowhere coming out. For 2 months he observed the floating air bubbles. Based on this, he decided that there was an armored vehicle at the bottom. Several years ago he told this to the chapter of the Otsing military history club. Together with his fellow clubbers, Igor Shedunov, about a year ago founded a diving expedition to the bottom of the lake. At a depth of 7 meters they discovered a tank located under 3 meters of peat.

Lifting the KV-1 tank on Nevsky Piglet

On August 11, 2002, a team of scuba divers OPEN SEA, together with a search team from the MGA, examining the fairway of the Neva, discovered a KV-1 heavy tank 30 meters from the shore, which, during the assault on Nevsky Piglet by Soviet troops in the fall of 1941, was unable to complete the crossing and sank, going under water from a bullet-ridden pontoon. Film by Andrey Gerasimenko.

Lifting KV-1 tanks from the bottom of the Neva River(same as above) and T-38, discovered in the Nevsky Piglet area.

Raising the T-34-76 tank from Black Lake to Kosino

Lifting the Sherman M4A2 tank (USA) Cherkasy region.

Tractor "Stalinets-65"

During the search expeditions of the ANO PK "Rearguard", a unique tractor "Stalinets-65" was found and raised in the village of Belodedovo, Zapadnodvinsk district, Tver region (September 2012), and then restored and put into operation in a restoration workshop. The uniqueness of this model lies in the presence of a cabin.

Armored cap "crab"

In 2008, in the city of Novodruzhevsk, a German-made “Crab” machine-gun armored cap was discovered buried in the ground in the courtyard of a private house. According to local residents, during the war there were no residential buildings in this place, but the German defense line passed through. A reinforced concrete German bunker measuring 3 x 3 meters and 1.8 m high was also discovered next to the excavated armored cap. In the center of the bunker there is a well with drinking water.

Raising the remains of a captured KV-2 tank

Lifting the T-34/76 tank, Cherkasy region. Sank 01/07/1944 in the Gniloya Tikich river

Lifting of the registered Soviet tank T-34-76 "Brave"

On May 7, 2009, the Search Club "Rearguard" in the village of Malakhovo, Pskov region, raised a registered Soviet tank T-34-76 "Brave". According to the archives, this tank went to the front straight from the parade on Red Square in Moscow...

The rise of the Soviet tank T-34-76 "Sniper"

Raising a World War II tank in the Novosokolnichesky district, Pskov region in 2003. The lifting was carried out for the museum in Kubinka by the “Vysota” search team, led by Andrei Zabelin.

The rise of the Soviet KV-1 tank from the bottom of the Neva

On November 16, 2011, the Soviet KV-1 tank was lifted from the Neva River, St. Petersburg, using a floating crane. The "Rearguard" Search Club donated the raised tank to the St. Petersburg Museum "Battle of Leningrad".

The rise of the German self-propelled gun StuG-40

As a result of a successful search expedition of the Rearguard Search Club in April 2002 in the Pskov region, the city of Velikiye Luki, a German StuG-40 self-propelled artillery mount was found and raised.

The rise of the Soviet T-34 Dovator tank

In the Pskov region, Velikoluksky district, in the village of Bor-Lazava, the Search Club raised a registered Soviet tank T-34 - Dovator.

The rise of the Soviet T-70 tank

On September 20, 2001, in the Velikoluksky district, Pskov region, the search club raised a Soviet T-70 tank from a swamp.

Lifting the BT-5 tank

JSC "Iskatel", lifting the BT-5 tank, Neva River. 2008

A Soviet tank was found in an ice hole, Volgograd region

RVPOO "Heritage" German tank PzKpfw III

In 2001, in the area of Gureev village, Dubovsky district, Rostov region, the RVPOO "Heritage", Volgodonsk, raised and donated to the museum of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45. in Moscow, on Poklonnaya Hill, a German tank.

Remains of German Stug-III found in Belarus