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Tank in a hole


secondshooter

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Hi folks , was surfing the net and found these pictures of destroyed vehicles , they ended up in handy looking holes that would be easier to fill in rather than clean up. the location would be very difficult to find but there will be other photos with identifiable landmarks that could lead to the unearthing of interesting artifacts all over Europe.

with the internet vast amounts of WW2 pictures can now be viewed at the click of a mouse ,hopefully in the years to come we will see more history dragged back into the light !

tank 2.jpg

tank 1.jpg

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There must have been millions of craters caused by bombing , the vast scale of destroyed equipment and ready access to nice deep holes would have been very tempting for the local farmer to just push in some more dirt and get on with growing a crop.

those are interesting holes in the photos , they don't look like bomb craters or hand dug , at least on the high sides , a little more like naturally occurring slips ? but I am no expert...

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There must have been millions of craters caused by bombing , the vast scale of destroyed equipment and ready access to nice deep holes would have been very tempting for the local farmer to just push in some more dirt and get on with growing a crop.

those are interesting holes in the photos , they don't look like bomb craters or hand dug , at least on the high sides , a little more like naturally occurring slips ? but I am no expert...

 

 

I am not sure, there is something not natural about them, would need to know where and what the ground is like, i.e. soil conditions, rock etc.

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amazing that someone posted those pics, they've been on my mind for a long time for just the reasons posted above, holes filled in and vehicles still there?.

 

to the pics, , those are indeed shell holes from very large bombs and Those are the remains of the 503rd panzer Abteilung.

 

Caught out in the open in Normandy towards he end of the war by a massive US carpet bombing run involving heavy bombers of operation Godwood. Some tanks were flipped into holes from concussions, other drove into shell craters in a panicked flight to avoid the bombing. Thousands of Germans, both military and civilian, lost their lives and the surrounding area. The 503 lost almost all their vehicles, tiger 1's and panzer III's. they were re-equipped with tigers II's and those were destroyed also. This is around Caen for anyone who wants to go look, historical records should show exactly where the 503rd was when it was wiped out

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/503rd_Heavy_Panzer_Battalion

 

the unit was transferred to the command of 5th Panzer Army. On the launch of Operation Goodwood, the 3rd company, which was based in Cagny, was destroyed in the preliminary Allied bombing, with impacts powerful enough to turn a 56-ton Tiger upside down. Only one Tiger was operational at the end of the day. During the first day of Goodwood, the unit reported the loss of thirteen tanks. At the end of July, the 3rd company received new Tiger II tanks, which were subsequently destroyed in the Allied aerial attacks, with only two brought back to Germany.
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so to try and answer the question , can something still be found if you were to start scouring the countryside East of Caen? I think the answer is highly unlikely. Take for instance one of the pictures of a flipped Tiger I labeled Manneville France.

Go to google maps and you'll see that the area is very developed. There are small stands of trees but it's all private property. So , assuming you spoke fluent French, could you go to the local cafe, find someone around 85 years old who might remember as a child where tanks from WW2 were destroyed? Maybe, I mean 20 years ago would have been better but it still might be possible.

then get permission from land owner, then maybe find something, then try and get permission to dig up the landscape. In the end if all this were to somehow happen, anything you found would likely be the property of the French government.

 

Sounds like a fun adventure of if you had the money , time, and patience but I think it's more of an interesting internet discussion than anything else.

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Visiting the area two years ago, and yes talking to locals. I was told it took TEN years to clear the area up, most was taken away for scrap, at one stage apparently the carnage was so bad pilots at 5000 feet were complaining of the smell. Though you never quite know what may turn up in local barns even now.

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thanks Tony for that sobering reality check. It's so easy get caught up in how cool and powerful these vehicles were and forget how they were used.

 

If one were to put themselves in the shoes of the locals, and having to deal with decaying corpses for years on end, those that would want to save any part of that time as a memento would be very few. Cutting it all up and having it hauled off was probably a huge relief to most people.

 

With all factories and steel yards depleted or destroyed, I would think high-grade steel was quite the commodity as well.

 

Are there still some out there, chances are that yes there is 1 or 2 tigers or panzer 4's here and there. They did find that king tiger under the road in the late 90's , managed to retrieve the turret shell, the rest being under a major roadway too expensive to recover.

 

 

Tony did you manage to get any promising leads? With a single tiger wheel selling for $2K Euros, I would think the word would be out by now and any local prospects fully exploited?

 

47325d1248291664t-kingtiger-under-road-img_1068.jpg

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BTW, if you look at how thin the roof armor is, you can see how a dive-bombing hawker typhoon with rockets was so deadly even to the mighty Tiger

 

Though you never quite know what may turn up in local barns even now.

 

that reminds me, parts of Michael Whitman's tiger found in a barn end of this video in case you guys haven't seen it

 

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The Normon's, they aren't French, that's like telling a Welshman their English, aren't stupid. They know the value of parts and tend to keep locations very quiet. Calvados is a great place to visit, not only for WW2, but they are an ecentric bunch. in 2015 2000 Euro was spent on a helium advertising/ small barrage balloon because one old guy asserted that his memory of D-Day and the landings were barrage balloons. When I suggested it was bit expensive I was asked 'Would you deny an eighty five year old his balloon?' :-D

 

One thing you still find in great numbers alongside the roads are 20mm Hispano cases English head stamps.

Edited by Tony B
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That's a good video Dragnm, finally puts to rest the myth that the British dispatched the "Black Baron" and proves beyond a shadow of a doubt the Canadians sent him to his final reward...but I digress ;)
oh no! what I have done.

Disclaimer, posting link to that vidy in no way is an endorsement or agreement of it's conclusions from said poster (me). :-D

 

The Normon's, they aren't French, that's like telling a Welshman their English,
HA! I guess me home country of former Yugoslavia doesn't have exclusive rights to ethnic frictions

 

 

They aren't stupid. They know the value of parts and tend to keep locations very quiet. Calvados is a great place to visit, not only for WW2, but they are an ecentric bunch. in 2015 2000 Euro was spent on a helium advertising/ small barrage balloon because one old guy asserted that his memory of D-Day and the landings were barrage balloons. When I suggested it was bit expensive I was asked 'Would you deny an eighty five year old his balloon?' :-D

One thing you still find in great numbers alongside the roads are 20mm Hispano cases English head stamps.

if you look at the videos of people scouring the country side with metal detectors in Europe gas masks and 20mm cartridges seem to be the most common find, although I'm sure more valuable items are not posted on you tube. Not surprising that locations are kept secret either, anyone here would do the same.

for now , the Baltic States still seem to be the best place to get your panzer parts. How's your Latvian?:-)

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If one were to put themselves in the shoes of the locals, and having to deal with decaying corpses for years on end, those that would want to save any part of that time as a memento would be very few.

 

 

Something that is never thought of, "cleaning" up after the battle

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