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buried and abandoned tanks


eddy8men

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What ever happend to the Allied tanks that were just sitting in the French forest? anyone know..
don't know for sure, but there appears to have been an abundance of Sherman projects for sale in France posted on milweb. One was a turret-less range wreck that was started on a thread posted here, but the owner has moved on to a better example and has/had the first one listed for sale.
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Found this on a facebook group, if it really is at Dieppe, it certainly needs recovering.

Never heard about a Churchill surviving at Dieppe, but if it is there indeed, it surely needs more attention! :thumbsup:

 

Edit - none listed here: http://the.shadock.free.fr/Surviving_Churchills.pdf and this lists it as "somewhere on the south coast of England" - see https://www.flickr.com/photos/scaphoid/sets/72157631513347873/with/7977156905/

Edited by mcspool
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Hi

 

So much for the news media not having a clue as to what they are talking about or bothering to check, would have made a better story if they had pointed out that the sign on the tank misidentified it as a Sherman. Leading to the real question what is British tank doing in Cube.

 

The fact that the news editor did not know the difference is a sign of a generational change. No one in their 60s would have said Sherman heck even my wife knows the difference. Then again she was a reference librarian as she said doesn't look like a Sherman.

 

Cheers Phil

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interesting, looks like they had a number of M3A1 Stuarts, M4A3 Shermans, and then approx 15 A34 comets that were all supplied to the western Puppet regime of Batista before he was ousted. After that it was all Soviet Armor supplied to the Commies.

That's a nice example , engine, final drives, cannon are all there. The country seems ot be full of all of the above mentioned models. Maybe now with the country opening back up to Western commerce Cuba might be the next great place to go pickin for prime examples? I mean the expense and trouble of buying and shipping from Cuba would be significant but no worse that what it takes to fix up some shot-up range wreck.

 

http://www.urrib2000.narod.ru/Tanques1-e.html

 

BolitaRoja.gif A34 Comet Cruiser Tank


At least 15 british Cruiser tanks A34 Comet were bought for Batista after the American embargo, and they arrived at the end of the war, in December of 1958, being able to participate in the Santa Clara Battle. They were scrapped with the arrival of soviet armor. For a long time the last Comet was stationed in the wall of the castle at Punta, at the Havana coast, defending the entrance of the Havana Bay, stripped of some mechanisms and forgotten after the retreat in 1986.
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interesting, looks like they had a number of M3A1 Stuarts, M4A3 Shermans, and then approx 15 A34 comets that were all supplied to the western Puppet regime of Batista before he was ousted. After that it was all Soviet Armor supplied to the Commies.

 

Here is what I know about Cuban Sherman tanks: http://www.mapleleafup.nl/g104/cuba.htm

 

Would love to see details / pictures of the survivor(s)!

Edited by mcspool
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From what links I've found, that Comet's the only survivor, seems that once the Cubans were sent Russian kit, the rest were scrapped.

Here's another one of the Comet.

tanque.jpg

 

Found a couple Staghounds there too, University of Havana.

080700021.jpg

 

 

Tanqueta  utilizada en la Batalla de Guisa 1958

Guisa.

 

Another Comet

128633212-children-play-on-an-abandoned-cuban-tank-gettyimages.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=L24ZmAiyBRWG%2FjvP9vuSIONQBnN4yt6i2bLxk4PYFGnonvEuP7G1NQ5h5MWsEvhr

 

"Facing Florida Straights"

 

 

1199968_13622589237358.jpg

M47? I assume it's an ex-Bay of Pigs trophy. Playa Giron.

 

The only other photos of old tanks I can find in Cuba, are T34/85s & Su100s, including these submerged examples.

dee89272abe4a7ab3a5e9fd044f1e147.jpg

 

obr1.jpg

 

Plus a submerged IS2M

obr3.jpg

 

So, so surviving Shermans in Cuba?

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From what links I've found, that Comet's the only survivor, seems that once the Cubans were sent Russian kit, the rest were scrapped.

Here's another one of the Comet.

tanque.jpg

 

odd, this one is not shown on Peirre Olivers surviving panzers compilation?

 

 

so surviving Shermans in Cuba?
he does list a number of Shermans in Cuba, all at war memorials to the revolution or on playgrounds. Should all be M4A3's
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It only broke surface last month, so hasn't made it on the lists yet. Give the bloke a chance.;)
he needs ot get cracking ; )

 

Interesting, looks like it's on private property, an organic farm of some sorts in Cuba

 

so who's gonna conctact ole Heysoos with an offer for his "Sherman" ?

 

Jesus Leiva, a Cuban who has a tank for personal use and, most likely is the only civilian who has such a machine in Cuba. It keeps parked in the backyard, while a troop of children rises chains, hangs the barrel, enters and exits the turret; It is also painted pink.

 

For is not no big deal, a tank of World War II, part of the environment El Progreso, his organic farm with more than 25 kinds of fruit trees and precious woods.

 

According to its owner, who does not budge, this is the last of seven Medium Tank M4 Sherman, who sowed Batista during the first half of the 50s of last century in the Residential Road Tunnel, as he was known to this Key area dubbed Havana. Locals themselves argue that Sherman was used in a training ground for military exercises, which existed in the same place during the days of the territorial militia that Fidel Castro founded in 1980.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...

a few years ago i was walking with the wife in marseille she wanted to see the cathedral we came around a corner and sitting on a mini roundabout was a really nice sherman if i remember it was only a 100yds or so from the cathedral which itself had obviously seen some action by the amount of holes in the architecture wonder if the sherman is still there might go have a look

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a few years ago i was walking with the wife in marseille she wanted to see the cathedral we came around a corner and sitting on a mini roundabout was a really nice sherman if i remember it was only a 100yds or so from the cathedral which itself had obviously seen some action by the amount of holes in the architecture wonder if the sherman is still there might go have a look

 

Would this be the one?

 

Marseille Sherman

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In the Alsace town of Mutzig in 1940 they dug a big trench in the mainstreet to stop the advancing germans. As they took the town they had to fill the ditch fast to advance their vehicles. So they took an captured Renault FT-17 tank and dumped it in the ditch and filled it over with dirt. It was later asfalted over. So now the big question is the renault still there? At your shovels...:-D

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Would this be the one?

Marseille Sherman

This M4A4 Sherman tank commemorates the fighting for Marseille from 23 to 28 August 1944. The tank participated in the fightings and was disabled by a German grenade on 25 August 1944. 3 occupants were killed instantly.
grenade? I wonder if they meant Panzerfaust?

 

In the Alsace town of Mutzig in 1940 they dug a big trench in the mainstreet to stop the advancing germans. As they took the town they had to fill the ditch fast to advance their vehicles. So they took an captured Renault FT-17 tank and dumped it in the ditch and filled it over with dirt. It was later asfalted over. So now the big question is the renault still there? At your shovels...:-D
there's a number of tanks buried under roads or bridges , including a Tiger 2, Panzer 4 lang, etc. and unfortunately no one will never get to them unless they move the road and abandon the old right-of-way.
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This is where the tank is according to the map on the linked article:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]110684[/ATTACH]

 

:)

i did not recognize the earlier shots but yes thats more like it. its had a lick of paint and i understand they have restored the cathedral thinking about it, it must have been 15 years ago the building really was holed like a swiss cheese it should have been left like it it was quite a dramatic memorial
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