Tony Lawrence Posted November 16, 2016 Share Posted November 16, 2016 no kidding, those manuals are amazing. I have to ask though, A Panda for a combat unit mascot to Strike fear into the enemy? , not too many people are deathly afraid of Pandas :-D Hey Rick I hope your Divining rod is in good shape So according to the article, there is definitely one more there " in really bad shape" that they left, and maybe as many as 2 more on top of that in unknown, un-dug condition. [ATTACH=CONFIG]120369[/ATTACH] Apparently Panda was meant to be a pun on Panzer - who knows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajmac Posted November 16, 2016 Share Posted November 16, 2016 When you think of it like that its funny: Rommel's Panda Army Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
draganm Posted November 16, 2016 Share Posted November 16, 2016 Imperial War Museum website also suggests it could have been adopted from a polo club symbol http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30071697 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Farrant Posted November 16, 2016 Share Posted November 16, 2016 Imperial War Museum website also suggests it could have been adopted from a polo club symbol http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30071697 I understood it that a Panda represented friendly non-aggressive as they were a UK training division and never went into combat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddy8men Posted November 21, 2016 Author Share Posted November 21, 2016 i have arranged to see the vineyard owner this week for a face to face meeting. i have a feeling i will be digging up tanks for xmas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Lawrence Posted November 22, 2016 Share Posted November 22, 2016 i have arranged to see the vineyard owner this week for a face to face meeting. i have a feeling i will be digging up tanks for xmas Hopefully they will look like this. I have finally found my old slides (dated March 1981), converted them to JPEGs, reduced the size and here they are. One interesting point is the symbol on the front stowage bin (last pic) - it appears to be 79th AD which blows all my theories regarding 9th AD out of the window. Possibly Bovington will have a record of what it was like before they restored it. The fifth pic is looking downwards through the turret opening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean N Posted November 22, 2016 Share Posted November 22, 2016 Tony, I assume from your comment that's the one that went to Bovvy. Did you get any photos of the ones that were put back? Might be handy to know exactly how bad they are... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddy8men Posted November 22, 2016 Author Share Posted November 22, 2016 nice one tony, thanks for taking the time to dig the pics out of your collection and post them up. it does look to be in great condition (all things considered) let's hope we can get another out of the ground :thumbsup: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean N Posted November 22, 2016 Share Posted November 22, 2016 Be nice if it was even vaguely approaching the condition of that one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Hall Posted November 22, 2016 Share Posted November 22, 2016 This may sound stupid but if they uncovered 2, why not recover both and use the second for parts or a template? Sod's law dictates that you fill in the hole burying the second tank and then 12 months down the line you realise something on your recovered tank is missing or broken and you wish you'd kept that other one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Lawrence Posted November 22, 2016 Share Posted November 22, 2016 Tony, I assume from your comment that's the one that went to Bovvy. Did you get any photos of the ones that were put back? Might be handy to know exactly how bad they are... No, the first I knew of it was when a chap came into my shop and said that I might be interested as they had dug a 'Sherman tank' up at Bradley farm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean N Posted November 22, 2016 Share Posted November 22, 2016 This may sound stupid but if they uncovered 2, why not recover both and use the second for parts or a template? Sod's law dictates that you fill in the hole burying the second tank and then 12 months down the line you realise something on your recovered tank is missing or broken and you wish you'd kept that other one! Chris, knowing Rick I suspect if it works out he won't stop at one - he'll be bringing up anything vaguely tank-like that's down there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddy8men Posted November 23, 2016 Author Share Posted November 23, 2016 to be honest i'd be happy with one :-D however if more are to be found then i'm up for it but the thought of all those lovely grapevines getting crushed under the digger tracks is not a good one and making good the ground after we've gone is going to be the hardest part of the job ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pzkpfw-e Posted November 23, 2016 Share Posted November 23, 2016 Do we know why they were buried there? Seems to be a lot of work, dig a hole, shove three (?) tanks into it & backfill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Farrant Posted November 23, 2016 Share Posted November 23, 2016 Do we know why they were buried there? Seems to be a lot of work, dig a hole, shove three (?) tanks into it & backfill. The unit who did it probably had no paperwork to support them, so could not hand them back, better to make them disappear. They would have been obsolete by that time I guess. I read somewhere that a Canadian tank workshop was nearby at the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Lawrence Posted November 23, 2016 Share Posted November 23, 2016 Do we know why they were buried there? Seems to be a lot of work, dig a hole, shove three (?) tanks into it & backfill. The hole was probably already there as mentioned in previous posts - the anti-tank ditch across the Mole valley between Box Hill and Ranmore Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean N Posted November 23, 2016 Share Posted November 23, 2016 I suppose if you had a quantity of tanks with no supporting paperwork or which had been / were going to be written off at scrap value, and you had a ditch to fill, it must have been only too tempting...! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john1950 Posted November 23, 2016 Share Posted November 23, 2016 Reinstating the site is not a chore. It is a lasting signature and shows the professionalism of the people involved Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddy8men Posted November 23, 2016 Author Share Posted November 23, 2016 SUCCESS met the owner today and he wants to excavate the reburied tank as an exhibit and look for the others that he believes are there. we went to the dig site and the access is good and i can see no issues to prevent us from recovering at least one tank if not more. the tanks must be recovered before april. so i need a ground radar asap. does anyone have any leads for me to follow :thumbsup: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ruxy Posted November 23, 2016 Share Posted November 23, 2016 Time to call in Dan Snow to oversee , at least the BBC will have a racing certainty of something interesting found for their viewers ,, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Suslowicz Posted November 23, 2016 Share Posted November 23, 2016 Would a magnetometer survey be better? Big lumps of iron shouldn't be that hard to locate and something the size of a tank is certain to distort the earth's magnetic field. Chris. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Al Posted November 24, 2016 Share Posted November 24, 2016 Would a magnetometer survey be better? Big lumps of iron shouldn't be that hard to locate and something the size of a tank is certain to distort the earth's magnetic field. Chris. Would the MOD help with this Rick its worth asking Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean N Posted November 24, 2016 Share Posted November 24, 2016 Rick, have emailed. Best bet might be to talk to geophysics people or archaeologists. Several options including GPR, magnetometers, electrical resistance, EM conductivity, even metal detectors perhaps. University Earth Science or Archeology departments might be able to help, or at least offer advice and contacts - see if you can get to talk to someone at UofM or the Metropolitan uni. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Farrant Posted November 24, 2016 Share Posted November 24, 2016 According to the newspaper report the first tank was found with divining rods. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Grundy Posted November 24, 2016 Share Posted November 24, 2016 According to the newspaper report the first tank was found with divining rods. I used diving rods in France about ten years ago and they worked for me. It was very strange, perhaps it is the person who is using them, works for some but not others. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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