draganm

the Luchs is a beautiful replica, but I saw a number of approx $100K to build it. Anyone know what the Stridsvagen sold for? I bet a lot less than the cost of buying the road wheels, suspension components, drive and idler sprockets, and final drive separately, then cutting, machining, and welding up a chassis to fit it all. You can nickel and dime yourself to death buying individual pieces http://relicsww2.com/index.php?route=product/product&search=marder&product_id=739

there should be an app for that :-D Seriously though, it's extremely hard to get rare items under these circumstances. Same applies to old cars, the family that inherits the stuff either scraps or donates the vehicle and the time window to get in the middle of this is what, a few weeks?

that's a good question. I think people obviously want an original vehicle, and sometimes that is just not possible, so the next best thing is to get as close as possible to the original. If you can have original Marder Armor and gun on a 1944 chassis, that's as close as you can get I think to a real one. Or, wait 50 years for an original to be pulled out of a swamp right after you win the lottery :-D

or that's just his nature and why the tank is still buried there hopefully the winery owner is a good chap

not too many left though, and 2 have already been made into " Swedish Marders" http://www.massimocorner.com/afv/Surviving_Pansarbandvagn_Pbv_301.pdf

well considering there's literally dozens of pics of this vehicle as a Swedish APC, then showing the upper half being cut-off, then a Fiat diesel engine being installed, it seems very unlikely that an attempt will be made to pass it off as an original Marder any maybe it's not the right thing to do to cut it up , but there did not appear to be any serious collectors of late 50's Armored personnel carriers popping up to buy it on Milweb If they can make the top half from authentic German Marder parts, armor, gun, etc. then I think it will at least be more interesting than a 1958 APC that had already been cut-up and re-welded from something else prior. just my opinion.

The Wiki article is confusing, it makes it sound like the 301's were built new in 1961, ? however, according to the owner were the Pansarbandvagns a mix of new chassis and converted Strids?

you guys are really lucky, http://tankmuseum.org/year-news/bovnews53673

well I only have a passing curiosity on the subject but the Wiki article is interesting. According to them the HG or LDV were both a notable fighting force at one time, and at other times an object of ridicule and TV comedies. 1200 of them did perish from German bombs and rockets, so surely a memorial wouldn't bee too out of line, even if they didn't operate the vehicle on the pedestal? At any rate, might be more interesting than a plaque that reads "here's something we dug up" :-D Not a novel idea though, looks like "dads army" did finally get one in 2005 , small white rock with inscriptions http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/devon/4142414.stm

well the same guy who recently finished the Stug 3 ausf. D North Africa issue Stug, Mr Phillips, is now doing a Marder. Based on a 1944 chassis that was used by the swedes as a APC (or some-such), it's looking to wind up yet another awesome re-build and a good deal of it will be original. Gun shield/fighting compartment armor and now front armor plate with driver cupola, are ground dug originals. Hopefully more original parts pop up. https://www.facebook.com/Marder-3M-1618628128359892/?ref=py_c

well searching the net does not help. All I can find about the Covenanter is "used to train front line troops and equip home-guard units what am i missing? :???

oh go ahead, laugh at the silly american :red: I must have gotten the terminology wrong, ? I assumed Home guard referred to all troops and volunteers stationed at home to defend against possible German invasion early 40's. Were these not Home-guard I take it? Was home guard similar to Volksstrum and did not apply to regular army stationed at home? This article was not clear , it seemed to lump them all together http://ranmorewarmemorial.info/the-denbies-home-guard/ These guys identified as "Denbies home guard" who served where the Covenanters are buried sure look like real soldiers? appreciate any knowledge that would clarify, I'm just a Yankee (sort of) thanks.

yes, but a few did lay bridges after D-day landings right? and rare as heck, only 3 complete chassis known to survive , and only 1 of this is a gun tank. This dig would almost double the number of known examples. that would be pretty low for someone to steal a monument to the home-guard. Of course being on private property, it could also be sold at some point by the winery should they inclined to do so.

well I can see where restoring one to even static condition would be a huge job, all the rust removal, weather sealing the turret and chassis, etc. If it's missing a turret then the difficulty goes way up. On the bright side, you did mention a spare engine, tranny, final drives, etc. Oh and one more plus, your name on the a bronze plaque attached to the monument and forever emblazoned in history. Restored by Rick Wedlock Patriot Extraordinaire and all around good guy Huzzah :-D

Darn it, 40% chance of them being under vines and ............... well lets hope the owner is an agreeable fellow, the trick might be finding the "what's in it for the winery" angle. I read they sell-out their stock every year so might not need more advertising/news exposure? maybe offer to restore one vehicle to static display condition and display it at the winery as a monument to the home-guard in exchange for the other one? I dunno, just throwing ideas out, best of luck

excellent. The vineyard is only 265 acres out of 600+ that make up the property. possibility that these are under a grape-vine are low

and there's this. People who make wine are happy, guys who run scrap yards in Germany are grouchy, so you're already better off than last time :-D

I'm pretty good at talking ot people , but I think the winery might not take me seriously if I called from mainland USA. I can send an e-mail if you guys like, if no one else is feeling chatty?

yeah the stuff being found is amazing. Hopefully the pieces needed for vehicle resto's will find there way there, although I can see the allure of having a panther road wheel hanging in the man-cave well it sorta makes sense. Allied stuff was retired to firing ranges and smelting ovens, the destroyed german stuff just sank into the mud waiting for a metal detector. Looks like the web-site is back up, which is good. My concern was a problem with local authorities (which never ends well for the relics)

looks like this site is down, anyone know what happened? There was some really rare kit for sale there, lie Tiger and Panther parts, in Latvia I believe.

BTW, did you find the guns?

GPR? According that article someone had plans to dig those things up as recently as last summer. That would imply that 1) the winery knows where they are 2) someone might already have plans or a deal in place with the winery? First step might be -call the winery and find out. If the original diggers from last year are out of the picture, then a good deal might be to make it something that would be beneficial for the winery and help promote their products too. Like Set up a viewing stand and wine tasting event a safe distance away , that sorta thing. That would also possibly skirt the need to pay them to remove the relics. Between the excavation and hauling the cost here will already be significant. A call to Bovi might be in order too. They seem to have a number of extra turrets lying around. If they took the turrets off the other 2 chassis's in 1987 then this might not be worth it. Wish I wasn't 2K miles away, an excavation sounds like fun, especially since you guys aren't digging the concrete-like hard-pan we have in the dessert southwest:cheesy: According to the article, they were rolled down a hill and then buried, so good chance you won't have to pull them out of a pit.

that's too bad. Grounds keeper/warden Sounds like a good job though back in the day. if these are recovered and a missing turret or main gun is the issue, the AA version looks really good too for a possible repro fab.

All this talk of cruiser tanks and then a good article on War History Online https://www.warhistoryonline.com/military-vehicle-news/crusader-tank-flawed-unreliable-combat.html?utm_source=getresponse&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=warhistoryonline&utm_content=%5BWar+History+Online%5D+Your+Daily+Dose it reminded me an excellent book I read in the 80's called Brazen Chariots. If anyone is looking for a good read it's a first hand account of a Stuart tank commander in north Africa . The one account that really stuck with me was his recollection of a friendly fire incident where they shot up a Crusader by accident, killing the gunner. I think it was the worst experience for the Major in charge. dam, 400K bottles? I didn't even know they made wine in the UK much less that much of it. Sounds easy enough though, just go to the "Tall trees" and start flinging some dirt :-D Whoever it is they're keeping this little endeavor on the down-low as there's been no mention here AFAIK. while your all at it, grab the Messerschmidt too. Pic of tall tress, Bf109 should be off to the right

I dunno, Maybe recovered in 77 and restored in 87? I was just going by the article, which is pretty interesting. You don't hear much about the home-guard. any chance you could drop by Denbies Wine Estate vineyard for a bottle of wine and the "casually" ask about excavating the site :-D the author of the article believes these were used by Candadians, I wonder if the former warden of the grounds is stil laround well in that pic the tank is either not shot up at all or completely peppered with small caliber rounds. Hard to tell