Who in his right, or even very twisted,mind would stage a hoax like this? Come on!-driving a perfectly good original WW2 tank, worth 100.000's of dollars, into a lake, immersing it completely in water and mud, just to pull it out again?
I just saw a WW2 German recovery truck having been recovered from a Russian lake. The parts that had been embedded in mud were perfectly preserved, the front had been in the water and was far worse off with rust.
Just my 2 cents.
As always,
Goran N