Second World War tank and anti-aircraft gun found hidden in basement

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Second World War tank and anti-aircraft gun found hidden in basement of villa in Germany
The tank, among the weapons haul discovered hidden in the cellar of a villa in Kiel, took nine hours to remove

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German soldiers grappled for nine hours with an unusual task: trying to remove a Second World War tank found in the cellar of a villa.
Almost 20 soldiers struggled to remove the tank from a villa on Thursday in a wealthy suburb of Kiel in northern Germany, after police searching the property discovered the tank, a torpedo, an anti-aircraft gun and other weapons in the cellar on Wednesday.
Police raided the home in the town of Heikendorf under instructions from prosecutors, who suspected that the villa's 78-year-old owner held the weaponry illegally under a law controlling the possession of instruments of war.
The army was called in to try to remove the 1943-vintage Panther tank, and struggled for nine hours to tow it out using two modern recovery tanks designed to haul damaged battle tanks off the field.
The soldiers ended up having to build their own wooden ramp in order to free to tank.
Ulrich Burchardi, an army spokesman, described the difficult task of removing the tank without damaging the house as “precision work”.

A WWII era flak canon is prepared to be transported
The other weapons have also now been confiscated by police.
• WW2 veteran, 89, stashed arsenal of weapons
• The private collector with more tanks than Denmark
Prosecutors in Kiel were alerted to the existence of the weapons by the authorities in Berlin, who had previously searched the villa for stolen Nazi art around a month earlier, national newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung reported.
But Peter Gramsch, lawyer for the villa’s owner, claimed that the tank and the anti-aircraft gun could no longer fire their weapons and were therefore not breaking any law.
He told the newspaper there was even a note from the responsible district office from 2005 stating that the tank had lost its weapons capability.
Mr Gramsch now wants to take legal action against the seizure and also for compensation for his client.
“I assume that the tank was damaged in the process,“ he said.

German Police discovered military equipment from World War II including the Panther tank, weapons and a torpedo in a cellar of a villa
The villa owner, described as leading a secluded life, is now being investigated for breaching the war weapons control act.
The mayor of Heikendorf, Alexander Orth, who was present at the tank's remove, said the discovery came as no surprise, telling the newspaper that the owner "was chugging around in that thing during the snow catastrophe in 1978".
Mr Orth said the man has a "a certain fondness for particular things", adding: "Some people like steam trains, others like tanks.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/11716177/Second-World-War-tank-and-anti-aircraft-gun-found-hidden-in-basement-of-villa-in-Germany.html
 
Ah, but now German society is a better, safer place. Let's hope these two pieces of history are restored fully and preserved.
 
Apparently that Panther tank alone is worth about $4-5 million dollars on the world collectors market! Other German Tank enthusiasts already knew of this example!

They were not hidden in his basement, but stored in a purpose built collection facility attached to his home! But that does not sound as alarming enough to the Media to add in their reporting!

I hope his lawyer is successful in suing the government for all costs involved in the loss of his collection! He has had that tank now for over 40 years and was not hiding it as it was common knowledge in his town and even used to drive it around town and allowed chosen others to view it on appointment plus the tank and 88mm guns were already registered as de-milled!

This is the history of it, and a screen shot from a 2005 webpage from a famous Tank collector -

Panther Ausf. G late – Private collection, Northern Germany – running condition
This tank was also built at the Panther factory under the direction of the British Army REME. It has been recovered from a scrapyard in #### Lane, Surrey (UK) in 1977 (Trevor Larkum).

View attachment 30609
 
No tracks, no functional guns,...yup, throw the book at that old veteran...uh..I mean criminal mastermind.:rolleyes:

It sounds like this is another case of "once legal, not anymore" like tons of stuff in Canada. Weapons of war my a$$.

I saw this story a few days ago and was equally disgusted the first time around.
 
Smaller, lighter, faster, not as well armored as a Tiger or Tiger II, but a heckuva great gun and immensely cheaper to build. Even though the engine had some issues, I think the Germans would have been better off ignoring Tiger production and swamping the field with the Panthers.

Then again, costly, inefficient, wasteful decisions by the German High Command and Hitler hastened their demise.

I hope they reimburse the old guy for every penny of cost, x2, for his efforts in preserving history that Germans seem all too willing to destroy. It's a fool's game they're playing in Germany, trying to eradicate all reminders of their past. That kind of behavior leads to the repetition of mistakes that don't need repeating.
 
grelmar said:
Smaller, lighter, faster, not as well armored as a Tiger or Tiger II, but a heckuva great gun and immensely cheaper to build. Even though the engine had some issues, I think the Germans would have been better off ignoring Tiger production and swamping the field with the Panthers.

Then again, costly, inefficient, wasteful decisions by the German High Command and Hitler hastened their demise.

I hope they reimburse the old guy for every penny of cost, x2, for his efforts in preserving history that Germans seem all too willing to destroy. It's a fool's game they're playing in Germany, trying to eradicate all reminders of their past. That kind of behavior leads to the repetition of mistakes that don't need repeating.
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Post war the French operated the panther, their experience was that panthers had a very short maintenance to operability status life and they abandoned their use before 1950.

Remember that most of the "destroyed" tigers, tiger2 and panthers (and other "exotics") were found to have suffered mechanical or hydraulic breakdown and been abandoned and torched by their crews.
 
There has been discussion on other forums that the owner had a secondary business buying and selling other WW2 items, which broke another law in Germany. The Panther and 88mm were just the unfortunate victims of circumstance.

As was mentioned briefly, this particular tank was built on orders by the British Army at the German plant after the war. It was used as some sort of demonstrator then sold. It was rediscovered in the 1970s in a scrapyard and changed hands before going to the elderly collector at question.
 
Jeepers, I wonder if they'd take away all the stuff I have 'hidden away' in MY cellar? Y'know, lots of different rifle and handgun propellants, bullets by the thousand, reloading gear, and trains.

We all know just how dangerous they can be, especially those pesky trains, right?

tac
 
Sounds pretty reasonable to me , they didn’t get him for stolen paintings so hit him with having a tank . 10 years in court , $ 60,000 lawyers bill .
78 years old, what a way to go .
 
not quite understanding why it took them 9 hours to load the tank. Without tracks its actually easier to tow them as you dont have to disconnect the final drives. ive never worked on that model, however i have towed quite a bit of armor and worked on tracks for a couple years. I dont thing the ground clearence should be much of an issue as the only difference between track on and track off is a few inches.
 
crash277 said:
not quite understanding why it took them 9 hours to load the tank. Without tracks its actually easier to tow them as you dont have to disconnect the final drives. ive never worked on that model, however i have towed quite a bit of armor and worked on tracks for a couple years. I dont thing the ground clearence should be much of an issue as the only difference between track on and track off is a few inches.
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I wonder what sort of damage would this do to the rubber roadwheels? The confiscation almost certainly appears as if it likely damage the Panther and 88.

Regards,
-Steve
 
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