Another Russian tank pulled from the mud - Page 2 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Fulcrum525 · #16 04-22-2012, 11:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stoney

There is a website http://warrelcis.eu that has a ton of this stuff but the most surprising is a Russian pilot of a WW@ Lend Lease Hawker Hurricane that crashed in the Swamps around Murmansk and when located and the aircraft excavated, his body was found preserved due to the lack of oxygen and the tannic acid of the swamp water.
His body was supponificated or turned into a type of gelatin soap. You can see the detail of his face and his uniform is perfect. Only his feet are missing where they hit the rudder controls in the cockpit and were cut off.

Hurricane wreck with pilot recovery. Northern Russia at War relics forum

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Stoney · #17 04-22-2012, 11:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fulcrum525

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Pooka · #18 04-22-2012, 05:40 PM

Speaking of land mines in North Africa....

During the late 1950's Mobil laid a pipeline across Libya. The route was cleared for mines during the survey.

When construction started the 'spread', which is also known as the Right of Way, was cleared again and the edges of the spread were marked. If you stepped outside of the spread you could easily step on a mine since they were everywhere.

Stoney · #19 04-23-2012, 08:28 AM

A Contractor that does GPR work for us just finished a contract in Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, etc finding and marking land mines and UXE for the UN. He said the sheer magnitude amazed him as well as the manufacturers-Chile, South Africa, Italy, USSR, China, Korea...

There is a guy I know from the warrelics.eu site that works in Netherlands as a GPR Tech. Under NL law, ALL building sites, road paths, public parks, etc MUST be GPR/MAG scanned before construction. His blog tells a tale of everything from RAF Blockbusters (2,000 lbs) to Shu Mines (wodden boxes or ceramic urns with 1/4 lb TNT designed to take off a leg) and anything in between.

A friend is a Civil Engineer in Berlin and has also done work in Frankfurt and Cologne and has had more than one job delayed due to UXB/UXO issues. HE was doing an extension of the U Bahn train into former East Berlin and they found a 1000 lb US bomb 45 ft down in the center of the tunnel path.

I'd hate to be a Engineer in Viet-Nam!

Txjake · #20 04-23-2012, 10:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stoney

There is a website http://warrelcis.eu that has a ton of this stuff but the most surprising is a Russian pilot of a WW@ Lend Lease Hawker Hurricane that crashed in the Swamps around Murmansk and when located and the aircraft excavated, his body was found preserved due to the lack of oxygen and the tannic acid of the swamp water.
His body was supponificated or turned into a type of gelatin soap. You can see the detail of his face and his uniform is perfect. Only his feet are missing where they hit the rudder controls in the cockpit and were cut off.

Hurricane wreck with pilot recovery. Northern Russia at War relics forum

The Northern areaches of Russia have yealded a huge number of aircraft and armored vehicle recoveries. P-39 Aircobras from the bottom of a lake in very restorable condition (even the tinned USA supplied Meat stored in the plane was in ok shape).

I have seen a lot of this type of recovery from Northern Russia and Siberia on several websites. Since some of the relic hunters now use GPR instead of the old method of driving metal rods down 10 to 20 feet hoping to strike a find, I expect more will be found.

Remember the USSR fought HUGE battles on THEIR territory, in areas that were closed for the next 60 years. Karelia in the Eastern Baltic is still FULL of WW2 sites. The remains of the dead are there as well. If you step off the road into the woods you can still be blown up by land mines.

Battlefields in North Karelia( SS-Nord Division) at War relics forum

In Poland, they find large mass graves in the countryside when digging for a construction project (4000 +) and my co workers tell me the German Autobahn from Germany toPoland was still in the same condition in 1990 as it was in 1945.

And of course parts of Lybia and Algeria are still covered with British and German land mine fields from WW2.

Amazing link. Doubly amazing that basically an entire division of dead nazis was left to rot where they fell. Fitting end I guess, for the filthy SS. The Russians have no love lost for the Nazi invaders.