My tank is FIGHT!

[gridlore]

A T-34 tank, captured by the Germans and used in combat, is recovered after five decades underwater.

Story with other links.

Comments

[bunyip.livejournal.com]

That is seriously cool

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

And the engine started, no replacement parts needed.

"Ask a Soviet engineer to design a pair of shoes and he'll come up with something that looks like the boxes that the shoes came in; ask him to make something that will massacre Germans, and he turns into Thomas Fucking Edison."
-- Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon

[delta-november.livejournal.com]

Very spiffy! Though I have to say, I wouldn't have stood that close to the thing when they were pulling it out. If the cable had snapped, a dozen bystanders would have been cut in half.

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

It looks showroom fresh!

Must have been the lack of oxygen under the peat.

I like the Stephenson quote, it really fits here.

I make proud for my country

[dalen-talas.livejournal.com]

Russian lakes and marshes contain vast amounts of WWII vehicles and artillery (and, possibly, stuff left from all the way back to 1812). Something like his happens on a more or less regular basis.

As for getting the tank started after just a cleaning job... German engineering may be precise, but Russian engineering is friggin' sturdy. As an example, one of the stress tests on an AK-47 involved dumping it into a marsh, pulling it out a year after, cleaning it and firing a test clip with no jams. I am not surprised something similar happened to a tank.