A little OT but too cool not to post. <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/NUwF2FRQmIU&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/NUwF2FRQmIU&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/8kKLbKHNquE&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/8kKLbKHNquE&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
while im at it. <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/-p8h43TRXwk&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/-p8h43TRXwk&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/fNEmGaAplgI&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/fNEmGaAplgI&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
Swamps tend to preserve rather than destroy. But honestly, to see the tracks moving even, I'd wonder if some preservationist group hadn't 'swamped' it accidentally and the footage is of it's removal. FYI, that ended as a German tank, by it's markings. It just happens to be in Russia. If it's a relic, probably from the attempt to secure Stalingrad. Cool stuff in the realated vidoes too! Can you imagine stumbling on that ME-190 in the first video? Iron Maiden soundtrack in my mind! That baby would be on a 20ft. stand in my yard within weeks! AWESOME!!! You should see the TV program done on resurrecting the 'Glacier Girl'. What a ton of work! Never seen any follow-up on how the restoration is going though.
Glacier Girl was found and recovered by a guy here in town along with over 70 other WWII aircraft around the world. Cool guy, met him when he cut the gl*** for my dads 40. Talk about storys.
Its my understanding the the Glacier Girl is flying, doing the airshow thing. There is talk that there is another group trying to recover the other aircraft from that flight, in Greenland. Pretty pricey an undertaking...
Sadly, the Kee Bird is one big effort that literally, went up in smoke and never even got off the ground. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kee_Bird
There was a TV special on that project, I think guys died in the effort to save it. Burned to the ground in the take off attempt. Really made a grown man cry.
Not a battlefield find; first one is (Russian) from last weeks Field Day Of The Past, the other an M-60 Patton Main Battle Tank is on loan to my VFW post, we cracked the beads on the treads and turret hatch and moved it last year, she turned right over and ran after a fluid check & new batteries. We moved it to it's new home, a decent concrete pad. Both of these are taken care of by the Virginia Military Vehicle ***'n.
Sorry Its just one of my favorite ultimate find pictures and Gary was the first to get permits - go there - jack her up - lower the gear and start a engine. Then Darryl Greenamyer took over with the entire project and killed her with his ego. Yes big downer.
as an aircraft mechanic and aviation history fan, that story made me sick for days. i hate seeing such a rare and beautiful plane die such a painful death.
more and more old birds are get done to flying condition, look at jack roush--he has had three p-51 done, last one was what is called on here as a project-- found in a fla. swamp and is flying again. as well as between chicago and rockford a couple by them self are restoring a b-17 to flying status.(20 years + )check local airports for airshow, they do offer flights in b-25,b-17 and some smaller fighters (for a price)
Watch the first clip, and then look at some of the others that come up across the bottom of the screen when it's done. Russian mortuary crews are STILL finding men killed fighting on the eastern front of WWII, both Soviet and Nazi troops. There are several videos of them excavating trenches and other places where men ended up buried as they fell. There are also videos of those same crews exhuming men buried right at the site of the battle to be transported and reinterred in a proper military cemetery. The Soviets lost nine million (9,000,000) soldiers in WWII (killed, not total casualties). I can't even imagine how gargantuan the task of finding and identifying the MIA and the KIA that received distributed burials (buried on site, in concert with combat action) must be. Hell, we're still looking for and finding guys we lost in WWII, and our losses were less than 4% the size of the Soviet's. Think about that one. Our task is 4% the size of theirs, and we've been at it 60 yrs. At that pace, it'll be the year 3500 before they're done. It is nice to see that they haven't just given up looking for those men though. Bad enough that they had to die so young, much less that their remains should spend the rest of time in some bog or buried under some rotting hulk of a tank or plane.
This is not a battle field, but is very much an important part of WWII history. Bonneville Salt Flats. The pilots used to do strafing runs way the hell out at the edge of the salt. My son and i found a slew of spent 50cal shells and bullets. At some point we could find where the pilots must have made their strafing run cause every 30 or so feet there would be a 50cal casing sitting in the salty mud. . My son and I just met an old ball turret gunner at the Chino airport. They were raising money to restore a B-17. Even though I have no job, I donated a meager 5 bucks to their fund. How could you not want to help out a WWII combat vet restore a B-17? Ok back to Bonneville. Here are some photos I took on this recent trip of the Enola Gay hanger. Way up in the upper part of the hanger where the offices used to be it's rotting and collapsing, so I had to snap these photos. I wonder how many more years befor that hanger collapses and is gone.
Ok about the video. It says the tank is a t-34, but the T-34 is a Russian Tank and yet it has German markings. How are the tank tracks still moving after all those years submerged? How does it still have all its paint and no rust? Now the Focke Wolf is AWESOME!
The tank was intact because it was submerged in a peat bog. The high organic content in a peat bog totally depletes the water of free oxygen. No oxygen, no oxidation. No oxidation, no deterioration. Oxygen makes life possible, but it also inevitably destroys everything it comes into contact with. Such is the way of things. The Soviet tank had German markings because it was captured and taken as a trophy by the occupying Nazis. When the tide shifted and the Germans had to retreat, they sunk it in the bog so that the returning Red Army troops couldn't use it. They didn't take it with them because they had no way to maintain or supply it. Better to leave the thing behind than to rely on a machine they had no parts for nor experience working on (to say nothing of ammo for the weapons).
That first aircraft is a FW190, and was used as the template for the flugwurks replicas, there has been some awesome finds coming out of the east like this, ME109s, FW190s (Two) and a lot of Hurricane's, Aerocobra's (Like 7-8+) and a mess off IL1 and IL2 Illusian's. There has even been salvageable components of Wellingtons and Sterlings dragged out (This is what excites me!!) Glacier girl is about 15% original the rest is new built, all those years under moving, grinding ice left little that could be saved. And the Kee Bird, ****ING Darryl Greenamyer!! I heard about his attempt to recover the B50 when he bought the Caribou to carry parts and stores out there. If that turd hadn't tried to get airborne on what was meant to be a SLOW taxi trial the damn jury rigged APU fuel tank wouldn't have fallen and set the aircraft on fire. I HATE THAT GUY!!! FUUUCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK! PS, That Wickipidia post on the Kee Bird is missing mountains and the true cir***stances behind the fire. I feel better.... Doc.
I have whats left from the 30mm cannon from an Aussy built CAC CA13 Boomerang fighter that we excavated. Its pretty torn up but I was going to re-make the gun keeping the original parts just preserved and re making what was missing for my home towns RSL. Doc.
The Jalopy Journal
