image via – youtube.com
This incredible story is years in the making, beginning in World War II and ending only recently. It came to light thanks to the keen observations and lasting memory of one young boy who was waking beside Lake Kurtna Matasjarv in Estonia in 1944 and noticed something strange in the mud beside the bank. It appeared to be tracks that went into the water, but there were no other tracks anywhere that indicated anything had come out of the lake.
At the time World War II was raging in Europe and in Estonia the Russians had been fighting the Germans in the area. The boy thought the deep, gouged out tracks could have only been made by one thing, a heavy armored tank. He watched the spot for months and after seeing air bubbles ripple up from the lake, he became convinced there was one submerged beneath the surface.
Years went by and while the boy always thought about what he had seen in the woods, he never mentioned it to anyone. Finally one day he did tell people and soon word of his tale reached the ears of Mr. Igor Shedunov, a war history aficionado. Mr. Shedunov was intrigued and put together a diving expedition to find out what was in the water. Upon reaching the spot he found that the lake was really just a small body of water in the middle of the woods, it was not large enough for recreational boating, and was more of a local fishing hole.
The dive team went in and when they emerged, they confirmed the boy’s theory, there was indeed a tank sunk in the lake! Getting it out was going to be difficult as it was covered in seven meters, or about 23 feet, of peat. After two weeks of clearing silt and mud from around the tank steel cables were attached to it so that a massive bulldozer could slowly yank it out.
When it finally breached the water and emerged, officials were able to identify the tank as being a Soviet built T-34/76A tank and it had been so well preserved in its muddy grave that it was in near perfect condition after almost 56 years! The Russian tank had likely been captured from the Soviets by the Germans during fierce fighting in the region. The tide had turned by September of 1944 however, when they started suffering setbacks and massive losses against the Russians. As the Germans retreated, they did not want the tank to be re-taken by the Soviets and so they sunk the 27 metric ton machine in the lake where it sat undetected for all those years.
The pristine condition it was found in was thanks to the low oxygen levels in the marshy bog area it had been in. This helped preserve the metal while minimizing any corrosion. Everything was intact as if it had been sunk a year ago, even 116 shells were found inside and carefully removed. In fact, it was in such good shape that after it’d been cleaned it started right up and ran properly, not one spare part was needed!
A spectacular piece of history was recovered thanks to the boy who had noticed the strange tracks near the lake all those years ago. If he hadn’t spoken up about what saw, the tank would very likely still be sitting under 27 feet of muck.
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