What happens after the war?

When tanks were destroyed in WW2 did they just leave them there? Or were they eventually salvaged by advancing armies. I asume that most countires would have some sort of salvaging system, or some were taken back and repaired (if possible). Is it possible that some are still lying around somewhere unknown?

Just a thought has been bothering me.

 

I would think after the war that the allies would of salvaged them and sold the remining metal for scrap but im not sure of what happened to them either

 

There are a few wrecks that didn't get recovered. They were left as they were too difficult to remove. These are rather uncommon though.

 

some time ago i read that during excavation in an us army base in germany , a pz IV and a pz 38 hull were discovered, do not know what happened to them, so i guess some wrecks were just covered with dirt and forgoten, same happened to the wreck of the admiral sheer covered in situ and later it was dug up and scraped

 

Some knocked out tanks were turned into memorials where they sat.

 

http://www.primeportal.net/tanks/rich_s ... photos.htm

Rich Sahli

In one of the pictures you can see a glimpse of a humvee.

 

i guess the churchill was in some kind of museum, since there is no damage or rusted, anyway, i do not belive it was operational, look around the tank, no marks of movement

 

"Marks of movement" would dissapear rather quickly, though - probably within a matter of weeks. Better proof of its state is the state that the tink is in itself - disrepair. Fragments of it are lying everywhere.

 

I must admit,I love that paint scheme.Anybody have more info on it?
What countries used the Churchill after WWII?

 

Ireland did, IIRC

 

Although god knows what they used them for.

The Irish airforce hit its high water mark during the 1940s when it had Hurricanes. The modern airforce wouldn't stand a chance against it. :-?

 

speaking from US/british perspective:

Either tanks were retrieved immediately for repair / spare parts or they were just abandoned.
At the end of the second world war the US army had so much equipment sitting around that it couldn't find ways enough to get rid of it quickly.
Basically, damaged vehicles were just abandoned to be picked up by scrap dealers. I remember an account of a scrapyard near Antwerp having over 200 tanks sitting on its grounds in 1946.
The servicable tanks that were declared obselete in late 1945 (basically all M3 medium and m3 ligth tanks and variants and most M4 mediums) were "demilitarized". This meant that they were wrecked so as te be of no military use. In practice this was done rather lacklustre... In Italy a hole was drilled trough the barrel of the main guns and that was it....
There are accounts of tanks being driven of the cliifs (Isreal), jetties (pacific) etc...

After the war the local armies tried to salvage some of these tanks of course and some west-european countries had Shermans bought from scrapyards as their first tanks after the war.

eg: Belgium: the first tank unit was formed with 58 fireflys bought from scrap yards and overhauled.
Italy: special sleeves were produced to fit over the holes drilled trough the guns and the tanks taken back into service
France: they were already being re-equipped with us tanks during the war so there was less reliance on the scrap yards.... alot of the tanks reclaimed from French Battle fields ended up in Israel tough.
Even Shermans purchased in the Phillipines ended up in Israel

so basically, there was just a need to get rid of all this stuff asap and not much control about what happened with it afterwards....

aglooka

 

I get it send it all to Isreal and let them have a pool of obselote equipment (thought I think isreali's sued Shermos for a long tiem after WWII). How about we send them a nuke too while were at it? except instead of giving it to them we drop it on them. I mean I would never suppoer such a thing .

 

I'm not sure what you're trying to say here, Gunter, but it doesn't sound right. Please clarify.

 

What about in North Africa. Im sure there got to be some tank or tank parts barried in the sand some where down the coast. liek how many panzers weren't lost trying to take Tobruk or British tanks at hellfire pass.

 

NVM

 

anti zion

The last posting is contrary to the new rules of this Forum.
Should be banned.

 

I agree entirely with Merlin. Such idiotic, insensitive and xenophobic comments are becoming far too commonplace on this forum, they contribute nothing to debates and are only likely to attract hostility in return.

You may be an anti-zionist, and it is your right to hold that view, although I certainly don't support it and I think it is disgusting to espouse such views as attacking countries with nuclear weapons for no reason on this forum.

 

I agree with merlin and Simonr1978, but would like to add a question.

Why are you anti-zionist?

 

The land of Palenstein was unrightfully taken away. So by the same means every1 in nroth america should leave and give the land back to the natives.