Russian KV1 salvaged from the Neva River 2011

A WWII tank which was lifted off the bottom of the Neva River in St.Petersburg in November is a Soviet-made KV-1 heavy tank.

Commenting on Thursday's lifting, experts suggested that the KV-1, which was found earlier this year, apparently fell into the river between September 1941 and January 1943, when the Red Army was fighting Nazi troops during the Siege of Leningrad.

Despite the stormy weather and the river's depth at the site being over 15 meters, the operation to retrieve the 50-ton vehicle was successful. The tank was lifted with the help of a floating crane.
It turned out that the KV-1 sank with a number of shells on board.

"An emergency team tackled the utilization of the ammunition, Bobrun explains. No remains of the crew have been discovered which indicates that crewmembers had managed to withdraw from the sinking vehicle. Most likely, the tank drowned during a pontoon crossing in the combat area.

The KV-1 tank was named after the Soviet Peoples' Commissar of Defense, Kliment Voroshilov. The tank was known for its extremely heavy armor protection and powerful weapons which helped it destroy any tank the Wehrmacht had to offer in the early days of the war. At the end of the day, it turned out that there was little sense in producing expensive and extremely heavy KV-1 tanks which were finally mothballed in 1943.

After recovery, the KV-1 is expected to take part in parades and historical reconstructions.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• kv1
• t34
• tank
• eastern
• front
• relic
• ww2

[WesleyButtercup]

the silly thing is that thousands of these survived the war, but they turned them and all the captured German tanks and aircraft to scrap.

So today we spend millions to restore the few lost examples which could have been saved if a few of the more famous tanks and aircraft had been preserved in museums in the first place.

[roaklin]

@WesleyButtercup at that time they where just junk, just like anything we scrap now days is the future's rare collectable.

[mrkg1]

@WesleyButtercup - naw, they probably dragged the hunk of junk up because it was a navigation hazard

[getplaning]

I had a copy of a Warbirds magazine that had an article showing how at the end of WWII at an airfield in the Phillippines, a shipment of brand new Lockheed P-38 Lightnings had just arrived, and since the war was over, they dug a trench, and pushed those beautiful silver airplanes into it with a bulldozer and buried them there. Must have been 20 of them. Destroyed because it was cheaper than shipping them back. :(

[yottson]

@axelmixer2 Maybe it sank during soviet winter assault? Or "...drowned during a pontoon crossing in the combat area..."?

[saranovitch]

Makes me feel TANK COMMANDER

[saranovitch]

pretty to the 3rd power exponential

[saranovitch]

That would paint up real pretty. I'd put it up near the road in a large perrenial raised garden bed, hang the mailbox off the tip of the cannon. That would be handsome. A dark flat machine surrounded by white flowers of numerous varieties upon dark pine mulch. Across the street on the other parcel the opposite. A lightly colored tank with blacy flowers upon raised beds with a skim layer of cape cod style crushed shell naturel driveway material. that would be pretty. My first word: Pretty

[axelmixer2]

How the fuck did the tank come out there?

[RiddermarkMusic]

It'll buff out

[TheTrevor627]

how many tanks were in that river watched four vidz of them raising russian tanks out of the neva river and they were all different and also was that restored or could it not be restored