Where Is The Tank They Pulled From A River In Poland
Forgotten Armour
18,041 views
On the night of January 18, 1945, a German assault gun broke through the ice on a frozen river in western Poland and sank. Two of the four crew members drowned. The other two escaped, were taken in by local civilians, captured by Soviet troops the next day, and executed. The vehicle sat at the bottom of the Rgilewka River for more than sixty years, buried under three metres of silt and mud.
In this video, we trace the full story of the StuG IV that sank near the village of Grzegorzew during the collapse of the Eastern Front. From its origins as a wartime stopgap after Allied bombers crippled Germany's main assault gun factory, to the two failed Polish military recovery attempts in 1954, to the team of amateur historians who finally pulled it from the river in 2006 and 2008. Inside, they found 49 live rounds, personal belongings, a lighter engraved as a Christmas gift, and a Maybach engine that started again after more than sixty years underwater.
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Chapters:
0:00 A Tank Falls Through the Ice
1:04 What Is a StuG IV
2:48 The Vistula-Oder Offensive
3:56 The Night It Sank
5:52 The Lighter
6:51 Two Failed Recoveries
7:46 The 2006-2008 Recovery
9:18 The Restoration
10:48 Where Is It Now
This video is intended as a respectful historical account. The crew members who died in the Rgilewka River and in the events that followed were individuals caught in the final collapse of the Eastern Front. The recovered vehicle and personal items are preserved at the Armoured Weapons Museum in Poznan, Poland, where they serve as a record of the human cost of the war's final months.
Sources:
Armoured Weapons Museum (Muzeum Broni Pancernej), Land Forces Training Centre, Poznan
Panzergrenadier-Division "Brandenburg" unit histories
Vistula-Oder Offensive operational records
Wikipedia: Sturmgeschutz IV, Vistula-Oder Offensive, Panzergrenadier-Division Brandenburg
Polish recovery documentation and contemporary reporting (2006-2010)
5 Comments
Where Is The Tank They Pulled From A River In Poland
Forgotten Armour
18,041 views
On the night of January 18, 1945, a German assault gun broke through the ice on a frozen river in western Poland and sank. Two of the four crew members drowned. The other two escaped, were taken in by local civilians, captured by Soviet troops the next day, and executed. The vehicle sat at the bottom of the Rgilewka River for more than sixty years, buried under three metres of silt and mud.
In this video, we trace the full story of the StuG IV that sank near the village of Grzegorzew during the collapse of the Eastern Front. From its origins as a wartime stopgap after Allied bombers crippled Germany's main assault gun factory, to the two failed Polish military recovery attempts in 1954, to the team of amateur historians who finally pulled it from the river in 2006 and 2008. Inside, they found 49 live rounds, personal belongings, a lighter engraved as a Christmas gift, and a Maybach engine that started again after more than sixty years underwater.
🔔 Subscribe so you don't miss the next one 🔔
Chapters:
0:00 A Tank Falls Through the Ice
1:04 What Is a StuG IV
2:48 The Vistula-Oder Offensive
3:56 The Night It Sank
5:52 The Lighter
6:51 Two Failed Recoveries
7:46 The 2006-2008 Recovery
9:18 The Restoration
10:48 Where Is It Now
This video is intended as a respectful historical account. The crew members who died in the Rgilewka River and in the events that followed were individuals caught in the final collapse of the Eastern Front. The recovered vehicle and personal items are preserved at the Armoured Weapons Museum in Poznan, Poland, where they serve as a record of the human cost of the war's final months.
Sources:
Armoured Weapons Museum (Muzeum Broni Pancernej), Land Forces Training Centre, Poznan
Panzergrenadier-Division "Brandenburg" unit histories
Vistula-Oder Offensive operational records
Wikipedia: Sturmgeschutz IV, Vistula-Oder Offensive, Panzergrenadier-Division Brandenburg
Polish recovery documentation and contemporary reporting (2006-2010)