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Posted on Jan 20, 2008 in Front Page Features, War College

Panzers Found in Norway

By Tor Helge

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Delivery of the last 2 PzIII’s to the Troms Forsvarsmuseum 14th August07 (Troms Defence-museum). Tank with a visible number 1 on turret is an Ausf M. The other Ausf L. Both vehicle serial-numbers have been checked by Henry Blanck, and found to have been participating at the battle of Kursk July 43. The “1” on turret is post-war norwegian markings. This tank was delivered to PzGrenDiv GrossDeutschland. he other Ausf L was delivered to SS-division Das Reich, who lost it in the soviet offensive at Kharkov in the winter of ’43 and later it was recovered during the spring-offensive at Kharkov, repaired and taken in use also by PzGrenDiv GD during battle of Kursk. When removing the concrete, the engine-decks came off.

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The uncovering of the last 2 tanks, August 2007. These were inside of a very restricted area, so not many photos were taken.

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14 Comments

  1. Excellent set of Picture’s….Good to see the mk3 Panzer being Recycled after ww2..

  2. Excellent set of Picture’s of the Panzer mk3…Good to see the Norwegian’s Recycle Them..

  3. That’s great to know that they are being dug up and saved, it would be a shame to lose them. Though being encased in concrete may have thwarted any attempt to refurbish. Great article, I had heard that they also employed German Panzer 38(t) Hetzers but that’s not really a solid piece to bet on.

  4. excellent pictures however I believe that the photos are of SdKfz 161
    Mk iv

    • Pete, check the number of road wheels. There are only six on each side, making it clear beyond any doubt that they are Pz III’s and not Pz IV’s (which had eight (smaller) road wheels) on each side.

  5. Hello. Nice photos and cool story. Amasing they really fought at Kursk. As a kid i lived at Gardermoen AFB. There they had one panzer III dug down and converted to a bunker. Only the top part of the chassis and the turret remained. The gun however was removed. And truly a lot more that i cant tell about because i could not know it should be there. It was quite blank inside exept for the manual turret travers wheel with two gear. (Slow and fast) I saw this tank hull several times in the 70`s and untill the late 80`s. Later the AFB at Gardermoen has been converted to the main civilian airport at Oslo. What happened to the tank Chassis i dont know. It was anyway incompleet. More interesting to know is what happened to the State of the art Panzer III with 50 mm type 1942 gun! (Kwk 60?) I saw this tank in a store building at Gardermoen around 1990. There was also a French tank, Renault or Hotchiss type there. The latter was probably used by the whermacht 25 Pz.div. as a school tank during the units initial education at Trandum training feldt to the east of Gardermoen. The whole area has been heavely garissoned before, during and after ww II and still is.

  6. русские тогда надрали фашистам зад!!!!

    YAHOO! BABEL FISH TRANSLATION FROM RUSSIAN:
    Russians then tore to fascists back!!!!

    • What a clown…

  7. last month lifted from the water remains in the Nassau-based m-3. and 75-mm cannon.

  8. Is there any graphic info on how the bunker(s) were looking alike pre destruction?
    Thanks

  9. Lord you’re wrong This tank it is necessary to rescue and restore your As a reminder of what was How One Man was able to conquer all of Europe right Now, people seem to have forgotten it Even 50 years and who will not remember about it..If you honestly Hitler arouses admiration in that he could do But not that he made with the people.

  10. According to those pictures, all models extracted are Panzer III Ausf. N, one is an early model, second is a late one (8./Z.W.). There’s no picture of Panzer III Ausf. L or M. Or they were retrofitted as Panzer III Ausf. N (7,5 cm KwK L/24).

  11. Viking Fisheries High School (Japanese: ??????????, Vaikingu suisan koko; Norwegian: Vikingfiskerhogskolen) is one of the minor schools in Girls und Panzer .

  12. Viking abandoning the idea of amphibious assault may be a reference to the aborted Operation Jupiter. It was the codename of a British amphibious assault to invade northern Norway and Finland that originated from 1941 but was dropped in favor of the Normandy landing in 1944.

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  1. 2008: Panzers Found in Norway — War History Online - [...] have the chassis-numbers intact, so we have no history at all on the first tank we uncovered.Read more on…
  2. ACG Magazine March 2008 Links | Armchair General | Armchair General Magazine - We Put YOU in Command! - […] Panzers found in Norway […]
  3. ACG Magazine March 2008 Links | Armchair General | Armchair General Magazine - We Put YOU in Command! - […] Panzers found in Norway […]