Hi All,
>I'm sure the mystery will reveil itself in time...which I'm sure is
>some of the interesting facets of recovery...finding out the vehicles
>service life and history.
>
I'm sure in this instance the Simonides group will record all the
relevant data for future research, all of these types were operated by
1/s PzJabt.653 so finding the crew may be possible and some may even be
surviving to this day.
>> Almost all of the recovered/restored German armour ends up in one or
>two
>> locations in the USA and is unavailable for even respected authors to
>> view and record, regretfully. . . . . . .
>I think thats unfortunate indeed...and I would love to know the
>reason(s) why this is so and these vehicles cannot be viewed,
>photographed, nor information recorded...even by the best of
>authorities in the armor field. A shame, really. One can only hope
>that at some future date, those vehicles can be viewed by the public.
>
There is a certain logic to this, the USA statistically has the people
with the wherewithal to buy and store these unique and stunningly
expensive vehicles and it probably follows that they understandably do
not wish to advertise their collections, that probably include many
other artefacts, or their location. It would be nice though if a
respected and bonafide writer could record the data for the rest of us
and this is surely possible without compromising the owners security.
>According to Wolfgang Schneider's
>"Elefant-Jagdtiger-Sturmtiger:Rarities of the Tiger Family", the 88mm
>gun was modified to fit the Jagdtiger ( this modification being known
>as the PAK43/3, Version D ), the gun being so modified by Hallesche
>Maschinenfabrik of Lippstadt. They delivered the weapons to the
>Nibelungen Works where the vehicle was being built beginning in 1944.
>Of the 74 Jagdtigers built, Schneider says there is no record of how
>many of them left the factories armed with the 88mm gun.
>
There are various published figures for Jadgtiger production, 77 seems
to be a favoured number, however we know that some museum samples have
serials in the 80's - 305083 is in a Russian museum. The 88mm SdKfz 185
is recorded as never being a production type but there is evidence that
at least two development models were made, in the desperate last weeks
of the war, with Germany, Poland and Czechoslovakia captured, anything
that ran and had a gun would be put into service, its inconceivable that
a "un-issued", development, but operational Jagdtiger would be left
parked at the Austrian St.Valentin (Nibelungen) factory, the desperately
and uncharacteristically poor paint job Jim reports would bear this out.
The Russian SdKfz 186 was captured at Amstetten, all of 16 miles from
the plant and typically as far as it would get on its tracks before the
wars end.
>> A well known collector here who advertises in W&T bought a complete,
>> undamaged, operational Panther from a Russian museum <snip>
>> The vehicle was "stored" in a field, it is still there, except the
>> engine has now gone together with the turret. Allegedly.
>
>If this story is true....I'd be one ripped person. Pay that kind of
>money for a running "Panther", only to now have it rusting, turretless
>and engineless, in some field. Somebody got rich....
>
Personally I have no reason to question the situation, you can make of
that what you will.
The vehicle, originally captured intact and undamaged is now lost to us,
it would have been kept and displayed running in the UK so it wont
appear at Beltring '99, there is a ready market for a Maybach V12 and
the turret it seems, these items being readily stealable as it were.
One can only surmise why the Polish authorities impounded the vehicle,
possibly they took exception to it passing through the country or had a
notion to confiscate it for their own museums, who can tell ?
Regards,
Richard
(Southampton UK)
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