Speaking of war tropies...

If you like that, than you will waste an entire afternoon browsing around this European war relic site. Like I have done too many times.

They have a number of pages about German and Soviet WW2 tanks and vehicles retrieved from bogs.

This page describes the rescue of three German tanks from a Baltic Sea wreck.

http://www.lerenfort.fsnet.co.uk/page77.html

Enjoy!

The T-34 was a wonderful sea change in armor
design and it caught the Wehrmacht by surprise.

It makes you wonder if the U.S.S.R. actually had
foreknowledge that the Germans had nasty intentions for them. :)

And that The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was just
a delaying tactic for the U.S.S.R. needed some years to prepare for the greatest military
clash in history.

Best,

Marc

Here is a link to a Former Russian Saper who has been using a metal detector to find WWII Relics. They had to remove some pictures becuse he was finding helemets with the German skeletons still in them. They also have found tanks and airplanes. I have always wondered how many M-1 Garand clips are laying around Europe.

http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,27618.0.html

The Soviets had been working hard on tank design and doctrine since at least the early 1930s.

Their designs from that time, and at least up to the T-34 took advantage of an American tank designer's work, especially on suspension system. They bought a Christie M-1930, and based their fast tank designs on it and later Christie work. (The U.S., on the other hand, didn't give him much business until quite a bit later.)

Oh, at the time, they were trying to stay ahead of Poland, who they expected to be their main opposition at the time.

Things changed.

The article is about Estonians, not Russians. Estonia is not Russia and most Estonians are of Estonian descent, an ethnic group related to the Finns and other Finno-Ugrics. They are not Russian.