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Late Panther found in a cellar in Germany


Dads203

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Begs the question, 'How do you manage to park a Panther in a cellar'?

:winkgrin:

Kev

And just how big was this cellar? :)

Edited by stevej60
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From another site:

Yes they were deactivated. But the Panther counts as Nazi-art and despite the barrel being blocked with welded lead, is seen as a weapon.
The guy is also assumed to have had sth to do with Gurlitt (the guy with hundreds of paintings in his cellar)... That's the reason they raided his house in.the first place.

He bought it in Britain in the 50s as trash, then worked on.it for years and rebuild it.
The gun mantle used is an early one (no G vertical thing -Walzblende- on the bottom) but the rest seems to be G like features?
Nothing mentioned about the tracks, but probs taken off as wheels do damage the road less if towed (the army guy said).

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And my wife gets annoyed over my collection of models!

Seriously, hope the Panther ends up in a museum.

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The 88mm looks in fairly good nick. Would love to see what else he had down there.

Its funny as according to the locals everyone knew he had the stuff and he used to drive the tank around.

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Perhaps he was building it on the kitchen table and the floor gave way....

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From another site:

Yes they were deactivated. But the Panther counts as Nazi-art and despite the barrel being blocked with welded lead, is seen as a weapon.

The guy is also assumed to have had sth to do with Gurlitt (the guy with hundreds of paintings in his cellar)... That's the reason they raided his house in.the first place.

He bought it in Britain in the 50s as trash, then worked on.it for years and rebuild it.

The gun mantle used is an early one (no G vertical thing -Walzblende- on the bottom) but the rest seems to be G like features?

Nothing mentioned about the tracks, but probs taken off as wheels do damage the road less if towed (the army guy said).

The early G version had the Walzenblende without the 'chin', too. Seems to me like kind of a mix - early gun mantlet, late style (high) left radiator/fan housing.

Here in Germany you need a permission to own 'weapons of war' - deactivated gun is one thing. Reduced armour (thin sheet metal in fact) for certain aeras of the hull another. Seems he had no permission to own these things.

It's a bit funny his lawyer and other people are very upset that the DA asked the Bundeswehr to recover the heavy stuff instead of ordering some civilian firm, because it is against the law to deploy the Bundeswehr for anything else than defending the country or help in disaster areas (floods and the like).

But who's better suited to recover a tank from a 'cellar' (in fact some kind of subterranean parking garage) than a Bergepanzer from the tank forces?

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Rayprit refers to the Panther as having been acquired from Britain in the 1950s as trash - doesn't this mean its likely to be one of the batch completed after the war under REME control?

The one at Bovington is one of these, and has a very similar mantlet, and also has no zimeritt.

I gather that most of them went to scrapyards after completion of testing, usually with the gunbarrel sliced off.

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I believe it is one of the ten built after the war for the British army, it was found in a scrapyard in the 70s? and is in a copy of Wheels and Tracks mag dated 1985 that I still have, it was in running condition then but not complete (the cupola was not there as well as many other fittings). It matches the other two surviving "British" Panthers at Bovington and in a museum in Germany in having a late engine deck and exhaust and the earlier mantlet.

Stuart

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  • 2 weeks later...

Its funny as according to the locals everyone knew he had the stuff and he used to drive the tank around.

Julien,

must have been the same people who saw Atlantis and the lost Ark :pilot: !Don't you think that in a Country like Germany the Police would have knocked at his door the very same moment that he's started the engine? :police::police::police::police::police:

Cheers

Manu

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  • 3 weeks later...

Pity- I think that he should be able to have his stuff back, after all he bought it and restored it himself. Maybe he could bequeath his collection to a museum in his will or his family could sell it off when he can no longer enjoy his collection?

Imagine if the authorities turned up to confiscate your models?

Cheers

Tony

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Pity- I think that he should be able to have his stuff back, after all he bought it and restored it himself. Maybe he could bequeath his collection to a museum in his will or his family could sell it off when he can no longer enjoy his collection?

Imagine if the authorities turned up to confiscate your models?

Cheers

Tony

It will depend on the local laws and regulations. Both the tank and the 88 are weapons and weapons even if deactivated have to follow a number of regulations. Don't know what it's like in Germany but in most countries the deactivation has to be done by a licensed manufacturer and often tested by a legally recognised test centre ( a Proof House in the UK). If the man deactivated the guns himself without any test, there's a good chance he may end up in serious troubles

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