Bulgaria's Army Digs out Its Maybach Tanks

novinite ^ | 8 February 2008, Friday

[Grzegorz 246]

Bulgaria' s army has started to dig out its vintage tanks produced by Maybach, in order to protect them from robberies.

Army officials reported that a number of Panzer IV tanks, equipped with Maybach engines and previously buried near the southern Bulgarian border as stationary guns, have already been dug out and transported to a secure military base.

All tanks will be in a safe place before the end of February but it is still unclear what their future will be, the army said.

According to experts, there are few tanks of the same type in the world still outside the military museums and robbers could make a good profit by selling parts of the machines to collectioners.

In November, Bulgaria's police arrested two German nationals and a Bulgarian army major over stealing and exporting abroad a whole Panzer IV tank and attempting to do the same with a second one.

In January , police launched another investigation over a stolen turret of a third vintage tank.

[elcid1970]

I had read that it was the Maybach automatic transmission which greatly improved tank manueverability.

Maybach was an auto manufacturer too, tho.

[Snickering Hound]

http://www.achtungpanzer.com/pz3.htm#panzer4

Those vehicles are worth ALOT of money these days.

Restoring them is a millionaires hobby. A very expensive hobby.

[Grzegorz 246]

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[southernnorthcarolina]

Maybach.

A rather Spartan means of conveyance, no?

[Last Dakotan]

What’s the point of stationary guns in the 21st century?

[WorkingClassFilth]

I’m waiting for a bargain on this baby: http://www.achtungpanzer.com/tiger.htm

I had the 1/24th scale model as a kid - still haven’t made it to Aberdeen or the IWM to see a real one.

[rmlew]

Why doesn’t Bulgaria sell these and replace them with T-54 or T-55s?

[AnalogReigns]

I prefer this Maibock:

[doodad]

When you can’t afford the gas or maintenance, I guess an artillery piece is what they become.

[antiRepublicrat]

Maybach was an auto manufacturer too, tho.

Still are, although the brand is now owned by Daimler:

Expect to pay almost half a million, almost $700K if you want it armored with all the options.

[Bringbackthedraft]

Want to the old Mark IV in action? http://www.stage6.com/WORLD-WAR-TWO-HISTORY-WAR/video/1986490/Panzer-IV-Heavy-Tank

[Cannoneer No. 4]

Free Republic Treadhead Ping

[henkster]

As late as the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, the Syrians were still operating some PzIV’s. Oddly enough, the Israelis were using some Shermans up-gunned with some 90mm’s.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

Panther Tank engine Maybach engine tour

[Cannoneer No. 4]

PzIV

[Delta 21]

Mark IV works excellent for crowd control.

I would not mind having one for home defense :)

[popdonnelly]

“What’s the point of stationary guns in the 21st century?”

Target practice.

[popdonnelly]

“Maybach was an auto manufacturer too, tho.”

Maybach was the manufacturer of great classic cars before World War II. They also built engines for some of Count Zeppelin’s creations. I didn’t know they built Panzer tanks.

[popdonnelly]

The Maybach “Zeppelin” automobile was powered by a V-12 engine, which is probably the ancestor of this one. The car engine was eight liters and put out 200 HP.

[LibKill]

What’s the point of stationary guns in the 21st century?

"Stationary defenses are monuments to the stupidity of mankind. If mountains and oceans can be overcome..............." (Patton, the Movie)

[Squantos]

Archy fess em up !..........;o)

[rmlew]

As late as the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, the Syrians were still operating some PzIV’s. Oddly enough, the Israelis were using some Shermans up-gunned with some 90mm’s.
The Israelis did not have Shermans upgraded to 90mm. Instead they used the high velocity canon of the French AMX-13 in the M-50 Shermans and a modified 105mm gun for their M-51 Shermans.

Israel still uses greatly modified Shermans. http://www.israeli-weapons.com/weapons/vehicles/tanks/sherman/Sherman.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M50_Super_Sherman

[04-Bravo]

I had no idea there were still any Panzer IV’s in service.

[Bringbackthedraft]

This is not surprising. The soviet Block had over 55,000 tanks. Unlike the USA and it allies, the Soviets did not melt down old tanks and make new ones. They kept the old ones in storage. During the Cold War they used old tanks like pill boxes around areas like ammunition storage depots, where they dug them into the ground up to their turrents.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

An IS2 turret faces China. Tom Clancy described such.

[Travis McGee]

Ping

[grey_whiskers]

I used to live in Maryland, went to Aberdeen a couple of times...

It was interesting to see the rows and rows of tanks, from the earliest Panzerkampfwagen Mk I (or was it II's) with twin machine guns in the turret, up to the Ferdinands and Tiger II's.

The Sherman (or "Ronson," after the German cigarette lighter, since they exploded and burned easily) was very outgunned.

Good thing we made > 48,000 of them.

An interesting take on the quality vs. quantity argument there.

Cheers!

[fireforeffect]

Do not forget Fort Knox.

The Patton Museum has a King Tiger that has been cut away so that you can view the interior.

My dad said he thought the U.S. tanks were big until he saw the German tanks. But they are all tiny compared to modern tanks.

[fireforeffect]

Remember seeing a picture of an Israeli observing syria on the Golan Heights with a burned out Tiger tank in the background.

[rmlew]

They can provide some defense. It is suicide to be in one, but operated by remote control, these could stil be useful in slowing an enemy advance.

[PzLdr]

The Divisional shield on the front plate is 1st SS, although the troops in and on the tank are in a hodgepodge of uniforms. Seems to be a parade or exhibit in Russia or Bulgaria from the print on the banners [Cyrillic script] It’s one of the later [or up gunned] models with the high velocity, long barrel 75mm gun. Early Mark IVs [Poland, and 1940 in the West] had a short barreled 75 howitzer, and were intended for infantry support. The MBT was intended to be the Mark III.

There was a privately owned tank museum out here where I live [it has since moved to Va.]. The had a beautiful Mark IV they got in a swap with the Israelis for an M3 Stuart.

[PzLdr]

The Mark I had twin mgs. the Mark II was “up gunned” with oneof the mgs replaced by a 20mm cannon.

[FreedomHammer]

[ARE SOLE]

An interior shot of Maybach model owned by R. Limbaugh.

[grey_whiskers]

Thanks for the reminder -- it's been over 10 years since I visited Aberdeen.

Cheers!

[henkster]

At the Patton Museum, a Sherman sits next to the King Tiger. To think we expected our guys to go against the Tigers in the much smaller, under-gunned Shermans. I had a whole new respect for the courage of American tankers.

Nearby they also had a StuG III that had been recovered from a bog in Lithuania. Those things were actually pretty small.