A well-preserved Panzerkampfwagen IV tank from World War II was discovered at Kluczewo Airport near Stargard. Archeowieści has learned that the recovered vehicle is already in storage at the Polish Arms Museum in Kołobrzeg.
A recovered tank cannon. Photo by Andrzej Ossowski. Courtesy of the Polish Arms Museum in Kołobrzeg.
The story of the discovery began at a nearby scrap yard. A few days ago, local history buff Jarosław Żejmo spotted fragments of a military vehicle there. He learned from local scrap collectors where they had been found and then passed the information on to the Kołobrzeg museum.
Faced with the threat of destruction and looting of the historic vehicle, immediate action was taken. An emergency permit was issued by the West Pomeranian Voivodeship Conservator of Monuments, Ewa Stanecka.
On the evening of April 18th, the operation to recover the vehicle began. “If we had been a day late, the tank would have disappeared into some scrapyard or private collection,” museum director Paweł Pawłowski told Archeowieści. It turned out that news of the tank buried at the airport spread quickly, and people were interested in illegally recovering it. Fortunately, there was no shortage of enthusiasts, and a team was quickly formed to recover the vehicle for the museum collection.
“What happened, this kind of cooperation, is truly extraordinary. We’ve been thinking about it since yesterday,” says Director Pawłowski. The operation to recover the tank lasted until 3 a.m. Tuesday night.
The tank’s hull being excavated. Photo by Piotr Skoczeń. Courtesy of the Polish Arms Museum in Kołobrzeg.
Representatives of the Pomorze 1945 Portal, Nurkowanie Magazine, and the Fort-Rogowo Foundation offered their assistance in the security and rescue work. Dr. Andrzej Ossowski, MD, from the Department of Forensic Medicine at the Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin, secured the site. Marek Łuczak, head of the Anti-Crime Unit at the Provincial Police Headquarters in Szczecin, also provided assistance. Dr. Marcin Majewski, director of the Stargard Museum, Stargard City Hall, Rotrans Transport Company from Gościno, Szubert Construction Company from Stargard, and GUR-SPED provided hoists and cranes.
Pz. Kpfw. IV Ausf. J from the Banská Bystrica museum. Photo licensed under Creative Commons . Author: Vassia Atanassova
Initial examination revealed that it was a PzKpfw IV ausf. J tank with a 75 mm gun, which was hit during military operations in 1945.
Thanks to the discovery, the Kołobrzeg Museum’s collection will gain a unique German medium tank from World War II, unique in Poland. Currently, the components are being unloaded, cleaned of soil, and inventoried. The next step will be conservation of the artifact.
Approximately 80% of the vehicle’s original structure has been preserved, including the KwK 40L/48 gun with turret components and mantlet, the hull tank with its seven bogies, the body armor with the MG 34 machine gun mantlet, the observation port cover and turret traverse ring, the engine and commander’s cupola, eleven road wheels, the drive sprocket, and numerous other components. The tank tank still bears traces of winter camouflage. A bomb aileron was found in the hull, suggesting the tank was blown up.
The PzKpfw IV was used throughout World War II. The first vehicles were built in 1937. The tank’s combat debut came during the invasion of Poland, in which 211 PzKpfw IVs took part. The Ausf J – the last model of this vehicle – entered production in June 1944. By then, it was already an obsolete design. A total of 2,392 Ausf Js were built. According to various estimates, around 8,500-8,900 PzKpfw IVs were produced in total.
The Ausf. J weighed 25 tons. Its top speed was 38 km/h.