Sherman Tank Recovered
 

Somebody in Russia still has money... maybe for a military museum?

And connections in high places...Isn't that ship loaded with munitions???

And why salvage only one tank??? They must have been packed in like sardines... :confused:

That's probably the problem right there. Imagine a fully loaded ship going down with the cargo shifting around, and the tanks ending up in a jumbled mess together with high explosives and other interesting items. Not an ideal place for a salvage operation, especially if it's inside a rusty ship. They do say that there are two more tanks to salvage though.

The History Channel had a special on the wreck of the Bismarck, showing it lying on the bottom, with its turrets lying as much as a mile away. They said the turrets weren't physically attached to the ship; they just sort of sat on their tracks. When the ship sank and turned over, the turrets just fell out... :eek:

Yeah, I believe they are held in place by gravity only, running on some kind of wheel and track system. They don't really need to be bolted in, they are so heavy that you (obviously) have to turn the whole ship upside down to remove them.

I'm not entirely sure, but I suspect some tanks are made in a similar fashion. There's probably not much holding them anyway, if you look at pictures from battlefields it's not unusual to see them blown off.

ball bearings?
 

Hi Ollie, I saw a history channel program where they put two 14" or 16" navy guns, a complete battleship turret, On a west wall bunker.. In the program, they show these large diameter (loose?) ball bearings several inches in dia... a couple of hundred I think was needed.... incredible!..... GT.....:cheers:

I can't speak for the warships, but I know that tanks do not have turrets that can just be lifted off. They can't be that way because if in the heat of battle movement you run into something (like a building) with your gun tube, it would dislodge the turret and make the tank useless. Of course on a Navy ship, the likelihood of bumping into something is rather reduced in comparison.

John, I humbly offer in good humor that if you pick up an M1 series tank, using both hands (no one handed tricks) and lift it high, high, high and then turn it upside down, the turret will fall off. Or fall out. (Electrical and hydraulic lines don't count; the will snap under the weight of the turret.)

Source: Army Major (P) who is an armor officer with three tours in Iraq and a son.

:-)