Pz.III ausf.N recovered in Norway

[Tor-Helge Y]

Inside - view straight up commanders cupola

[Tor-Helge Y]

Inside - Gun breach and other details.

[Tor-Helge Y]

Last pic - Finally it's out in the open after 60 years or so..

Cheers,

[Will Brown]

I love stories like this, the kind of buried treasure made all the more enjoyable for the rarity. I wonder, was the "refurbishing" process done so soon after the war done in the vicinity of the fort/airfield, or somewhere else? (A stripped hull w/turret is still a lot of steel to move around) If done locally, what became of the removed and discarded parts? Were they melted down or otherwise destroyed, or were they simply left in a field or dumping ground or (best case scenario) buried like the hulls themselves? Given the hurried "Red Menace" mindset of the time, is this likely and if so, is there any chance of recovering them? I cannot imagine there is much of a surplus of all the internal and external parts needed to complete even one Mk III, much less several more. $$$

[Tor-Helge Y]

It's hard to know the exact truth at this moment.
What we believe based on eyewitness-stories is that these were indeed operational as such at Bardufoss and possibly driven into their "burial sites".
It's possible that some of the stripped parts of these were used as spares for other operational PzIII's, as the norwegian army were using them until appx 1951-52.

There's a chance we might find more parts when the digging starts on the last 2 Panzers. Fingers crossed...

Cheers,

[paddywhack]

great to hear there being looked after!!can twait to see the finished tanks and the recovered other panzers to!!!

[Carson]

Wow, awesome story and recovery!

Thanks for sharing the history and pictures and best of luck on your project!!!

[Todd Gylsen]

Outstanding history behind these Panzers! It's great to see pieces of history preserved for future generations. Thanks for posting these pics!

[Chet Sowersby]

Great thread. Thanks for sharing!

[sunny59]

WOW..........love to read stories like this one. Hope they will make a good job on this piece of history. Please keep up posted on this

Thanks

[Askold]

Amazing find, thank you for sharing the photos!

[Tor-Helge Y]

Gents,
During the evening and night yesterday, 9 august 07, the remaining 2 PzIII N's were uncovered from their tombs at Bardufoss.

I am not able to release any pictures yet, but condition seems very similar to the first one you see the pics of. If anything, one seems to have at least part of a track still on the right side.

The last 2 ones were covered with more concrete on the sides and front hull than the first, so I am still unable to tell what kind of front-armor and exactly type of hull these have, (if they have the escape-hatches in the side).

Cheers,

[Ralph P]

Tor-Helge - Thanks for bringing this thread back to life...I missed the thread the first go around. Very interesting thread and I for sure would like to see more pictures of the tanks and the surrounding area...

[Tor-Helge Y]

In the meantime, more of the history:

Post ww2 the norwegian army took advantage of the huge piles of german material and supplies, including PzIII's and StuGIII's.

In 1947 the army established what was then known as "Army Light Troops". These were intended for air-base defense, and their OOB was to include 3 PzIII and 1 StuGIII, and an additional spare of either type. The left-over german PzIII's were refurbished by norwegian army depots, and the majority of them were Ausf N.
How exact this was implemented, is hard to say. I've seen pics of PzIII's in these units with the 5cm KWK, and some units had only 1 spare StuG, no spare Pz. Some of the PzIII's even had the Schurzen while in army service.
4 of these light units were established at different air-bases in Norway, but very soon the Marshall aid plan started to come into effect. By appx 1952 the army took delivery of M-24 Chaffee's, which replaced the german tanks in service.

We have now established with a 100% certainty that "Our" panzers were indeed used by the norwegian army post ww2. (interviews with crews on these, and even one man who was part of the team digging them into the ground). We think that these were dug down around 1955.

Some pictures have turned up, showing the norwegian panzers while still in service at Bardufoss, and there is no question that atleast the first we dug up was the tactical number 2 in the unit, painted in yellow on the side of the turret. Later we hope to see that these others have number 1 & 3 on their turret-numbers. (I can confirm that we already see yellow paint, but until it is cleaned we cannot make out the numbers).

Cheers,

[Tor-Helge Y]

The Norwegian Army Light Troops platoon at Bardufoss appx 1948: (Notice the different front armor on the Pz's, the middle one is "2", the one we already dug up last year)