12 Most Amazing Unexpected Military Finds

of all the types of equipment that you wouldn't want to leave lying around military equipment is the most hazardous it can be dangerous in the right hands let alone in the wrong ones unfortunately because of the nature of war and combat lost or broken military equipment ends up strewn all over the planet sometimes it even gets left behind even if there's nothing wrong with it unexpected military fines can happen anywhere as you're about to find out in this video [Music] in 1943 an enormous soviet fighter plane known as the flying tank was shot down in a battle above a russian lake in 2018 75 years later it was finally brought back to the surface and this is what it looks like now the plane is an illusion ill-to sturmovich and crash landed in a lake in murmansk during a nazi assault on a nearby air base captain alexander ivanovic kalichev was able to land his wounded plane on the water and escape with his life but the aircraft itself couldn't be saved it wasn't until the story caught the attention of a russian volunteer group known as wings of victory that a rescue mission was mounted being entombed in the water for so long took its toll on the plane but the group took it away to a specialist facility in the city of novosibirsk for restoration when all the necessary work is done it should be capable of taking to the air again stalin once described this class of aircraft as being as essential to the red army as oxygen and bread and had thousands of them made during the war years they were retired from service in 1954. lakes must be good places to go looking for old military aircraft here's another old service plane that spent over 70 years at the bottom of lake michigan in the usa after a wartime mission went wrong as you're no doubt aware the war never reached the american mainland so you're probably wondering how this fm2 wildcat ended up in its watery grave the answer is that it was taking part in a training mission in december 1944 and was supposed to land on the end of an aircraft carrier in waukegan harbor but missed its mark and plunged into the water ensign william forbes who was piloting the plane and survived the crash rejected blame for the incident and claimed the engine had failed on approach us army veteran and aviation enthusiast chuck greenhill oversaw the recovery of the plane in december 2012 and gave himself the job of fully restoring it to flying condition giving the fact that this model is as he put it a beer can with wings we can't imagine that was an easy task the two planes we've looked at so far ended up underwater by accident there's nothing accidental about the underwater placement of our next few discoveries this is million dollar point and it's an egregious example of questionable us military practices this collection of forklifts bulldozers jeeps personal possessions and other military equipment was dumped in the pacific ocean close to vanatu by the americans after the end of the second world war the equipment was used at the bases known as roses and buttons on espiritu santo island but was deemed surplus to requirements when the conflict came to an end the u.s military decided that shipping everything back home would be too expensive so they elected to dump their unwanted gear instead that decision came after an unsuccessful attempt to sell it to the locals couldn't it all have been given to the locals free of charge rather than polluting the sea like this at least the area has now become popular with divers and tourists so some good has come from it while the million-dollar point nickname has stuck the true value of the goods dumped here was probably more than that when they were disposed of this abandoned tank minding its own business next to a tree in germany is the landmark that walkers and hikers keep an eye out for when they go looking for a top secret tank graveyard in germany while the location is kept under wraps because it's still considered to be an active military zone the reality is that most people know it's close to the border between germany and belgium and nobody from the military has been here for a very long time rather than being a former world war ii battleground these tanks were used as hard targets during artillery practice exercises the scars of which are very visible on the sides of most of the forgotten vehicles you'll find a variety of tanks scattered across the area but most of them are either m41 walker bulldogs and m47 patent units a few are so badly damaged that it's hard to identify them so feel free to leave your own theories in the comments if you see anything here that you think you recognize the area hasn't been used as a firing range for years so those who are lucky enough to discover its secret location are free to walk around and take pictures without fear of being shot at the enigma code not been broken the nazis might well have won the second world war the breaking of the code by british genius alan turing was a decisive moment in the war and allowed allied forces to eavesdrop on their enemies from 1941 onward but the germans never knew their code had been broken they continued to use it for the rest of the war and guarded code machines with their lives even after the nazis surrendered and german u-boats were scuttled in the gelting bay area of the baltic sea their onboard code machines were thrown overboard first to ensure they weren't found among the wreckage by the allies one such machine was accidentally found by divers from the worldwide fine for nature in december 2020 as they were out looking for discarded fishing nets they believe that it's been in the water since may 1945. because they were so fiercely guarded and were destroyed to avert the risk of their capture the machines are very rare that makes them valuable no matter how waterlogged they are and explains why this one is now at the museum of archaeology in schwelzvig undergoing preservation and restoration work we've already seen a couple of world war ii planes that crashed in the water but here's one that came down on land it's miles from anywhere and apparently went unnoticed by anybody until it was found and photographed by curious tourists in august 2017. the discovery was made on the micronesian island of palau known throughout the region as a tropical paradise the plane has spent the past 75 years hiding in a shallow riverbed not far from the beach the couple who found the aircraft aren't experts and so they couldn't identify the plane but it's sits been identified as a japanese aichi e13ac plane a class that was used for long range reconnaissance during the war the circumstances of the crash must have been unusual because the plane is upside down in the water but its wings are still attached and the damage seems to be light it's thought there are more than 60 wrecked planes strewn across palau so maybe it isn't surprising that this one went unnoticed for such a long time the battle of midway was one of the most crucial and brutal that happened in the pacific during the second world war and casualties were heavy on both sides many of those casualties sank to the bottom of the ocean and one of the largest of them was rediscovered in october 2019. it's the wreck of a japanese aircraft carrier found close to midway atoll sending human beings down to these extreme depths would be too dangerous so images of the lost vessel were obtained with high frequency radar based on where it's been found and the dimensions of the wreck it's almost certainly a ship called the akagi sitting 000 feet below water level it looks like she was hit hard before she went down even in these murky pictures we can see that the flight deck has been ripped to shreds and sections of it are missing entirely it's only the second of the seven ships that went down during the 1942 battle to be discovered and came only a few weeks after another japanese ship the kaga was found in the same area [Music] magnet fishing is a controversial topic among archaeologists in some countries like france it's banned no such ban exists in the united kingdom though if it did these world war ii guns wouldn't have been retrieved from a canal and warwick in july 2018 the first gun that came out of the water was a humble revolver but it was followed by a submachine gun that came out a piece at a time the price family who went on this fishing expedition together also provided pictures of other gun pieces that were obtained at the same time so it appears that a whole cache of weapons has been disposed of here at some point in the past the larger weapon is a thompson submachine gun also known as a tommy gun which was standard issue for british soldiers during the second world war in the past the same family has also obtained two shotguns and a grenade from the canals around their hometown the shotguns turned out to have been used in a burglary but experts believe the world war ii weapons were probably disposed of by an old soldier who didn't want them anymore after the war came to an end [Music] the discovery of a grenade must be an alarming experience and we know of another family elsewhere in britain who knows what it feels like in april 2020 charlie buber of bulu hampshire was cleaning out the gutters around his garage when he came across a metal object wedged between the gutter and the tin roof covered in leaves and years of grunge he didn't recognize it but suspected it might be an explosive so he took a picture of it and sent it to his brother who is a former soldier his brother advised him to contact the authorities immediately because he'd found a world war one era hand grenade the royal navy's bomb disposal unit eventually had to be deployed to take care of the problem it's german in design and was probably brought back from the war as a souvenir charlie had no idea how it got in his gutter that day he's lived in his home for eight years and swears he's cleaned out the gutters several times before without ever coming across the grenade unexploded wartime era grenades and bombs turn up quite regularly on the british isles so the bomb squad is always busy the royal navy bomb disposal unit was called upon yet again in september 2020 when a mortar from the second world war washed up on the beach of western super mare it isn't known whether the explosive had been dumped on the beach by the tide that morning or whether it had been revealed for the first time after years on the beach because of unusually low tides that day either way the authorities couldn't afford to take any chances with it a brief visual inspection confirmed that the weapon was an anti-submarine mortar bomb and possibly a relic from a weapons research facility that existed in the area during the war more importantly the inspection confirmed it was fully intact and therefore possibly live so it had to be destroyed by way of a controlled explosion nobody knows for sure how many unexploded bombs grenades and other potential hazards might be lurking in britain's coastal regions but there are probably still several dozen at the very least it isn't only the coastal regions of britain that might be full of wartime weapons nowhere appears to be safe from the threat of long-forgotten explosives in july 2019 magnet fishers working the river soar in leicester found themselves making a panicked call to the authorities after finding three hand grenades with their equipment the devices came out of the water along with bullets a rifle and a huge collection of knives that might have been used in criminal activity it was the grenades that attracted the most interest though and caused the most concern the bomb squad was summoned to the scene and determined that two of the three devices presented a viable threat and so they had to be destroyed through controlled explosions the third was also taken away by the authorities for safe disposal much to the displeasure of its finders who had wanted to keep it more than 50 people were involved in this magnet fishing mission which illustrates the reason why so many people have issues with the pastime aside from damaging waterways by having so many people trawling through them there's an obvious risk to life when incidents like this happen why go magnet fishing when you can make incredible military discoveries using a metal detector on the land instead two metal detectorists headed out into a field in the nevsky piatech region of russia in 2016 and did just that and look at all the world war ii memorabilia they found inside an old lock box buried deep in the mud they found the personal effects of a nazi soldier his wallet was inside the box including a german banknote and his nazi party membership card an unopened box of cigars was neatly tucked away and would still be fine to smoke today this mysterious old soldier clearly enjoyed a drink because he packed himself a bottle of jamaican rum to go with his cigars also in the box the amateur archaeologists found parts of his uniform including his military cap the fact that the lockbox has been found in russia is a mystery plenty of germans buried their nazi uniforms and other artifacts in the post-war years to avoid being prosecuted for war crimes but traveling as far as russia to dispose of them seems a bit extreme also why throw out the rum and the cigars when they're not incriminating sadly we suspect we'll never get answers to these questions subscribe to the channel turn on the notification bell and enjoy watching new videos on my channel thanks for watching and see you soon

Channel: Lightning Top

Views: 315,192

Rating: 4.7985201 out of 5

Keywords: 12 Most Amazing Unexpected Military Finds, Military Finds, Unexpected Military, 12 Most Unexpected, Incredible Finds, Finds, 12 most, top 12, lightning top, compilation, lightningtop, EverSee, Mysterious Military

Id: _zUymIYF2-w

Length: 15min 59sec (959 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 09 2021