The Heikendorf Panther - The German Tank Found in a Basement

[Music] in july 2015 the world was stunned when the german police took possession of a strange collection of wartime relics in the basement of a house in heikendorf near keele on the baltic coast there was an 88 millimeter flat gun a torpedo and a large collection of firearms perhaps most interestingly a panther tank all in excellent condition a 20-person unit from the bundeswehr used two bergapanzer tank recovery vehicles to drag the trackless panther from its lair beneath the villa how this story came about is fascinating and begins not with a tank but with art specifically nazi art joseph torhak was an austrian sculptor much favored by the nazis when albert spear completed his grandiose new reich chancellery for hitler in berlin in 1939 a pair of large equestrian bronzers were cast by turak and they stood prominently outside the building facing the garden in this german newsreel clip hitler distributes medals to berlin defenders in march 1945 they are lined up along the terrace with torax equine bronzers above them just out of shot the bronzes like the building they front were shell and bullet damaged snatched as loot by the victorious red army the horses ended up in a soviet barracks at eberswalder in germany then they disappeared just before the fall of the berlin wall in 1989. german police began an investigation to try and locate what was essentially state property many years later in may 2015 found the horses hidden in a warehouse in bad durkheim in the rhineland as part of this investigation other properties were raided around germany including a villa on the shores of the baltic at heikendorf whose millionaire owner had a back garden decorated with an important nazi era bronze while searching the man's house the police discovered his other collection in the basement and moved to seize the vehicles and weapons the problem was everyone locally knew about the panther tank how the collector had managed to acquire such a rare vehicle was not a mystery he had personally resurrected it from the scrap pile over 40 years earlier the heikendorf panther isn't strictly speaking a world war ii panther or even a german panther it was assembled from wartime parts in a factory under british management just after the war for british use in may 1945 the panther factory fell within the british occupation zone the british management team consisted of captain w.j hadlow and an nco the british were very keen to test both the panther and the jag panther to do this they required brand new vehicles not wartime wrecks recovered off battlefields under the supervision of captain hadlow from the corps of royal electrical and mechanical engineers completion work was done at the gun factory at larsen south of hanover as the roof of the hanover factory had been destroyed by allied bombing using available components in total nine panthers and twelve jag panthers were built and shipped to the uk for post-war trials the panther and jagpantha on display at the tank museum at bovington were built as part of this immediate post-war batch another panther tank is in a museum in germany this is also british built and finally there is the heikendorf panther the heikendorf panther ended up in a scrapyard in britain after being discarded by the army in the early 1970s the german millionaire bought the panther when the scrapyard was being cleared and had it shipped to germany by the late 1970s the panther was back in running order and was apparently often seen being driven around hykendorf it has been suggested that the tank's engine was partially maintained by the bundeswehr unit that looks after other world war ii tanks in german museums also the owner was in possession of a note from the local government issued in 2005 that stated that the panther had been demilitarized that is the main gun could not fire live ammunition but in july 2015 the panther other vehicles and weapons were all seized by the authorities the panther was sent to the german army training area at putlos for storage where it remains today during the process of dragging the tank out of the villa's basement it is alleged that soldiers damage the front suspension of the two and a half million dollar vehicle in january 2017 the owner was brought to court on violations of the war weapons control act and weapons standards for now the ultimate fate of the hykendorf panther has yet to be settled please subscribe and share and also support my channel via paypal and patreon details in the description box below [Music] you

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 1,924,318

Rating: 4.9377232 out of 5

Keywords: The Heikendorf Panther, Mark Felton Productions, Heikendorf, Germany

Id: 1XIkZgCJZCs

Length: 5min 20sec (320 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 08 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Clacimus]

All I ever found in my basement was my uncle

[u/tylercoder]

Wait wait wait, so this guy rescued this tank from a scrapyard in UK, bought it legally, imported it, restored the thing........why it gets taken away? and why is he on trial? its not state property, it never was.

[u/ChieftainMk1]

Thats one hell of a find if I say so myself

[u/JbobRodriguez]

Well I mean, from a military enthusiast's perspective, it does count as art.