Wulf in the Woods - The Most Incredible WW2 Relic Ever!

[Music] in 1989 the Deep forests outside the city of Leningrad in the Soviet Union hit a relic of the Great Patriotic War somehow overlooked and forgotten since 1943. some Hunters moving through a silver birch Forest far from civilization stumbled upon a wolf not the wolf of fairy tales but a wolf of metal a focker wolf 190 known by its Infamous nickname of the butcher bird it was the World War II Relic find that I don't think has ever been surpassed since sitting amid a forest of young birch trees was an almost complete World War II German fighter its paint still largely intact the national markings bright on his fuselage and wings a black swastika adorning its tail so good was the aircraft's preservation that it looked as though it had crashed only days or weeks before instead of 46 years before when more qualified experts arrived at the scene the plane was properly identified a fokovolf 190 A5 belonging to the fourth staffel of jagischvara 54. even more incredibly inside the cockpit the pilots leather flying helmet had been tossed along with his headset the aircraft was in an extraordinary state of natural preservation its only damage from the wheels up belly landing being crushed Wing leading edges and a crack Spa no one had ever visited the plane since the pilot felt Weber or Sergeant pal Ratz had staggered away from the crash site after first taking the first aid kit out of its compartment the crash happened only about a dozen miles from the German front line but rats who was an experienced pilot had only joined the Squadron on the 9th of July 1943 10 days before his crash he was picked up by a Soviet Patrol and held as a prisoner in the Soviet Union until 1949. he actually passed away just before his aircraft was found in the Russian Forest obviously the weather and animals had taken some toll on the plane which rested in a boggy area but due to the low temperatures in the region and the autumn and winter and heavy snowfall it was quite well preserved also the forest had grown up around the plain in the subsequent four decades that had sat there hiding it from view until literally stumbled upon quite by chance around 1991 when the Soviet Union broke up the fw-190 was removed from the forest largely by heavy lift helicopter for preservation so why had felt verbal rats bellied in on the 19th of July 1943. he had taken off with other jg-54 aircraft on a mission to attack a Soviet armored train rats was an experienced pilot he had previously been a ground mechanic before training as a pilot and was also a ground attack specialist and the luftwaffe records suggested that his 190 was hit by Soviet Flack causing the crash but an examination of the plane revealed no Flack damage whatsoever but in the engine which was a brand new replacement an oily rag had been inserted into a critical section meaning that the engine had been deliberately sabotaged during manufacture by blocking an oil line BMW used forced laborers from german-occupied countries or many parts of the production line producing the engines and someone had taken the opportunity to do their bit to attack the Nazis the result had been a catastrophic failure of redz's engine and a force Landing in the nearest piece of open ground that he could find the recovered aircraft was eventually bought by Paul Allen the Microsoft billionaire who fully restored to Flying condition over a period of 20 years with most of the work being done by specialists in the UK today it is considered to be the most completely authentic fokovolf 190 that is currently airworthy and is based at the Flying Heritage collection in Seattle in the United States so the next time you're walking in the forest keep your eyes peeled you never know what beasts may be lurking behind the trees many thanks for watching please subscribe and share and also visit my audiobook Channel War stories with Mark Felton you can also help to support both of my channels and PayPal and patreon details in the description box below [Music]

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 1,565,058

Keywords: Mark Felton, Fw 190, Paul Allen, Leningrad, St. Petersburg

Id: or00g6HNeyQ

Length: 4min 57sec (297 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 08 2023