The Federal Institute for Real Estate (BImA) announced that the vehicle was uncovered during earthworks as part of a several hundred million euro modernization of the base. The Sturmgeschütz IIIG was likely pushed into a trench by US soldiers in 1946 and covered with sand. It is largely intact and weighs almost 24 tons.
Formally, the tank will be handed over to the Bundeswehr’s Military History Museum in Dresden. However, it will first go to the German Tank Museum Munster, where it is to be placed at the beginning of the exhibition section “End of the War: 1944–1949.” Museum director Ralf Raths told WELT that the new find should remain in its recovered state – the sand is “part of the object” and a “material witness to the winding down of the war after 1945.”
Burying war material was common after World War II, Raths said. The Sturmgeschütz IIIG was a Wehrmacht weapon developed from 1937 based on the chassis of the Panzerkampfwagen III. It was designed to provide direct fire support for infantry.
Source: www.welt.de
